Thursday 24 April 2014

Boden Dandelion


In the Dandelion Archive I have a sample of lovely fabric from Boden called Dandelion Heather - it was used for the Florence top a couple of years ago.
However, it is another example of an incorrect depiction of a dandelion (see post below too). Dandelions don't have leaves on the flowering stalks, so technically it's not a dandelion. Sorry to be picky. Maybe the designer wasn't too bothered whether or not it was accurate - which isn't so bad, only this design is just about the least dandelion looking dandelion i've seen.

Sunday 20 April 2014

Easter Dandelion


It's that time of year in the UK when we celebrate the chocolate industry and buy over priced, excessively wrapped egg shaped chocolate. Although this chocfest is at a different time of the year every year it happens to coincide with Easter too. What are the chances of that? So to mark this odd festival i found this old card. As it goes the dandelions don't have any sepals so it is technically incorrect - but it's a nice image all the same.

Monday 14 April 2014

Coronation Street Sanderson Dandelions


Purely in the interests of research I watch Coronation Street as often as i can and in doing so have spotted a rather marvelous example of dandelions. Carla and love rat Peter have the Sanderson Dandelion Clock wallpaper on their apartment wall - how very posh. I  managed to get a screen shot of a rather sweaty Peter in front of the wall - ooooh if those dandelion clocks could talk...

Monday 7 April 2014

Dandelion Crater


My Dandelion blog covers lots of dandelion related things: science and research, art and cultural references, folklore and stories etc and there seems to be an endless supply of material to put on the blog. With reference to the post below about Ray Bradbury's book Dandelion Wine I found that in 1971 the Apollo 15 astronauts named a crater on the moon after Bradbury's novel. So, dandelions are even on the moon too. Here is an image of Dandelion Crater and a link to the original image:

http://history.nasa.gov/alsj/a15/a15.lsp257.jpg

Saturday 5 April 2014

Happy National Dandelion Day!


Today is National Dandelion Day!! (according to the internet...)

So, to celebrate I recommend you go out and buy a copy of Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine. Written in 1957, it is a really wonderful book - poetic, sad and moving.
Here's the front cover of my copy with art work by designedbydavid.co.uk

Happy Dandelion Day!

Friday 4 April 2014

National Dandelion Day!


I was thinking the other day that there really should be a National Dandelion Day and if i were to choose a date when would the best date be. Anyhow i did some tinternet browsing this morning and found that not only is there already a National Dandelion Day - but apparently it's tomorrow!!*

I'm struggling to find the origin of the day: who decided there should be one, why that date in particular etc, but with most things on the internet, if it's been written down - it must be true.

And so sharing the date with 'National Bell Bottoms Day' and 'National Read a Road Map Day' (i'm not kidding) 5th April is National Dandelion Day**. Brilliant!

*It's also mentioned on a couple of websites that it is the 1st Saturday of May every year - so i suppose you can take your pick.
**It also seems that most websites are American - so i'm supposing National refers to there and not UK, however I'm happy to celebrate the day. Probably with a beer.


Wednesday 2 April 2014

Anna Atkins Dandelion


I mentioned in an earlier post that Fox Talbot had made a very early photograph of dandelion seeds in 1853, well Anna Atkins (1799 - 1871), recognized as the first female photographer, also made a very early cyanotype of a dandelion plant in 1854. The incredibly beautiful print is held in the V&A collection:

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O82810/dandelion-taraxacum-officinale-british-and-photograph-atkins-anna/