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| 2: Not sending you for the shopping again! |
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| 3: Lichtenstein Castle. |
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| 8: Lake Chiemsee, Bavaria. (Thank you, David.) |
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| 12: Arashiyama, Japan. |
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| 14: Thanks Jim. |
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| 16: Kids, huh? They just come back and bite you on the butt. |
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| 18: Paddle Steamer with a difference. |
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| 21: Edinburgh Castle with a bit of an omen in the sky. |
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| 25: Don't worry, Panda Paws... :) |
I want that three tier house by the stream. Incidentally it is still Saturday up here, have you been smoking your 'pipe' again?
ReplyDeleteThat house (No. 13) is Fallingwater, one of Frank Lloyd Wright's most famous works. It's 43 miles, or 69 kilometers southeast of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and well worth the effort to go there and take a tour. I was there several years ago in November, when there was snow on the ground. The setting and the house were (and are) stunning.
DeleteThen, when we were in Scotland in 2009, my wife and I saw what Charles Rennie Mackintosh wrought with the Glasgow School of Art, the Willow Tearooms, et. al. To this day we think that Mackintosh had to be an antecedent of some kind to the Prairie Style Wright later made so famous.
DeleteIt's an architectural wonder, Falling-water, but it has leaked since it was built. Flat roof construction has always been the same, nevertheless, its still a beautiful structure.
Jeez Crabbie Johnnie boy. Did you not get to the pub tonight. Did it blow away? I always put up Soppy Sunday on a Saturday night to I can have a long lie and not deprive Panda Paws of her orangs!
DeleteWhat do you know about my pipe? Has Niko been gossiping?
I'm a big lover of old traditional houses, Jon, but this one is absolutely spectacular. And of course the setting is fabulous.
DeleteIn view of the recent floods here I'd be very wary of having a river anywhere near my home, although I've always dreamed of a stream running though my garden.
Long time no see. I trust you are well and enjoying the build up to the election. :)
Yep Jim. I think flat roofs are best suited to North Africa where I've seen so many of them... and where it's pleasant to sleep on them on hot nights.
DeleteAnywhere where it rains much a flat roof is a potential nightmare.
I don't think the water fall's helping. Although, that's the reason the house/holiday home is there in the first place.
DeleteThe stream running under the house flows into the Youghiogheny River – a superb piece of river for rafting/kayaking/canoing (done it many times).
DeleteYou cannot see the house from the river though.
"Fallingwater" is cool. But I've never been in the Pittsbugh area to take the tour. If I lived there, I wonder if I'd get accustomed to the constant sound of the waterfall which Wiki says permeates the house. The elder Mr. Kaufmann, the Pittsburgh Department store owner who had it built is said to have called it a "seven bucket building" and nicknamed it "Rising Mildew."
DeleteLooks as if it is set in wonderful countryside BSJ. I wonder if the secrecy of the house was deliberate, or if the trees have just grown to hide it.
DeleteHa ha Danny. The joy of living by water is always tempered by the fact that water gets everywhere, one way or another.
DeleteI would describe the country round about as hills rather than mountains - mostly grassland with some grain crops. The Yough valley in that area has a lot of trees. Not sure how far above the river the house is but when I visited, I could not hear the river from part way down the path to the river, so I knew it was quite far down.
DeleteI'd love to visit...
DeleteYou make it sound appealing.
DeleteThe "History" section of the Wikipedia article "Fallingwater", contains interesting information on the site that was chosen for the house on "Bear Run" that flowed through the Kaufmann property. Mr. Kaufmann's original desire was for his house to be built farther downstream on Bear Run with a VIEW of the falls above. Kaufmann was initially not happy with Wright's concept to build the house on top of the falls. There is a picture of the house in the Wiki article on "Bear Run" that was taken in the winter. There are no leaves on the trees, and you see more of the house and the site.
DeleteThe squirrel's cute, pity it's not a red though.
ReplyDeleteTrue Jim... but as cute as a button (as they say).
Deletethose were lovely. I've actually been to No 8 and in the island is mad King Ludwig's copy of Versailles, one day I might see the original. I wondered if no 9 is Tris' fair hand given he talks about "his" mice. What is it about pro-indy blogs and rodents!!
ReplyDeleteAnyway I'm a happy bunny due to TWO Scottish Grand slam champions yesterday - congrats Gordon Reid and Jamie Murray (with Bruno Soares). Today's isn't on council telly until the highlights at 2pm. It would be just like Andy to win when we can't watch him...
