Shell Shocked - Sepia Saturday

When I saw Alan's prompt this week my first thoughts were of the thousands of servicemen who suffered from shell shock in the First World War but eventually I decided a lighter touch was required.

I don't have a tortoise as a pet and the nearest thing we see, two for the price of one, are:

Two Small Tortoiseshells

You know I like to show photos of dogs but try as I might I could not find one suitable and settled instead for:

Tortoiseshell Cat

(By Rehman Abubakr - CC BY-SA 3.0)

By chance I found out that Horace Walpole (1717-1779) once had a tortoiseshell tabby cat that met an untimely death - it drowned in a goldfish bowl. The poet Thomas Gray, a friend of Walpole, wrote an ode to commemorate the cat which was called Selima. Part of the tribute reads:

Her conscious tail her joy declared;

The fair round face, the snowy beard,

    The velvet of her paws,

Her coat, that with the tortoise vies,

Her ears of jet, and emerald eyes.

     She saw; and purred applause.

However tortoises and turtles have been exploited by man and their shells used in all sort of applications like this:

Tortoiseshell and Silver Snuffbox - early 18th Century

The plaque is stamped with a portrait of Charles I (1625-1649) based on a medal by John Roettiers of about 1670. The Huguenot John Obrisset worked in London between 1705-28 specialising in horn and tortoiseshell. (This photo was taken as part of Britain Loves Wikipedia at the Victoria and Albert Museum in February 2010 by Valerie McGlinchey - CC BY-SA 2.0).

I'm sure that you will be pleased to confirm that no tortoise came to grief for the next picture I have to show:

Jin (Jurchen) Dynasty Tortoise - Temple of Confucius, Qufu

(By Vmenkov - CC BY-SA 3.0,2.5,2.0 and 1.0)

This stele is in the third pavilion (from the east) of the Thirteen Pavilions in the Temple.

This 'fellow,' much smaller in comparison, had been intent on laying eggs in the grass of my daughter's Michigan home last summer. I can confirm that she was returned safely to the swamp from which she came. Oh and she is not a tortoise at all)

Snapping turtle (11inches long)

I hope I haven't shocked you too much with my take on the theme so I'll sign of with a collection of shells.

I just wonder how old these are.

Please don't forget to check out others' interpretations at Sepia-saturday-164

Speed - Thematic Photography

Carmi has chosen to show a plane in flight as our prompt for his 'speed' theme so I thought I would follow him,

Landing Speed - 1940s

This was an aircraft coming in to land on an aircraft carrier during WWII.

Someone shouting dinner provoked this turn of speed.

Cody and Lily at racing speed

In the local town of Yarm is the house once owned by a war hero.

Sign for Tom Brown's House

Tom was the hero of the Battle of Dettingen in 1743 where he charged the French to recover the British battle honours. Supposedly Tom was knighted on the battlefield by King George II, the last British monarch to lead an army in the field.

Yarm has a fair in it's high street every October and there is always a chance to get yourself in a spin.

A Ride at Speed

From time to time a photograph gives an illusion of speed and you wonder how it happened.

Speeding Hedgehog

We have speed humps on the lane in my village approaching the primary school, not they would trouble this fellow if he ever made his way across the Atlantic.

Snapping Turtle

No wonder he's snappy, he wouldn't even catch that hedgehog.

No you have the chance to catch your breath before you rush over to Thematic-photographic-234-speed.

Teaser Tuesday - Prophecy by Peter James

Teaser Tuesday is a meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

Rules for participating:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Peter James is one of my favourite authors; I started by reading his DS Grace detective books but my teaser this week is not from this series but a stand-alone thriller.

Cold musty air that smelled of damp stone and rotting wood poured out, enveloping her, seeped through her clothes into her skin, and she stared at the wooden steps that descended almost vertically, their bottom rungs swallowed by blackness, with a sudden sickening feeling of dread.


 This part of London was riddled with secret passages dating back to the  Middle Ages and were used by prisoners escaping from the Tower, by Royalists during the Civil War, by smugglers.

p217 

Hearts and Flowers - Sunday Stamps

I've no hearts to show for this week's theme so I start with some flowers from the USA.

USA - Flowers 2001

I must say that I am not keen on these four as I would have preferred to see them in a more natural state, the backgrounds make the flower less clear.

So I decided that I would send my love some roses from Scandinavia instead.

Sweden - 1996

It was only when I enlarged them that I realized they were azaleas and not roses at all.

Perhaps I can be luckier with:

Sweden - Four-leafed clover

While I wait for the verdict you may try your luck over at Viridian's Sunday-stamps-109

Snowshovellers - Sepia Saturday

With snow forcast for us this week I may have to get my snow shovel out again. I just hope that it does not get as deep as in this week's picture prompt.

Of one thing I can be sure I shall not get any help from any volunteers and no-one will ask:

Can I shovel off the snow?

(Artist - John George Brown {1831-1913} - 1871)

The worst winter I can remember was in 1947 when our village was cut off by deep snow. As a boy of ten I walked across the snowdrifts to meet the snowplough cutting its way to dig us out. I have no photos from that time and the nearest I could get was from 1978.

The Great Blizzard of February 1978

The backyard of Maple Street, Woonsocket, RI (By Dahoov2)

Here the snow had drifted to within two inches of the top of the door, The drifts were 10 feet deep and a jeep in the yard was completely covered. To get out the inhabitants had to shovel snow INTO the house.

Britain often comes to a standstill following just a dusting of snow, So far however the mail has made it through and not got stuck as it used to do.

The Mail Coach in a Drift of Snow

Artist: James Pollard

I can't see our postman coping with snow like that.

Meanwhile the sun is shining while we wait

I hope you don't get lost trudging over to Sepia Saturday 163

Teaser Tuesday - Hero of Rome

Teaser Tuesday is a meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

Rules for participating:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

 My teaser is from Hero of Rome by Douglas Jackson. It is the first of his books that I have had the chance of reading.  Already I have decided I want to read others he has written.

Valerius stared at the remains of the chicken but all he saw was a heap of feathers and a mess of entrails and watery blood.

Was the boy talking about his pursuit of the girl, or the path that would take him back to Rome against his will?

p114

 

Straight Lines - Thematic Photography

I've tried to keep on the straight and narrow to meet this week's theme and started off in a modern art direction.

Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art

Where it was the building itself that caught my eye with its mixture of straight lines.

During the Queen's Diamond Jubilee last year she opened the revamped white water rafting site on the River Tees at Stockton; I didn't manage to get a ticket for the event but later obtained a shot along a footpath in front of the Talpore pub.

Union Jack Flagpoles

 

 

 

I don't have a flagpole at home so this songbird has to make do with this:-

"If I were a blackbird, I'd whistle and sing"

Meanwhile my daughter's dogs looked out in hope.

Sam and Maxie - 2008

Now I suggest that you make a beeline over to Carmi's Thematic-photographic-233. to check out the straight lines there.