greenland

From the plane. Click on the images for larger views.

gullfoss

Gullfoss, or golden waterfall.

the rift valley

Raven's Gorge, the edge of the European continent.


















A fissure in the rift valley, between North America and Europe. Iceland adds about 2cm a year as the plates pull apart, and loses about that much yearly to erosion at the sea shore. As we were looking around, other tourists were suiting up to snorkel in the fissures. The water was crystal clear.





























From the rift valley, you can see the wall of the North American continent rising above the Law Rock on the Parliament Plains, where the Icelandic Commonwealth was formed by Vikings in 930. The white flag pole marks the spot.

From the top, looking back over the rift valley and the Law Rock. Lava flows formed the swirling pattern of the rock.

geysir

Here it is, Geysir, the oldest known and now dormant geyser that lends its name to all the rest ("geysir" means "to erupt"). This one can still go if treated with soap.

The geothermal area is full of hot springs.

They smell strongly of sulfur, some more strongly than others.





























Strokkur was very active while we were there, going off every 3 or 4 minutes in a quick, impressive burst.

mýrdalsjökull

This is Mýrdalsjökull, a glacier in the south of the island.

Looking back from the top, you can see how much the glacier has retreated since 2004, when it was possible to step onto it from the parking lot where the buses are parked.

In 1994, it covered the visible area of this photograph, extending out to a small building near the ringroad.





An ice cave, created by wind, water and sediment. The black you see in these photos is ash from the eruption of nearby Eyjafjallajökull in 2010. Long rows of ash line the rivers near here. Dredging the rivers and cleaning up the farmland has been a project according to our guides, who hope that Hekla--also nearby, swelling and overdue--waits to erupt in the late fall or winter, after the summer harvests and before the lambs, calves and ponies are born in the spring.

hear the good news of salvation

To Ted's delight, wi-fi access brought news not only of Peyton Manning signing with the Broncos but also, and more important, of Tim Tebow's trade. Now Tebow is New York's problem. As far as Ted's concerned, we return to a golden age of Bronco's fandom in which the faithful can bring themselves to follow the team again. These have been long, dark days of suffering.

reykjavik

Here's the view from the fourth floor of the Hilton Nordica, where we stayed. Click on the image for a larger view. According to rumor, someone spotted Yoko Ono at the hotel while we were there (we did not). She was (allegedly) in town for the lighting of the John Lennon Peace Tower, either for the spring solstice or their anniversary or both. The Peace Tower uses geothermal energy to project a shaft of light skyward, an addition to the Reykjavik skyline that the Icelanders we met described without affection.

Below, an image of a shopping street in Reykjavik, Laugavegur:









Hallgrimskirja, the largest church in the country. The inscription on the statue reads: "Leifr Eiricsson, son of Iceland, discoverer of Vinland, the United States of America, to the people of Iceland on the 1000 anniversary of the Althing, ad 1930." The Alþingi is the first convening of the Viking parliament and the beginning of the Icelandic Commonwealth. They sent a member back to Sweden to research Swedish law and then adapt it to the Icelandic situation before setting down the laws of the country--in 930.











A view down Skolavordustigur, from the top of the church:








And the harbor. We learned that Reykjavik means "smokey bay" (vik is bay), what Ingólfur Arnarson made of the geothermal steam rising up off the coast before establishing a settlement there around 870. About 1/3 of Iceland's 320,000 people live in the city, another third in the greater Reykjavik area and the rest along the coast of the island in smaller cities and villages. The interior is uninhabitable.

coveted modern ranch

between dealing with the ever-clogging eaves and all the "trees of significance" around here, ted and i are hatching plans for our dream house. he wants a modern ranch, something kinda swank, i think, befitting his smoking-jacket and martini tastes; something with a roof he can fall off of without killing himself. i'm all for it, so long as we can have an interior courtyard.

my current plans for the home of our dreams derive both from mies van der rohe's tugendhat house and newark ohio's own baker house, the short-time location of my former employer, osu-n's department of physical facilities. (it's now home to some labs and the Newark Earthworks Center). the picture above is one of the ceramic peek holes in the oak wall behind the front door. it's like mies's onyx wall, just in a different place, and not translucent, and not onyx.

here are a few other images:













a portion of the facade. it's wide, even for a ranch. i couldn't stand back far enough to get it all in.













in addition to its interior courtyard and greenhouse (this used to be full of salmon colored geraniums), the baker house had an interior lap pool. the earthworks folks have added a sweat-lodge and native garden out back.













