Scurvy Oaks

If you like American furniture, neoclassical architecture, 18th and 19th century portraits, old churches, old cars, and occasional pieces of opinion, this is the place for you. “The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing — to reach the Mountain, to find the place where all the beauty came from — my country, the place where I ought to have been born. Do you think it all meant nothing, all the longing? The longing for home? For indeed it now feels not like going, but like going back.” ― C. S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

Jim, it’s here. Really is here.

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

Jim, it’s here. Really is here.

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

Jim, it’s here. Really is here. Or, Brigadoon, New Hampshire.

Took a drive yesterday. And, I came across a small New Hampshire town that was like the towns I dreamed about when I was young.

This lunch spot was packed at 1:30 and my club sandwich took about 20 minutes. I didn’t mind, I enjoy people watching. To a person, everyone waiting was cheerful and friendly, even to this outsider. Which is unusual for New England where we practice reticence as though it were the law.

I ate my lunch seated on a bench in the town square and couldn’t escape the thought that I just might be the luckiest man in the world. Just to have made it this far is a miracle . Nobody was betting on me, except my mother. The odds were good that I’d be standing in line to punch in/out at the fiberglass plant instead of enjoying my life the way I do now.

Inside, I’m still that rube who doesn’t quite understand how this good life happened. I haven’t traveled much, life was busy; so I’m still awed by places and events you’d find to be cornball. So be it. I do know this much: I am deeply grateful for these moments.

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

Jim, it’s here. Really is here.

[typewriter-post]

[ltwilliammowett]

La Grace is a traditional tall ship and replica of an 18th-century brig inspired by Augustin Heřman, regarded as the first Czech seafarer. Built in Egypt between 2008 and 2010 by Czech and Slovak volunteers, she now sails as a training ship, keeping the traditions of historic seamanship alive.

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

Well, it's early nights

And pillow fights

And your soft laugh

Fantasy world and Disney girls

I'm coming back

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

Jim, it’s here. Really is here.

Country shade and lemonade

Guess I'm slowing down

It's a turned back world

With a local girl

In a smaller town

[no-one2ne1]

[sapiofeline]

Artsy Fartsy…?

[sweet-harmony]

…this is Bo Palace, founded in 1222, one of the oldest universities in the world and once home to great minds like Galileo Galilei. A place of knowledge, innovation, and centuries of academic tradition. It currently houses the rectorate, the law school, and boasts the world's oldest anatomical theater. The architecture of this palace - in the heart of Padua - with its marble, columns, and frescoes, make it a true masterpiece…

@sweet-harmony

[porcelainapparition]

Wareham, Massachusetts

circa 1774

[freiherr-von-naarenburg]

Two new sermons by St Augustine discovered

In a Latin manuscript from a monastery in Poland, a Latin scholar from Würzburg has found two new sermons by the Doctor of the Church, St Au

[beardedmrbean]

[rockyp77mk3]

LOL!

[beardedmrbean]

[protestantfaceofanglicanism]

Marvelous scene in Greenwich Hospital

[scurvyoaks]

"Old men who never cheated, never doubted, Communicated monthly, . . ."

[portrait-paintings]

Portrait of Clementina Hooper nee Burnside

Artist: Charles Howard Hodges RA (English, 1764-1837)

Date: 1820-1825

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter, England

About the Sitter: Clementina Hooper (nee Burnside) was born on 12 July 1803. At the age of twenty she married George Stanley Hooper (1797-1867) of the East India Company. The wedding was performed at St. George’s Church, Madras on 18 December 1823.

[periodinteriors]

Constantin Hansen (Danish, 1804-1880), A company of Danish artists in Rome [pictured left to right: Constantin Hansen, Martinus Rørbye, Wilhelm Marstrand, Albert Küchler, Ditlev Blunck and Jørgen Sonne], 1837, oil on canvas.