Spanish fire ignition

I saw this headline on the pisspoor CNN site:

And I was immediately reminded of this meme* (which I have to say is still one of my all time favourites):

And continuing the coprological theme, you can file this “flammable stuff will catch fire when it gets hot enough to catch fire” revelation under the heading “Sherlock, No shit”:

Authorities said the fire likely began when an “improperly managed” pile of manure self-combusted in the heat, causing sparks.
Spontaneous ignitions can occur when flammable materials, such as piles of hay, compost or manure heat up to a temperature high enough to cause combustion, according to the US National Park Service.

Notwithstanding that for shit to catch fire, it really does have to be very hot, prompting all sorts of trendy hashtags like “#climatechangeisreal” and the like. And yes, it is, but I’m so fed up of the way it’s shared with us. So yes, I need to do a proper Climate Change post, but that’s for another day.

Meanwhile, temperatures in Europe continue to rise even beyond the heady heights of this time last year, when we were dying of heat on the Canal du Nivernais. This was the heatmap for France this last week:

I mean the one on the left, obviously. If ever there was a poster pic for the Climate Change media, this would surely be it. Ugh.

The top temperatures being experienced across France and Spain are certainly toasty, but certainly no worse than a warm February day out in Paarl, which does make me wonder why there aren’t more manure fires each summer in our Winelands.

Maybe South Africans are just better at managing their shit?

 

* The original painting is known as “Portrait Of A Young Man”, painted by Italian artist Alessandro Allori in 1561. The painting is currently exhibited in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. 

da Vinci

The Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing exhibition has arrived in Sheffield. When a similar exhibition came to Cape Town about 5 years ago, it cost a lot money to go and see it, but this one is free.

I don’t need to go though, because I’ve already got my own unique picture of Leo’s work, taken at the Louvre last summer:

(I know someone who will like this picture…)

Aside from the Samsung S, a Huawei wotsit – and golly gosh, is that smart new iPhone? – you can see the Mona Lisa’s mysteriously smirking visage. Yes, just above the all-American college sports student’s perfectly groomed head, but below his outstretched hand.

Aside from my beautiful composition, I’m most impressed with the guy on the right. How the actual hell has he managed to get such a clean shot of the chick with the smile? Or has he just googled “Mona Lisa on a light background” and then held his phone aloft? Clever.

Whichever it is, I’m definitely going to do that next time I’m there – just so that someone else might ask the same question 8 months after their visit.

Chairs

I’m feeling a little better again today, and with our neighbours’ building work now entering its fifth month, and promising to break new records for noise today, I’m going to get out and about and get some jobs done.

What does this mean for you? A quota photo of some chairs in a church.

The church in question was the cathedral in Auxerre and the chairs… well… they were those ones above.

I liked the light here and the orderly geometry of the chairs. And this was only a tiny percentage of the huge number of chairs in there. Empty this day, but I’ve heard that they get big crowds on Sundays.

Bar Wall

A quick flashback to a bar wall in Paris.

This was in Montmartre. I’ve no idea who the guy in the centre is (or was?), but I do remember that the bar in question was called Le Tire Bouchon – “The Corkscrew”.

This idea of “leaving your mark” when you visit is a very similar one to Ronnie’s Sex Shop (it’s not actually a sex shop) in South Africa’s Karoo. There, you’re encouraged to write on the walls or to leave an item of clothing (ties and bras are the most popular if I remember rightly) (I wasn’t wearing either on our first visit – rookie error).

The result is messy, random, eclectic and completely unique.
It’s also rather engaging. After all, I didn’t take any other photos of bar walls while I was over there.

Exhibition Road bubble

A QP from our recent flying visit to London:

As we emerged from several hours in the Science Museum, a street performer was performing on the street by blowing huge bubbles, accompanied by some dreamy classical music from a dodgy stereo.

There’s something quite ethereal about seeing 2m diameter bubbles floating towards you down a busy city street.
Still: makes for an interesting (and challenging) photo op.

Sadly, many of my London and IOM photos are very disappointing. I’m not sure how many are going to make it as far as Flickr.

So you should probably try your very hardest to enjoy this one then, right?