Reading

(no subject)

https://youtu.be/cXDBIbG7orw

'Canción Del Emperador' is a setting for vihuela by the Spanish composer Luys de Narváez (1526–1549)) of the song 'Mille Regretz' by Josquin des Prez. I have had the pleasure and honour of playing it with the singer Ruth Pritchard. In this occasion it is just the vihuela setting, transcribed for guitar.

This take recorded live in concert at the Rustique Literary Café in Tufnell Park on 25/07/25. The guitar is a Yulong Guo Chamber Concert.

Mille regretz de vous abandonner
Et d'eslonger vostre fache amoureuse
Jay si grand dueil et paine douloureuse
Quon me verra brief mes jours definer

A thousand regrets at leaving you
and leaving behind your loving face,
I feel so much sadness and such painful distress,
that it seems to me my days will soon dwindle away.

Entry tags:

mudlarking

Mudlarking - 41- More marmalade

It was sunny when I got to the foreshore and I took my raincoat off and stuffed it in my bag. Of course then it poured with rain and I got drenched. I hid underneath the jetty for shelter for a while, along with a few others.

Before that, I found part of a Victorian marmalade jar, made by Maling, who were based in Newcastle. This is the second one of these I’ve found, but this was a larger chunk. The Thames must eat a lot of marmalade.

I also found a good sized piece of combware, a green bobbly bit of glass and what looks like a piece of a beard from a Bartmann jug

(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)

Entry tags:

mudlarking

Mudlarking - 40 - GPO and a doll's bottle

I started off at Blackfriars and then just continued walking towards Waterloo Bridge as the tide was out. The beach I finished at was full of large bits of pottery. At low tide it seems accessible from Ernie’s beach, where sand sculptures were being made. I saw people climbing over the gate at the top of the stairs, as it was locked, outside the National Theatre.

Other people on the foreshore included a group with knee pads digging at the end of the beach at Blackfriars and a group outside the National Theatre litter picking.

My most amusing find is a pottery sherd that says “GPO” on it. I concluded it would have been from the refreshments club at GPO West.. which it turns out was on the same site where the BT Centre was later built, the office where I used to work!

Another fun find was a strange looking doll’s bottle from the 1940s. I had no idea that it was a doll’s bottle, but had noticed it had a trademark and said “Mormit” on it. I found a picture of the doll and the bottle on eBay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/146731521183

There's also a pottery sherd with BCM on it - British Commercial Monomarks. I can see it says “Ware” so was probably Nelson Ware who used this mark. Nelson Ware was made by Elijah Cotton and the company was in operation from 1880 - 1981.

The piece of glass looks like it might have L and P on it - Lea and Perrins? Or maybe it's a 7 and not an L.

I came across the most wondrous rock, which wasn't really a rock, more just bits of blue slag and bits of shiny rainbow glass all clumped together, but it seemed almost magical.

(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)

Entry tags:

mudlarking

Mudlarking - 39 - Little bottles

A lunchtime mudlarking, opposite what looked like a cruise ship. A few tourists were on the foreshore taking selfies.

I found two small glass bottles - the first was probably used for ink, but it now sadly has a hole in it. The second, perhaps an apothecary bottle of some kind or for essence. It has R 13 on the bottom so might be from Ravenhead.

Both bottles are probably from the early 1900s and are the most intact things I've found so far!

The rusty thing is some kind of hook.

(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)

Entry tags:

mudlarking

Mudlarking 38 - Crowds

The opposite of the previous time, the foreshore was too busy for me.

I started off at Cousin Lane Stairs but there were already 4 people at the edge of the river when I got down there, and it felt like there wasn't space for me there too, so I stood there for a few seconds, then left.

I next tried Trig Lane Stairs. There were a few people towards Queenhithe but that looked busy and I'm still not entirely sure where the boundary is of the Ancient Scheduled Monument so I don't want to risk it. There were a few other people on the foreshore too, but I had a few minutes where I mostly just picked up pieces of glass, with the thought that if I collect enough glass, surely one piece would glow under UV? I then concluded maybe I should study pictures of uranium glass first. Time to join another niche Facebook group.

I also picked up a piece of pipe with initials.

A tour group appeared but fortunately I'd already decided to leave even though there was still plenty of time before low tide.

In future I will go to quieter spots.

When I got home, I shone the UV torch at all the pieces, but none glowed, but I also pointed the torch at the piece from before and that did!

(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)

Entry tags:

review,
tv

Sex Education, Season 4

I finally finished this, what must be years after it came out.

It wasn't a patch on the first season. Or even on S2/3. There were some really cringy episodes where I had to stop watching, and force myself to finish later.

I feel that Otis's story was largely told somewhere during S3, with parts left to close out. Maeve's story had a little left, but not a lot. This season was mostly about Eric, and also about Jean. And that's fine. They had significant and worthwhile stuff to tell, and I think it would have worked better if it had pivoted to being more about them. But they kept the focus on Otis even though there wasn't much more to say with him except as part of others' journeys, and that led to some really stupid contrived plotlines and so forth.

Still, it was a nice ending. I was pleased that there was some resolution and optimism for everybody, but that it wasn't happily ever after for everybody concerned.

Current Mood: pleased

Entry tags:

books,
review

The Incandescent, by Emily Tesh

It wasn't until I finished this book that I realised that it's the same author as Some Desperate Glory. It's very different, but knowing that it was written by the same person I can start to see similarities.

It's a magical school. We've had lots of them already. It's an ancient(ish) magical school in England, in what appears to be a parallel world where magic is normal and acknoweldged and something that you can do a GCSE in. It's yet another magical school, but this time it is written from the perspective of the deputy head. The author is a teacher, writing what she knows, and this shows. She gets it. The best way I can think to describe the tone of the narrative is, paraphrasing slightly,

"No, your squad of demon hunters can't take these children to a place of safety. You don't have DBS checks! In fact you haven't even shown me ID".

There's a good plot, and it was a quick and intense read for me. Beyond that it's about identity. Specifically, identity for a middle-aged woman who has given her life to her job, has excelled, and isn't sure what else is left. It's about trauma, self-awareness, responsiblity, and hubris.

Highly recommended, and special thanks to

sfred who recommended it to me.

Tesh has now done great MilSF (or possibly anti-MilSF?), and excellent fantasy. I'm excited to see what she'll turn her hand to next.

Current Mood: bitchy

Entry tags:

books,
review

Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yaros

I enjoyed the first two books of this series. I didn't think they were especially good, in a sense, but they were gripping and enjoyable.

This one flipped over to "ugh, no". I forced myself to finish it, but will not be looking out for the next installment. This series, like many others, has handled the need for escalation between volumes by increasing the scale and raising the stakes. We started off with one young woman's survival, and now we're dealing with world politics. But this simply isn't handled well.

(spoilers follow)

( Spoilers )

Bleh.