You know I love your laid-back style, but do you think it's time to get rid of the rotting pumpkins and put up a few Christmas decorations?
Sunday, December 16, 2012
'Tis the Halloween Season?
Dear Larryvillers,
You know I love your laid-back style, but do you think it's time to get rid of the rotting pumpkins and put up a few Christmas decorations?
You know I love your laid-back style, but do you think it's time to get rid of the rotting pumpkins and put up a few Christmas decorations?
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Monday, September 3, 2012
Consequences
This is what you look like the day after you nudge a glass casserole dish off the table and eat all the lemon bars and brownies in it.
Do you think she will remember what she felt like on this day the next time she is tempted to jump up and eat a whole tray full of human food? I don't know. Do hangovers stop people from over-indulging?
How can you be angry with such a pathetic face?
Here she's thinking, "Is taking pictures of me really helping the situation?"
The good news is that 24 hours later she seems to have recuperated just fine. Tough life lesson, though. (And by life lesson, I don't mean "all things in moderation" for her. I mean "don't underestimate the dog's desire and ability to get to food" for me!)
Sunday, September 2, 2012
This truck deserves its own post
It never ceases to amaze me how many antique (or just plain old) cars and trucks are in my town. I came across this one today while out walking the dog.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Catalpalicious
(back in Lawrence)
This, ladies and gentlemen, is a catalpa tree. When I had a catalpa tree in my backyard, I didn't rake the leaves, I picked them up individually (with a forklift).
This, ladies and gentlemen, is a catalpa tree. When I had a catalpa tree in my backyard, I didn't rake the leaves, I picked them up individually (with a forklift).
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Crestwood, MO
Crestwood is a sweet little area near the University of Missouri-Kansas City campus, where you have to be very short to be a resident.
I was getting the vibe that they wouldn't appreciate people taking pictures of their houses, so I only took pictures of houses for sale:
I was getting the vibe that they wouldn't appreciate people taking pictures of their houses, so I only took pictures of houses for sale:
All the yards and gardens are so well maintained that I felt that if you went two days too
long without weeding or cutting the grass, a neighborhood group would come calling.
They even have a neighborhood shopping district for your everyday shopping needs (if your everyday shopping needs include alpaca sweaters, Georgian antiques and $7 coffees).
So, in conclusion, while Crestwood may be near a university campus, it is nothing like our favorite college town.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
il TRENTUNO di luglio
Ponte Vecchio, 31r
A gold store on the Ponte Vecchio. Every time I cross the Ponte Vecchio I thank Ferdinando I (a Medici, of course) for forcing the butchers and fishmongers to leave the bridge and replacing them with goldsmiths.
A bridge in this location has been crossing the Arno since Roman times, but this particular bridge dates back to the 1300s.
See anything you like?
Dear Readers, this blog challenge ended up being a little more challenging than I thought it would be. I'm looking forward to just taking pictures of strange things in Lawrence .... which are easy to find wherever I go.
A gold store on the Ponte Vecchio. Every time I cross the Ponte Vecchio I thank Ferdinando I (a Medici, of course) for forcing the butchers and fishmongers to leave the bridge and replacing them with goldsmiths.
A bridge in this location has been crossing the Arno since Roman times, but this particular bridge dates back to the 1300s.
See anything you like?
Dear Readers, this blog challenge ended up being a little more challenging than I thought it would be. I'm looking forward to just taking pictures of strange things in Lawrence .... which are easy to find wherever I go.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Sunday, July 29, 2012
il VENTINOVE di luglio
via del Giglio, no. 29
The house where John Milton lived (and where he was inspired to plagiarize Dante)
Walking around town, you can see where George Eliot, Washington Irving, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Shelley, among other foreign writers, lived and worked.
Here's a more scenic 29:
The house where John Milton lived (and where he was inspired to plagiarize Dante)
Walking around town, you can see where George Eliot, Washington Irving, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Shelley, among other foreign writers, lived and worked.
Here's a more scenic 29:
Saturday, July 28, 2012
il VENTOTTO di luglio
via Fiesolana, no. 28
La casa di Giuseppe Martelli.
If I've learned nothing else walking around, reading all the plaques on the walls, it is that if you want to be remembered after your death (in Florence, at least) you should be an architect or an engineer. This guild must make it its goal to commemorate the house of any even somewhat notable architect or engineer who ever lived there.
