Saturday 2 August 2014

Test crimson moon

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k6gHZXoeCCw&feature=youtu.behttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k6gHZXoeCCw&feature=youtu.be

Sunday 6 April 2014

1914 songs list

This is the list of songs for our medicines in May 1914 weekend. They will be playing as occasional background music in the Apothecaries Hall at the National Botanic Garden of Wales,  the weekend of May 17 and 18. All songs are from the period, the Louis Armstrong ones are covers.


1914
27 songs, 1.2 hours, 67.7 MB


1 Every Little Movement Has Its T…  Marie Lloyd
2 That lovin' rag (1910)  Sophie Tucker
3 Reuben rag (1919)  Sophie Tucker
4 Abraham (1905)  Arthur Collins
5 That lovin' two-step man (1910)  Sophie Tucker
6 That loving soul kiss (1911) Sophie Tucker
7 When the right girl comes along…  Vesta Tilley
8 It's part of a policeman's duty Vesta Tilley
9 The Seaside smile (1907)  Vesta Tilley
10 Chicken Reel (1911)  Arthur Collins
11 Bill Bailey Won't You Please Come home Arthur Collins
12 Maple Leaf Rag  Spencer Leger
13 The Spaniard That Blighted My Life Billy Merson
14 Red Hot Mama  Sophie Tucker 
15 The Entertainer Scott Joplin
16 Saint Louis Blues Louis Armstrong
17 Memphis Blues W. C. Handy
18 Alexanders Ragtime Band Arthur Collins  & Byron Harlan
19 When I Take My Morning Promenade  Marie Lloyd
20 A Little of What You Fancy Does You Good Marie Lloyd
21 Careless Love Blues Louis Armstrong
22 They Didn't Believe Me Jeanette MacDonald
23 You made me love you (1913)  Anna Chandler
24 High Society  Louis Armstrong
25 Missouri Joe (1911) Sophie Tucker
26 Some Of These Days  Sophie Tucker
27 Phoebe Jane (1910) Sophie Tucker



Friday 22 November 2013

Wood samples from the Garden

treesamples


Wood from the Garden

These examples have all been cut from trees within the Garden over the last few months.  They have been sliced using a bandsaw, then put through an electric planer to remove most of the saw marks.   They were then lightly sanded and coated with a single coat of clear varnish to keep the planed surfaces clean.   Machine marks will exist on most of the examples.


1.  Ash - Smooth grey bark. Grain tends to run parallel. The wood is strong and flexible. Related to the olive. Known as the Queen of trees, and brings good luck and wards off witchcraft.
The name is believed to come from an Anglo Saxon word for "spear"
Used for golf club shafts,  inexpensive 'country' furniture,  as a veneer,  bentwood furniture, axe handles (it is strong enough to resist the shock of the blow but also cushions the shock to the user ), cart shafts,  walking sticks, boat paddles, billiard cues, cricket stumps , spears, arrows, ladders,  chassis of Morgan motor car, and before the development of light alloys ash wood was used for the construction of aircraft wings, including the famous Second World War De Havilland  Mosquito.

2 Holly - Smooth bark,  mainly white wood, heavy, very fine grained and even. It stains and polishes well and is prized for inlay work on decorated furniture. Holly has been used for making chessmen and the butts for billiard cues,  shuttles for hand-weaving,  small tools,  'turned' articles, inlay patterns on furniture.
The berries repel witches.

3 Hornbeam - heavy,  grain does not run straight. Greyish brown bark.  Hardest British wood. Quicker to grow than oak.
 Cogs in wind and water mills, anything needing a screw thread, musical instruments, butchers blocks,   furnace fuel (because it burns very hot)
Can blunt some tools. 

4  Hazel - great toughness and elasticity -bark is light brown (tan)  and shows characteristic "Freckles" .  Walking sticks, fishing rods,  baskets,  golf club shafts, pegs for  thatch. This is the traditional tree of wisdom - eating the nuts will make you clever!  Magic wands are oftenmade from hazel.

