Fun

Dazzle

The latest photo collection in the Guardian has the topic “Dazzle” so I took a look through the albums to see if I had anything worthwhile.

A surprising number were religious, either large or small details meant to dazzle and impress any visitors whilst also glorifying the relevant deity.

Bangkok Temple Detail
Mezquita Cordoba
Lady Chapel, Granada Church

Rome Vatican Interior
Rome Pantheon Detail

This probably reflects nothing more than the political reality. I’d probably find similar art to impress in any major political building but is interesting to see the same trait in religions from around the world.

Bangkok Temple Detail

Luxor Tomb Detail

Hall of Mirrors Amber Fort
Doorway Detail, Amber Fort
Taj Mahal Reflections

And then there are pictures taken outdoors which just reflect the dazzling contrast between objects, or foregrounds and backgrounds.

Taiz

I remember Spain, Namibia etc as especially bright and the play between shocking light and shade quite difficult to see never mind photograph.

Namib Naukluft
Etosha National Park
Desert Zebra

In nature there is also the dazzle of white, or strong yellows sometimes with black contrast, sometimes just the dazzle of pure light through wings.

Zebra, Etosha

Some time at the aquarium in California brought pictures with it’s own type of dazzle.

But in the UK, where light seems less strong, it came back to pictures of single intense colour or landscapes that accidentally caught some turning light.

Nice Neighbours

Or maybe the occasional rainbow.

With reflections it’s difficult to decide whether “dazzle” has meaning

Tate Modern

 

Or indeed when it comes to cyanotypes which are of course the result of the sun’s dazzle in the first place.

Cyanotype – daffodils
Slinky

Maybe we’re best just restricted to the ordinary everyday dazzle of frost on grass

Or the millions of reflections in Manhattan glass.

New York
Food

Cucumber Pickle

A basic pickle recipe from Melissa Clark in the NYT.

 

Generally, the smaller the cucumbers, the more crisp the pickles will be. I used very small Kirby cucumbers, and a month later mine still crunch with each bite.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 pound Kirby cucumbers
  • 2 tablespoons coarse kosher salt
  • 3 large sprigs fresh dill
  • ¼ cup light brown sugar
  • ⅓ cup cider vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons coriander seeds
  • ½ teaspoon black peppercorns
  • ¼ teaspoon allspice berries

PREPARATION

  1. Trim ends from cucumbers and slice into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. In a colander set over a plate, toss them with salt. Refrigerate, uncovered, for 2 hours. Drain and transfer cucumbers and dill to a bowl.
  2. In a small saucepan, combine sugar, vinegar, coriander, peppercorns and allspice. Bring to a boil and cook until sugar dissolves. Pour hot liquid over cucumbers and toss well. Let stand, tossing every 10 minutes, for 30 minutes. Transfer to an airtight jar and refrigerate for up to 1 week.
Fun

Yoga for oldies

The Best Yoga Poses for Women Over 50

The Best Yoga Poses for Women Over 50

These poses are supposed to address the common aches and pains you may be experiencing 50+ and they leave you feeling supple, strong and stress-free.

Yoga can be as gentle or as challenging as you choose. It will help you feel suppler and in tune with your body, plus it’s a great way to quiet your mind.

The benefits of yoga are vast, from anxiety relief to pain management, improved sleep and keeping your weight down.

These poses were listed as suitable for both newbies and those with a bit of experience, and to target the areas we know you will benefit most from treating.

Warrior II pose
Why: Great for your core muscles, thighs and bottom, and opens up tight shoulders, too.
How: From a standing position, take a big step back with one leg, keep your front foot facing forwards, turn your back foot so it’s angled away from your body at 45 degrees.

Bend your front knee until it’s directly above the ankle, keeping your back knee straight. Turn your body to the side and raise your arms into a ‘T’ so one arm is in front of you and one behind, then look forwards towards your front hand.

Keep your weight evenly distributed between your legs and hold for a few deep breaths.

Make it easier: Keep your hands on your hips and look forward rather than raising your arms.

Tree pose
Why: Great for balance, which can help prevent falls.

How: Begin standing with your legs together, then slide your right foot up your left leg, with your heel touching the inside of your calf.

Bring your arms straight up above your head, palms together. Stay balanced for a few deep breaths, then repeat on the other leg.

