Month: April 2013
Buckland Abbey Costumes
Hand crafted gentleman’s attire
A lovely gown made by the Costume Group
Sir Francis and his good wife
The collar detail
And lastly, the lady from my poem last week. She was very knowledgeable and when I admired her hat, she told me that Elizabeth 1st ruled that all ladies should wear woollen hats. This apparently was to help promote the growth of the woollen trade.
Wordless Wednesday
Buckland’s Books
I have just been inspired by a TV program to show you three books that I tried to photograph at Buckland Abbey last week. The program, The Century that Wrote Itself, sets out to trace ‘our modern sense of self back to when ordinary people first took up the quill’. These books were not written by ordinary people, but one at least would have been written with a quill.
This one is my favourite and its the oldest, a medieval Antiphonal from Italy in the late 14th century. An Antiphonal is a winter choir book giving the sung parts of the service for each day from the first Sunday of Advent to the feast of Pentecost.
CBBH Photo Challenge: Multi-Coloured
Marianne at http://eastofmalaga.net/ has chosen Multi-colored this month. Her own vibrant photos take on to Australia, Malaysia, Vietnam and New Zealand, check them out. Mine are all taken in Marrakech, one of my favourite places, with colour around every corner.
This challenge is a blog hop, to showcase two different blogs that you enjoy each time.
My first is Marina’s art blog http://marinakanavaki.com/ , her tagline is ‘Art Towards a Happy Day’, so very warm and generous. I love the way she uses her art not only as beautiful paintings but transferred to everyday items, at prices that make it accessible to all. Her work ‘As above so below’ is my favourite – so far.
Next, a relatively unknown blog http://2far2shout.wordpress.com/ , Tony has a light touch and describes himself as a slow traveler. He spent part of this winter in Australia and I loved his post about Kiama, God’s waiting room as he says! This time last year he was in India, returning to the places of his childhood. I have a copy of Hero on a Honda, his travel book about that trip.
I hope you visit and enjoy these two blogs!
I Went to the National Marine Aquarium . . .
. . . in Plymouth today with my kids! We saw anemones and jellyfish.
And fantastic fishies
As always click to see a slide show.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Change
I’m sure that many people will do the same as I have – a really difficult topic! So here is some weird woman showing how she has changed her hair over the last 14 years.
Join in the challenge at http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/04/12/weekly-photo-challenge-change/
My favourite entry this week by far! http://breathofgreenair.wordpress.com/2013/04/13/crumbling-stone-bones/
Buckland’s Newest Old Treasure
One of the reasons I went to Buckland last weekend was this painting. If you live in the UK, you will probably have heard recently that its been discovered that a painting given to the National Trust in 2010, has been investigated by experts and found to be no less than Rembrandt self portrait. It shows the Master, aged 29, in a hat with white feathers, and it is signed and dated 1635.
The National Trust has a collection of some 13,500 paintings but this is the only Rembrandt. It has been valued at around £20m, but can never be sold, it belongs to the nation. There are no plans to move it from Buckland, so if you want to see this valuable find, you’ll just have to visit Devon.
Buckland Abbey, a Few Inside Photos
Hampered by not being able to use flash I’m afraid!
A Fireplace since 1576!
Edwardian chapel
The hob, each area a different temperature
A bored volunteer making sure we didn’t pinch the artifacts!
A room with a view
Spinning corner
Going down
Laundry
Kitchn doorway
Family crest
The Georgian dining room
Tudor dresser
The Lazy Poets Thursday Haiku, Spectre
Grey spectre lady
waiting for precious lost love
four centuries past
Lucid Gypsy 