Well here we are again, the end of
another year and that time again when we reflect back on it. There have been
many paintings, several sculptures, the studio’s doors were officially opened
to TV and radio, I recruited a robot sidekick and made £25 on the Lottery
thanks to a mechanical mystic robot! On
a personal level it’s been a rotten year what with one thing or another and losing
both my grandparents 3 months apart threw me off somewhat but I think
completing the 24hour Sharkathon back in July (where I watched 17 shark movies
in one 24 hour sitting raising £467 for the Alzheimer’s Society) helped a
little- my sincere thanks everyone that sponsored me via the website or sponsor
forms. Some of you might remember that I set myself another challenge in
January, lose weight! I vowed to do so following the Linnea Quigley's HorrorWorkout each morning. I started it weighing 15.5 stone and I will be starting
2019 weighing 14.4 stone... I did follow the program, it wasn’t easy but I feel
that cutting out the snacks and substituting meals with Slim Fast helped! Work wise it’s been all go, I have been
working on numerous projects, many of which will be released in the New Year.
Beth’s second self published novel, The Oakley Woods Murders was released back
in May (I provided the inside illustrations and cover art) and it received a very favorable review from Starburst Magazine, suffice to say I am very proud of
her. Incidentally, if you received Amazon vouchers for Christmas her books are
still available on there... I’ll wait...
2018 took many inspirational
people from us, some of which I was able to address and remember at the time including
comic book artist Norm Breyfogle and of course the great Stan Lee but we also lost
Peter Wyngarde, Mort Walker, John Mahoney, Emma Chambers, Peter Miles, Steven Hawking,
Jim Bowen, Bill Maynard, Tim O’Connor, R. Lee Ermey, Dale Winton, Verne Troyer,
Margot Kidder, Alan Bean, Joseph Campanella, Leslie Grantham, Aretha Franklin, Peter
Stringfellow, Jacqueline Pearce, Eric Bristow, Bill Daily, Liz Fraser, Burt
Reynolds, Steve Dash, Peter Donat, Fenella Fielding, Dudley Sutton, Douglas
Rain, Mike Noble, Sister Wendy Beckett, Paddy
Ashdown, George H. W. Bush, Donald Moffat, Barry Chuckle, June, Whitfield and
of course the great Ken Dodd. I always think of Doddy around this time of year,
having said for years that I wanted to catch his live show I was yet to make
the mere 48 mile trip to see it and when he became ill during Christmas 2007 I
thought I had missed my chance. Thankfully he was fine and performing again 2
months later, but this was the wake up call I needed, it underlined how none of
us are getting any younger and how we shouldn’t put off seeing/meeting our
heroes. I went to see his show the following May and he did not disappoint I
was so pleased that I had the chance to see him, his passing reminded me of a
particularly poignant moment towards the end of the show when he addressed the
audience and told us that now we no longer had the likes of Morecambe and Wise,
Les Dawson or Tommy Cooper he was the last of his kind, effectively the last
Dodo on stage, so when he did pass away peacefully at his home aged 90 it really
did mark the end of an era in Britain.
We joined the 21st century this year by using
streaming services, despite still watching very little ‘modern’ telly favouring
classic TV DVD’s we did take part in the Earth tradition of “binge watching” a
series, when we (finally) watched Stranger
Things and loved it, looking forward to seeing series 3! Online streaming also
gave us horror movie/ horror host connoisseurs a wonderful moment, the return
of Joe Bob Briggs in a show that served as a loving salute to his classic MonsterVision show of the 1990’s (that I never had the pleasure of experiencing
first time round, but have long enjoyed in clip form on YouTube). Subscription
/video on demand service Shudder brought him back in what was billed as a “one
off” show in June, The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs.
