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A PINTEREST POST

Here’s another great photo I found on Pinterest recently of the swans at the Bishop’s Palace in Wells, who ring a bell when they want to be fed. The things one learns on Pinterest!

From the Bishop’s Palace website, where you’ll also see a live streaming “Swan Cam”:

The Bishop’s Palace is world famous for its swans who ring a bell alongside the gatehouse when they want food. The swans are trained to pull on a rope which sounds the bell ringing and sends the Palace Caretakers, Paul and Carol Arblaster running to fetch some bread and open the window to feed them. Perhaps you will be lucky enough to see them do this when you visit!

Swans at the Palace were first taught to ring a bell for food by the daughter of Bishop Hervey in the 1870s and the tradition continues to this day. Bread is tied in clumps to the rope attracting the swans to nibble at it and pull it off, when they do this the bell rings. Gradually less and less bread is tied onto the rope as they begin to understand that by pulling the rope and hearing the bell means food will soon follow.

Rest assured, the swans and ducks all get a lot of attention from tourists and staff around The Bishop’s Palace should Paul and Carol be away from the bell so they don’t go hungry, they also feed off the moat silt bed and surrounding environment.

You can watch a YouTube video of the swans ringing the bell here.

REDISCOVERING EGYPT

The Collection of the Dahesh Museum of Art

at The Patty and Jay Baker Museum of Art in Naples, FL, through May 18, 2014.

Click here for the Museum Website.

Charles–Théodore Frère (French, 1814-1888)

Along the Nile at Gyzeh

When Napoleon Bonaparte’s armies occupied Egypt in 1798, they were accompanied by scientists, historians, and archaeologists. The European world developed a fascination with Egyptian art, architecture, and culture. Well into the 20th century and to the present day, European artists have expressed their admiration in their interpretations of the allure of the ancient and modern cultures of the Nile.

Ernst Karl Eugen Koerner (German 1846-1927)

The Temple of Karnak: The Great Hypostyle Hall, 1890

Koerner traveled to Egypt in 1873-74, and painted the huge columns of the temple, placing the human figures to illustrate the vast size of the columns.

The Dahesh Museum of New York City is devoted to collecting academic art of the 19th and 20th centuries. Organizing many exhibitions for museums and contributing loans to other exhibitions around the world is the mission of the Dahesh. This exhibition is co-curated by Director of Exhibitions David Farmer and Associate Curator Alia Nour; it is intended to survey “…the West’s fascination with Egypt and its diverse visual representations from 1798 until 1890.”

Lawrence Alma Tadema (British,born in the Netherlands, 1836-1912)

Joseph, Overseer of Pharaoh’s Granaries, 1874

This painting by Alma Tadema was exhibited at London’s Royal Academy in 1874. The Old Testament’s Joseph is seated on the throne accompanied by a scribe counting the grain. Alma Tadema based the ancient Egyptian decoration and accoutrements in his picture on actual artifacts. Behind the throne is a painting now in the British Museum from the tomb of Nebamun.

The Baker Museum exhibition includes more than 90 works from the Dahesh Museum, the Mervat Zahid Cultural Foundation, and a private collection. In the words of the description, “With its broad themes and rich imagery, this exhibition demonstrates that the West’s visions of Egypt were fostered by many factors — not only political interest, but also new scientific and technological advances, methods of transportation, and communications, as well as Romanticism, and the changing art market.”

Karl Wilhelm Gentz (German, 1822-1890)

The Snake Charmer, 1872

Gentz contrasts the dangerous performance with the noble ruins of the Temple of Madinet Habu in Thebes.

Edwin Longsden Long (British, 1829-1891)

Love’s Labour Lost, 1885

Edwin Long was another artist who used the holdings of various museums and the work of scholars to create the details of his paintings. Here many objects are based on the works of British Egyptologist John Gardner Wilkinson. When the painting was shown at the Royal Academy, a poem by the artists son, Maurice St. Clair, was included.

“When like an opening bud the flower of Youth
Unfolds its petals to the light of Truth,
Then mimic toys and tales of wondorous lore,
By puppets acted, charm not as before.
Amusement wearies out her skill in vain,
And calls the aid of music magic strain;
But happy childhood’s limit passed for e’er
Youth rashly craves reality and care.”

In the painting, the young noblewoman has outgrown the antics of her servants.The central figure, presumably a noble Egyptian girl, has become and adult and is no longer interested in the childish entertainment of her servants.

