Planty of the Hamchuks

early June 2026

Column with Acanthus leaves at the top

Acanthus

Ridiculously beautiful garden with closed gate. The flowering vine was jasmine, super fragrant. This was like something out of a dream.

We'd just finished the museum and while I was lingering and soaking up every last thing, V was beyond exhausted. I wanted to find the other side of this closed garden gate but also we were both hungry and our flight out to Crete was tomorrow morning.

It was not a great meal but it was actually cheap for once. My blood sugar had crashed so I indulged in some sprite.

We actually meant to get this food to go but were so hungry we decided to take the chance that we'd be taken restaurant hostage here and just ate most of it on the spot. Fortunately they weren't like the other places and freely allowed us to leave.

On our way back to the hotel, we went back to the best scarf shop we'd found and actually bought some of his gorgeous scarves. He had all kinds of amazing things and told us he'd ship to the US (or anywhere) in case we ever wanted more. Most of the shops we found just had really cheap poly or cotton/poly things going on, he had phenomenal finely spun cashmere and all kinds of specialty things crammed into a tiny space. He had the GOOD stuff. He also wasn't pushy, which was incredibly rare.

early June 2026 - transcendental glory and feminist rage

The first time we went to the Blue Mosque, we went at the wrong time of day, it was closed for prayer, plus V was wearing shorts (a no-no). We'd actually half-joked prior to going on this trip to convert to Islam just for the experience of praying in all these amazing buildings. Then I looked up the entire prayer process and it was extremely complicated and all in Arabic plus the ritual cleaning process prior and I completely backed out. I'm glad I did.

The entrance meant for actual Muslims, not casual visitors. This didn't stop casual visitor influencers from boldly going through with their selfie sticks taking videos.

In the public courtyard they have the Islam equivalent of chick tracts. Maybe less severe than that, but still.. they go on about how they don't see racism and everyone is equal and it's peaceful and about self improvement and finding inner tranquility and community and it sounded awesome.

There were some weird people in the courtyard. The ones that stand out the most were a couple dripping in Gucci and designer everything he was very uh greasy with the woman in a sheer see-through dress. They got some selfies in the courtyard involving lots of tongues and then left.

Then we came back another day, properly dressed, and in the morning before it was blazing hot (there's no AC). And we wandered into the most beautiful and glorious building either of us had ever been in.

Tumblr rips out all the details of this building where YOU COULD FEEL THE DIVINE THE DIVINE WAS HERE

YOU COULD FEEL IT EVERYWHERE

YOU COULD FEEL THE LIGHT

Oh yes I was definitely having a serious experience of the transcendental divine in this space. It was beautiful, life changing... I floated on this high for quite a while. I'm not certain how long we stayed, jaws on the floor. We eventually sat down on the carpeted floor and just stared. V started to point out the absolute genius of how the building was constructed. We were amazed. This was such an amazing building.

And then it all came crashing down, back to reality. Those shelves on the left? Are for shoes, they were filled with stinky shoes of visitors. See the two women in the left-middle of the picture, one with a blue cloth covering her hair? To the left of her, BEHIND THE STINKY SHOE SHELVES IS WHERE THE WOMEN PRAY. All those gorgeous soaring arches? No, they don't get to pray there! That's where the men pray! And that's when I remembered all the stuff in the courtyard just talked about not seeing wealth and class.. there was nothing in there about your sex.

It was the horrible chasm between theory and practice, as it was presented.

This pissed me off so unbelievably I cannot say. I don't have words. I found this whole experience to be incredibly painful. Every time I travel, I learn about myself. This trip let me know that I am a feminist and I would never join a religion that had me praying behind the stinking fucking coat closet equivalent while the men were under the glorious arches and beauty, even if it was for my "own protection", which is usually the reasoning used for this sort of thing. Men didn't have to cover their hair, or so much of their bodies, it was only the women. Yeah I'm not hiding in any fucking closet I'm not playing this game I'll go have my transcendental experiences in the woods with nature who doesn't pull this kind of sexist bullshit.

If men can't handle themselves around women, that's not the fault of women, and there's no reason for women to be punished or to otherwise have extra rules when, again, it's not their fault. It's on the men to behave properly and if they can't, then they're the ones who need extra rules and restrictions. When I first walked in, my mind somehow naively imagined the women on one side and the men on the other, and I don't know where it came up with that. But hey it was also my first time in a mosque (we went to the Hagia Sophia afterwards).

Women aren't allowed to pray here. In the lower right of this picture is a man in black praying.

Same view, but vertical. Men can pray here. Children can be here (there were even some girls allowed as some special thing we saw?). But no women.

Women are allowed to be the cleaning staff though, I did see that.

So women can clean the entire space, they can clean up after men, other women, and children, but they get to pray only behind the stinky shoes in the coat closet equivalent.

That's a bird flying up top.

They were also doing some minor construction/rehab on this building, but only on the exterior that we saw.

As visitors, we were only allowed on the first floor. But after I saw where the women were relegated to, the spell was broken, I WAS PISSED and over it and just wanted to leave. So we did. Also it was super hot and it was time for a break.

early June 2026 - !!!

It's a long shot sharing this here, with what tumblr does to the details in photos. I increased the contrast so hopefully you can see the details better.

Fan, silver, 6th century CE, Aleppo (Syria)

wow looks so much like

early June 2026 - lots of funky little ancient creatures, a clown medusa, and a neolithic mother goddess figurine

Vase, terra cotta, Early Bronze Age, Troy 2

I KNOW I've seen the one on the right before, it was extra eerie seeing it in person.

