Washington Irving. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Cover Art by Margaret Armstrong. New York, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1899.
The art nouveau cover of this 1899 edition of the classic book bears little resemblance to the plain editions that preceded it or to its many subsequent dark and creepy covers.
Cover photo via: Books and Art
The book is available to read at The Internet Archive
Centre of Park Güell and home of the unofficial mascot of Barcelona is the fountain with the lizard statue. There’s some poor fucker who’s job it is to tell millions of tourists that they mustn’t sit down and I don’t envy them.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
Unflappable ©voyager, all rights reserved
It’s been my experience that herons are notoriously hard to get close to. They seem to see you coming a mile away and either long-leg it in the other direction or take flight. Not this guy. He’s at the park every morning in about the same spot and people just don’t seem to faze him. In that photo up there I’m about 10 meters away on the other side of the creek with Jack at my feet. Now, Jack is a calm sort of guy so he’s being quiet, but he’s already been in the creek splashing around a bit upstream and the heron looked at him once or twice and shrugged. Jack seems a bit in awe of the bird and always watches him closely. He’s either a bit intimidated or he’s trying to figure out his fishing technique. My bet is on the latter.
Joseph C. Sindelar. Nixie Bunny in Manners-Land. Illustrated by Helen Geraldine Hodge. Chicago, Beckley-Cardy Company, 1914.
©voyager, all rights reserved
My boy was all HappyJack™ this morning playing in the creek at the park. It isn’t my favourite place for him to swim because the water can be a bit smelly, but a quick dousing with the outdoor hose at home takes care of that easily enough. After the hosing Jack smells like an ordinary wet dog, which isn’t exactly odour-free, but it is familiar and I find it oddly comforting. Water equals pleasure for Jack and the whiffs of wet afterward tell me that my boy is tired and happy.
Jack fell asleep soon after getting home today (he is 11 after all) and I’m sure he’s dreaming about paddling and floating and maybe even catching a fish. I hope your day is filled with simple pleasures, too.
Some more details of the tiles at Park Güell. It certainly is one of my favourite places in Barcelona, once conceived as a settlement for workers, with a sustainable water recycling facility and communal area. It was never finished, but has become one of Barcelona’s tourist attractions.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
You can see how the colourful tiles have been smashed up in order to fit them to all the curved surfaces.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
Here they look more random. Anecdote has it that the Barceloneses thought Gaudí was crazy for commissioning perfectly good tiles and the smashing them all up…
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The building to the left is not part of Park Güell but an older one.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
This area is underneath the “balconies” we saw yesterday.
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It’s hard to see in the pic’s, but none of the columns goes up straight.
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This week we have another submission from VBFF, who tells me that they’ve placed these carved trees around the city where she lives as part of an effort to draw in tourists. I think this one is marvelous and I hope VBFF will send in a few more photos of these wonderful re-purposed trees …. hint, hint.
©VBFF, all rights reserved
John Muir. My First Summer in the Sierra; with Illustrations from drawings made by the author in 1869 and photographs by Herbert Gleason. Boston and New York, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1911.
via: The Internet Archive
I found recently this completely silly channel about a golden retriever. It made me laugh.
Open thread, talk whatevers, don’t be a sphincter.
Previous thread.
Early morning at the park ©voyager, all rights reserved
Our virtual vacation is over and Jack and I are ready to get back into our usual routines… sort of. My mother is approaching the end of her life and I’ve been spending my days at her nursing home which doesn’t leave me much time to take Jack out to his favourite trails. We’ve been managing by taking shorter walks around the neighbourhood in the early morning and late evening and Jack is just so happy to spend time with me that he hasn’t even complained. Poor Bubba is used to hanging out with me all day and he is not happy about me being gone so much. When I’m home he sticks to me like a lollipop on a cat, afraid that I’ll sneak out when his isn’t looking. This morning I made a point of taking some extra time to take him to our local park and it was such a joy to watch him splash and frolic that I’m going to try to do that every day. It’s good for both of us to have a small bit of normal in the form of fresh air and exercise. The blog is a good bit of normal for me, too.
There’s no wifi in my mom’s care home so that’s a bit of a challenge, but we’ll try to be here every day as usual.
Helen Leah Reed. Brenda’s Summer at Rockley. Boston, Little, Brown and company, 1901.
Cover photo via: Pinterest
The book is available to read at The Internet Archive
I think we had some of it already last year, and I noticed I didn’t take too many pics this year, but it’s still lovely, every single time. If you ever visit Barcelona and need some “Gateway Gaudí”, this is where you go. It#s reasonably priced, since this years there’s a shuttle bus from the underground station and you get all the quirky loveliness that characterises Catalan “Modernisme”.
©Giliell, all rights reserved You get the best panoramic view of the city
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
Part of it is under restauration, so you can see it without all the other people visiting.
Henrietta R Eliot. Laura’s Holidays. Illustrated by Etheldred B. Barry. Boston, Lothrop Publishing Company 1898.
via: The George Smithers Library, University of Florida Digital Collections