Another Year Gone

Today is my birthday! Not that another year closer to death is a reason to celebrate, so I’m not sure about that exclamation mark. No, I’m keeping it there. Another year lived and loved is worth a little appreciation.

It’s always amazes me the amount of people I come across that I share the date with. I remember visiting my fiancé’s neighbour once and we realised that four out of the six of us in the house at that one moment had the same birthday. Dunno what was in the May water back in the day, but our parents must’ve been at it like rabbits! Maybe they didn’t stop honouring the old school Beltane celebrations that long ago after all…

Anyway, here are some more well known Aquarians that first graced the world with their presence on this day in history.

37 - Claudius Drusus Germanicus Caesar Nero, emperor of Rome (54-68)

1471 - Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici, ruler of Florence (d. 1503)

1564 - Galileo Galilei, Pisa Italy, astronomer/physicist

1710 - Louis XV the Well-Beloved, Versailles, King of France (1715-74)

1748 - Jeremy Bentham, London England philosopher/originator (Utilitarian)

1819 - Christopher Sholes, Mooresburg Penn, inventor (typewriter)

1874 - Ernest H Shackleton, Kilkee Ireland, explorer (Endurance, Antarctica)

1882 - John Barrymore, [Blythe], Phila, actor (Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde)

1954 - Matt Groening, cartoonist (Life in Hell, Simpsons)

 
 

Find out who you share your birthday with here.

Weird, Whimsical, Wonderful

Some fantastical pieces of art from American Shelby Fischer. She describes herself as "a self-taught visionary artist" who "accumulates images that resonate with unconscious potential from a wide range of illustrated sources found on the internet". I just love her work.

And she doesn't just do collages:

Love Never Dies

This is has to be my strangest post to date. I was browsing through some old photos the other day and I came across these. They were taken on a visit to a friend in Prague some years back and are of the entrance to a flat above her home near Charles’ Bridge. I realise that they’re probably more relevant to Halloween than Valentine’s, but there’s a method to this madness.

Apparently there was an eccentric old gay couple who lived in the apartment for as long as my friend could remember, but then one of them sadly passed on. Some time after this oddity appeared. Now I’m not saying that this is the skull of the deceased partner, though I would empathise with such an attempt to cling one’s lost love. Unfortunately my friend was unable to shed any light on the matter as the old man had become somewhat of a recluse since the death of his spouse and she had never been able to ask him.

It’s more likely his token way of dealing with the inevitable void left by the loss of his love and life. It’s strangely beautiful yet speaks to one of my deepest fears. I’m off now to give my boy a cuddle…