12.01.08
Color and the British Museum
Last night I was looking through a library book I checked out called, 200 Crochet Blocks for Blankets, Throws, and Afghans by Jan Eaton. I was really impressed with her presentation of squares and colors. One recommendation Eaton made that I liked is to find color inspiration from nature or works of art. How clever since I do believe that God is the master artist. There is so much creativity and variety in nature. So that reminded me of the pictures we took while in London last May. There was a park we visited that had a lovely garden with ponds and walkways and roses of all kinds. Of course I had to take as many pictures as I could as we were there when all the flowers looked to be in full bloom. How fortunate, I thought! Well, this AM, I decided that in light of the recommendation by Eaton to use nature as inspiration, I wanted to look at all those flowers I took. . . I was hit with a harsh reality this AM that when my computer crashed about a month or so ago, I LOST ALL THOSE FLOWER PICTURES!!! Arrrghh! Fortunately, I still had some pictures on my camera of other places we visited while in the UK, but alas, going through the pictures this AM I found that I had lost quite a bit of pictures, wah. Probably about 100 of them, double wah!!! Fortunately, I took over a 1000 shots during that trip, so I still have lots of pics by which to reminisce, but there were some really nice shots that I wish I had today. Shots of all those lovely flowers! I found that I also lost shots at the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, and the London Bridge. There was no picture taking allowed in the Jewel House or the Martin House, but I did have lots of pics in the Armoury House and of a street play that was going on at the time. I also lost pics of the outside of Westminster Abbey as they did not allow pictures inside the Abbey, but I was able to get some shots in the Cloister, which I now lost, too. Grrrr! Hmmm. Maybe I can bribe Brian to take me back again? Ha! What an excuse. . . I lost my pictures. . .
Okay, now that I’ve lamented long enough over those, at least I still have lots of other shots which I realized I still have some material to continue with my travelogue. Here’s a pic of the front of the British Museum.
Off to the left was a little Asian garden with a small walkway. I’m sitting on the short cement wall looking for I don’t know what now, ha! Must have been drugs as I remember being tired from walking so much that day!
The little Asian garden had some nice plants and stone carvings on display. But in light of my search for “nature inspirations,” I’ll share some pics of a couple plants that I thought were neat especially since they’re not the kinds I see every day, here. This shot is of the base of a Tibetan cherry tree. The color and look of the bark was really amazing.
Here’s the top view of the same tree.
I think that is definitely the first time I’ve ever seen this type of tree before. I’m always in awe with the variety God has created and no wonder there have been so many explorers!
Here’s a shot of a black bamboo plant.
I guess I’m showing my ignorance here, but I didn’t even know there were black bamboo plants until I saw these. I know that the Huntington Library here has a nice bamboo garden, I gee, I don’t remember seeing a black bamboo plant there? I think I’m gonna have to go back a see.
Now I’m gonna deviate from the “nature” topic and move inside of the British Museum. I really loved this museum as it literally had loads and loads of displays! Brian and I went back three times because we just couldn’t see everything in one day. And even then, we still didn’t see the whole museum! Which reminds me. . . I lost a lot of the pics I took inside this museum when my computer crashed, argh! Triple wah! There was so much great stuff in there including tablets that described a great flood, accounts that mentioned famous people like Hezekia. Egyptian mummies of all sorts, not only human mummies, but also of various animals that were buried along with the humans in their tombs. Relief carvings of Israel in exodus, etc. So I’m bummed to have lost all those. I managed to save some pics, tho. Here’s a shot with yours truly inside the British Museum on the center staircase looking upwards where the ceiling can be seen.
At the top of the stairs is a restaurant and a passage to get into the upper level of the museum. I wish I could share all those pics I took, but they really were too many, not to mention I lost most of them. . . Anyway, here is one display I managed to save, which I “think” is only on temporary display? It was a display on pharmaceutical drugs and the extent to which a single person will commonly be exposed to drugs throughout his/her lifetime.
The above is only part of the description, but here’s a shot of the pill table.
The displays on the sides documents a family from birth to older age. Here’s a shot of how a person is first introduced to drugs shortly after birth. The birth cert is shown on the right hand side.
I believe the injections are of Vit K and various vaccines and antibiotics for both baby and mom.
Then throughout life, we continue on taking an assortment of other drugs from aspirins, painkillers, sleeping pills, etc. and on till old age when pills continue to increase. I think one of the family members developed cancer, IIRC, so there were many more drugs involved with that person’s lifetime.
Anyway, so that was one display of the many, many displays in the British Museum. If anyone decides to visit London, I think the British Museum is a must see. To top it off, it’s free! They even have the Rosetta Stone on display there, which I think I lost. . . I really would like to go again some day.
Well, better run for now. Since I lost so much of the nature pics from our trip, I think I will try to find some local nature and maybe share those pics for art inspiration. In the meantime, I’ll see if I can’t find some other pics from other trips.
Marlakins
