Household gods

The ancient Romans had the lares and penates, gods of the household, who had different functions but were often worshipped at the same household shrine. The lares were spirits of the dead ancestors associated with each particular family, sometimes referred to as the lares familiaris. It was their job to protect the household and to ensure that the family line did not die out. The penates originated as gods of the pantry, but later came to be thought as the safeguard of the prosperity and good fortune of the family. 

And we still have these today, in slightly different forms; the picture of the Virgin or Jesus on the wall, or the ranks of family photos on the mantelpiece or the top of the piano.

Here are my lares and penates. Going on the assumption that one can never have too many gods to protect one, I have several from different traditions, some picked up on my travels, others that have just come to live at my place because they liked the look of it.

Several versions of the Virgin Mary sit on my bookcase in the bedroom. The bedroom seems to be a traditional place for Mary as the protector and succour during our most intimate and challenging moments. In Italy, beds are  often produced that have a little image of Mary in the headboard, to watch over those being born or giving birth or trying to get pregnant and those who are sick or dying. The two images in dark clothing come from Orsanmichele in Florence (left) and San Marco in Venice. The darkly clothed Mary is common in Byzantine and Greek icons, befitting her status as a Queen wearing imperial purple.

Ganesh, the Indian god of doorways, is here too. He appears on the Ganeshpol over my main door; it is widely believed that he takes away any hatred or ill-will brought into the house by guests or strangers, ensuring a peaceful meeting. I also have a little statuette, bought outside the Red Fort in Delhi. This is Ganesh in his martial form, with four arms, two holding axes, in his fight against ignorance and enmity. He is the god of parties and good times, with a love of sweeties, which is why he is so fat. He's also the god of writers; when Shiva was dictating one of the holy books to Valmiki, a sage, Valmiki's pen broke. Ganesha saved the day by breaking off one of his own tusks and continued the writing. (This is the reason why sometimes you will see Ganesha with only one tusk.)

People often refer to this man as Buddha, but I think that is wrong. He is known as Budai in Japan, which is where I think the confusion comes from. Budai's name means "cloth sack" and he often appears with one.

Wikipedia says this:

Budai is almost always shown carrying a sack, which never empties, and is filled with many precious things, including rice plants (which show wealth), sweets for children, food, and the sadness of the world. His duty is protector of the weak, the poor and children.

In Chinese Buddhist temples, Budai's statue is put in the front part of the entrance hall. He is shown as a stout, smiling or laughing man in robes with a largely shown stomach, which shows happiness, good luck, and plenty.

Some statues show small children at his feet. Another item that is usually seen in Budai statues, is a begging bowl; to show that he is a Buddhist. All of these images show Budai as a wandering monk who goes around and takes the sadness from people. Because he represents richness and happiness, statues are often found in homes and businesses in China and Japan.

This is Julian the gay gnome. He was given to me by a local shopkeeper in thanks after I rescued a picture she had left outside her shop when she closed for the day. She told me that gnomes are particularly lucky when given as gifts. Julian always sits in my sunroom, he doesn't do cold and wet. "Hello, boys!" The origins of gnomes are ineresting. One tale has them invented as a garden ornament by a German in the 19th century, but I prefer the story that gnomes are descended from an ancient Phrygian fertility god. There is definitely something erotic about the red hat.

And there's Iwi the kiwi, with his large blue egg. Given to me by a friend for my 50th birthday, Iwi was put on the coffee table in the conservatory and has stayed there ever since.

There they are, an oddly assorted crew but hopefully effective.

Signs of spring

 It's only about two weeks till the official start of spring here in New Zealand (September 1st) and things are starting to flower

Big, fat, furry magnolia buds look attractive with the sun behind them.

Soon the magnolia will be in flower

Purple cauliflower

a miniature daffodil, just like a tiny "King Alfred".

I'll really have to make an effort to prune the roses, I've left it late this year. This week maybe, weather permitting.

Sowing sweet peas today

Done! 24 of each variety, still some seed left over if this sowing fails.