This is the house of Giuseppe Martelli who was the official government architect for 20 years in the early 1800s.
La casa di Giuseppe Martelli.
If I've learned nothing else walking around, reading all the plaques on the walls, it is that if you want to be remembered after your death (in Florence, at least) you should be an architect or an engineer. This guild must make it its goal to commemorate the house of any even somewhat notable architect or engineer who ever lived there.
This is the house of Giuseppe Martelli who was the official government architect for 20 years in the early 1800s.
Friday, July 27, 2012
il VENTISETTE di luglio
via di mezzo, no. 27
Casa di Filippo Pacini
Who? Filippo Pacini, of course. You don't think he's worth a plaque? Ask yourself this question: Do I have cholera? If your answer is NO, then you have Pacini to thank.
Oh...and I was a little desperate for a 27.
Casa di Filippo Pacini
Who? Filippo Pacini, of course. You don't think he's worth a plaque? Ask yourself this question: Do I have cholera? If your answer is NO, then you have Pacini to thank.
Oh...and I was a little desperate for a 27.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
il VENTISEI di luglio
Borgo Pinti, no. 26
Casa di Giambologna
His works in the Bargello are for the birds.
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Casa di Giambologna
His works in the Bargello are for the birds.
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il VENTICINQUE di luglio
Costa dei Magnoli, no. 25
I couldn't find anything that said that someone important once lived here but surely, surely it has some historical significance, doesn't it?
I couldn't find anything that said that someone important once lived here but surely, surely it has some historical significance, doesn't it?
Monday, July 23, 2012
il VENTIQUATTRO di luglio
via Giuseppe Giusti, no. 24
My apartment in Florence
I'd like to meet this upstairs neighbor:
Before the Four Seasons took over the Giardino della Gherardesca and made it open only to its guests, my building used to have access to this pocket of green in the city. Now, sadly, this door remains locked.
My apartment in Florence
I'd like to meet this upstairs neighbor:
Before the Four Seasons took over the Giardino della Gherardesca and made it open only to its guests, my building used to have access to this pocket of green in the city. Now, sadly, this door remains locked.
The building dates back to the 1600s. Based on this ceiling, I'm sure that it was very impressive before it was divided up into separate apartments.
This whole cornice of the loft space in the apartment is trompe l'oeil. Amazing!
Ok. If my residence isn't important enough, how about Borgo San Lorenzo, 24, where Michel Montaigne lived in 1580 and in 1581?
Sunday, July 22, 2012
il VENTITRE' di luglio
Lungarno Amerigo Vespucci, 23r
The house where Luigi Napoleone, King of Holland, lived and died. It is also the building where the great Italian author Alessandro Manzoni lived for a while.
This is a bit of a cheat for #23, but it demonstrates and interesting point about addresses in Florence. Red numbers, designated with a little case "r," were always commercial addresses, while black numbers (even though they are in blue) are residential numbers. In this picture, you have 22r, 4, and then 24r. Some streets can have the same number, in either red or black, in two different locations. Not confusing at all.
Here's a picture of this residence from across the Arno.
The house where Luigi Napoleone, King of Holland, lived and died. It is also the building where the great Italian author Alessandro Manzoni lived for a while.
This is a bit of a cheat for #23, but it demonstrates and interesting point about addresses in Florence. Red numbers, designated with a little case "r," were always commercial addresses, while black numbers (even though they are in blue) are residential numbers. In this picture, you have 22r, 4, and then 24r. Some streets can have the same number, in either red or black, in two different locations. Not confusing at all.
Here's a picture of this residence from across the Arno.
il VENTIDUE di luglio
via Gino Capponi, no. 22
Where Andrea del Sarto died.
Andrea del Sarto (1486-1530), the artist "without errors," was probably more famous when he was alive than after his death. His monochromatic frescoes in the Chiostro dello Scalzo stand out in contrast to the bright blues and reds and golds in most Renaissance art.
Why all the skulls? This was the meeting place of a company of men dedicated to helping the disenfranchised (poor, prisoners, those condemned to death) at the end of their lives. Also, according to the most helpful guard I've ever come across at any site in Italy, the catacombs had just been discovered in Rome and there was a fascination with the dead and the grotesque at that time.
Vasari, the author of The Lives of the Artists, was an apprentice to Andrea del Sarto. He wrote at length of Vasari's submission to his "faithless" and "vixenish" wife.
