The Countess Olivia

40s, married, bespectacled and boring. Writes fic and bakes. The Terror, Hannibal, London / UK theatre. On AO3

[nevermindtheblizzard]

ARTISTS AND WRITERS WANTED for HAZARDOUS JOURNEY on JOINT CREATIVE VENTURE

Never Mind the Blizzard is an upcoming zine dedicated to the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration, and we now invite all artists and writers interested in this colourful period of polar history to submit work to us!

So, grab your sledging pencil or polar paint kit—we’re looking for:

Anything under the umbrella of visual arts, including paintings, illustrations, comics, collage, diagrams, printmaking, and more.

Creative writing: short pieces of fiction, vignettes, creative nonfiction, poetry, etc.

Any combination of these.

In other words: if it (1) relates to an Antarctic expedition taking place between 1897 and 1922 and (2) can be put to (digital) paper, send it our way! Playfulness and formal experimentation is encouraged, and everyone is invited to contribute regardless of skill level. Please see the submission guidelines on our website for a few more details.

Submit your finished work HERE by August 15th (23:59 GMT).

[quietdaffodil]

Young Tobias Menzies (from 1994 newspaper clipping)

[nemfrog]

A record player used to introduce penguins to music. Ice bound in the South polar seas. 1925. Illustration by Olive Lofts.

Internet Archive

[tinytuunbaq]

hms erebus: a woolie

please excuse any rigging and colour inaccuracies, i went off a moodboard of various sources for erebus's shapes and colours, as well as a layperson's eye for what i can only describe as many big ropes. there were so many ropes. i don't understand all the ropes.

sailors woolworks (or woolies) were embroidered tapestries that those at sea wove to pass the time and capture the likeness of their vessels. here's a good article if you're keen to read more about them. but the tl:dr; is that they showed ships broadside, full sail. in embroidery terms, the lack of dimensional detail makes them a surprisingly good project for a beginner!!

as i said to a pal, there's something that feels very beautiful and democratised about creating folk art now, in a time when we've put art, and access to it, on such an expensive and exclusionary pedestal.

[nobrashfestivity]

Unknown, Photograph of Northern Lights over Roald Amundsen’s ship Maud, 1918–1925

[i-am-countess-olivia]

Sunday baking. Sourdough and pavlova nests with berries from the plot.

[i-am-countess-olivia]

A yawning chasm exists at the moment between the balmy weather and the pleasant peace of the plot and all the delights of summer - and what life is dishing out.

The looming loss of a sick friend. A family diagnosis you’re uncertain is being spun for your benefit.

And here I am, toes all toasty from the sun.

[jelatinivan]

huh

[i-am-countess-olivia]

Late June plot shots ans harvest. Sunday baking was a Swiss roll with raspberries from the allotment. Also went sea swimming. Survived the heatwave. Still here.

[boldvisions]

The ramparts of Mount Erebus. Ross Island near Antarctica during the Terra Nova expedition, 1911.

Herbert Ponting

[girlnaviy]

there is wonder here

[fitzyames]

some tobias menzies reaction gifs i have made

[magneticrabbit]

[clove-pinks]

"Sir John Franklin died on the 11th June 1847": a marginal note beneath All Well on the Victory Point Record.

[tigerballoons]

Clicking about on Marine Traffic, as one does when avoiding work, and apparently there's a pleasure craft called Erebus off the Antarctic peninsula...

[i-am-countess-olivia]

James Clark Ross??? Is that you??

[the-penalty-box]

I recently learned an old French euphemism for bisexuality. It means to be powered "by sail and steam," and it absolutely comes from a specific flavor of 19th-century ship.

HMS Terror and Erebus were bisexual, you heard it here first.

Happy Pride!

[i-am-countess-olivia]

Hey, do you have another link to the source of this post?

The google drive link just said that the file doesn't exist.

Thank you very much for helping unearth this heartbreaking bit of Crozier's story!

I don't know which post you mean @thenastsolstice but I will presume you're referring to this one, related to planning of Crozier's monument in Banbridge.

Here is a screengrab of the dead link article - apologies for the crappy copy.