Absolute Perfection.

An amazing gift, from Marcus & Kestrel, who collaborated on this little slice of perfection. It wouldn’t be perfection to some one else, but it is to me – absolutely gorgeous, fantastically sharp, my favourite colours in that magnificent braiding, giving a wonderful grip, and the beauty of the blade. Fits my hand perfectly, and is properly sharp and lethal. Honestly, I was speechless when I opened this up, and I still just babble about it. I will cherish this, always. I couldn’t possibly come up with enough of a thank you to you both for your work, especially such finely done and thoughtful work. Thank you, thank you, thank you.  She definitely needs to be named, but I have to spend more time with her to find what’s right.

Clickety for full size.

© C. Ford, all rights reserved.

Word Wednesday.

Shabby

Adjective.

1: Clothed with worn or seeding garments.

2a: Threadbare and faced from wear. b: ill-kept: Dilapidated.

3a: Mean, Despicable, Contemptible <must feel shabby…because of his compromises – Nat Hentoff>
b: Ungenerous, unfair. c: Inferior in quality.

-shabbily, adverb.

-shabbiness, noun.

[Origin: obsolete English shab a low fellow.]

(1669)

“She stole a glance round the office – the office of the senior partner of the firm. It suited Walter Fane, she decided. It was definitely old-fashioned, the furniture was shabby, but was made of good solid Victorian material.” – Sleeping Murder, Agatha Christie.

Reconstructing the fearsome Haast’s eagle.

A comparison of the huge claws of Haast's eagle with those of its close relative the Hieraaetus morphnoides, the "little" eagle. Image / Bunce M, Szulkin M, Lerner HRL, Barnes I, Shapiro B, et al.

A comparison of the huge claws of Haast’s eagle with those of its close relative the Hieraaetus morphnoides, the “little” eagle. Image / Bunce M, Szulkin M, Lerner HRL, Barnes I, Shapiro B, et al.

With a wingspan reaching as wide as 3m and huge claws that could crush bone, the Haast’s eagle was one of the most fearsome creatures ever to stalk New Zealand’s prehistoric wilderness.

The largest eagle known to have existed anywhere, its demise quickly followed that of its much-larger prey, the moa, which was hunted to extinction by early Maori settlers around 1400 CE.

Now a top international scientist and Kiwi collaborators hope to shed more light on the lost giant, in an innovative study that could help conserve those endangered predatory birds that remain today.

An artist's depiction of a Haast's eagle attacking two moa. Image / John Megahan.

An artist’s depiction of a Haast’s eagle attacking two moa. Image / John Megahan.

You can read more here, thanks to David for letting me know about this.

Going Missing (Admin Stuff).

© C. Ford.

I’m so sorry, but I have been eaten alive by pain all day, and nothing has gotten it under control so far. Tuesday is the all day appointment day: labs/research/oncologist/Y program application/radiation/oncologist/caregiver group/possibly swimming if I stop wanting to scream, and probably more stuff I forgot. So I’m going to flake off entirely on Tuesday (17th).

If I somehow magically get the pain under control, I’ll show up.  Right now, I can’t cope with sitting at all, so the thought of sitting down to do blogging is not a welcome one. My apologies, I hope this will be under control quickly, so I can get back to doing the things I love to do.

Good Trolling.

After the ever idiotic Tiny Tyrant declared the EU to be the greatest foe of Amerikka, Merriam Webster jumped in with an excellent troll:

Let’s have a look at that full definition, shall we:

Definition of foe

1: one who has personal enmity for another

<Embrace, embrace, my Sons! be foes no more! —Alexander Pope>

2 a: an enemy in war b: adversary, opponent: a political foe

3: one who opposes on principle: a foe of needless expenditures, a foe of censorship

4: something prejudicial or injurious

Examples of foe in a Sentence:

Many considered him a foe of democracy.

♥

Good one, Merriam & Webster! The tweet is here, the full definition here.

Luna Day Mood.

Nergal two ways, three videos! Behemoth, of course, and Nergal’s recent side project, a Western fusion kind of thing, Me And That Man. CW: there’s brief full frontal nudity in the Behemoth video. It’s good to see Nergal continues to do well after the fight with leukemia. A lot of people are being asses about Me And That Man, but I say give it a chance. There’s the new Behemoth album you can run back to, but it’s normal for artists to stretch themselves now and again.

Behemoth – O Father O Satan O Sun!

Me And That Man – Ain’t Much Loving.

Me And That Man – Cross My Heart And Hope To Die.

Black Baccara & Black Dragon.

Stunning Roses from Nightjar: As promised, I’m sending photos of my “black” roses. The dark red one I bought this year as a Black Baccara, the striped one was planted by my grandmother many years ago and it still blossoms abundantly every year. I don’t know exactly what variety it is, but after a quick google search I came up with three different names that could describe it: “Black Dragon”, “Abracadabra” and “Simsalabim”. I don’t know which one is more appropriate, I just know it’s a beautiful rose!  I just want to bury my nose in that first rose. Click for full size!

© Nightjar, all rights reserved.

A Quick Note To A Searcher…

For the person who ended up here searching for “fuck for brains anglicanum coitibus”, it helps to have your terminology correct.  I have posted about Opus Anglicanum, which is a type and class of embroidery. What you’re looking for is Anglicanorum coitibus. Oh, the difference a couple of letters make. There’s a wiki about Personal Ordinariates and the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus of 4 November 2009 and its complementary norms. Now you can try a search with the right term. Best of luck, and I hope the irony of “fuck for brains” didn’t hit you too hard.