Make it harder: Slide your foot further up your standing leg, working towards having the sole of your foot at your knee.

Downward facing dog
Why: It opens the shoulders and chest, stretches the hamstrings and spine and strengthens wrists.

How: From kneeling on your hands and knees, push through your hands to straighten your arms and legs as you lift your bottom up towards the ceiling, gently pushing your head towards your knees, so your body is in an upside-down V-shape.

Your heels might not touch the floor, but that’s okay – just focus on sending your hips toward the ceiling while keeping your arms and legs straight. Look backwards through your legs to keep the neck soft.

Make it easier: Rather than keeping your hands on the mat, place them on a sturdy low bench or yoga blocks.

Low lunge
Why: Stretches out tight hips – perfect if you’re at a desk all day – can also boost mental focus.

How: Start by kneeling on a mat or folded towel. Bring one leg forward to place that foot on the floor and keep your knee bent in a tabletop positon. Keep that front knee directly over your front ankle.

Place your hands on the floor for balance, and send your other foot back so the leg lengthens, stretching your thigh but keeping your knee, shin and top of the foot on the floor.

When you feel ready, take your hands off the floor so you are balancing in the low lunge. Raise your arms up alongside your head and breathe for few moments, then repeat on the other side.

Make it easier: Rather than lengthen the back leg, keep it closer to you for balance.

Why: Great relief for stiffness in your back, improves posture and creates a sense of calm.

How: Start sitting cross-legged on your mat. With both legs bent, lift your left leg up and plant your left foot on the outside of your right thigh.

Twist your torso to your left, and touch your right elbow to your left knee.

As you inhale, press your left hand on the floor directly below your shoulder, chest up, back straight. Repeat on the other side.

Make it easier: Keep the bottom leg straight.

Bridge
Why: Can aid digestion, also great for opening stiff hips and strengthening your lower back.

How: Lay on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor, hip-distance apart under your knees, arms by your sides.

Breathe in and press your hands into the mat, then exhale and, using your stomach and glutes muscles, tilt your pelvis, then slowly lift your spine off the ground until you are in a bridge position.

Hold for 30 seconds, then slowly lower from the shoulders vertebrae by vertebrae until your back is flat on the mat.

Make it easier: If you need extra support for your back, roll up a towel and pop it under your shoulders.

Food

Broccoli Salad With Garlic and Sesame

Makes 6 to 8 side-dish servings or more as a starter

This Melissa Clark salad is made from uncooked broccoli tossed with a strong garlic, sesame, chile and cumin-seed vinaigrette slicked with good extra-virgin olive oil and vinegar. The acid “cooks” the florets a little as ceviche does fish. After an hour, the broccoli softens as if blanched, turning bright emerald, and soaking up all the intense flavors of the dressing.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 ½ tablespoons cider wine vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt rough crushed, more to taste
  • 2 heads broccoli, 1 pound each, cut into small bite-size florets
  • ¾ cup (about 200ml) extra virgin olive oil
  • 4 fat garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 teaspoons cumin seeds
  • Large pinch crushed red chilli flakes.

PREPARATION

  1. In a large bowl, stir together the vinegar and salt. Add broccoli and toss to combine.
  2. In a large skillet, heat olive oil until hot, but not smoking. Add garlic and cumin and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in sesame oil and pepper flakes. Pour mixture over broccoli and toss well. Let sit for at least 1 hour at room temperature, and up to 48 (chill it if you want to keep it for more than 2 hours). Adjust seasonings (it may need more salt) and serve.

This is good after 2 hours, better after 24 hours and still edible if you have any left, after 48 hours. The broccoli gets slightly softer with time but retains some bite.

London

Royal Academy Summer Show 2017

The Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy in London has been running for nearly 250 years and includes art in all sorts of media from painting, print, film and photography through to sculpture, architectural works and performance art.

Royal Academician Eileen Cooper, explores themes of discovery and new talent from her unique position as Keeper of the Royal Academy – the Academician who is responsible for supporting and guiding the students.

Cooper takes on the mantle of coordinating the largest open submission exhibition in the world, hanging over 1,200 works by artists established and lesser-known in the space of just eight days.