Thanks for the orang and the rabbit and the foxes and the...
No, I can't claim the hand as mine, PP.
DeleteMy mice are timid. I only see them rarely, which is a shame, I'd love to have them run over my hands.
I've discovered that they absolutely LOVE corn on the cob, specially with loads of butter!
Congratulations to Messers Reid and Murray (and Soares) and Good luck to Andy.
...and you're welcome.
Morning all, and what a great set of photo's once again Tris.
ReplyDeleteMorning Gerry... Glad you enjoyed them.
Deletelove the soppy Sunday
ReplyDeleteSo glad you do Steve... That makes it worthwhile. :)
DeleteNo 7 - Alex Salmond in disguise?
ReplyDeleteThe rabbit pic is brilliant.
zog
Eck when he was better looking!!!
DeleteNumber 14 doing the Nazi salute. Disgusting. I shall report him if he does not donate any money to my charity (Xtorsion). I will hound him if payment is not forthcoming. Address for donation - Behind the wash basins, Ladies toilet, Seagate Bus Station, Dundee. p.s. Cash only.
ReplyDeleteYou're quite right to report him. it is beyond the pale.
DeleteI'm just wondering, Marcia... just to be sure, you know... your charity is all above board and stuff isn't it?
Just asking...
tris, of course it is. The Battle of Bannockburn War Widows and Orphans Fund to give it's full name. A very needy cause. Not many applications for help though.
DeleteOK Marcia. It's just that Munguin's very careful about where he puts his cash. He wouldn't want to be associated with anything dodgy!!
DeleteBut that is indeed a very worthy cause, and you can expect one of Munguin's cheques winging its way to you in the near to distant future.
It ain't no Nazi.
DeleteIt's a Sunda Colugo, or flying lemur; though it doesn't fly nor is it a lemur.
LOL!!!
Delete"The Battle of Bannockburn War Widows and Orphans Fund"
DeleteOoh, looks like a cut and paste job to me.
Might be my glasses, but is the (alleged) flying lemur using it's rear leg to perform the salute? Maybe it's a member of that new right wing group called GymNaztix.......
I'm here all week.......
zog
Oh ye of little faith.
DeleteFek me! It's hang on to the tree. You get caught by the fekin paparazzi, in a comprising position. Next thing you know, your akin to white power arseholes, and gymnasts with extreme right wing vaulting techniques.
DeleteLOL LOL
DeleteGood evening, all (just 1:20 p.m. here). Since I can't get Javascript to let me reply on the Fallingwater thread...
ReplyDeleteWe've heard from docents there and at other FLW homes (Robie House here, Taliesin up in Wisconsin, and Taliesin West out in Arizona, among others) that Wright's designs were so far ahead of their time that only now have construction materials and techniques caught up. Of course, this comes from Wright-wingers, so perhaps it's best to take that with a grain of salt.
The Appalachian landscape around Pittsburgh is definitely more hill than the Rocky Mountains, but much more mountainous than here which one, um, colorful expression describes "as flat as piss on a paper plate." I should note, however, that the Appalachians are but the westernmost portion of your mountains, thrust up hundreds of millions of years ago when we were next door neighbors in Pangaea.
As for our quadrennial Silly Season, Illinois' primary election is 15 March, so the TV ads will soon be upon us. Luckily "The Story" downloaded last week so I have that to help drown out the mayhem.
Yes, sometimes Blogger can be a complete pain.
DeleteInteresting about the Wright designs...clever!!!
Danny is keeping me up to date with the circus and the performing animals...in particular the Orange bloke!!!
I always think if I lived in the States I'd want to get out and live in Peru for the duration.
I think, given a decent damp proof course, that Falling Water is the house I would most want to live in. It is the most spectacular blend of a house with the landscape around it that I have ever seen.
DeleteThough the sound of running water is not what an old man needs to here in the middle of the night! (Too much information?)
I don't know about that, being in tune with the landscape. I always thought it fought against it's environs.
DeleteMy personal preference, would be a black house; up rated to the 21st century.
What would that look like? Assuming it too was sat on top of the waterfall.
DeleteI see harmony, you see conflict. It is all OK and a matter of opinion, but I genuinely admire what FLW did there. If there has to be any human occupation of landscape then the, obviously rich, benefactors did the monkey writing Shakespeare trick. They got it completely right.
It is undoubtedly a beauty spot without the house. But, imho, it becomes something more with the addition of the house.