this used to be the living room. the tile fireplace with bench, some of the modern light fixtures, and the courtyard are visible. the door leads to the greenhouse.



















the statue (from one of the paris expo's, i'm not sure of the year) was added when osu-n took over the property -- and the healthy looking boxwood shrubs, sometime later.

modern architecture

not much new with our architecture lately, so the next couple posts will be of other architecture.

we used to pass this place in milwaukee on our walks with scout. it still makes me smile.

click on the picture for the full, creative, effect.

pataskala street fair weekend '08

our view of the festivities: close, low, and somewhat impeded.














linda and faye, enjoying the weather and several "cold ones." (link to video of linda answering faye's e-mail [note: linda wears disguises and calls faye "dan waters" sometimes], followed up by one of faye's cross-stitches.)












kelly and old friend from high school (and miami u), corey. caught up on 18 years in an hour or so.














kathy displays her signature drink, the "shirley temple black." or was it the "shirley temple. black."?












bob, faye, and a heated game of pinochle.














bill and ted's excellent glider.

saucy jack: a play in one, interminable act

scout, in a cockney accent: food please.

people: stop begging.

scout: food please.

repeat.

how the garden grows

like the yard, the garden is really small. even still, there's enough to feed two from time to time. this year we have oregon snow peas, mediterranean cucumbers, 2 types of tomatoes, french green beans, red leaf lettuce, parsley, basil, thyme, oregano, lavender, rosemary, cayenne and jalapeno peppers, and on rare occasions, a single perfect strawberry.

mundus / thonet / kohn

ted and i took the egyptian disco fabric off the new/old chair and found nothing special (i.e. nothing clean) underneath. we're not even certain that the seat is original. if it is, the chair would seem less old than the manufacturer's mark suggests (pre-1914). covering the wooden base and the horse hair padding was a dirty yellow, texturized, plastic (?) coated upholstery. for the meantime, we just tacked a bit of canvas over it.

but here's all of what we've found out, starting with the maker's mark:














what you see is the name "mundus" stamped inside the rim of the seat. i love the eastern european art deco lettering -- jugendstil, or youth style, if i remember (and guess) correctly. (check out the "d".) i also love the name, mundus. (this is also if i remember correctly, now dredging up dr. howe's old english.) mundus is latin for world, from which we speakers of contemporary english get "mundane," meaning "of this world" -- opposed to the world of the sacred from which come other things, though presumeably not this chair.

as to the company that produced the chair, it was very much of this (well, its) world.

in 1856 the thonet brothers (Gebruder Thonet) patented their process for making bentwood furniture which involved wetting, steaming, and forcing wood into iron casts to dry. they let the patent go in 1869 by which time a number of other companies were already making and improving on the bentwood process (and disputing their patent), most famously the father and son team Jacob and Josef Kohn. in 1914 Kohn merged with Mundus. in 1923 (or 28) Kohn-Mundus merged with Thonet, and the conglomerate company is still making furniture. somewhat like the Bauhaus, and Target, the companies teamed up with famous architects and designers to provide stylish furniture to the middle-class -- we of this world.

because there are no other marks on the chair, i'm guessing it's older than 1914. other people writing in with queries on the web have mentioned dual marks, j. j. kohn and mundus for example, but there's nothing else on ours except "made in poland" (krakow, most likely, where several of these companies had factories). it's possible a paper stamp might have come off, but i found no evidence that one had ever been there.

of all the Austrian bentwood furniture makers of the period, i've found out the least about Mundus. it's only ever referred to as a company that merged with the more recognizable figures in the bentwood story, and that may be because there are no figures associated with Mundus, the "Viennese holding company" and third "largest Austrian manufacture[r] of bentwood furniture" -- no one to fight over processes and patents. some forgotten manager probably just saw a bentwood cafe chair and decided to start making knock-offs at Mundus.

in my little research, though, i haven't found another chair that looks like the one we found in Brattleboro. i did come across a claim that the Thonet chairs fetch higher prices because Thonet is presumed to be the originator of the process.

the hammock district

here's a before and after sample of a photo run through photoshop elements:


















"la maison du hamac" (homer simpson would recognize that we were in quebec's hammock district, le quartier du hamac) shot at dusk with the night portrait setting. and again, after a little cropping, no sharpening, and correcting for the night time color cast:


















now it's morning in the hammock district.