the mountains of Holland base camp

Thomas A Clark, 2011

Feeding my love of art referencing mountains, with thanks to Peter Foolen and Tom Clark.

the fram

Blankets from the cabin of The Fram. L Punton 2006/2011

The Fram carried both Nansen and Amundsen on their expeditions to the poles and occupies a unique position in the history of exploration, being the ship with the record of sailing both furthest north and furthest south. Visiting the Fram a few years back in Oslo, I found myself fascinated by the minutiae of it's interior, rather than it's great bulk. The details somehow suggest more of the history of it's occupants.

Monte Vesuvio

Mount Vesuvius, April 26, 1872

a walk to Loch Ternait

Back again at Ardtornish in Morvern, we took a walk to Loch Ternait and Leacraithnaich Bothy. Jim and I last walked here 9 months ago, just 7 weeks before Angus was born, a time when we visited Staffa, and revisited the lead mines of Strontian a place where I'd made work many years ago.

Ternait too, is a place of memories from my childhood, though the bulldozed track that easily leads to the loch is a rather brutal scar on the land. But with the work that's happened in connection with the hydro scheme (damming past the outflow of the loch and diverting water through a pipeline) mud and silt has been dredged up on the track that has made the passage of wind on the surface water behave in an extraordinary way. Jim and I documented it on my digital camera, and this is the result.

In the middle of the loch lies a tiny crannog that used to house a shelter.

"Those accused of crimes from Lismore or Mull or neighbouring places, if they got permission from the Chief of Ardtornish to reside forty-eight hours on the island, were free from any liability to punishment. The island was thus a sanctuary – hence name Tearnait or Tearnaech Inaid, “place of safety”."

Loch Ternait from Leacraithnaich Bothy

The crannog can be seen towards the left of the image above (once zoomed in) as a greenish patch on the loch. Another place of safety, the  tranquility of the well maintained bothy seems to be constantly under threat from the forces of commerce, with the massive Glensanda Superquarry just visible from it's door. Still, it's a great spot, with summer water levels revealing sandy beaches around the fringes of the loch. It remains to be seen how the water levels will alter in future though once the hydro scheme is completed, and whether the beaches and indeed the crannog may be lost.

Map of Loch Ternait showing the crannog.
Leacraithnaich lies on the West side of the loch. 

Leacraithnaich bothy interior

the real death star

Mimas, photographed by the probe Cassini

Mimas, one of Saturn's moons is the smallest object in the solar system to be round due to the pull of it's own gravitational force. It's impact crater Herschel (named after the moon's discoverer) is 81 miles across, it's walls approx 3.1 miles high, and it's central peak rises 3.7 miles from the crater floor (Mt. Everest is 4.1 miles high). The impact on this moon must have been immense as there are fractures on the far side that may have been created from shock waves from the impact traveling through the body of the moon. Often thought to be the inspiration for Star Wars' death star, the crater was in fact discovered after the creation of the film.

Herschel crater

the Death Star from Star Wars

rough sea

A great image from some landscapes in a recent post on Susan Hiller's dedicated to the unknown artists of 1972-76.

Fred C. Palmer of Tower Studio, Herne Bay, postcard, 1913

rime frost

the chairlift today, in Glencoe, courtesy of the SAIS.

...wondering if this is an April fools joke, it's so bizarre.

...postscript: it was an April fools prank.

stob coire nan lochan

Stob Coire nan Lochan, Glencoe
Image from the SAIS Glencoe

A recent image from the Glencoe Scottish Avalanche Information Service blog showing snow conditions last week on the cliffs below Stob Coire nan Lochan. Springtime hits the mountains late here in Scotland.

ice mask

Ice mask, C.T. Madigan, between 1911-1914 / photograph by Frank Hurley

shackleton's advert

palimpsest

manuscript of text from Louis Agassiz

To appreciate it's beauty, this image from the archives really warrants zooming into. See also previous post on the work of Agassiz.

the parallel roads of glen roy

A picnic near the Zermatt Glacier
Louis Agassiz, from Etudes sur les glaciers, 1840

I recently learnt of the work of Louis Agassiz, the Swiss paleontologist, glaciologist and geologist and occasional artist. Agassis was an important figure in describing the movements and motions of glaciers, and whilst it was understood that much of our landscape is formed through glaciation, that ice had the power to shape the land, move vast boulders great distances and to grind down rock, he was the first to propose that the earth had recently undergone an ice age, and that vast tracts of land in europe had, in gelogical time, recently been covered with ice.

Hugi's hut on a medial moraine of the lower Aar glacier
Louis Agassiz, Etudes sur les glaciers, 1840

Rocks polished and striated by a glacier
Louis Agassiz, from Etudes sur les glaciers, 1840

One of his more significant discoveries was made in Scotland when Agassiz finally unlocked the mystery of the parallel roads of Glen Roy when he proposed that the "roads" were not of a marine nature, as was erroneously proposed by Darwin, but were in fact caused by the rapid damming by a glacier of a loch in the period of the Loch Lomond stadial (a mini ice age around 12000 years ago, and lasting for a brief 600 years) and it's subsequent melting, in three stages.

the parallel roads of Glen Roy

I've spent much time walking and camping during winter in Glen Roy and have a favourite wild camp spot near Fersit. It's amazing to think that in the relatively recent past, this familiar valley would have been hidden under water, and my wild camp buried under a glacier near the head of Loch Trieg. I've seen the parallel roads marked on the Ordnance Survey maps, always rather assuming that they were indeed "roads", perhaps forestry tracks or some system of roads where a higher track existed to avoid boggy ground, but of course, that would eliminate the need for the lower tracks. Instead, they are completely natural, and lie on the horizontal, mapping, marking and measuring dramatic moments in the valley's past where the ice dams spectacularly broke and the glacial loch drained.

Stob Coire Easain (near Fersit), Dec 19th 2007

Celmins - to fix in the memory

Vija Celmins - To fix in the memory, 1977 - 82
(stones paired with identical painted bronze copies)

Wentworth

Richard Wentworth - Black Puddle, White Dip, 1981

Richard Wentworth - The Warwick Dials, 2000

Kounellis

Jannis Kounellis, Untitled, 1969