Two Artists

1. Sophie Calle is a bit difficult to describe. Clicking on 'Sophie' will get you her take on what she does (you need to ignore the warnings and click away happily when you get to the site); clicking on 'Calle' will get you a slightly less personal view.


2. Candida Höfer is easier to get a handle on ('Candida' is very basic; 'Höfer' slightly better, but in German).

More images here and here.

Current Favourite Sentence

'Since only half the population has vaginas we were looking for a more universal platform.'

One of the Insectivora

Of course, the star-nosed mole would have got a look-in (or a snout-in) yesterday if I hadn't been informed that, technically, moles aren't rodents. So, it has to have its own entry.

Rodents!

To celebrate the 200th entry on this blog, here are some rodents.

The mighty capybara.

The disarming pygmy jerboa.

The glabrous naked mole rat.

Icadyptes salasi

Or, the giant Peruvian penguin.


The one on the right is Icadyptes salasi (150cm tall). The one on the left is Perudyptes devriesi (a mere 90cm). These are both from the Eocene period. The one in the middle is a real Peruvian penguin, Spheniscus humbolti, for scale.

Lladró

Kitschy Lladró porcelain has cropped up here before, because our friend Javi works selling it. But, if you really need a slap in the jaw, I suggest you go here and have a look. I recommend turning on 3D mode and giving him a spin.

Nests

Vejer

We went back to Vejer, and they finally let us into the castle. The last time I was in the castle was with my parents last summer. Then, there were a lot of Girl Guides earning their guiding badges, and we were shown around by a seven-year-old who had a sketchy idea of how tourism should be a service industry. This time we were allowed to walk around alone. The dressage ground where they kept the horses if pirates attacked:

The staircase down to the overgrown arboretum:

The strategically important view:

Garrote

This was the preferred method of execution in the Spanish colonies, and in Spain itself, for a few centuries. It wasn't abolished in Spain until the 1978 constitution, and even that allows for special circumstances in which it can be brought back. This is a fascinating rundown on which countries are still allowed to kill their citizens. In Mauritania you can be executed for apostasy.

Torre Tavira

I took some friends up the Torre Tavira yesterday. We went to the camera obscura at the top and were forbidden from taking photographs. However, while looking in the bowl-screen of the camera obscura we saw this dostoprimechatel'nost', a watchtower which has become almost completely hidden by houses over the past two hundred or so years. They call it 'La Bella Escondida', or 'The Hidden Beauty'.