Category: At The Seams
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The Peacock
“The sight of a feather in a peacock’s tail, whenever I gaze at it, makes me sick!” wrote Charles Darwin in 1860. Darwin, along with other naturalists of his times, had theorized that the broad diversification in bird coloration evolved as a function of sexual selection. But the peacock took it to such extreme that…
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Plumage
Feather grows much like our hair: a meticulously constructed mass of dead protein, called beta-keratin, pushed out from a follicle in the living skin. An analogy for feather is like a tree – its trunk, a hollow central shaft, is called a rachis, numerous branches stemmed from the rachis are called barbs, and from the…
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Oranges and Lemons of St. Clement’s
Oranges and Lemons of St. Clement’s is a traditional English nursery rhyme which references the bells of several churches within the vicinity of the City of London. It is also a children’s singing game, in which two children place their hands together to form an arch to symbolize the arch of sanctuary while the others…
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Dance the Orange
Yonder stands the orange treeShowing off its fruits to me,Gleaming teardrops lovers shedStained by passion’s heartbreak red. Balls of agate carmine-brightHung on boughs of chrysolite,Sent a-spinning from the treesBy the mallet of the breeze. Now I kiss them, now inhale;Thus my senses I regaleWith their cheeks’ so tender bloomAnd the sweets of their perfume.– Ibn…
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Citrus
Twenty-five millions years ago, when the Indian subcontinent collided into the Eurasian plate to seal the remaining Tethys Ocean gap while thrusting the Himalayas skyward, began the spread of the citrus genus to East Asia. Its cultivation first expanded eastward into Micronesia and Polynesia by Austronesian voyagers between 3000 and 1500 BC. It traveled westward…
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The Unicorn
“But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me.Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.”– Psalm 22:19-21 First appearing in the Bronze Age Indus…
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The Horses of Saint Mark
The tales of the horses of Saint Mark are, unfortunately, naught but tales of theft and robbery. The Saint A local cobbler, Anianus, was sitting as usual by the sea when Mark approached, for his sandal straps had come loose. While Anianus was mending the sandals, the awl slipped and pierced his palm. As he…
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The Winged Horse
Among the images of Tibet that the world has come to know are the prayer flags strung along trails and peaks high in the Himalayas. They are called “rlung ta”, which means “windhorse”. Of the rlung ta composition, the windhorse is at the center, surrounded by four animals of the cardinal directions – the Garuda,…
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The Spotted Horse
From fish to cephalopods, from insects, birds, to mammals, the world of spotted species has always attracted human attention, standing out to us as beautiful and eye-catching. Paradoxically a primary reason for spotting is that it provides excellent camouflage in the wild, particularly in grasslands and forests. The spots mimic the sunlight dappling through leaves…
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Norwegian Wood
Among all of the Beatles’ ballads that I listened to in my youth, Norwegian Wood stood out for its romantic tune and peculiar title. I didn’t understand English as well then, but a read of this song’s lyrics is anything but. As the authors had clarified straightaway, it was about an affair gone awry. As…
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