Hermann David Solomon Corrodi (Italian, 1844-1905)

The Ambush near Gizeh

Corrodi’s work can be found in many collections including the Royal Collection, acquired by Queen Victoria and King George V.

If you are in the vicinity of Naples in the next few weeks, don’t miss these colorful and evocative paintings at the Baker Museum.

Rediscovering Egypt: The Collection of the Dahesh Museum of Art, is on view at

the Baker Museum, Artis,
Naples, Florida, through May 18, 2014.

THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON TOUR – VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS – PART 7

THE REGENCY TOWN HOUSE, HOVE

Upon leaving the Royal Pavilion, we’ll be traveling to nearby Hove for a tour of the Regency Town House. I visited a few years ago when the project’s originator, Nick Tyson, was still at the beginning of a scheme to restore the Town House to it’s original state. Nick led our tour group through the rooms which were being stripped of years of paint and wallpaper, with each layer being analysed for decorative research. The restoration process is still ongoing and you can read an interview with Nick in which he discusses present and future plans for the Town House here.

From the Regency Town House website:

The objectives of the Regency Town House are threefold:

Raise the profile of Brighton and Hove as a historic location.
Encourage the better preservation of the city’s built heritage.
Foster a wider appreciation of Regency architectural and social history.

To these ends we are working to provide visitors with a traditionally refurbished historic home, to offer a programme of events about the history and architectural heritage of Brighton and Hove, and to develop digital resources relating to life in the Regency period.

Each year we run a variety of courses aimed at providing building professionals and the occupants of historic buildings with a better understanding of the issues surrounding the conservation and upkeep of Georgian and Victorian property.

Their collections include the Bevan and Dewar family letters:

Provided to us by Patrick Baty, a descendant of the Bevan family, these letters give a fantastic insight into family life in the Regency period, covering topics from the everyday domestic, to war and the death of a child. Here we have reproduced the letters together with transcriptions undertaken by volunteers.

I happen to follow Patrick on Twitter, an historical paint consultant who has worked on many stately homes and historically significant properties, including Apsley House. Patrick also has a fantastic blog where you’ll find many articles of interest.

Our visit to the Regency Town House will provide our tour group with the rare opportunity to look behind the walls of a period home and to learn more about the preservation of historic properties.

You can watch a holiday “At Home” with the volunteers at the Regency Town House here in order to get an idea of the current state of the Town House.

To appreciate the enormity of the task ahead of the Regency Town House group, you can watch this clip from one of my favourtie shows, Grand Designs, featuring the restoration of a Georgian Town House in London. (55 minutes)

YOU’LL FIND FULL ITINERARY AND DETAILS OF

THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON TOUR HERE

IN THE GARDEN WITH KRISTINE

You may remember a previous post I did about the burrowing owl who had taken up residence on our front porch a few years ago, which you can read here.

This year, a pair of Northern Mockingbirds took up residence and constructed a nest in the shrubbery beside our driveway. Hubby and I kept an eye on the pair, fascinated as they built the nest and, soon after, deposited three, small, blue, speckled eggs within.

Every so often, we’d stand on tiptoe and peer down into the nest to see if any progress had been made. Before long, Hubby reported that two of the eggs had hatched. Did I want to go see the babies? No, I told him. I didn’t want to do anything that might spook the parents away from the nest.

Next day, Hubby reported that he thought one of the babies had died. This did prompt me to peek into the nest. One of the babies – pink and featherless, was moving slightly. The second bird simply lay there in the nest, unmoving.

Hhhhmmm. I told Hubby to leave the nest alone; that maybe something was wrong with the baby bird and that the parents would deal with it as nature dictated, but that we shouldn’t interfere with it.

Two days later, I dared to peek at the nest again and this is what I saw – two healthy baby birds. Now with feathers. And hungry, opened mouths. The bird we’d thought was ill or dead had apparently simply been sleeping. Joy!

We continued to peek at the babies over the next few days, until one day I looked, only to find that there was just one baby bird in the nest. Had the second fallen out? Fallen victim to prey? Panic set in until a movement caught my eye and I realized that the second bird had already left the nest and was sitting on a branch within the shrubbery.

By the time we checked in the next day, the babies were both venturing out of the nest, and out of the shrubbery, ready to greet the big, wide world as their parents watched from the telephone wire above.