Black Dirt Leads My Thoughts to Construction - Real and Imagined

Yesterday morning Fra-Dor delivered a 1/2 ton of black fill dirt to my front yard. DH snapped a picture and sent it to me, and I'm sharing with you. If you never knew what 1/2 ton of dirt looked like, now you do - LOL. It took him more than 25 wheelbarrow loads to get it moved from the front yard to the backyard where it's now all happy under tarps to protect it from the rain we should be getting tonight. He's already using it, of course. The first thing he did was start working on that stone drainage which now has been extended and given extra height to avoid spillovers. 

A half-ton of black dirt doesn't look like much in the yard, but it
actually is a LARGE pile of dirt and took DH more than two
hours to get moved from the front yard down to the back, one
wheelbarrow full at a time. 

When dealing with large piles of dirt and many man-hours of shoveling and moving dirt, it makes me have great admiration for the construction of places in our past. Mankind has lofty ideas when it comes to architecture, and some of the most amazing structures were made long before the equipment we have today. No machinery, just sweat and brawn. 

Gobekli Tepe in Turkey is widely considered to be the world's first
temple and predates Stonehenge by more than 6000 years. It's
an amazing place and would be awesome to actually visit, although
I doubt I'll ever get the opportunity. 

Just think of it - the great Pyramids of Egypt, the vast cities of the Mayan people, Gobekli Tepe in Turkey, Petra in Jordan, and several mountains that are really tombs in China. All of these places built by human beings (unless you subscribe to the "Ancient Aliens" school of thought), one shovel at a time, one rock at a time. It's one of the reasons why I became an archaeologist those many years ago. I was in awe when confronted by the achievements of our distant ancestors. I still am. 

Many of you are familiar with Tikal and other Mayan ceremonial
centers, but were you aware of what LIDAR is now showing us about
Mayan civilization? Take a look.

LIDAR reading over the jungles show vast cities of the Mayan
civilization still uncovered and waiting to be explored.
Sometimes modern technology can be so amazing! 

So I'm peppering this post with a few posts of the more famous places I mentioned above, and admit that I also think of the huge effort put forth by the Dwarves in the halls and mines of Moria. I know Moria is fictional, but what an incredible place. It took the Fellowship three days to walk from back door to front chasm and bridge through hallways, passages and vaulted rooms of immense size, all excavated by hand. 

Getting through the Mines of Moria isn't easy, but of the many
areas of Middle Earth I've wandered through in my 13 years of
playing Lord of the Rings Online, Moria is my favorite. I'm
always a bit sad when I leave it behind, even though I miss the
open skies and the fresh breezes. 

Have a great Friday and be kind to one another. I'll be back tomorrow. Be well, stay safe, and please, wear a mask. 

Life Goes On

It's finally Saturday and DH is hoping for a good rain while we have daylight so that he can check the changes he's made to our side yard drainage. Normally I'm not a big fan of a hard rain, but if it makes him happy, I guess I'll wish for that alongside him. But the best thing about Saturday is that Sunday will follow and I'll get one day of more sleep and have a bit of time to work on home projects - extremely necessary. 

I normally am not a fan of a hard rain, but we need to see how the
new drainage we've constructed will work in those conditions.
Guess I'm hoping for Saturday rain. 

Did I tell you that our snapping turtle returned again? This time instead of digging her nest in the middle of the side yard, she moved closer to the fencing and dug it between the shed and the concrete platforms where DH will be building the woodshed later this summer. Fortunately she picked the side he won't work on until next year, but it's still pretty close. No choices here, we're under a construction schedule and need to move the chopped wood to the new shed before winter resumes. We didn't have any baby turtles from last year's nest, but hopefully we'll get some from this year's. 

We're hoping for some baby snapping turtles this year. Last year's
next never hatched, or she never actually laid eggs in it. 

So as we nurture potential baby turtles, we're busy fencing and blocking what we can from the rabbits. The bunnies have been going a bit crazy on some of our flowers - crazy equating to the bunnies planting a neon sign saying "DINER" and 'GREAT EATS HERE". We're losing ornamental flowers and lilys and it's really frustrating to watch something grow, then lose it to the rabbits before they bloom. The fencing does seem to be helping, though. A green-colored fine mesh that's three feet tall seems to be discouraging them on one side, a simple barrier at the steps where they would enter seems to be blocking them across from the fence. So far! 

I don't think DH buried the bottom of the fencing, but so far it seems
to be keeping the bunnies away. On the other side we just moved
some top soil bags and our mole trap to the top of the castle wall.
Apparently the bunny barrier needs to be two feet high so blocking
them from the lower steps might do the trick and save my lilys. 