Swiss Army Man

I went to see this movie last night with a friend. It was quite controversial when first released, because some people walked out in the first 10 minutes, thinking it was just a juvenile buddy movie, with a corpse and fart jokes. It's much more that that. It's really about love, and how people save each other from living loveless lives. It's funny, scary, gross and touching. Paul Dano is wonderful, and Daniel Radcliffe plays the corpse, a corpse that learns to be alive, a corpse that saves his friend. Very unusual and very thought-provoking.

Professor Sprout lives!

I spent this afternoon making my Professor Sprout props for tomorrow's Harry Potter fun day. The hat is an old sunhat with cardboard and hessian (burlap to my American readers) pasted over the top. Not a very exact or careful work, as I had no thin card and had to make the structure out of packing cardboard.

The top part of the hessian cover. I didn't have a big enough piece of hessian either to cover the whole crown of the hat so just made a little top knot and the rest all pieced together.

At least the Professor is not a fashion plate, so I can get away with the hat looking rumpty.

The mandrake is my piece de resistance. It's a parsnip carved with a face on it and a bouquet of artificial leaves poked into the top. The "arms" are made with parsley roots attached with skewers. The thing only has to last for a few hours tomorrow; if  wanted to last longer perhaps secure these with hot glue or a construction glue like "No more nails".

The face is outlined in waterproof marker.

And here is my selfie! I hope to add a wig tomorrow and will have my smock and scarf, boots and gloves on.

Signs of spring

Had a really nice day in the garden today. Things are starting to come up and come out. These hellebores are very difficult to photograph, as the heads hang down and I have to get right under the plants. A lot of spring things do this, or grow close to the earth on short stems, to protect the central reproductive part of the flower from the cold and rain.

There's such a clear light in spring, which produces very detailed photos, like this primula.

Galanthus nivalis, snowdrops. A nice clump...

...attracting bees. You can just see a bee's bum on the left hand tallest flower.

    I weeded parts of the vegetable garden today. We've had a very dry winter, so the ground is easy to work. My garlic is starting to pop up, and the tulip leaves are emerging. Very pleasant working with the mints in pots; lovely smell! I still have to take out some oregano that has taken over in the herb garden. It grows on root stolons so is a bit tricky.
    I haven't started on pruning the roses yet, as I have to buy a new pair of secateurs. No matter how I try to sharpen the old ones, they are not so good as brand new ones. I've had these current ones for about 10 years now, so I think I deserve to splash out on some new secateurs. It will make the pruning go more quickly, too.
 
      We are having a Harry Potter fun day at the library where I work, and I've agreed to be Professor Sprout for the day! Cunning, as I know I have most of the props; boots and gloves, and perhaps a carved parsnip for a mandrake. I've made house banners and painted a phoenix for the wall of the children's library, so it's been a busy week. Now I have to work on the Professor's costume, buy a witches hat and cover it with hessian. I've got an old smock that can be my overall, and some lace doilies for a lace scarf-thing. It has to be done by Sunday, so there's a bit of work to do!

Russian spambot

   Some crazy spambot in Russia is viewing my blog 21 pages at a time. I don't like this at all. It's happened before, and I was able to track down the culprits and get them to stop, through my "traffic sources" stats. This time, they are just using Google or some kind of mask that pretends it is Google. I did some investigation last time, and found that this is a common trick that some people use to push up their own stats; they use your content and your stats and pass it of as their own, so that their own site ranks higher and they can get revenue from your original content. I can't remember the name for this. There is an official term, but I think "scum" is quite a good one too. It's usually Russia or Ukraine that does this to me.
       There is an automatic viewer in the US, but this only looks at the latest new post about a minute after I've posted it; I'm guessing it's some kind of security surveillance thing checking for trigger words and phrases. I suppose this will only get more common as time goes on. Funny thing about all this surveillance though, it doesn't seem to be catching the people it hopes to catch. Nice, Munich, and various US shooters all got under the radar, as did the London bombings and Danish massacres of a few years ago. This is the problem with surveillance; it won't pick up the lone crazy who is not part of a network and does not include others in his (it's usually a man) planning. We can't yet go down the path of knowing exactly what every single person is planning to do, tomorrow, next week or next year. Perhaps one day this will be possible. I doubt it.