The art critic John Ruskin was not a fan. He called Andrea del Sarto's Madonna with St. John and St. Francis a "heap of cumbrous nothingness and sickening offensiveness."
Here's hoping that you have a good day and that it not be a "heap of cumbrous nothingness."
Where Andrea del Sarto died.
Andrea del Sarto (1486-1530), the artist "without errors," was probably more famous when he was alive than after his death. His monochromatic frescoes in the Chiostro dello Scalzo stand out in contrast to the bright blues and reds and golds in most Renaissance art.
Why all the skulls? This was the meeting place of a company of men dedicated to helping the disenfranchised (poor, prisoners, those condemned to death) at the end of their lives. Also, according to the most helpful guard I've ever come across at any site in Italy, the catacombs had just been discovered in Rome and there was a fascination with the dead and the grotesque at that time.
Vasari, the author of The Lives of the Artists, was an apprentice to Andrea del Sarto. He wrote at length of Vasari's submission to his "faithless" and "vixenish" wife.
The art critic John Ruskin was not a fan. He called Andrea del Sarto's Madonna with St. John and St. Francis a "heap of cumbrous nothingness and sickening offensiveness."
Here's hoping that you have a good day and that it not be a "heap of cumbrous nothingness."
Saturday, July 21, 2012
il VENTUNO di luglio
via Cavour, no. 21
Gathering place of the Macchiaioli.
Aha! It's not all Renaissance art in Florence. The Caffe' Michelangiolo was where, in the 19th century, the Macchiaioli met to discuss arts and politics. They are Italy's answer to French Impressionists.
What do you think? Do you like their work?
Gathering place of the Macchiaioli.
Aha! It's not all Renaissance art in Florence. The Caffe' Michelangiolo was where, in the 19th century, the Macchiaioli met to discuss arts and politics. They are Italy's answer to French Impressionists.
What do you think? Do you like their work?
il VENTI di luglio
Piazza del Duomo, no. 20
La Misericordia di Firenze
(Can you see the Campanile reflected in the window?)
This religious organization dates back to 1244, with the mission to help the sick and bury the dead. Over its long history, it has succored the poor during the plagues of the 1300s and 1600s, assisted those suffering from the Spanish Flu in 1919, provided aid to the wounded during WWII, and started giving tetanus shots just days after the flood of 1966. I guess I should have a little more patience for its ambulances which block the Piazza del Duomo.
I visited its museum this trip, only to discover that just one room is open to tourists in July and August because, of course, so few tourists are in Florence in those months.
La Misericordia di Firenze
(Can you see the Campanile reflected in the window?)
This religious organization dates back to 1244, with the mission to help the sick and bury the dead. Over its long history, it has succored the poor during the plagues of the 1300s and 1600s, assisted those suffering from the Spanish Flu in 1919, provided aid to the wounded during WWII, and started giving tetanus shots just days after the flood of 1966. I guess I should have a little more patience for its ambulances which block the Piazza del Duomo.
I visited its museum this trip, only to discover that just one room is open to tourists in July and August because, of course, so few tourists are in Florence in those months.
il DICIANNOVE di luglio
Costa S. Giorgio, no. 19
La casa di Galileo Galilei
Ok, I fell behind posting because this one was across town and up a steep hill and I knew that I had to wait until I had a free (cooler) morning to walk over there.
Most of Galileo is buried here, in Santa Croce.
But a few fingers and a tooth are here, in the museum dedicated to the history of science:
La casa di Galileo Galilei
Ok, I fell behind posting because this one was across town and up a steep hill and I knew that I had to wait until I had a free (cooler) morning to walk over there.
Most of Galileo is buried here, in Santa Croce.
But a few fingers and a tooth are here, in the museum dedicated to the history of science:
When he died he wasn't allowed to be buried in a sanctified cemetery, but 100 years later, after overwhelming evidence supported his views, his body was moved. A science historian who was at the burial ceremony, however, couldn't resist cutting off parts of the scientific genius and keeping them for himself.
Friday, July 20, 2012
il DICIOTTO di luglio
Eighteen Medici balls
Everywhere you go in town you are faced with the Medici balls. Here are just three examples.
In the Convent of San Marco. Pretend there are six balls -- it's too hot to go out and find another set of six.
Thanks. In exchange for pretending there were six balls, I'll let you see the pretty cloister:
At the Medici Chapel:
In Ss. Annunziata:
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