Lid with Human Face + Anthropomorphic Vessel Fragments, terra cotta, Early Bronze Age, Troy 3

Vessel with Human Face Depiction, Terra cotta, early bronze age, Troy 5

Animal Head Shaped Handles, Terracotta, Late Bronze Age, Troy 6

Bird Shaped Rhyton, Terracotta, 9th-8th cent. BCE, Lindos (Rhodes, Greece)

Bird Shaped Rhyton, Terracotta, 9th-8th cent. BCE, Lindos (Rhodes, Greece)

Ram Shaped Rhyton, Terracotta, 9th-8th cent. BCE, Lindos (Rhodes, Greece)

Horse Statuette, Bronze, 8th cent. BCE, Olympia, Greece (personally that looks like a strange horse to me...)

missed the label on the rest

wish Tumblr hadn't destroyed all the details on these strange little intriguing things! They had little designs and symbols painted on their torsos (maybe fancy clothes?).

They're all broadly labeled as statuette or idol, terracotta, from the 14th-11th cent. BCE, Boeotia, Greece.

Hedgehog Shaped Aryballos, Faience, 7th-6th cent. BCE, Lindos (Rhodes, Greece)

Aryballos were apparently for carrying perfumed oils, Faience here apparently means finely glazed ceramic

Missed the id on the little monkey but also.. monkey?!, next is another Bes statue, Faience, 7th-6th cent. BCE, Lindos (Rhodes, Greece)

Then the larger Hawk Statuette, Limestone, Archaic Period, Lindos (Rhodes, Greece) and the smaller Hawk Statuette, Faience, 7th-6th cent. BCE, Lindos (Rhodes, Greece)

this is one of the least favorite things that I found, but I know it's a topic Tumblr really finds inspiring so I must share:

Medusa Head Depicted Corner Acroter, terra cotta, 6th cent BCE, Larisa Izmir Turkey

Mother Goddess Figurine, Terra cotta, Neolithic Age, 8000-5500 BCE

early June 2026 - this one is for the fiber people! @birchwood-path and all the other inspiring folks making stuff out there!

Spindle-Whorl, terracotta, early bronze age, Kumtepe Turkey

Spindle-Whorl, terracotta, early bronze age, Troy 1 (2920-2550 BCE)

Weaving loom and textile production.

This illustration is currently tripping me out b/c I just saw this post by @aeide and it looks ??? just like this ??? complete with the little weights or whatever at the bottom??????????

Troy and Textile Production in Anatolia

The history of textile production in Anatolia dates back to the Neolithic Age, with the transition to settled life and the start of production, and the domestication of wild sheep and goat, making the procurement of raw materials easier. Textile production does not change much in the Chalcolithic Age. But during the Early Bronze Age, we see an increase in the number and variety of spindle whorls and loom weights in Anatolia and Troy. Among the reasons behind the development are the introduction of plant fibers such as flax in textile production, and the overall rise in production due to an increase in the variety of raw materials available. Spindles and such devices were used to spin fibres into yarn. The spindle was composed of a wooden rod bulging in the middle with pointy heads, and a spindle whorl attached on the end of the rod, providing weight to ensure the yarn is spun properly. The device placed on top of the spindle whorl is called a spinner.

There were two types of looms, the horizontal loom and the vertical loom. Vertical looms were used primarily in Western Anatolia and Greece and the Mediterranean basin in general. A vertical loom makes use of loom weights to maintain the tension on the warp threads to keep them from tangling up. A vast number of loom weights were uncovered at Early Bronze Age and Middle Bronze Age layers of Troy, and the 2nd millennium BCE settlements of the islands of Crete and Thera. Such finds demonstrate that production was systemic in the Aegean region during the 2nd millennium BCE. The sheer number of textile tools such as spindle whorls, loom weights, reeds and quills uncovered particularly in the buildings of Troy, attests to the importance of textile production at the time. Textile production was carried out either in a specific room of a house called the "weaving room" or at the settlement structures known as the "workshop building".

July 4 2026

July 5 2026

Ok so I started a new audiobook, this one is by Suetonius, and the first section is a biography of Julius Caesar. What jumps out at me, at this particular point in time, was that here was a military guy. Suetonius doesn't describe him as a genius, just smart. Used scouts a lot to make certain he had good information, that they places the military was going they couldn't be ambushed. How he was relaxed with his troops when it wasn't Battle Time, but was very intense with them during Battle Time and would do things like get rid of their horses and try to trap them places so they would fight to the death instead of getting scared and running away. How he wouldn't compromise with those trying to get their military pay and leave. Won many battles across a large area. Expanded the Roman Empire. How he endlessly bribed his way out of countless situations and into new ones. Went through wives like they were toilet paper. Claimed any honor he could possible award himself or get awarded. Couldn't get over rumors of the gay lover and his balding head bothered him. And how the Roman Republican was just a stupid thing in his way so he was going to take his military and start a civil war because damnit he "deserved" to be emperor.

And you know Tumblr's favorite holiday, the Ides of March with Et tu Brutus and all that?

Those were SENATORS murdering him in at attempt to SAVE THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. They are the unsung attempted heroes in the story! Their original plan had been to murder him, throw the body in the river, and then undo all the terrible, Republic-destroying legislation he'd signed or gotten passed or whatever.

They failed!! After he was murdered, they left the body. Suetonius doesn't explain why. Eventually a few of his slaves came to pick the body up and put him on a litter, with one arm hanging down. Mourning and chaos started to break out, word spread that he'd been murdered, and a crowd ended up murdering a random innocent man who they'd thought had been in the plot. They put innocent man's head on a spear and paraded it around town.

The people who'd murdered Julius Caesar got into trouble (Suetonius is vague on that) and within 3 years, all were dead. The bad legislation was never undone, the Senate stayed useless while the Executive branch remained far, far too powerful. And fully fascist of course.