It includes work by internationally renowned artists Rosemarie Trockel, Julian Schnabel, Hassan Hajjaj, Secundino Hernández, Isaac Julien, Tomoaki Suzuki, Mark Wallinger and Sean Scully RA, as well as submissions by new Royal Academicians including Gilbert & George and David Adjaye.

You can watch BBC Two’s Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2017 with Kirsty Wark and Brenda Emmanus until 16 July on BBC iPlayer.

The archtitectual drawings are often surprisingly beautiful as well as functional.

In general, the walls are crammed full of works of art, so full that it often takes a couple of visits to feel that you’ve seen the whole show.

Some of the work is just good fun.

Where as some is rather disturbing.

Even comically so…

But no matter who you are and what your taste might be, there will be something for you to enjoy, maybe even something to love.

And of course much of the art is for sale, both originals and prints, marked out with small red dots.

Like all art shows, one of the big problems is lighting and reflections, to allow the audience to actually see the works well.

With so much going on, any glare makes viewing quite tricky.

Above all, it is a show of current live artists and gives a feel for the huge diversity in the art world today.

It meant that the more restrained palettes actually stood out from the rest quite well.

There are always the pieces where you look and think “But is that art?” not least the postcards with a potted history of the female historical characters pictured on their backs. Interesting, but is that enough?

And I’m sorry but £84,000 for a neon sentence by Tract Emin just does not make sense to me. It’s just too much.

Some things were just silly.

We both had a wonderful time: a happy recommendation.


Political, Rants&Rambles

Liar Liar

President Trump, arguably the most powerful man in the world, the leader the free democratic world etc told public lies or falsehoods every day for his first 40 days

By the conservative standard of demonstrably false statement, Trump told a public lie on at least 20 of his first 40 days as president. But based on a broader standard — one that includes his many misleading statements (like exaggerating military spending in the Middle East) — Trump achieved something remarkable: He said something untrue, in public, every day for the first 40 days of his presidency. The streak didn’t end until March 1.

Since then, he has said something untrue on at least 74 of 113 days. On days without an untrue statement, he is often absent from Twitter, vacationing at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, or busy golfing.

The end of May was another period of relative public veracity — or at least public quiet — for the president. He seems to have been otherwise occupied, dealing with internal discussions about the Russia investigation and then embarking on a trip through the Middle East and Europe.

Sometimes, Trump can’t even keep his untruths straight. After he reversed a campaign pledge and declined to label China a currency manipulator, he kept changing his description of when China had stopped the bad behavior. Initially, he said it stopped once he took office. He then changed the turning point to the election, then to since he started talking about it, and then to some uncertain point in the distant past.

Trump has retained the support of most of his voters as well as the Republican leadership in Congress. But he has still paid some price for his lies. Nearly 60% of Americans say the president is not honest, polls show, up from about 53%t when he took office.

 
Food

Quick Brazilian Cheese Rolls Pao de Queijo

Makes 16
Literally translates to “bread of cheese”…how can that not be delicious? Quick, easy, and fantastic every time.
Ingredients
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup sunflower oil
  • 1 cup tapioca flour (sometimes labeled tapioca starch) no substitutions
  • 1/2 tsp  salt
  • 1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese* (preferably medium or sharp)
  • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • Optional: extra cheese to sprinkle on top and any herbs/flavorings you’d like to add such as rosemary and or garlic powder,
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 200C. Place egg, milk, oil, tapioca flour, and salt in blender and blend until smooth. Add cheeses and pulse 2 times. Immediately pour batter into a mini muffin tin (if your muffin tin isn’t non-stick, spray lightly with non-stick spray first), filling each well about 3/4 full, or just slightly less. If desired (and I recommend), sprinkle a bit of parmesan cheese on top and/or a tiny sprinkle of kosher salt.
  2. Bake for 15-20 minutes until puffed and golden. Remove from oven and cool for a few minutes before removing rolls from pan. Serve warm.
Notes
  1. You can play around with the cheese.
  2. Keep in mind, these actually don’t re-heat well, so I recommend making and eating fresh.
Political, Rants&Rambles

Sons

I have always been grateful to have my daughters. Perhaps even more, I have always been grateful to NOT have sons. raising boys to be human, to be caring empathetic people that you would want to spend time with, to talk to and engage with, just seems like really hard work.

It’s a job that in many ways involves a fight against societal norms that parents can never win.