Lost Art Treasures N0 12 : 'Astronomer Copernicus or Demonstrations of the Yo-Yo with God'

 

'Astronomer Copernicus - Krakow Yo-Yo Champion 1492 and 1493' oil on canvas by Jan's cousin Matt Matejko

"Copernicus proposed the 'Heliocentric Theory' which  promotes the view that the Earth orbits the Sun. Nowadays, this opinion is disputed all around the world by people on mobile phones and he is best remembered for his prowess with the Yo-Yo". 

The proof of the oven is in the eating

 

Naans from the wood-fired bread oven to accompany cracking good Toot Indian Cuisine

Our first Focaccia from the wood-fired bread oven 

The new doors survived the first firing of the refurbished oven with just a small amount of movement on the inner mild steel skin of the firebox door. 

The oven was originally designed and built as a barbecue grill with the fire underneath the cooking grid. This is not the preferred arrangement for a pizza or bread oven, as with the heat coming from the underneath, there is a tendency for the bottom of the dough to burn before the top is cooked  Having considered the problem, a sheet of 6mm thick mild steel has been ordered from everyone's favourite purveyor of ferrous and nonferrous metals 'Metals 4U', to act as a heat deflector positioned below the refractory fire clay tiles on which the bread dough cooks.  Hopefully this will deliver 'the perfect pizza' on a par with those fantastic pies cooked at  L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele - Naples.

It rained quite heavily yesterday morning. This underlined the requirement for a covered area where fire wood might be stored. So I retrieved my 'Chad Valley' junior boy carpentry outfit from the back of the 'Cabine'  and fashioned one from the bits and pieces of timber left over from previous carpentry garden exploits. See 'abbe laugier primitive hut' - who says a classical education is wasted on the common man!

I also appear to need to buy some more logs!

Anticipating the Yule Log

The Backyard Pizza Oven with its timber door

Since the pizza oven has been insulated, it has been operating at +500 degrees C which makes for 'fine' pizza but has played havoc with the oven and firebox doors.  The timber doors were protected with fire bricks and vermiculite panels but even so on the last firing the the back of the doors nearest the heat were carbonized and required replacement. This week, thermally insulated double skin mild steel doors have been fabricated in the Cabine and installed. Hopefully, these will not require replacement any time soon!

 

The carbonized rear of the old oven door looking like furniture reclaim from Herculaneum

The oven firebox with new thermally insulated twin walled mild steel door

The oven with new thermally insulated twin walled mild steel door

The oven with door removed showing the vermiculite hot tiles and trivet

When we travel to the Berlin Christmas Markets, Toot and I really enjoy eating the flat breads, raclette and fire roast salmon. Of course, if you want to keep the cold out, it pays to accept a glass or two of mulled wine - well it would be rude not to! 

Thanks to 'Covid19' and bloody 'Brexit' the chances of visiting brilliant Berlin this or even next Christmas appear remote. So not to be down hearted, we will reenact the Berlin experience in our backyard. We have raclette cheese in the freezer, plenty of flour and yeast in the pantry, loads of wine courtesy of Aldi, Iceland and Asda, spices from the Orient via Southend and World of Fish Lowestoft will no doubt provide top rate Yuletide salmon.

We have already reinforced the garden 'Chinese twinkly light panorama' - tastefully arranged and RIBA approved. The fire-pit 'roaster toaster' is ready to go for roasting the salmon and the 'pizza oven' is now operational for baking the flat breads. We only need Barry to rock up and take pride of place in his garden office and then Christmas 2020 can commence.

We hate you Covid19 virus but you wont stop us eating molten cheese until we become spleeny and  drinking spicy wine until our baubles drop off. So there you little sub microscopic bugger!

A little bit of rock a long way away - the planet Mars tonight

 

Mars a bright star amongst many stars shining overhead

Mars a tiny speck of rock lost in the vastness of space 

Mars a small world and fellow planet orbiting the Sun.

Mars is a small planet with a diameter approximately twice that of our Moon. It looks so much smaller than the Moon because it is 143 times further away. Conversely, Mars looks much brighter than the stars because it is so much closer than they are. Even small stars are enormous when compared with even the largest of planets. Space is truly vast and much of it is empty perhaps that is why it is called space? If you want to see some more images of Mars follow the link to the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Credit: All images courtesy of Kurt Thrust at the Jodrell Plank Observatory.