5 Oak - knobbly bark a bit like crocodile skin!   Very hard wearing (durable). Known as the King of trees in mythology.  (the  word "Druid"  means "oak-man") Grain varies within a single piece. Occasionally has :"watermarks" going across the grain. Most furniture up the 18th century, deckchairs, boats and ships, (particularly 'men-of-war' for the Royal Navy) ,wooden frame houses, carved work esp. Jacobean, tanning leather, wine casks, field gates, charcoal.
 

6 Sycamore - grain wide spread.  Grey bark, lightweight.  Not particularly strong. The example has stains at one end due to fungus when it was on the ground.   Sometimes wood is deliberately left to develop the start of a fungal infection before the fungus is treated - it adds colour and pattern to the wood.
Uses have included rollers for domestic mangles,  plates and food utensils, snuff boxes, Welsh love spoons.


7 Willow
- doesn't normally grow to any great size. Lightweight.   Lots of spaces in grain.   Uses have included house building, coracle frames, and charcoal manufacture. Willow's ability to absorb shock without splintering is still utilised in the making of cricket bats and stumps (note also the similarity between 'wicket' and 'wicker'), and the Dutch traditionally make their clogs from willow wood. The wood is good for turning.  Wickerwork is what willow is probably most famous for, using the smaller osiers and coppiced or pollarded willow. Before the advent of plastics, willow was widely used to make a variety of containers, from general basketry to specialised applications such as lobster pots and bee hives.
Willow sculptures made by planting willow twigs then training them to grow in different shapes.


8. Cherry - hard, fine-grained, multicoloured reds in grain.  Often has smooth bark.   Ornamental uses. Turning, especially the large burls with unusual grains which can appear on the trunk. It is also used for making furniture. In mythology home to the Vilya - beautiful woodlands creatures of Eastern Europe.

9.  Eucalyptus - close very irregular grain.  Because of fast growth there are a lot of stresses in the wood.  Skill is needed to identify the best way to season each piece or it will split. Can be used for furniture, often used for biomass fuel.
Splits easily when drying.

10 Hawthorn - White strong, close-grained wood, Larger pieces of wood tend to split when drying. Belongs to the rose family.  Used for walking sticks,  mill-wheel teeth,veneer for furniture, carving, tool handles. hedging. Associated with death -botanists have discovered that the chemical trimethylamine present in hawthorn blossom is also one of the first chemicals formed in decaying animal tissue. Notwithstanding the above taboo, the leaves were eaten and were commonly referred to as bread and cheese, the blossom and berries were made into wines and jellies

11 Beech -   lightweight white and very hard wood bentwood furniture - often used as drawers - takes paint well and often used for gilded furniture - spinning wheels, Sheraton (furniture maker) turned beech to make imitation bamboo furniture - carpenters tools, esp. mallets and handles. Tends to  warp when wet

12 Pine, light colour, wide grain,   used extensively for floors, building frames, decking, because it is fast growing and cheap.  Masts of ships.  Because pine can split easily where there are holes cut in it, ship builders would strengthen the areas around holes with rope lashings.

Tuesday 5 March 2013

My try in the style of DT

This is an attempt to do something in the style of a certain welsh drunkard,  inspired by the area around the National Botanic Garden of Wales on a cold spring morn.

I claim copyright on this item,  and will object to its use anywhere without my permission

Working title "Cold Spring in Llanarthne"
Cold cracked leafless lanes sneak past hard forlorn fields
Where sheep show eyes all dark and filled with rheum
Wet whisps of cloud frame starling speckled skies
And Old men scream with winter in their bones,

But soon the sun makes promises anew
Of life and healing soon to come again
Redstarts cry to send the cold away
And old men smile, and think of springtimes gone

The seasons swing around, this is life's rule
And past must yield, as now must yield to then.
The moving finger warns of yet to be
And old men move to graveyards painless sleep.

Friday 19 October 2012

testrunawaytrain


https://www.dropbox.com/sh/e5syoke5pfw1o0m/30VpRZTTNU

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ro4faiqq7a4sxe0/ramit%20mate%20I%27m%20RDP.mp3
test from dropbox

Virtual poisons garden test 19th oct https://www.dropbox.com/c/shmodel?nsid=7504498&sjid=0&state=2&signature=8632c8f&path=/Virtual+Poisons+Garden+-+Large+4.m4v&id=shmodel