Just saying. I was gobsmacked when I first saw that away back when. I am a tad surprised to find that I still am. I have changed my views on numerous things in the interiim, it is nice, for me, to see some continuity in my nature.
Best wishes.
Something like this...
Deletehttps://www.bing.com/images/search?q=black+houses+isle+of+lewis&view=detailv2&&id=A03386DB2652B55426C39B09CB2FC9690398CEE0&selectedIndex=10&ccid=EHIX7w1C&simid=608048012849516214&thid=OIP.M107217ef0d421185443551f895482dfco0&ajaxhist=0
But with all mod-cons.
When looking more at Falling Water, a thought occurred.
DeleteMaybe that's what FLW was aiming for, a juxtaposition of "blending" in by following the landscape and the waterfall and stream, and "fighting it's environs, with use of the large modernist concrete cantilevered roof and floor members.
Even within the structure, you have the natural, mixed, with the man made.
It is an impressive piece of architecture, whose design has stood the test of time, if not the fabric of which it is constructed.
He must have been aware of the contrast of his materials and the nature around him.
DeleteDid he ever write about his intentions?
I haven't a clue, I'll have a quick look around the interweb.
DeleteHe wanted the concrete elements to be coated in gold leaf. Which I suppose would blend it more with it's surroundings, especially in the autumn.
Deletehttp://www.fallingwater.org/38/fallingwater-facts
*hear even, as we say on modern media.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is that it is both harmony and conflicts surely.
DeleteD**n that Munguin and his Soppy Sunday pictures! ;-)) The animal pictures are cute of course, but my specialty is history and architecture, and (similar to Castle Sween) he sends me off on a wild goose chase of Wikipedia research to figure out what's going on.
ReplyDeleteToday, I first took notice of the fact that Lichtenstein Castle must be very old, and it looks like it's perched very precariously on that mountain. Then I looked more closely and realized that it doesn't even LOOK like the castle I've seen in pictures of the place where the Prince of Lichtenstein lives. So I immediately discovered that like almost all cool looking old castles that we see these days, it's NOT. Not old that is! Turns out that there's been castles on that site since 1200, and those castles have been destroyed, fell into ruin, burned, or have otherwise come to grief. So this castle we see is not old at all. It was built in the 1840's in the romantic Gothic Revival design to LOOK old. And it's owned by a GERMAN duke. Yes, it's in Germany. NOT Lichtenstein.
Then I discovered that there's a Lich-tenstein Castle.........and there's a LiEch-tenstein castle. OK....NOW I'm thinking we have the one I've seen before that must surely be the home of the Prince of LiEchtenstein. So I found the old 12th century Liechtenstein Castle down in Austria near Vienna. However, that 12th century structure was destroyed by the Ottomans in 1529 and 1683, and was rebuilt to look old in 1884. The Liechtenstein family owns it, but it's still not the residence of the Prince of Liechtenstein.
Finally, I found where the Prince of Liechtenstein actually lives, in the castle which I recognize. His home is....not surprisingly......IN Liechtenstein, and it's called "Vaduz Castle." Parts of it are actually as old as the 12th century, but what is seen today is mostly early 20th century restorations, and an expansion from the early 1930's. So once again, it's very cool and not really very old. But nevertheless, we finally found the Prince's place.
BTW, I was a little disappointed some years ago to find out that Westminster Abbey (which we are always told dates from Edward the Confessor in the mid-11th century) was rebuilt by Henry III in the newer Gothic style and dates from the late 13th century. At least the Victorians managed not to rebuild it and add ornamentation to make it look older, like they did some of Windsor Castle.
PS Tris:
ReplyDeleteWhile I was at it. I investigated No. 21 "Edinburgh Castle" to see if it is a genuinely old castle and not maybe a modern tourist site built a few years ago by Donald Trump to attract people to his posh golf resorts in Scotland. ;-))
I'm happy to report to you that Edinburgh Castle is genuinely old and historic, with the age of its structures varying as is normal for a site that has been in continuous use. Wiki says that there has been habitation there since the second century AD, and that a royal castle has existed on Castle Rock since at least the reign of David I in the 12th century. Edinburgh Castle has been besieged 26 times over a span of more than 1000 years making it the most besieged site in Great Britain. While few of the existing structures predate a destructive siege that occurred in the sixteenth century, there are exceptions. Notably the early 12th century St. Margaret's Chapel, the oldest building in Edinburgh. A very cool looking old place:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St_Margarets_Chapel.JPG#/media/File:St_Margarets_Chapel.JPG
http://parliamenthouse-hotel.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/10102187675_1983eff1a4_z.jpg
PPS Tris:
ReplyDeleteI meant to include a picture of "Vaduz Castle", the residence of Hans-Adam II, the Prince of Liechtenstein.
http://www.electrummagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Vaduz_Castle_Liechtenstein.jpg
In finding the picture, I found out a few things about the Prince. He is filthy rich (multiple billions of dollars), and he has real political power. In 2003, he revised the constitution to expand his powers, and it was passed by a referendum of the people of Liechtenstein. The prince had threatened to leave the country if the referendum didn't pass. In 2012, the people overwhelmingly rejected a referendum that would have curtailed the Prince's power to veto the outcome of future referendums.
