h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

No, thanks, Paul. I waste enough time as it is. Also, the overdose margin on bad poetry can be perilous to navigate.

In case you're interested, here's a footnoted account of the 'legend' of the Blue Willow pattern, which is probably a piece of British fakelore, surprise, surprise:

http://cartarchaeology.wordpress.com/2016/06/10/bluewilllow/

As you will be able to tell on the h2g2 Front Page tomorrow, we use Blue Willow at Casa Gheorgheni.

Here, too, is a Chicago Tribune story about the Blue Willow pattern, a truly British tradition - also, as one might guess, the origin of the 'blue plate special':

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1994-03-27-9403270414-story.html

Trade with between GB and China produced some interesting consequences. Ships arriving in GB from China would sometimes contain, in addition to their cargoes, some china in the holds as ballast. China led the world in the production of fine porcelain with blue patterns. The Chinese were perhaps surprised that the British would embrace the porcelain as much as the rest of the cargo. To make a long story short, the British worked hard to decipher the secrets of this pottery-making process, and began producing it, largely in Stoke-on-Trent and its environs.

Recently, with global trade, China got the last laugh. Many British potterymakers moved their production of this and other) china to China.

This is true.

Also, the trade with Japan influenced western art. The things they shipped were wrapped in old prints. In Paris, the merchants saved the prints, pressed them, and sold them. Which influenced artists.

Wat Arun Ratchawararam Ratchawaramahawihan (AKA Temple of Dawn) in Bangkok is covered with millions of pieces of broken blue & white porcelain fashioned into flower petals.

The first story from the resident monk was that the porcelain came from a British shipwreck...another internet story is that Chinese ships used it as ballast and sometimes dumped excess ballast in the river.

Impressive building.

Willem has identified the cormorants as anhingas...he throws in a photo from the Cornell Othinology Center...Those Cornell bird professors would come and play birdsongs for us in Ithaca during my first grade...they know the birds...

Anhinga males do 55% of the incubation duties compared with the females 45%. They also bring in 81% of the nesting material. The Anhinga lives year-round in Florida and prefers to nest in low hanging branches in freshwater swamps. They are reported to do a characteristic vocalization and neck intertwine thing when initiating a nest exchange. Egg-laying takes place mostly in July.

Awwww I love news from the life of Myrtle and Turtle, the cormorants. Need regular updates please! And pics, when the tripod position isn't too hazardous. Please be careful, Mrs Phred. No point falling from a height for the sake of art, Myrtle and Turtle will have to wait for their moviestar moment, even though they might be diva cormorants.



I've decided that Purple Circle is the ultimate rhyme, and also deep, because the colour purple and the symbol of the circle are both reeeely spiritual.

The Purple Circle

People always said that my friend David had a halo glow, I just said he looked good in blue jeans and his Sacred Heart t-shirt. That day I met him outside the pizza place, though, I'm sure I saw a purple circle hovering over his head. I asked him if he'd bought it in the neon shop, for the Saint David effect, but he said I should have an eye test.

And .. so ...

Erm.. I think I need some snacks. Has anyone got any chocolate or cupcakes on the go?

Really? Thanks paul! That's the story of the willow pattern?

Oh! I remember looking at that bridge all the time, wondering what and where it was, my Gran had willow pattern china, I loved it.

So, the two birds circling above the scene, that's kind of a haunting image now.

I remember from somewhere, some willow pattern dishes that weren't blue, but kind of sepia coloured? kind of like watercolour reddish brown, very pale. Same pattern. I wonder what I'm remembering?



Are there any other famous designs on china that tell a story?

Oh, right. Glad I asked about the willow pattern! You never know eh, what mysteries are contained in the plate which holds the food.

So the Chinese porcelain with blue patterns, I'd like to know what the other patterns were, and wondering why blue was used, particularly ..

It's very fascinating, all this.

Wat Arun Ratchawararam Ratchawaramahawihan!

Ah, here's use for cut n' paste, to print this out! heheh.

That is truly an amazing story, and image, about the flower petals.

I need to go find a picture of it ...

The Anhinga!! Hullo Anhinga!! I remember you from Phreddy's slide show pictures !!

Myrtle and Turtle are anhingas??

Or maybe these are different cormorants.

We have a cormorant that perches on a structure at the end of the jetty, near us. I watch him from the balcony, wings outstretched.

(the cormorant's wings, not mine, I keep my wings folded on the balcony in case people think I'm a seagull looking for chips, and try to shoo me away).

The cormorant looks charismatic, charmer with scruffy black feathers, I call him the rockstar.

When on a local bike ride these last couple of weeks, we've been checking these curious plants in someone's garden, there's about twelve of them, they're about 7ft high, with white flowers, kind of a like a pointy tower, and all covered in bees!

What are these strange bee covered creations? we asked ourselves, quite a lot. To ask someone else would have been constructive. I started dreaming about them.

Anyway, just yesterday morning, we found out what they are in a very roundabout way.

Completely unrelated to the search, C was reading something which contained a reference to the Viper's Bugloss. We wondered about where the name came from, and I went to Google images to check what it looked like.

Whoah .. weird. Right beside the pic of the Viper's Bugloss was a pic of the bee covered pointy flower towers!! What??? I said. They're the same family! Echium.

Echium Pininana. Snow Towers.

We cycled past them again this afternoon. I greeted them. (secretly, naturally) Hullo Pininanas! Nice to see the family Echium enjoying the sunlight! And you're all covered in bees, which is good for you I think. Hope so.

Those Echium Pinanas are amazing. They look tropical, in fact, the little bit I read said they come from the Canary islands, where they're endangered. I think all the flowers are doing well this year - my clematis is covered in flowers and so is the fuschia.

Meanwhile, I've been trying to catch up with the rhymes for orange and purple. I came up with this bit of nonsense

There was an old person called Gorringe
who sought all the rhymes for orange.
He succeeded with lozenge
but struggled with syringe
and gave up in disgust with splorange
that silly old person called Gorringe!

That's an interesting poem.

Behold the willow pattern, its fakelore bogus lurvestory now buried beneath some sugared pecans: A87981961

I warned you: speak of the devil and he will appear.

(I'm going to spend all day now trying to make 'lozenge' sound like 'orange', MVP, and failing, because Pennsylvania.)

Because Pennsylvania was owned by William Penn

because Pennsylvania and Delaware were opposed to separation from England

because Pennsylvania is pointed at with the finger of scorn by sister States,

because Pennsylvania gets its fair share of clouds. (Ok, maybe more than its fair share.)

it's a reason....

No, because western Pennsylvania pronounces 'orange', 'ornj'.

And 'lozenge', 'lah-zuhnj'.

Wasn't lah zhung from the 13th Dynasty school of willow patterned pottery? Sorry can't find wiki link lol.