In memoriam

 

Frédéric Chopin was born on March 1st, 200 years ago.

Returning from London last week, I picked up "Chopin's Funeral" by Benita Eisler in the British Library bookshop (thanks dear H!). Now listening to Marc-André Hamelin playing the Opus 27 Nocturnes.

Chopin died from TB on 17th October 1849 in Paris. He was 39.

Apocynaceae again

Sufficient in and of itself

The camera is only a very slim Casio EX-S10. Anything bigger and I know I wouldn't carry it. I've started to try to do more with it, and not leave all settings on "auto". I don't use a phone more than once a month, so am more likely to forget that!

Pure offering

Livistona mariae

In the Botanic Garden today, struck by sheer height of the Central Australian Cabbage Palm. How water gets to that height from the roots is remarkable given that one atmosphere pressure will support only 34 feet of water and this example is far higher than that. Osmotic pressure?

Frozen

A January to remember

From the NASA Earth Observatory: the full image is here together with interesting background information on the unusual sustained cold weather.

 
Reading "A World Without Ice" by Henry Pollack (Avery, 2009)

Spared the demolition

A little bit of the old on Orchard Road spared from demolition, perhaps by proximity to Emerald Hill. The quiet road in front is misleading - it is Orchard Road and there was a few seconds of peace to be savoured.

Nearby on another demolition hoarding is the message "Where luxury unfolds" followed by "Where style unravels". I think most English speakers would read the latter not in the way intended!

Guan Yin

Guan Yin

Upwards

Ref: Dr. Pieter Tans, NOAA/ESRL (www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends)

I used to think it would not happen in my lifetime - now I'm not so sure.

"Rivers fed by melting snow and glaciers supply water to over one-sixth of the world's population — well over a billion people. But these sources of water are quickly disappearing: the Himalayan glaciers that feed rivers in India, China, and other Asian countries could be gone in 25 years".

Ref: Kevin Bullis, The Geoengineering Gambit, Technology Review, 2010 (subscription required). (Quoted by John Baez, Diary-January 2010).

Thirteen Ways

From "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" by Wallace Stevens.

I.
Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird.

and

IX.
When the blackbird flew out of sight,
It marked the edge
Of one of many circles.

The complete poem is here and commentary by Helen Vendler amongst others is here.

Imbalance

At the end of this month Corus Steel will layoff 1,700 workers on Teeside.

On another planet, the Financial Times today tells me that "Banks have traditionally paid out about half of revenues to employees in salaries, bonuses, insurance and other benefits, dwarfing the compensation ratios used in most industries".

For Goldman 2009 revenues are predicted to be $44bn - you can do the arithmetic.

William Henry Channing

"To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury; and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable; and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasion, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony".

William Henry Channing

To be memorised.

"Royal ease"

Guan Yin seated in the "Royal ease" posture
- detail -

- hand detail -

Guan Yin 觀音, is the traditional female form of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara associated with compassion. This fine example is from the 3rd floor museum in the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum

"Held Hostage by the City's Bankers"

There's no point in going on about the excessive profits and out-of-control bonus culture in investment banking. The title is that of an editorial in Saturday's Financial Times. Put simply: to avoid any pain to bankers having to pay the one-off 50% tax on bonuses imposed by the Chancellor, many banks will simply increase the size of the bonus pool. As the editorial notes, banks seem increasingly to be run for the management and not the shareholders. So come on major shareholders, start using your powers, get these people under control. They are not as irreplaceable as they think.

Hubris and nemesis are inseparable.

Avalokiteshvara

Avalokiteshvara
The Bodhisattva of Infinite Compassion

Taken in the Museum at Buddha Tooth Temple.

Blessed by the Sun

On the temple roof
The top of the stupa aflame with the sun

The top of the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple & Museum houses a quiet orchid garden, with the focal point of an enclosed Vairocana Buddha Prayer Wheel. A real oasis of calm, broken by the occasional gong of the turning wheel and the distant traffic. The morning sun was reflected as a flame at the stupa top.

Chirality

Plumeria rubra cv Jean Moragne - Frangipani (Apocynaceae)

Note how the leaves overlap as they spiral anti-clockwise for want of a better term. The buds unsurprisingly also show folding in the same direction. The genus (family?) Apocynaceae interested me in a former life for its indole alkaloid content. One species, the common periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus) provided alkaloids for my thesis work. A colleague filled the lab with millions of red spider mites after a hurried harvest of Rhazia stricta at Jodrell Bank. Still fascinating 40 years later!

Botanic Garden

"How was it that before Niu-t'ou encountered the fourth patriarch Tao-hsin, the birds used to flock to him with flowers in their beaks, whereas after their meeting the auspicious phenomenon ceased?"

From Kōans of the Zen Masters Steven Heine, Oxford, 2002

Birthday

Today my mother is 85

New Year Greetings

In the Botanic Gardens this morning

Best wishes for 2010