sandr018

Sometimes #reallife gets in the way of blogging so I've been noticeably absent even though I have many posts lined up! In lieu of a 'real' post I thought I'd share some great detail shots from my Penpal's latest trip to Great Britain.  Details matter!  These animals on the end of each pew make church fun! This pug makes me laugh! The carving on these column capitals is stunningly lifelike.   Ancient hand-painted encaustic tiles.  Beautiful colorful fabrics.  And of course in Great Britain everything is heavily gilded. If you got it flaunt it -isn't that the saying? People love to splash around coats of arms.  The polychrome sign above is pretty amazing, no?  A gutter collector box is always a beautiful feature -but in Great Britain they also come GILDED. Thats not the only gilded part of these ancient buildings.....strapwork hinges! I've never seen anything like this.  And save a bit of romance for last; together in life, together in death.

As you've probably noticed my penpal, Neil, sends me a lot of fabulous photos from his travels. Once in awhile something really strikes a cord though and I fall instantly in love. That happened when he sent me his photos of Buscot Park . A country house in Oxfordshire, west of London, the strict Georgian house was originally built in 1783. As with many old houses over the years it was changed and added onto but then something interesting happened: in 1934 the owner, the 2nd Lord Faringdon, had the additions demolished and the house restored to it's original neoclassical form. Faringdon hired the fashionable society architect Geddes Hyslop to not only restore the house to its original form but modernize it with the usual bathrooms and amenities (including a swimming pool) and flank the house with 2 detached Palladian wings. Hyslop was a very capable architect for he believed that his works were to blend in with their surroundings and not create brash 'statements' or com...