June the 15-22 is Cephalopod Week this year - Cephalopods are creatures such as squid, octopuses, cuttle fish, nautilus and the extinct groups such as ammonites. These creatures are pretty amazing and I love following all the little snippets and art work about them on social media.
My own seascape drawing nearly always contain at least one said creature though sometimes they are quiet hidden!
You can read a basic over view on these lovelies over at Wikipedia.
The ammonite picture mentioned in it is now available as a free colouring in sheet on The WigglyPet Press under the Cuddly Science section!
I have even set up a new category on this blog - Ammonites and All Things Cephalopod, it is under Quests as they are creatures I like learning about and there will be more stuff written about them. Obviously at some point I need to go back through the archive and find everything I've already blogged about... mainly ammonites!
For those wanting to join in on social media the hash tag is #CephalopodWeek and there is a facebook group.
We are now about a week away from the Aethelflaed Festival in Gloucester to celebrate the 1100 year anniversary of Aethelflaed (actually its her death date but we are celebrating/remembering and learning about her life). A lot happened last week but a big chunk of it was in London so I don't think there are as many tweets as I was expecting! But on the other hand there have now been a couple of cases of other people using my hashtag which makes me soooooo happy 🙂
Meet Loki - who will be helping me with some of the leather and metallurgy workshop stuff during the @AethelflaedGlos festival in Gloucester - it is a rawhide and copper hammer Thor number 2 - I will be blogging about this little Bute later! #AethelflaedQuest#SalaricCraftpic.twitter.com/FsuZ4GHsVU
Getting my treasure chest ready 4 The High Seas of Poetry 2mo at @watergloucester part of the Sea Shanty Festival with @GlosPoetryFest ⚓️ Also I hear the Vanquisher of Vikings herself may make an appearance to explain how to deal with the scourge of the sea! #AethelflaedQuestpic.twitter.com/KBo6arb2E7
You know I've fallen down many info rabbit holes to do with my #aethelflaedquest ? well that includes a bit of music history and theory - here is a little write up on Anglo-Saxon Poetry and Music https://t.co/V7IbRVHK40
Pinting out bits in prep for History ShowOff at The BishopGates Institute tomorrow in London 🙂 Aethelflaed the Puppet is most excited! #AethelflaedQuest
And are having a hearty breakfast before we need to mosey on down to the big smoke for @ScienceShowoff's HistoryShowOff at the Bishopsgate Institute! Come and find out tonight about some awesome women from history 🙂 tix are £9 I think! #AethelflaedQuestpic.twitter.com/mN6dvlIKGz
We had adventures in Londinium which apparently is no longer the capital of Essex - but right now it is gaming time - Aethelflaed is building herself a series of thrones.- once she has mined enough iron... #AethelflaedQuest#Minecraftpic.twitter.com/7IMtQTTdUR
Wombled leather scrapes ready to make things with the kids (I have card which can work as a non animal substitute for teaching the process/techniques) and borrowed goblets (not historically accurate but still fun 😉 ) #AethelflaedQuestpic.twitter.com/mwt0j0FhWX
The weather and traffic were not kind on my travels today - a 3 hour journey took 7 plus but it was well worth it for the fun had at #Historyshowoff yesterday and retrieving bits for the Aethelflaed festival we'll be at in #Gloucester in June #AethelflaedQuestpic.twitter.com/NiFHsLWwln
I've had an amazing couple of days in London, Aethelflaed the puppet went on several explores and we did the Bishopsgate Women's History History ShowOff with Science ShowOff where we were sharing the stage with Christmas Lecture peeps and British Museum peeps etc... It was a fab event but the weather was not kind to us on the journey home nor was the traffic and so a 3 hr journey took over 7.
So for now we are relaxing with the Lady of Mercia gaming and making some thrones - or she will be once she has mined some iron.
This is Loki my hammer - it is a Thor number 2 copper and raw hide mallet and is one of the hammers I always paw over when we go to the welding gas shop. I kind of wanted a hammer for the workshops I am preparing for the Aethelflaed Festival in June so it seemed like the right time to actually take the plunge and buy the thing.
This will be used for leather, metal and wood projects - the guy in the shop asked what I wanted it for and I started to explain about the impression work I have been doing - he suggested that I call the made things Loki Impressed which is kind of fun 🙂
Expect to see it a lot on the Salaric blogs 🙂
These hammers are awesome and have been used for all sorts of things including the Royal Engineers during the second world war as it meant they could assemble last minute bridges at night in enemy territory without making loud hammering sounds. They are the mainstay of engineers who need to be gentle whilst hammering their machines or miners who need to avoid sparks (well did graduate from the Royal School of Mines!) and of course jewellery makers love these things!
I wish I had the old one shown on the Wikipedia page - just look at it! Look at the mushroom wear on those hammer heads - this in an instrument that has made many things!
It is a bit of a faff but you can replace the heads when they get too worn so I am hoping that Loki is with me for life! I may well have hugged it all the way home whilst grinning - I think it disturbed Alaric slightly 🙂
You can even watch how they are made 🙂
This one has audio commentary 🙂
You can read up on the manufacturing history and techniques on their website too 🙂 Since our visit to Makers Central I have been interested in where my tools actually come from - so am very pleased I can trace my hammer like this.
This year marks the 1100 yr anniversary of the death of Queen Aethelflaed Lady of Mercia and Mother of England - a Warrior Queen lost from much of our visible and accessible history in this country. Finding out that Gloucester is where she was buried and that there was going to be a festival in honour of her in June - I decided to undertake an Aethelflaed Quest and Search for All Things Anglo-Saxon. I have since ended up on board and doing things for the festival - I am having a lot of fun and there is a new puppet - Aethelflaed herself once more resides in Gloucester.
Here is the weekly tweets 🙂
Today there is poetry in Worcester and a sneaky bit of the #AethelflaedQuest
Worcester contains many things - yesterday it contained me and @alaric on our #AethelflaedQuest, swans, lots of union jacks, me and the Food For Thoughts posse poeming at Heroes and people feeling they have to narrative my movements from black out window vans pic.twitter.com/RanZOSM80D
Aethelflaed Lady of Mercia is sporting her new cloak and golden hair ties - she is planning on having a little photo shoot around town today 🙂 #AethelflaedQuest and my search for all things Anglo-Saxon #cuddlysciencepic.twitter.com/L7uzvskjaE
And talking of #worcester and the #AethelflaedQuest we found her in the Cathedral gleaming with the sunlight - there is a whole history panorama in the windows - my camera was sadly running out of charge so I will have to go back again. I might also have bought more books. pic.twitter.com/lngjXAoGpM
Queen Aethelflaed the Puppet really likes this sculpture she found on her tour of #Gloucester - she has been informed that it was designed by students at Crypt and would like to know more about the art that has emerged in her jewel of a city in the last 1100 yrs #aethelflaedQuestpic.twitter.com/xj8boHTpXX
The Festival is all over the city - I am doing family fun drove in stuff actually at the ruins of St Oswolds - you can find out more about the whole thing here.
Ammonites and All Things Cephalopod, Events and Outings, Geology | sarah | 
Fri 15th Jun 2018 3:48 pm | 
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