Stardust Memories

Leopold Blaschka and son Rudolph Blaschka made 847 life-size glass plants for Harvard University, where they remain. More lifelike and more painstaking than a Dutch still life, these glass botanical specimens feature decaying leaves and decaying blossoms, visiting bees and fungal infections.

These plants are neither scientific-too singularly perfect to study; nor art-too much like copies to be anything other than kitsch.

These objects designed to aid classification of species, are themselves hard to classify. Originally called ‘scientific models’, now referred to as ‘the glass flowers’ their role has subtly changed since conception.

The models have rarely left Harvard, Originally a few specimens left by hearse, not by custom-made crates using NASA technology.

The glass plants have inspired acts of obsessive love. One of their creators described them as his life’s work, he was unable to go on holiday, he worked relentlessly (not even taking Christmas day off to go to Brighton as Auerbach does). The Blaschkas’ started off making jewellery and glass eyes; they felt finally they had found a craft worthy of their skill in the Harvard specimens.

The Blaschkas’ counterfeited botanical forms and modelled jellied delights: ruby petals, sapphire stamens and crosier of an emerald fern.

When visitors such as the Queen of Sweden came to visit Rudolph in his workshop, she was amazed that he worked in temperatures of 95 degrees-the windows and doors sealed so that no flicker of air could disturb the flame used to manipulate the glass.

Many others tried to visit and commission plants for themselves, or to discover the ‘secret’ method of making these objects. There were and still remain rumours that the plants were very easy to make-there was a hidden method.

In 1941 a professor at Harvard’s reaction to the bombing of Pearl Harbour was to make the glass plant cases bombproof.

Pilgrims still visit the glass flowers and are instructed to walk softly, to breathe gently and to stay (as with the reptile house at London Zoo) away from the glass.

The glass plants of South America, the Royal gardens of Pillnitz and of the Blaschkas’ own garden at Hosterwitz are still growing in cabinets at the Botanical Museum of Harvard.

The platinum ring was finally recovered when her fiancé found it in a bird’s nest at the bottom of their garden.

Julia Boaler, 36, thought the £5,000 ring had been stolen when it vanished while she was taking a shower at home.

Miss Boaler and her partner Justin Laycock, who live in Gleadless, Sheffield, were baffled at how the pear-shaped diamond could have vanished.

Miss Boaler, project worker for homeless children, said: “I was heartbroken when my ring vanished and Justin was not best pleased either.

“I left it on the bathroom window ledge when I took a shower but it wasn’t there when I returned.

“I thought it must have fallen in the bathroom or even fell out of the window but it was a complete mystery.

“When Justin got home I told him what had happened and the pair of us searched everywhere.

“We ripped up the bathroom lino, pulled up floorboards and even took the panel off the bath thinking it must have somehow slipped through but still it was nowhere to be found.

“I tormented myself for months looking all over the house for it thinking that my mind must have been playing tricks on me.

“I repeatedly rummaged through drawers and lifted carpets and turned the car inside out.

“I even accused the window-cleaner of swiping it as the window was open, but he swore blind that he knew nothing and I no proof.

“We eventually gave up looking.

“A few years later we had to put the wedding off as I gave birth to our son Luis.

“Needing more space we found ourselves putting the house up for sale so I made Justin tidy up the garden and cut the trees back.

“He started to prune our big oak tree and noticed an old nest in the branches so he nipped up a ladder to have a look inside and found my missing ring.
“I was gobsmacked.

“The bird must have swooped down and nabbed it from the open window.

“It’s amazing the ring was still there but I’m so glad to get it back.”

Still engaged, the pair have now insured the ring and are planning to tie the knot in the very near future.

Of all birds it is probably the magpie that is most associated with superstitions. However, most superstitions regarding magpies are based around just one bird. Throughout Britain it is thought to be unlucky to see a lone magpie and there are a number of beliefs about what you should do to prevent bad luck.

In most parts of the UK it is believed that you should salute the single magpie and say “Good morning Mr Magpie. How is your lady wife today?” By acknowledging the magpie in this way you are showing him proper respect, so that he doesn’t curse you with his bad luck.

In Yorkshire magpies are associated with witchcraft and you should make a sign of the cross to ward off evil. And in Scotland a single magpie seen near the window of a house is a sign of impending death, possibly because magpies are believed to carry a drop of the devil’s blood on his tongue or in another legend because he was the only bird that didn’t sing or comfort Jesus when he was crucified.

Rossini wrote a tragicomic opera entitled La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie) about a French girl accused of theft who is tried, convicted and executed. Later the true culprit is revealed to be a magpie and in remorse the town organises an annual ‘Mass Of The Magpies’ to pray for the girl’s soul.

They have also been known to kill small pets such as guinea pigs.

An England football flag, a pair of underpants, two white socks and a soft toy are among the unusual objects recovered from the nests of red kites.

The birds of prey are known for their tendency to steal items of clothing from washing lines to make their nests.

Their odd haul also includes a glove, a sponge ball and the greying underwear, the RSPB revealed.

The knick-knacks were found in nests across the north east of England where the birds were reintroduced into Gateshead’s Derwent Valley four years ago.

Two of the older kites, which were the first pair to breed in Gateshead since 1834, also became grandparents at the age of four.

bird of prey with a wingspan of almost two metres – became extinct in the north of England during the early 1800s

Ornithologists from the University of Oxford discovered a 2,500 year old bird’s nest on a cliff in Greenland. The nests belong to gyrfalcons – the largest species of falcon in the world – and is the oldest nest ever discovered.

They also found three other nests that are more than 1,000 years old and feathers from a bird that lived more approximately 670 years ago. The nest have been used by generations of gyrfalcons, who return on a regular basis.

Gyrfalcons are not the only birds who return to their nests year after year for thousands of years.

By carbon dating solidified stomach contents, peat moss deposits and bone and feather samples from various moulting sites, researchers have in the past shown that colonies of snow petrel have returned to the same sites for 34,000 years and adelie penguins for 44,000 years