Greyfriars Bobby’s (1855-1872) Collar, Museum of Edinburgh, Edinburgh
Since first hearing this tale about the Skye Terrier who guarded the grave of his owner for 14 years until he died himself (through Roland Rat’s Rat On The Road in 1983) I have long been fascinated with this story and wanted to see the famous statue. I got to do that and it was sheer delight, taking a photo of the statue without a tourists jumping into shot to rub his nose (for good luck) not so much, as it was near impossible! (Edinburgh city council asks that tourists touch the nose "gently" after having to spend £400 on its restoration!) But anyway! Bobby was the pet of Edinburgh Constable John Grey, who died of tuberculosis in 1858 the dog famously lay by his master’s grave side in Greyfriars Kirkyard each day until his own death in 1872. The tale touched everyone’s hearts and lived on when it was immortalised in a novel by Eleanor Atkinson in 1912 and then a Disney movie in 1961, some historians however question its actual factual basis... but I will leave that matter for you dear reader. All I will say is that if you visit the Museum of Edinburgh (please do, it’s well worth a visit) you will find many artefacts relating to Bobby’s history including his dinner dish and this, his collar. The collar along with an inscription which reads, “Greyfriars Bobby, from the Lord Provost, 1867 licensed” was given to him by Edinburgh’s then Lord Provost, William Chambers as a safeguard when a new ‘dog tax’ was introduced to combat the city’s stray dog problem.
For over a century, Bardsey (or “Enlli” as we call it around
these parts) has been an island of special scientific interest and popular
tourist destination located at the tip of the Llŷn Peninsula, and it was once a
‘kingdom’. No-one seems to know the exact origin of the tradition but it’s
believed that the first king of Bardsey who ‘ruled’ over the island’s
population of farmers and fishermen was crowned in 1820; however his name is
not known to us, But we do know that he died in 1826, as a letter had been sent
to the landowner, Lord Newborough requesting that he return to the island to crown
the successor John Williams and that’s just what he did in August that year. Williams
was crowned with this actual tin crown while standing on a chair on the
narrowest part of the island and reined until 1841 when he drowned while
attempting to cross to the mainland alone. His son, John Williams II who had
been born just the day before was naturally too young to succeed his father and
so Bardsey went without a king until the end of the century when John Williams
II eventually became king; his reign was short however he immigrated to the
mainland in 1918 and drink took its toll on him, it is claimed that he lost his
fortune and died in a workhouse in Pwllheli. For many years the crown was
‘controversially’ kept in storage at the Liverpool Maritime Museum, having been
acquired along with Lord Newborough’s effects.
Sadly the crown could not be returned to Bardsey as the museum
stipulated that it could only be given to an accredited museum for safe keeping
and as Bardsey (currently with the population of 4 people) doesn’t have a
museum it was instead entrusted to the Gwynedd Museum and Art Gallery in Bangor
in 2009 for the 30th anniversary of Bardsey Island Trust. But, John
Williams II was not the last king of Bardsey however, there was one other...
According to one of my all time favourite archaeologist, Sir
Mortimer Wheeler, despite their being no lineage a fisherman called Love
Pritchard proclaimed himself king of the island in 1911 due to John Williams
II’s condition. It has been documented that the king offered his services in
the First World War but was rejected due to his age, apparently taking umbrage (many
joked that the island remained neutral during the war and even alleging that they
supported Kaiser Wilhelm II!) Love Pritchard left the island in 1925, visiting
the National Eisteddfod in Pwllheli where he was welcomed a Welshman visiting
from another land but sadly died the following year and was buried St Hywyn's
Church, Aberdaron. Childless there was no successor to the throne, but when it
was suggested in 1999 that opera star Bryn Terfel should be crowned the new
king of Bardsey, the Bardsey Island Trust was overwhelmed by people claiming direct
lineage to Pritchard.