We've been cleaning like crazy people at the shop and I tackled the top of the print drawer unit. It's almost been an interesting archaeological dig as I approach the bottom of some of the stacks. It tends to be the collection point for everything I start and get interrupted while doing, so things stack up in increments - spurts and stalls for everything. By the time I reached the wooden top, I was seeing documents here and there from 2012! That's rather ridiculous and somewhat embarrassing. But it's starting to look pretty darned good now. LOL

I've dug many an archaeological test pit while still
working in the field. It's odd to be doing "urban
archaeology" on my secondary desk top - LOL. 

On that note, I'm calling this done - finding photos to plug in and starting my day. I got up early so that I could catch up with some of my LJ and DW posts and comments, so I'm going to switch over to interactive in a few minutes. Have a great weekend and I'll be back on Monday. 

A Relaxing Sunday of Discovery

DH and I had a lovely Sunday relaxing and watching a lot of National Geographic television. We got totally pulled into shows on what caused the death of Tutankhamun, what items truly were in his tomb and whether they were his or were hand-me-downs from other tombs, and also a wonderful two hours on locating the burial place of Genghis Khan and the history of China's First Emperor and his huge tomb. It was a day of relearning old facts and discovering new ideas. So fun! 

This death mask of Tutankhamun is the best known
of his artifacts. It features 20 pounds of gold and uses
lapis, turquoise and red carnelian (or agate) for the
colorful bands. It's had a rocky history but
hopefully will now be protected. 

Because I've been studying Egypt and the Pharaohs for what seems like my entire life, I couldn't miss new shows about Tut, but I had forgotten that Egypt was building the "Grand Egyptian Museum" which will open sometime in 2018. When? Well, that seems to be anyone's guess. The old Cairo museum is being emptied and everything on display, including a lot that had just been in storage because of lack of space, will be now displayed on exhibit within the bright, climate-controlled conditions of this new museum which is tucked into the Giza plateau. 

The Grand Egyptian Museum is located just 2 kilometers
from the Pyramids, on the Giza Plateau. It is expected to
have a provisional opening in May, but a firm date is still
unknown. Last week a huge statue of Ramses was moved
to it's new home in the Grand Egyptian Museum. 

Of course Tut is a major draw. Just that death mask would be enough to pull me there. But add in the more than 80% of the items from his tomb that have never been seen since their initial removal, and Egypt will set a magnet up calling me there. Of course that's all kinds of dangerous too, but I might take the chance within the next ten years or so. I've seen a lot of artifacts and several exhibitions on Egypt here in the USA; even followed one specific exhibit from Milwaukee to Denver to see it for several days in a row. I've flown to various cities to see Ramses and other Pharonic exhibitions and have loved each one. Spending a long time in the Grand Egyptian Museum should be phenomenal. 

The current Cairo Museum was built in 1902 and houses 120,000
artifacts, most of which are in storage. It desperately needed 
either an upgrade or full replacement, but Cairo is massive, and
finding room for a new building within the city was impossible.
Placing it closer to the Pyramids will increase tourism and it allowed
for a large, expansive building with climate-controlled storage for
the historic artifacts of this amazing region. 

So I'm dreaming once more - about travel, about Tutanhkamun, and about art - because it all comes down to the art. This coming Sunday won't be as relaxing. I'll be watching Super Bowl and trying to not eat too much during the game. But even if I do, there's always the pool waiting for me on Monday morning. Enjoy your day. I'm going to pepper this post with some photos, and then head out to swim my mile. 

I Had A Wonderful Easter - Did You?

Well, looking at my clock, I have 20 minutes to pull this together. Several lovely friends sent me e-cards for Easter. Although I sent responses and thank-yous out for each one, I also am putting a big "THANK YOU" here because it was so thoughtful of each of you to take that little bit of extra time to send it. So sweet!

Jacquie Larson e-cards are always lovely and light-hearted
with beautiful artwork and lovely background music. It's
always a treat to find one in my in-box. 

DH and I spent the day playing LOTRO together while we watched our hockey team get beaten by St Louis yet again. The final game in this series will be Wednesday (or there may be one more afterward if we're really lucky). St Louis is playing great, and we're not focused enough to pull it off. They deserve the win if we don't come to play.

The Minnesota Wild were playing great until we hit
the playoffs. Then it was like someone turned the
lights out. Now they've lost three in a row and it's
not looking hopeful. 

