Barkin Time

I started this blog and have been posting since 2012

and I just can't believe it has been 13 years already.

Time flies!

The last year has been a 'turbulent' year for me.

The blog disappeared to the background. Life can 'absorb' you.

But then someone reminded me of my blog (merci!)

When I checked the statistics today, I was blown away.

All time 234 K

Last 12 months 52 K

Last 30 days 8 K

Last 7 days 2.81 K

Last 24 hours 776

 

Most views from Singapore, Vietnam, Brazil, Austria and Germany.

A big thank you to all of you  ♥︎

Especially to those who come back to have another look.

I could really use some extra motivation and energy.

Some how I want to continue where I left off. 

My blog became some sort of diary or external memory to me (smile).

The big gap has to be filled now (wink).

 So several new posts with old news will be antedated to 2024.

Please be patient with me and in case you're curious, scroll back to 2024.

There will be posts about sea visits, walks, design and art soon.

Hopefully my blog inspires you to see beauty in simple things,

enjoy wildlife and spend more time in nature.

Or perhaps it will inspire you to visit a museum, the cinema,

a concert or, even better, make time for your own creativity. 

It provides the best medicine to our stress and busy lives.

Perhaps you already support or protect wildlife. Chapeau! ★

 

harvested white willow and 'noisetier rouge' bark

The Earth has a lot to offer.

I think we should treat it with respect and be careful with what we take.

The trees and shrubs in our garden need pruning and pollarding regularly.

Instead of stacking the wood for wildlife, I harvested some bark form the cut branches.

I don't want to take the risk of damaging a tree or shrub.

Rolled up and dried, the bark can be stored for a very long time.

My intention is to gather enough material and use it for a bark weaving project.

I will keep you posted so to be continued...

Another Quiz

 What do you think this is?

Brocante

Then I hit the jackpot.......  a yakpot :)
It's a wooden jar (10 cm) to store yak butter. Originally from Nepal or Tibet.

The smell inside is horrendous but it's such a beautiful object.

I'll have to think of a way to clean the inside without ruining the outside.

Sun Cross

Twenty years ago I found this stone in an ancient forrest.

Laying on the side of an eroded path in the east of France.

I picked it up and it just felt good too hold it in my hand.
When I saw the engraving I expected it to be something special.

The cross within a circle is probably the oldest symbol of the world.
Could this be a (bit wobbly) solar cross or sun cross?

● The wheel on my pebble isn't complete.
Only two opposite quaters have a rim......
But the wheel cross with four spokes in time lost its rim and became a 'real' cross.

● There seem to be traces of black paint........

On the internet I found this article "Canna Rocks".

Altough the stone is much bigger (25 cm diameter) than my stone (5,5-6,5 cm)

I thought there were similarities like stone colouring and black traces of paint.

But the bigger stone has a much clearly engraved early Christian cross.

In this article I found the word bullaun.

Now I'm convinced I found a water-smoothed pebble

that might have been used as a curse-stone or cure-stone.
And all this time I had my own cure-stone :)

If you have some information for me......... please leave a comment!

Fishing Float

This is an old antique Japanese fishing float.

It was once washed ashore on North America's coast.

I bought it from someone who inherited a big collection of fishing floats.

Light

The Bear

What do you think of our latest Ebay find?

It's probably Japanese although it was sold as a Schwarzwalder (German) carving.
I think this must be an Ainu bear from Hokkaido.
The bear is carrying a big skewered fish on a wooden branch.
The Ainu considered the bear the mythological hero that taught them to fish, hunt, weave and so on.

I was searching for a Ainu bear for a while because I think the quality of the Ainu carving is excellent!
Kitka triggered me. Kitka is one of my favourite blogs and they have an online shop called Mjölk.
Just like Juli and John, I love Scandinavian and Japanese design.

Our bear isn't marked, has no signs what so ever.

One minor detail is the awkward scent of the wood.

Hopefully this smell will dissappear eventually.

Arty

 I wanted you to show another photo of our Ibo mask.

The previous photo was a bit out of focus.

But then again this one looks a bit arty-farty :-)

Mask

We bought an Ibo mask at Briekantiek. It's too bad they coudn't tell me how old it is.

I saw this mask a couple of months ago when we bought our threshing-sledge.............

...........I made this photo and I couldn't forget about it.

The kenderman kept teasing me with a simular facial expression.
Now the mask is in our home :-)

Briekantiek

Today we went to Briekantiek again.

Chickens wandering around......

This is the place where we found some beautiful artefacts before.

We both enjoy the search for nice objects.

Artifact

Last monday we bought a new artifact for our livingroom.

Things like these balance the new and sleek design in our home :-)

I think the mix of all sorts of things creates your personal interior.

This artifact is a so called 'threshing-sledge' (in Dutch 'dorsslede') and it was used to thresh the grain.

The wholes in the wood are filled with lots of firestones. Flint was used for the manufacture of flint tools during the Stone Age as it splits into thin, sharp spinters called flakes or blades.
This sledge was pulled by an ox or mule while someone sat on top of it.

Now our hunt for the missing stones starts ;-)