October 11

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On October 11th I got dropped off downtown so I could go get a flu shot.  (My better half got his two weeks ago.)



Japanese anemone by the parking lot near the library.

Dahlia in the same bit of garden.

Looking south over Ann Arbor.  Wow..................

I meant to have lunch in a new-to-me restaurant, but they were closed.  How rude.  At least they could have said they would be closed -- I checked their menu on the website that morning, and there was no hint that they were going to be closed...............

I found something else to eat, and got my flu shot.  Then I went to the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, and looked at their exhibit on "Less Than Perfect" objects that have been discovered by archaeologists.  Some objects were damaged in the process of making them (lots of kiln accidents, for example, resulting in ruined ceramics).  Some were damaged in use, and repaired (broken ceramics repaired with lacquer, perhaps).  And some were deliberately made imperfect by makers who were, in some cases, avoiding something like the wrath of the gods (who reserve "perfect" for themselves, denying it to mere mortals).

This Shalimar bagh embroidered textile may belong in the last category, because while most of it looked the way most of it looks here, some of the diamond shapes had different embroidery in them, as the one in the lower right does in this image.

(Trying to wrap my mind around this being embroidery, rather than some sort of weaving technique.  This object was large.  5'x7'?  It took 'leventy billion hours to make this.....)

These were damaged in the making.  Another sort of kiln accident (though they call it a furnace rather than a kiln).................. 

I'd always wondered about bent or crooked glass.  I know modern glass has to cool verrrrrrry slowly, but it never occurred to me that ancient glass would also need a slow cool.

Ancient glass is often breath-takingly thin..........  Amazing that it could be made, let alone that it has survived for two millennia.  !!!

The "Less Than Perfect" exhibit was interesting, and small.  It's a small museum.  Nice, but little.

These next things are in the permanent collection.  This drinking cup is Roman glass, from Syria, made 1-4th c. CE.

So amazing, the color that can result from burying glass for hundreds and hundreds of years........

CB -- this is a lot smaller than the urn the British Museum is working on.  6"-8" ish.

The label calls it a jug.  From Karanis, Egypt.  Made 2nd-4th c. CE.

This delicate thing, which would easily fit into my cupped hand, is described as a "free-blown spherical beaker."  "Beaker"????  What a clunky description for this lovely object.  I wonder what "beaker" means in this context.............  The info says Cologne, Germany, 1st c. CE.

"Free blown" and then mashed! "flask."  Egypt.  1st-3rd c. CE.

I wonder if it's not just necessary to bury glass for centuries and centuries, to get this sort of color, but also important to bury it in the desert?

I understand why museums like this sort of shelf-holder-upper, but it's ugly and distracting in pictures, alas................



Walking home.  Chrysanthemum for sale at Downtown Home and Garden.  I went in and bought some daffodil bulbs and some species tulip bulbs.

The sky was still amazing when I went through West Park on my way home.

I was surprised to see a hibiscus blooming this late in the year.

Another Japanese anemone.

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