The Manhattan Roast was a tremendous success. It only took an hour to cook (next time I might leave it in for an extra 15 minutes just to get it closer to a true medium from the medium rare I had), and the meat was tender and seasoned really nicely. We'll get another two meals out of it, so all things taken into consideration, it was money well spent. We added noodles and green beans with almonds as side dishes - so very tasty!

The Manhattan Roast cooked up really easily - practically no
muss, no fuss. I'd definitely get one again - the meat was
wonderful and the cost per portion very affordable. 

DH then spent the evening watching all sorts of shows concerning Biblical archaeology and aspects of Jesus, while I watched cooking shows and tried to kill more virtual critters on LOTRO in the downstairs study. It was a really nice day in my household and I hope your Easter was equally enjoyable.

I think Biblical Archaeology can be fascinating, but I prefer to deal with
the Old Testament and the Egyptian area. Here is a lovely piece from
Nippur, dating to the third century B.C.E. 

Now, to grab some pictures for this and head out to the gym. The pound I gained from yesterday's food excesses was well worth it, but I don't want it to be a permanent visitor - LOL. Have an EXCELLENT Monday!

Riches Galore - A Princess and the Kings of the Ice

A friend sent me the following link about a "princess" who had been cremated and her cremains buried in a stone tomb in Dartmoor. The jewelry that was found with her remains was marvelous and the quality of the basket that held the jewels was beautifully woven. I just thought I'd share this as a nice way to start your Friday.

The bracelet was studded with tin and woven from cowhair. It looks
as lovely now as it would have 4000 years ago when it would have
sparkled as the tin caught the sun. And it is such a lovely open weave. 

Yesterday's events from the Sochi Olympics were the start of a new era in men's figure skating along with the end of an historic career. Evgeni Plushenko withdrew from competition citing medical reasons just before he was scheduled to skate his short program. The multiple award winner and king of the ice looked old and in pain as he left the ice. In a later interview he stated he had wanted to try, despite pain after staking in the team competition earlier in the week, but that his back just wouldn't allow him to continue. Apparently after one triple jump, he could no longer feel his legs properly to chance any additional jumps. Of course, at this level, skaters are really speeding around the ice and jumps require both speed and power to achieve triple and quadruple rotations correctly. But I'll miss seeing him skate. He was always a total joy to watch and a master of the ice. I'm glad I had the chance to see him skate the short and freestyle programs for the team competition. They ended up being his last competitive performances.

Evgeni Plushenko usually owns whatever ice he's on, but the ice has finally
claimed its own and his competitive career is now over. It's the end of an era. 

The king is gone and the throne is now open. Vying for that throne is one of the most exciting skaters it has been my pleasure to watch for many years - Yuzuru Hanyu from Japan. I've watched him skate his short program twice now. The first time was breathtaking, and the second time was perfection. What a skater! I will happily lose sleep to watch him on the ice, he's phenomenal.

Yuzuru Hanyu from Japan skated a flawless short program and was awarded
the highest point count ever awarded in competition since the new scoring
system came into use more than six years ago. With a 101.45 score, the
gold medal is his to lose.

So at this point, the men's competition is heating up for the finals today and I can hardly wait. Although the women are considered to be the stars of the ice, I've always been a fan of the men and their marvelous jumps and artistry. Come to think of it, I also love the men more than the women in ballet, even though it is the Prima Ballerina who supposedly is the star of the show. Guess I just can't resist a beautiful guy.

Terry Gannon, Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir are giving the best skating
commentary I've heard in many years and starting every day out wondering
what Johnny and Tara will wear today has been a lot of fun too. Here, Johnny
sports pink Chanel and both are visions in pink with beaded necklaces. 

So, while I'm talking about beautiful guys, I have to say that I am TOTALLY chuffed by the new commentary pair of Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir. Together with Terry Gannon, the three have been performing the BEST commentary on skating I've heard in many years. I really hope that NBC is getting a very clear message from the fans, because everyone I've talked to is extremely impressed by the unique interplay, the depth of knowledge, and how easily they intersperse instruction and humor to discuss the performances. They don't talk down to their audience, but they aren't boring and dry either. I approve of them SO much. They're doing a marvelous job!

How about a sweet fried taco dusted with cinnamon and sugar, filled with ice
cream on top of a thin sheet of dark chocolate and topped with a strawberry?
I could definitely go for this.

And that's it for this Valentine's Day. I hope all of you have a wonderful day that isn't filled with angst, but instead with cuddles and sweetness (and maybe a nice meal and a piece of your favorite dessert). I'll be watching the men's freestyle skating for the second time today and I'll be happy, happy.