Category: Just Pictures

Coypu Saga – Next Episode

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On checking the electric fence I can see the point of ingress last night where it twisted the strands in shock..

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I walked around the pond to see if the little bastard was still here.

I disturbed it…see the bubbles…

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Fuck you human…centre frame…

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I walked around the pond for more evidence…

mid-sized adolescent Coypu turds.

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The little sod has eaten a lotus root

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I made a lot of noise and hit the bank with a rake near where it was hiding.

This scared it off into water….

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I left it hiding under the bank near the river. This is where they burrowed before.

After lunch I am back out trying to scare him back into the river.

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Pors Gwen – 14-02-2026

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Today the wind is from the North. This means a brief respite from all the wet coming in from the West.

So we went up to coast for a very brisk walk…

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Out of season the light and visibility can be good…

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The winter sun is low…

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There is not much traffic but there are warnings for wizard children crossing.

There is a new campus to Hogwarts opening soon.

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In summer many people get trapped on the islands by the tide.

The local newspapers often have news of rescues.

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“Oh shit, we had better move…”

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Cold wet feet…

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Lucky escape…

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A room with a view…you can’t get much closer to the sea than this.

Must be epic in a winter storm here.

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Imagine the waves crashing on this…

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Shame it was so very busy…

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Permimeter Defences – Coypu – Badger and Wild Boar

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The first of the shagging toads have arrived in the pond. The start of the annual toad migration. There is an electric fence between the river and the pond to stop the coypu getting in.

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One of the little buggers tried last night and disturbed the fence.

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They are after the baby lotuses and irises.

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Previously the wife blocked the badger hole in the fence.

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They built a small set in our garden..

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This is where the wild boars first got in…

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This is the repair of the second place they broke the fence. I am due to do more fence repair this afternoon.

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This is Gandalf the grey and white stray cat now a.k.a. Kidney because she leaves regular mouse kidneys and entrails for us as presents.

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Mandala – Kālacakra and Tarot

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Mandala can be thought of as models or re-presentations of a reality. They are a way of arranging and making partial sense of observed phenomenon. They can be a short-form to a much wider corpus of thought forms and images. Having been a scientist I have used models to convey scientific knowledge to students. I have often wondered if the traditional setting of image collections of mandala is culture specific.

If one was bilingual one might see more commonality than difference.

The Kālacakra mandala is famous in Tibetan buddhism.

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The kabbalists have the tree of life-

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And the Jewels of Awareness or Tarot can be arranged according to a compass of N E S W.

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These have a very mandala-like flavour.

Ashmole 972 and Tarot 20

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The Bodleian Library has a number of the so-called Ashmole documents partially digitized and published online.

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Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, vol. 2.

Shelfmark: Bodleian Library MS. Ashmole 972

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This one looks like Tarot 20 and has a very similar feel.

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Some of the other images on line look very proto-tarot.

In one other llustration it suggests that there are concealed answers for a freed Soul which can be revealed from understanding the symbols displayed..

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Ashmole

Medieval and early modern manuscripts and papers donated to the Bodleian by antiquary Elias Ashmole (1617-1692).

Elias Ashmole (1617-1692) was born and educated in Lichfield. He began his career as a solicitor, but in 1644 entered the service of the Crown as a commissioner of excise. He entered the Office of Arms as Windsor herald after the Restoration, and retired in 1672.

His collection comprises important medical, astrological, and alchemical manuscripts, and is also strong in heraldry, local history, and, to a lesser extent, in Middle English and 17th-century poetry. The foundation of his Museum at Oxford was made possible by his acquisition by bequest from his friend John Tradescant of a large collection of ‘curiosities’. They arrived when the building was ready in 1683, and it was here that his bequest of manuscripts was housed until their transference to the Bodleian in 1860.