After yesterday's damson cake, here's more baked goods links for your delectation. Firstly, spectacular archaeology cakes as "Edible Archaeology" at Current Archaeology. Whenever I see cakes like these - basically edible works of art - I get a little sad because mine never look really nice. Which is probably due to the fact that I concentrate on getting them done in a yummy way and don't spend more time decorating and neatening than mixing and baking, and would choose taste over looks any time when picking coverings. But still. Beautiful cakes. I'm slightly jealous.

If you need something chocolaty now, here's a recipe for a giant chocolate cake (and the same recipe on Ruth Reichl's site, explained slightly differently) - Gillian has recently tested the recipe and says it's rich and a really nice cake. She also says they cut way down on the sugar, though. The recipe reminds me of the cake recipes from the 1970s in Germany - if I make one of them today, I cut the sugar by at least half. Sweet years, these were!

Here's a truth about me that you probably already know: I really like coffee. (I also really like tea, cats, cakes, and chocolate, though I do not consume cats. As opposed to the other things.) I like the varieties best that have little acidity. I drink it with milk, and like it strong enough to get a good coffee taste with a bit of bitterness, but not too strong - the "French" or "Norwegian" coffee at the Textile Forum is usually too much for me, and I water it down. (A lot.)

I also like coffee cups. There are so many funny, fancy mugs in our household that even though we do have "proper" coffee cups that match the rest of our tableware, we usually grab one of the non-matching mugs. Well, more or less non-matching, as there are a few sets - one with cartoon animals doing seasonal stuff, with the mugs aptly labeled "spring", "summer", "autumn", and "winter", and one set of two cups where one is "pro!" and the other "contra!"

And from that rich assortment of cups, there are a very few that sort of belong only to the most patient husband of them all (as in only he is using them and we also don't give them to guests to use), and a few (admittedly a few more) that are mine and mine alone. Because they are my favourites. (One of these, curiously, used to be a favourite of his, until I sort of usurped it, and it has been ages since he last drank out of it.) Another favourite is a raku-ware cup that a friend gave to me on my last birthday, hitting several sweet spots at once - my love for raku and handmade things, my love for nice and rather large cups, and my colour preferences. Yet another one is a souvenir cup I brought home from a visit to a conference in Poland, years ago.

All these have one thing in common - they are a bit or a significant bit larger than the usual coffee mug (which in turn is much larger than a normal coffee cup). There's just one of my fave mugs that is normal mug-sized... but it's still the coolest coffee cup ever:

[caption id="attachment_2576" align="alignleft" width="228"] That's tea stains in the cup. I had a cuppa tea before I had coffee. Sue me.



I bought this a few years ago at the game fair in Essen, in the comics area. It's the ultimate cup for a coffee-loving archaeologist, and in case you are one or know one or just need that cup too anyways, here's the webshop where you can get it. (The shop is in German, but it should be straightforward enough.) There are a few more nice cups in that shop, too, and not all of them have a strictly German pun such as this one. (Ziehen, in German, both means "to draw" if you are talking about a gun, and "to steep" if you are talking about tea.) Enjoy. Don't blame me if you end up with another mug or two. (These things are herd animals anyway. Just like spinning tools. Or bicycles. Right?)

Links for you on this sunny monday!

The Chartered Institute for Archaeologists has issued a statement about the EU referendum and its outcome. Apart from this statement, the whole page is an interesting place to have a look around, if you are interested in archaeology or an archaeologist.

If you are looking for a really, really old tattoo business, you will get lucky in Jerusalem's Old City, where Razzouk Ink has been doing pilgrim's tattoos for about 700 years.

Matthäus Schwarz' Trachtenbuch, showing 16th century dress and fashion as worn by Matthäus, has been published in an English version by Bloomsbury. Read more about it in the NY Review of books or directly at the publisher's website.

 

Fellow archaeologist (among other things) Gertrude Bell, a very adventurous lady, might finally get her own museum.

The Fitzwilliam museum has a new exhibition called "Colour: The Art and Science of Illuminated Manuscripts".

Satima Flavell has mentioned The Middle Ages Unlocked in an interview. Actually, she has praised it - it's always so good to hear that this little book is doing its job!

There's a fun quiz over at Ask the Past - if you always wanted to know whether your etiquette for the end of the 1880s is up to scratch, you can test it there.

In case you're not one of the typical social science folks and work with TeX, there's a collaboration thingie available now called Papeeria. It allows you to edit TeX documents together with other people, and if you are only working on one private project at a time, you can use it for free.

discardingimages has a rabbit warrior from the end of the 13th century. Proves (again, after Monty Python) that rabbits are fierce, dangerous creatures that should not be underestimated.

And finally, there's a long and interesting article about the ethics of accepting student volunteers over at Doug's Archaeology.

It's the time of year again when the Perseids are treating us to shooting stars, so when you find yourself outside in the evening (preferably some place where it's really dark, with little light pollution) and have some time on your hands... go watch the sky for a bit. (In Germany, there's the belief that if you see a shooting star, you can wish on it - but you must not tell anybody else what your wish was, or it will not come true.)

If you're looking for some more info, here's an article about the Perseids. Other recommended reading for the topic (well, more or less the topic): Neil Gaiman's Stardust.

It seems to be not only the start of summer slump, but also the heyday of firefly mating season - at least we saw oodles of them yesterday when we walked through the forest at dusk. I couldn't stop thinking "they look just like floating green LED lights"... which was kind of weird. It also got me to ponder how people back when there were no LEDs would have seen these lights - we have something familiar to compare those bugs to, and they are still weird and fascinating and wonderful. How much more so would they have seemed to somebody a few hundred or thousand years ago?

Also, and on a completely unrelated note, I have finally caved and will soon be among the crowd who has smartphones... which also means that if everything goes according to plan, I might be able to take payments per card in the future. Which is definitely worth a yay!

Finally, what is a list of incoherent thoughts without a gratuitous cat picture?


Where the little cat has usurped the Most Patient Husband's chair and is now washing herself. Because, you know, the world is such a dirty place for a little cat...