My Lovely Horse... er, Little Stone Tool

[ningloreth]

(I recently watched the Eurovision episode of Father Ted ;-)

I've been lurking in the shadows for the past few months, too down in the dumps (for various reasons) to shape myself and post anything, but I have been doing some FutureLearn courses -- The Art of Washi Paper in Japanese Rare Books; The Living Picture Craze: An Introduction to Victorian

Comments

[bunn]

How gorgeous. The semi-translucent edges are delightful.

Sorry to hear you have been down, sounds like you have certainly been applying yourself though, that's a lot of wonderfully varied subjects!

[ningloreth]

I love the edges, too! I have to be careful with them.

There are lots of 'sensible' courses available, but I'd rather have the variety. I was supposed to be starting an introduction to the Irish language, but I decided to save that for another time. :-)

[kazzy_cee]

How lovely! It's good to learn new stuff isn't it - I love FutureLearn!

I hope you find your way out of the dumps soon - I think everyone is going through little pockets of the dumps every now and again and we shouldn't beat ourselves up about it....

[ningloreth]

Thanks! It's because I live on my own.

[kazzy_cee]

Yes Eldest Cee has been struggling as he’s in his own in a tiny flat. It’s much harder to be in an even keel.

[ningloreth]

It must be even harder for somebody young.

[brutti_ma_buoni]

That's a lovely thing! Unlikely not to be ancient, I think, so that's exciting.

[ningloreth]

Yes, I'm now thinking it's too skilled to be modern! I still can't believe I ever found it.

[sparrow2000]

I was just considering the course on 'The Art of Washi Paper', so I'd be interested in your thoughts.

Your little stone tool is lovely.

[ningloreth]

Have you done any of the other Japanese courses about rare books? It's by the same people -- they read all of your comments and reply to them, so it's enjoyable from that point of view. They seemed very surprised to hear how popular decorative Washi tape is in the UK!

It's about making paper rather than using paper. You learn about the Japanese handmade paper-making industry -- the range of materials used and the different textures they produce, the production techniques, and the different surface finishes, and they show you historical examples from their collection. But they're also very interested in non-Japanese papers and an lot of the questions are about paper making in your area. I discovered that there was a paper mill in my village until the mid 20th century! The building's been demolished, but you can still see the foundations. And I was able to find out quite a bit about the sort of paper that was made there -- for food packaging, apparently.

So, yes, I would recommend it!

[sparrow2000]

I haven't done any other Japanese related courses. It just caught my eye when I was leafing through the website. I probably won't get around to it, but the good intention is there, and now I know the kind of thing they have available when I do get the time to think of doing something

Thank you for the lovely, detailed explanation :)

[thismaz]

I'm sorry you've been in the dumps a little. I think most of us have periods, at the moment. Have been able to form a bubble with anyone else?

Your tool is absolutely beautiful. I think if it were modern, it would not have been left for you to find.

[ningloreth]

I hope it's ancient. It is beautiful, isn't it? I can't get over how perfectly it fits in my hand -- I'd never tried it before I took the photograph!

Someone to bubble with would solve everything!

To be honest, I can't really work out the rules for bubble-making, but both of my potential co-bubblers have friends they're already bubbled with. I'm supposed to be going on holiday with my brother, sister-in-law, and their best friends in August, and they seem to think that will be OK. I was looking forward to it but two of them can't wear masks for very long so I don't think we'll be going anywhere, and they're the sort of people who drink alcohol like I drink soft drinks, so now I'm not sure it's going to be fun. It's a bit judgemental, but I hate it when people get drunk :-(

[thismaz]

The bubble rules as they would apply to you are pretty straight forward - a single person household can form a bubble with one other household, as long as both parties agree to make the bubble exclusive.

I am in a bubble with my sister, but that just went out of the window in the face of parental illness (not covid) and we have replaced it with an extended bubble of three households (and a couple of cars *g*). This seems like common sense and if it is breaking any rules, we really don't care. Common sense and caution seems like a valid attitude.

I would say that a sensible attitude to your own mental health is a big factor. The introduction of the bubble idea was a huge relief for me.

[ningloreth]

Like you say, it's common sense -- you have to care for your parents, and you know how to minimise the risk. There must be a lot of people in your position. My brother and sister-in-law have needed to look after their grandson, so they've always been in a bubble.

Had my parents still been alive, I would have moved in with them the moment people started talking about lockdown. (I can't believe that a priority wasn't given to finding ways to allow people to spend time with terminally ill relations. Letting people die alone was unspeakably cruel).

Going on holiday will put me in a three household bubble, but since I've only been going out once every two weeks shopping, and the only people I've seen are my brother and sister-in-law, three times during the entire lockdown, I suppose I'm a pretty low risk to others! It's weird, because I normally work from home, and often went a week without seeing anyone, and often didn't do things because I couldn't be bothered on my own, so it should be plain sailing, but it's the bleak future that's