Blog archive March 2022
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28.03.22 / 01 / new job
Started a new job today. It's 1 year tomorrow that I resigned from the last one. Two months notice, six months not looking for work, four months job hunting. One of the reasons for lack of much blogging after Christmas, job hunting is a lot of work, searching for suitable vacancies, researching what you've found, redoing your CV and portfolio. The new job is only 5 minutes walk from my old one, so my former social life can continue almost as if I were just working on another floor in the building.
26.03.22 / 01 / wolf fields labyrinth progress
Today we finished staking out the lines of the Wolf Fields labyrinth, having done about 2/3rds of it on Saturday 12th March. Next it will be filled with wood chips to make the path surfaces (and cover the ground membrane).
We will also even up the stake heights, but it might be easier when the woodchips are down. The ground is not flat either.
Sore hands and arms, blisters, aching back and legs.
More photos here on Flickr.
25.03.22 / 01 / this leads to that
Went down to Greenwich again on the river boat to look at the Painted Hall. This time I bought the 'Explanation' written by the artist himself, Sir James Thornhill, to understand the more arcane elements of the ceiling.
Even Thornhill doesn't explain everything. Apollo has 'the Hours, etc, flying round him' - who is 'etc'? 'Calumny, Detraction and Envy, with other Vices' - which other vices, exactly? 'Stone Figures, and... all Sort of marine Trophies in Stone Colour'. So some of it means a lot, and some is just stuff.
Coming out of the Hall I had a realisation. The skyscrapers of Canary Wharf that now fill the view are not a rude intrusion, but the fulfilment of the message of the Painted Hall. The Hall celebrates British naval power, global trade, and (indirectly) mercantile oligarchy - not yet Empire, though the conditions were being laid. London began its journey to becoming a global financial capital around 1700, when the Hall was being built - Canary Wharf is the latest manifestation of that lineage. These things have longer roots than we imagine.