"The world's most famous sheep", Dolly (named
after Dolly Parton due to her impressive glands) was the first mammal to ever
be cloned from an adult somatic cell, using the process of nuclear transfer (the
cell nucleus from an adult cell is transferred into an unfertilized developing
egg cell with the cell nucleus removed. The hybrid cell is then stimulated to
divide by an electric shock, before being implanted into a surrogate mother). Led
by Keith Campbell, Ian Wilmut and colleagues at the Roslin Institute, part of
the University of Edinburgh and the biotechnology company PPL Therapeutics, Dolly's
existence was announced to the world on 22 February 1997 playing an integral
part in the 1990’s obsession with cloning. She had three mothers: one that
provided the egg another that provided the DNA and a third which carried her
embryo to term. In an attempt to allow Dolly to have as normal a life as
possible, it was decided to allow her to breed; she was bred with a Welsh
Mountain ram, producing six lambs in total. Dolly died on the 14 February 2003
five months before her seventh birthday from a progressive lung disease (the
disease was not considered related to her being cloned) having lived her entire
life at the Roslin Institute in Midlothian, she was preserved and gifted to NationalMuseum of Scotland by the institute in 2003.
The Cockcroft–Walton (CW) generator was developed at the
University of Cambridge in the early 1930s and named after physicists John Douglas
Cockcroft and Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton who used the circuit design in 1932 to
power their particle accelerator and perform the first artificial nuclear
disintegration in history (both were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for
"Transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic
particles" in 1951) originally used at the University of Edinburgh for
nuclear physics in the 1950s this one was erected in the Grand Gallery at the museum
after its components were discovered in a store room at the National Museum’s
Collection Centre. Standing 19 feet 8 inches this is only one section of it
though, there wasn’t enough space to occupy the whole generator at the museum!
The Maiden (also known as the Scottish Maiden) was used for
executions in Edinburgh during the 16th and 18th centuries after the sword traditionally
used to carry out executions had become worn.
Predating the ones used during the French Revolution the Maiden was
manufactured in Edinburgh, built of oak, with a lead weight and iron blade she was
first introduced in 1564 during the reign of Mary Queen of Scots and remained in
use right up to 1716. The device took all the hassle out of
executions as it could be easily be dismantled for storage and moved to
numerous locations as and when needed. It was long believed that James Douglas,
4th Earl of Morton was responsible for first devising it (basing its concept on
the Halifax Gibbet) this would have been tragically ironic however when you
consider how the Earl was executed on this very device in 1581 during the
minority of King James VI! (although very little evidence backs up the claim
that Douglas was responsible for its design). What we do know for certain
however is that it was made by carpenters Adam and Patrick Shang, as accounts
still exists informing us that Shang (responsible for Queen Mary's
half-brother, the Earl of Moray’s oak bed) was paid the amount of two pounds
for “whole labours and devising of the timber work” involved in the
construction of the device that removed 150 heads.
When peering over the wall of Edinburgh Castle you will find
another touching tribute to Edinburgh’s devotion to faithful Canine companions in
the form of the castle’s dog cemetery. Believed to have originally been the
site of a medieval tower, it became the final resting place for regimental
mascots and honored dogs belonging to high-ranking soldiers in 1840. Twenty dogs
are remembered in this garden (off limits to the public) including Yum Yum, Tim
(who traveled with Seaforth Highlanders) and Dobbler (who travelled with
Argyll and Sutherland Highlands to China, Ceylon and South Africa) with Winkle,
a “dear and faithful friend of Lady Gow and the Governor” being the last to be
added in 1980. The cemetery was even referenced in verse by Robert Burns:
“Berkin dugs here lie at rest The yappin worst, obedient best Sodgers pets and
mascots tae Still the guard the castle to this day”
Well there you have it, another
blog post recounting the year. What else we can expect in 2019? Aside from
myself turning 40 and this very blog celebrating its tenth anniversary, several
new projects that’s for sure, hopefully a few new adventures (one more recent
adventure has been omitted from this post due to my being sworn to secrecy
about but more on that February/March...) My sincere thanks to all that have
supported me and my work, this site this past year. Be it commission based,
sharing links or a friendly word of encouragement you have all helped me along
and I thank you. Happy New Year to you all.
© Arfon Jones 2018. All images are copyrighted throughout
the world.
Er, Happy New Year Arfon!
ReplyDeleteAnd Er-Happy New Year to you too Mim! x
Delete