So from an American perspective.....where Kings and Princes have been evicted from our shores at the point of a gun.....it is my humble opinion that the people of Liechtenstein are idiots and the Prince of Liechtenstein is a jerk.
Goodness...what a lot of history Danny.
ReplyDeleteLichtenstein and Liechtenstein is rather confusing.
The castle itself a Vaduz is a fantastic building is a magnificent setting, and while there are arguments about houses with waterfalls, and black houses on teh Isle of Lewis, my fancy is to live in the Vaduz Castle.
Imagine waking up to that backdrop every day.
Liechtenstein is an amazing place. It has, I think, virtually no unemployment and, from memory, the highest income p/c in Europe.
Of course Munguin is a republican (with a small 'r', so don't get your hopes up Donald), but he quite fancies actually replacing Hans-Adam with his own good self, when he gets fed up of running his media empire...
In a way the principality is a canton of Switzerland, as it uses the Swiss Franc and Switzerland looks after its foreign affairs and defence (although that's nominal). In a way it's a bit like jersey or Guernsey, I suppose.
If the prince went, there is, I suppose, a chance that it would be subsumed into Switzerland. No bad thing, given how prosperous and efficient Switzerland is... but then the principality is even more so.
BTW, Munguin hereby appoints you to the (honorary) position of his chief historian, along with the (honorary) position as his man in America.
Lots of honours there. You must be very grateful!!!
:)
Indeed, I'm very grateful to Munguin for the honours. :)) And I agree that Vaduz Castle would be a great place to live. However, it might give me pause as a Liechtensteiner to consider the fact that I've delegated my DEFENCE to.....wait for it......SWITZERLAND??!! Now I'm not saying that the Swiss soldiers armed with axes on long poles don't look really cool at the Vatican, but REALLY! And then you have to come to terms with the ethical issues that ensue from the fact that the Swiss have gotten along equally well with the likes of both Mother Teresa and Adolf Hitler. :)
ReplyDeleteHmmm, I can see your problem... and, if the army is away guarding the Vatican State, they won't be there if the Russians turn up wanting to take over Liechtenstein) Problems, problems.
DeleteThe Swiss get along with everyone and no one. Mind I've been there and its a smart place to live!
A Washington DC friend who met a member of the Liechtenstein royal family just before the referendum, told me the chappie was poised to submit his claim to the crown of Scotland !
ReplyDeleteAs for relying on the Swiss to defend them, I think someone told me that gun ownership is higher (per capita) there than in the USA ... 'though it's more to do with national service than lunacy
Yes. I know that in Switzerland everyone (it used to be every male, but I think that changed) is a member of the militia. If Liechtenstein shares defence responsibility with Switzerland, its likely that the rules as the same there.
DeleteThere is a rifle in every house, and no standing army.
And yet we rarely hear of shootings in Switzerland.
As for the claim to the throne of Scotland... yeah, with all the intermarrying that the royals did I'd not be surprised if there is a Scottish connection. After all the Uk royals are German, Danish and Greek mixtures, but they are all cousin (hence the daftness).
If w have to have a royal head of state Hans-Adam will do for me. he's made rather a good job of his own place.
We can't offer him much of a castle though...
When I was a wee boy there was an actual 'black house' in the village owned by an elderly couple. The wall were several feet thick, the windows were tiny and there was no chimney apart from a hole on the roof and consequently the smoke from the peat fire gathered at the ceiling so it was okay as long as you were sitting down. Anyway, the couple moved into a new bungalow and within weeks they both passed away. Cruelly, the joke as that time was that they were 'kippered' and preserved by the peat-smoke and once that 'protection' was removed they could not survive.
ReplyDeleteInteresting John. Were you ever in it?
DeleteSad story about the old couple, but it's not unknown for a big change at that time of life, even to a far more convenient place, to end in death...and once one goes, why would the other stick around?