Morris wallpaper in real life....

Here are the Morris & Co. wallpaper books from my local hole-in-the-wall paint and paper store, Waltham Wallpaper and Paint.  They currently have six volumes and a new one is published by Sanderson each year.  You can tell from the duct tape they get a lot of use.  A double roll of Morris paper costs about $140 dollars and the books also include lots of matching fabrics.

 Fruit

I used Fruit in a small first floor bathroom in my last house.  Trim and beadboard wainscotting on lower half of room was painted Benjamin Moore Corinthian White.

 

This is Acorn (picture is from the wallpaper book).  I have always wanted to do a room with this pattern -- I love its subtlety.

 Acorn (detail)

Two more book examples.....an accent wall approach.

  

Windrush

  

Golden Lily (remember the dumpster?!)

  

Chrysanthemum in my dining room

  

 

 

Trim Benjamin Moore 925 semigloss, wall below chair rail C2 Outback in eggshell.

The dark side of the moon...

A map from the United States Geologic Survey. It reminds me of a Jackson Pollack painting.

The Morris Room, Victorian & Albert Museum

 

  

  

 

A collaboration between William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, and Philip Webb completed in the 1860's.

Plants for Sale....some quite old....

Many shops try to be "precious" and "retro-cool" and then some just are.....

 

 The center koi pond....with fountain and reeds in rear...

 

  

The brick arch originally connected the Lyman Estate pleasure gardens with the kitchen gardens.  Now it connects the older and the less old wings of the greenhouse.

 

 

the all important info sheet drawers....

Two hundred years of mid-winter bliss...

Last weekend I stopped by the historic Lyman Estate Greenhouses in Waltham, Massachusetts. This is one of the oldest greenhouses in the nation, built by Boston merchant Theodore Lyman in 1793. It is a working greenhouse maintained by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities and every February and March their famous camellias, among the first ever imported to the U.S., bloom in profusion in a special wing built by Lyman in the 1820s.

 

 

  

Other parts of the greenhouse complex include the Grape Houses, where exotic flowers and fruits were grown for the winter table.  In the background below you can see the vines of the  Black Hamburg and Green Muscat of Alexandria grapes that are grown from 19th century cuttings from the royal greenhouse at Hampton Court in England.

 

 

  

 

Another room houses the extensive collection (thousands) of orchids and epiphytes....

I love the cranks and pipes and valves everywhere....

There is another wing that serves as a garden store.  I'll post those pics tomorrow.

"Snowflake" Bentley's fleeting beauty

“Every snowflake has an infinite beauty, which is enhanced by knowledge that the investigator will, in all probability, never find another exactly like it.”

Last week saw a unique weather event---snow in 49 of the 50 U.S. states.  It seems an appropriate moment to honor the romantic Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley (1866-1931), whose picture, and pictures, hung in my childhood home.  At age 15, Bentley was given a microscope and began looking at snowflakes.  By age 19, he had developed the techniques that allowed him to photograph individual snow crystals.

"Under the microscope, I found that snowflakes were miracles of beauty; and it seemed a shame that this beauty should not be seen and appreciated by others. Every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated. When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost. Just that much beauty was gone, without leaving any record behind."

 

 

 

  

  

  

  

Over his lifetime, Bentley photographed 5,381 crystals, and no two are alike.  In 1931, his book Snow Crystals, containing more than 2400 snow crystal images, was published.  As kids, we would pore over this book trying to choose our favorite snowflakes and confirm for ourselves that no two were alike.

Ironically, Bentley died from pneumonia contracted during a walk in a blizzard.   Last week ten of his original photographs were put up for sale by the Carl Hammer Gallery at the American Antiques Show in NYC.  They cost $4800 each.  The photos above were all taken from the gallery website.

 

Happy Valentine's Day

(click to enlarge)