Ice rocks

My daughters saw Happy Feet yesterday, which reminded me of a marvellous blog I came across completely by chance last week. If you're fascinated by real live penguins - and many, inspired by last year's March of the Emperor, clearly are - this is the place to go.

Artist David Ruth has been awarded a National Science Foundation grant to study ice textures and forms in the Antarctic. He's there until later this month and is posting photos every day of ice, snow, glaciers, lichen, clear blue sea and skies, penguins, birds, seals, playful dolphins. His no-nonsense blog clears the head, and certainly focuses the mind on the fragility and vulnerability of this stunning environment.

http://davidruth.blogspot.com/2006/11/glacier-walk.html#links:

Updating this now in January, the Natural Environment Research Council is offering fellowships to writers and artists based in Britain to do something similar -


" The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and Arts Council England are pleased to announce this unique opportunity available to Artists and Writers across the art forms. Two individuals will be invited to spend up to 8 weeks in the Antarctic between November 2007 and March 2008. Working alongside Antarctic scientists and support staff on ships and research stations, the successful applicants will develop new work in response to this remarkable, frozen continent, a place of scientific challenge and a wilderness of great beauty."

The application form and further information are available on the British Antarctic Survey website www.antarctica.ac.uk