Musings

From the train, we could see fog wafting up from the Potomac and that the ice floes were visibly reduced compared to yesterday. By day’s-end we carried our heavy coats in temps that almost reached 70°F, and on our return trip there was still fog and the floes had become chips (almost).

Leaving the subway station, we walked by this Temperance Fountain. Am I the only one to find it ironic that the city cut off the water quite some time ago, so that the water sponsor Henry D. Cogswell hoped would slake the thirst of potential liquor-drinkers was no longer supplied? And when the monument was relocated in 1987, it still wasn’t reconnected. Of course, the overflow was no longer needed for a horse trough, either!

At one of my first stops in the Newseum, I discovered blooper-tiles in the ladies with headlines you probably don’t remember.

This one, however, you may well remember.

I also learned that this thrice-weekly got the scoop over the weeklies when the Declaration of Independence was signed. This was still two days after the signing…. Only nineteen copies of this historic front-page survive.

After lunch the overcast had thinned and we climbed Capitol Hill. And it is a hill. The visitor center is on the other side; we looped to the left, climbed, then descended to the VC entrance.

We took the next tour, which focused on frescoes by Constantino Brumidi (he began them in 1855). During the tour, we got a chance to see the views to the west, down the mall toward the Washington Monument.

We saw glorious Brumidi frescoes in Senate hallways, although his best-known work in the Capitol building is the ceiling of the rotunda. Brumidi was paid a substantial $10 per day, which covered his assistant and their supplies, with Brumidi taking about half. He augmented this salary by doing outside commissions. He did most of the ceilings, leaving the walls to his assistant, our guide said.

If you can tell the lower part of the left wall is darker, it is because restorers have left overpainting to show how the original work was obscured. The restoration was finished on this hallway about two years ago, and removed tobacco-smoke stains along with layers of added paint.

Leaving the Capitol we crossed to our enjoy the façade of the Supreme Court, also looming over DC on Capitol Hill. To help your eye with the scale, I’d estimate that the “normal” door opening is about 1/5th the height of the doorway in the stone.

On our way back to catch our return train, we passed in front of the Library of Congress, and saw more Classical-inspired artwork that was installed in 1898 beneath the monumental staircase leading to the main, formal building entrance. The central bronze is Neptune flanked by his two sons and accompanied by a large frog and coiling sea-snakes(?). This composition is in turn flanked by a pair of Naiads/Nereids—sea nymphs; only the south one shown here. You don’t have to look closely to observe that sculptor Roland Hinton Perry was inspired by the Trevi Fountain figures.

Another fantastic and fascinating DC day!

Posted at 6:49 PM | 1 Comment »

Here, the solstice was…gloomy. So I give you recent photos (from Tuesday)…

…and from Monday.

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We made a post-luncheon wander in a neighborhood (rather) far away…many different sights, like this watertower…

…and this nandina-framed window.

Posted at 6:39 PM | Comments Off on Inner NW Athens

Snow continued off and on since before dark yesterday, and that is mighty unusual in these parts. We got moving earlier than most people, with the full light, but in the still-quiet while most people, I imagine, were still enjoying their morning hot-drinks.

The pilot took Droney up after the snow stopped about 10am and began to melt, and this is the neighborhood.

And this is a neighbor-house, with snow-etched steps and a wreath on a red window-door. Couldn’t pass up a picture.

Twenty-eight years ago it snowed, too, but not this much. I know that because today is the Guru’s and my anniv.🥂🤩🏺🍓

Posted at 5:54 PM | 1 Comment »

We took advantage of the fine day, and went to a park where I went “off road” for the first time since, well, you know. I took it slowly and safely, carefully watching for gravel and gum balls that might tip my foot in a painful way.

I spotted these denizens of this tree-bark…and it’s not a very old tree. Fast growing moss and lichens!

Homebound, we passed by the surviving snaggletooth of the Georgia Dome, blown up a couple of weeks ago. I’m not sure if this is the spot where the Weather Channel camera was when the MARTA bus photobombed it. But maybe!

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We made an airport run this morning…well after the standard weekday traffic blockages had dissipated. Nice rays for a church-view, no?

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We took the fast road getting out of BigTown, then hit the back roads for some scenic, on our afternoon jaunt to LittleTown aka Athens.

After the cotton field of red clay, we visited this covered bridge, notable for not having steel reinforcement beams underneath it, yet still carrying traffic. It does, however, have a steel (aka “tin”) roof.

This is the Town lattice truss style of construction, and the pegs holding the beams/planks together are formally called trunnels. [Auto-correct wants that to be tunnels…which is #NOTright.] The bridge was moved here from another location in 1924, and I don’t know if the planks were numbered then or later….

In LittleTown, we saw family and had some good laughs, ate pizza, and commiserated about this #growinOLDstuff, creak-ouch.

Posted at 10:38 PM | 1 Comment »

May this year.

This Great Southern and Western Railway bridge is on the northwestern arc of the Ring of Kerry, west of Dooks (not Doors, auto-correct). Love the contrasting wedges of shadow and light on the uprights.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Arc on arc

I browsed the Ireland photos from this spring looking for a nice image for this space…and, in near-thumbnail, I thought this shield highlighted binoculars. I zoomed in. Nope, castle towers.

This decoration is high on the wall of a building facing Grafton Street in Dublin, between the second and third stories (by USA count).

Posted at 9:16 PM | Comments Off on Peering closely

This painting is by the English painter Joseph Gandy (1771–1843), and is called Jupiter Pluvius, and is dated 1819. We saw it at the Tate Britain last spring, on loan from Ray Harryhausen (1920–2013), a legendary stop-motion animator. Harryhausen took “a huge inspiration” from this painting.

You can tell by the image that Gandy and his brothers were architects, no? The setting is an ancient Greek town named Lebadeia, and now called Livadeia. I can’t tell why this place appealed to Gandy as a setting for this imaginary architectural complex, as there are no heights next to the real river. Maybe the name was what appealed to him? Given how many figures are on the bridge, it’s interesting how many areas there are basically empty of humans.

This is an appeal to the imagination and being calm, as we hear about real-world destruction by earthquake and hurricanes, as Jupiter Pluvius is the rain-giver version/aspect/epithet of this god of sky-weather-thunder.

Posted at 7:02 PM | Comments Off on Cross-cultural comment