La Hiruela; or, Change of Plans

We were going to go on holiday to Belgium, but research into how to get there (given the fact that allowing customs officials to take röntgen photographs of my testicles is not a vote-winner in this family) led to us discovering that we should have booked our train tickets much earlier. So we went away for the weekend to the Sierra del Rincón, in particular the touristic village of La Hiruela. Human population: about 50, including tourists. Staggeringly incestuous cat population (all with the same sweet little pink nose and pronounced limp in their left hind leg): about the same. Long healthy walks: three. Woodfires: two (would have been three, but we had to light the matchbox to get woodfire no. 2 to catch). Michelin starred restaurants: one. All in all, a relaxing weekend. And I've got the rest of the week off as well.

Codex Seraphinianus

Info., here. The whole thing, here. Worth an hour or so of anyone's time.

Domestic News

There is no photo to accompany this post, because of the ridicule to which such an artefact would expose me. So, let me start by saying that, thanks to an overexcited cat, we now have no kettle. This allows us to see how people lived in the time before kettles; the answer is, poorly. I spent a not insignificant amount of time yesterday evening ladling boiling water from a saucepan into a teapot in order to be able to fill our hot water bottle. This is not the technological revolution I was promised: tomorrow, the kettle shop.

Franz von Stuck (1863-1928)

I was wondering just how fin-de-siècle-ish you could get, and I don't think you can get fin-de-sièclier than Franz von Stuck.





More info here and here.

Bravery

Hazel had to go to get a scan done on her luxating knee, so, with great trust on her side and greater trepidation on ours, we were Laurie's first ever babysitters this afternoon. He has grown and is lively, and, yes, voluble. For the duration, our house was filled with expressed breast milk and CDs of African lullabies.

Marian's never-really-submerged protective streak came to the surface several times.

Strawberry Hill House

This is, I assume and insist, the Castle of Otranto.

Anon., A Museum for Young Gentlemen and Ladies (c. 1790)

A Moscovite, or Russian Man and Woman in their proper Dresses.

An account of MOSCOVY, or RUSSIA.

MOSCOVY is the largest country in Europe, and which comprehends all that vast country which obeys the Czar, or Czarina. It is bounded by the Northern Ocean on the North; the rivers Oby and Tanais on the East; the Little Tanais, the rivers Desna and Sosa, with Lesser Tartary, on the South; Narva, Poland, Sweden, and Norway on the West: It contains about forty provinces; is a marshy country, not well inhabited, full of forests and rivers; the winter is long, and very cold; they sow only rye before winter, and the other corn in May, though their harvest is in July and August. They have plenty of fruit, melons, fowl, and fish; and their commodities are salt, brimstone, pitch, tar, hemp, flax, iron, steel, copper, and Russian leather, much valued in England. They wear long beards, short hair, and gowns down to their heels; are a mistrustful and cruel people, cunning in trading, and deceive with impunity, it being counted industry; naturally lazy and drunken, and lie on the ground or benches, all except the gentry. Until Czar Peter the Great (who polished the people, as well as enriched and improved the country), they were barbarous and savage; but he setting up printing-houses and schools in his dominions, banished ignorance, and introduced the liberal arts. Their government is hereditary and absolute, their religion is that of the Greek church. They have a number of clergy, and divers monasteries for friars and nuns. The Emperor of Moscovy is called the Czar, and Empress the Czarina.


A Spanish Man and Woman in their proper Habits.

An Account of SPAIN.

SPAIN is separated from France by the Pyrenean Hills, and on all other sides is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea, the Straits of Gibraltar, and the Atlantic Ocean. The King has the most lands of any Prince in the world, on which account some of their predecessors have boasted, "That the sun never sets in their dominions, as having possessions in all the four parts of the world." He is stiled [sic] his Catholic Majesty. His Court is different from all others, he gives audience but one day in a week, and the rest he is shut up in his palace, the courts of which are full of merchants' shops, and resemble the cloisters of religious houses. The air of Spain is pure and dry, but very hot; the soil is sandy, and mostly barren, though where fertile not well cultivated, through the pride and laziness of the people, to which they are much addicted; though what they want in corn is made up in a variety of excellent fruits and wines, of which they have great plenty. Their chief commodities are wine, oil, fruits of various sorts, wool, lamb-skins, honey, cork, &c. The people are grave and majestic, faithful to their Monarch, delicate in point of honour, jealous, lascivious, and tyrants over a vanquished enemy; look upon husbandry and the mechanical arts with the greatest contempt. Their government is an absolute Monarchy, and their crown hereditary as well to females as to males. Their religion is Roman Catholic, nor is any other tolerated. Madrid is their capital city, which stands near the middle of the country, on top of a hill, by the little river Manzanares.

You can read the whole thing here.

Aw heck, why not?

You can never have too much Shimabuku.

Liu Bolin (1973- )

More about him here. He also cast a large bronze statue of Barack Obama which he set repeatedly on fire. Not quite as loopy as Shimabuku, but nearly there.

Rastro

We went to the Rastro flea market today. I Indulged my taste for old photographs.