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William Beebe
Beebe’s Bathysphere A few years ago I stumbled upon The Remarkable Life of William Beebe, by Carol Grant Gould. A fantastic biography about one of the last real explorers (on planet earth).
As a biologist/ornithologist/naturalist Beebe undertook countless expeditions which are hard to summarize in a short blog post. But the most imaginative are his deep sea expeditions with the Bathysphere. From this small steel ball, he descended on a cable to almost 1km deep into the ocean and described the miraculous, luminous life at this depth.
The Bathysphere adventure gets the attention in the recently published The Bathysphere Book by Brad Fox. On the basis of personal notes, drawings and photos, the expedition is further explored in short chapters. With trips to his friendship with Theodore Roosevelt and obsession with Charles Darwin and the Galapagos Islands.
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Revolver
Philip Norman's new George Harrison biography is a great opportunity to listen chronologically to his Beatles songs. Like the 'If I needed someone' on Rubber Soul. Or Tax Man, on Revolver, a record I hadn't listened to in a long time.
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Finding Endurance
The best book I read this year is Finding Endurance.
The fascination with the Endurance expedition began for South African writer David Bristow-Bovey when his father told him that he had gone south with Ernest Shackleton. As a 10 year old boy, David even gave a speech at school about it. When his father dies shortly after, he finds out that something is not right. His father was not yet born when the Endurance sank.
After Shackleton’s Endurance is found in 2022 deep in the sea near Antarctica, David starts a journey. In search of Shackleton's story, and how he manages to get all the members of the expedition home alive. But especially in search of his father, who was tied to his home after a stroke. And where, together with him, he created his own world.
The survival story on the pack ice of Antarctica remains great to read. What made this book different is the personal journey, trying to find his dad, who passed when he was young. A search that will move readers who have parents with chronical illness, or are a parent with chronical illness themselves.
Finding Endurance: Shackleton, My Father and a World Without End by Darrel Bristow-Bovey.
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Kon-Tiki
Along with Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle and South by Ernest Shackleton, Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl is one of my favorite travel stories. In 1947, Heyerdahl tries to prove that the origin of the Polynesians is from South America by sailing on a raft from Peru to Polynesia. This theory has now been debodied, but it yielded a great story. Through eBay I found this US pocket from 1950 including photos from the raft for a few euros.
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New Garden
With help from Studio May & June we are designing our future garden, with a lot of biodiversity and a larger garden greenhouse.
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Leerboek der dierkunde
One of my favorite natural history books for inspiration in my closet: Leerboek der Dierkunde (1884). Nice collection.
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Alexander von Humboldt (1769 – 1859)
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Otter
With this Eurasian Otter I tried to stay within the style of 19th century natural history plates.
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Carlijn Kingma
In the Gemeentemuseum The Hague I actually came for Escher's retrospective exhibition, but in the end I stayed the longest in Carlijn Kingma's hall. What details and craftsmanship.
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