'The Power of Poison'

Hi everyone!

A while ago, I decided to try and write articles for my blog, again. This is my first one in a very long time. Whoohoo!

Today, I went to an exhibition about poison. Since I live in Rotterdam, I own a Rotterdampas, which is a card I can use to go to museums and exhibits for free! For students the card costs only €12,50 a year, so that's quite a bargain!

The exhibition was called 'The Power of Poison' and was about venomous and poisonous (yes, there is a difference!) animals, toxic plants and the history of all that. It was a very interesting exhibition, though in a very 'American' style.

I made some pictures with my phone, because I forgot to put my memory card back into my camera :( Sorry for the crappy photo's!

They had a variety of living animals in terrariums:

Poison dart frog/ pijlgifkikker
(Dendrobatidae)

Greater blue-ringed octopus/ Grote blauwring-octopus
(Hapalochlaena lunulata)

Common clownfish/ Driebandanemoonvis
(Amphiprion ocellaris)

Another part of the exhibition was about poison in stories. Like the Mad Hatter in 'Alice in Wonderland':

Alice at the Mad Hatters' tea party./ Alice op het theefeestje van de 'Mad Hatter'.

Hatters around 1900 often used mercuric nitrate for felting. The hatters got occupational chronic mercury poisoning. The effect was called 'mad hatters disease' and include tremor and shyness (read more)

Of course, Snow White was also present. And her poisoned apple, too.

Snow White in her glass coffin./ Sneeuwwitje in haar glazen kistje.

Behold the Three Witches of Macbeth! (read more)

 Double, double toil and trouble; 
    Fire burn, and caldron bubble. 
       Fillet of a fenny snake, 
    In the caldron boil and bake; 
    Eye of newt, and toe of frog, 
    Wool of bat, and tongue of dog!

Two ladies with a shady history; Goeie Mie (Maria Swanenburg) and Lucrezia Borgia (click!).

At the end of the 'tour', they had a little shop. I bought myself this adorable deadly button to go with my 'mountain goat' button! Yay!

Feel free to leave any comments!

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Back from being gone!

Hi folks!

For almost two years my study and off-line life gobbled up almost all my time and energy. For almost two years, I totally forgot about the existance of my blog. Sometimes, I used it to show people some stuff I made, or an example of something, because there was a picture of it on my blog.

Today, I'm making a fresh start. With new idea's and a different kind of approach. Moreover, I am two years older and my life is changed in this period; I met new people, I decided to leave some behind, I gained other interests, more knowledge, I moved to a new place... All those things changed me.

In the following days, I will work on the appearance of my website, so it will be on construction for a while. Hopefully, I can catch some time to post a new article any time soon!

See ya!

p.s. For other items, look in the blog archive on the right.

Happy Halloween!

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Zealand, the Nederlands ( № 1)

A few weeks ago, I went on a school excursion for field research. We went to Zeeland, a province of the Netherlands, to examine life in -and around- salt water.

I will write several blogs about this excursion, because there is so much I want to tell and show.

We stayed in a former farmhouse, called 'de Schelphoek'. (You can see an area in the map below called 'Schelphoek'.) Today I will show some pictures of the area, which was formed by the 1953 North Sea flood. In the map below, you can see the huge gap in the dyke (in between the 'lines' in the water) the flood caused. They were not able to close the gap, so that's why the land still misses a piece in that area. The sea actually took a mouthful of land and swallowed it.

 

Day one

The first day, we had a walk through the 'Schelphoek' area. The camp manager showed us how the area had emerged and which kind of plants and animals found their place in and around the area.

 

The 'new' dyke, built after the flood. A lot of oysters live on the shores.

Indy, the camp manager's dog.

A spit.

View from the dyke.

Landward, one of the small lakes of 'Schelphoek'

Common sea-buckthorn, a plant with edible berries. The berries of this
plant are rich in vitamin C.

 

A peaceful death

Today, I found a dead coot along the waterfront of a recreational lake. I don't know how it died, it seemed like the bird just washed ashore after a silent, natural death.

However, it was in perfect condition. It lay there so peacefully, like God himself put it down on that small beach. 

I know there are people who don't like to look at dead animals, because they think they're filthy, scary or they just don't want to get faced with death. But every time I look at an animal -dead or alive- I'm always astonished by the beauty of nature. A dead animal is innocent, inspiring, beautiful. It stands for transience, but also for new life. The sight of a dead animal is so peaceful, I forget all those things I normally worry about. 

I think it's healthy to be faced by death, every now and then. A dead animal put your legs right back on the floor. And I hope, I really do, that I will not be the only one who is thinking about this in this way. Fore those people I took some pictures of this wonderful, inspiring bird. 

This is how I found the coot. 

I turned the bird, just to gauge its condition.

Everything was so perfect: its eyes half closed, the sands on its beak. His beak and forehead were so bright white, it seemed as if someone furbished it.

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