design – Page 83 – enclos*ure

The Sunday porch: pots and pans

January 10, 2016January 10, 2016 Cindy at enclos*ure1 Comment

“Girl seated at the end of a porch,” ca. 1930, by Doris Ulmann, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

A well-to-do New Yorker, Doris Ulmann trained as an art photographer with Clarence H. White in the 1910s. In the 1920s, she began traveling to the southeastern United States to photograph rural people, particularly in the hills of Kentucky and the Sea Islands of South Carolina — people “for whom life had not been a dance.” She also documented Appalachian folk arts and crafts, working with musician and folklorist John Jacob Niles.

The Sunday porch: Piazza San Marco

January 4, 2016July 19, 2017 Cindy at enclos*ure4 Comments

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On Monday. . . running a little late this week.

We spent December 23 to 27 in Venice, Italy. The photos above show the arcades along Piazzetta di San Marco and Piazza San Marco on Christmas and on Boxing Day (in fog).

The current colonnaded buildings enclosing the square on three sides (and the west side of the Piazzetta) were built in the 16th century. Their arcades front a number of coffee houses, including two of the oldest and most famous in Italy: Florian (1720) and Gran Caffè Quadri (1775).

Of course, we had due caffè espresso at Florian, which was easily possible because tourists are far fewer during Christmas week. The coffees were €6.50 each, but they were very good (and there was a cookie and water).

(The water carafe was adorable, and I now regret that I didn’t buy one and hold it on my lap on the plane. I’m very tempted to order it from their website. Also, check out the wonderful terrazzo floor at their entrance here; I forgot to take a photo of it.)

To scroll through more (and larger) images, click on ‘Continue reading’ and on any thumbnail in the gallery.

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Aftermath, Stuttgart

January 1, 2016August 20, 2017 Cindy at enclos*ure7 Comments

So much of any year is flammable. . .*

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What we have learned since about 4 p.m. yesterday is that Stuttgarters really like their (self-administered) pyrotechnic devices on New Year’s Eve.

Sitting at home, the noise was terrific, particularly from about 10:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Venturing downtown this foggy afternoon, I was a little surprised to see everything — or anything — still standing.

The ground was littered with fireworks debris and broken Sekt bottles, but only this Konigstrasse shelter showed any real damage.

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We went inside the Alte Schloss (Old Palace) courtyard for the first time during the Christmas season, and I admired the trees on the columns and star lights.

Have a happy 2016!

*From “Burning the Old Year” by Naomi Shihab Nye.

Wordless Wednesday: Venice

December 30, 2015July 19, 2017 Cindy at enclos*ureLeave a comment

Palace Gardens, Venice, Italy, December 25, 2015.

A study in steps: Schürhof, Basel

December 29, 2015April 11, 2016 Cindy at enclos*ure4 Comments

After I took a number of photos of the hanging plant columns of the Basel Museum of Culture (during our visit at Thanksgiving), I turned my attention to the courtyard around them — the Schürhof — the floor of which is largely a set of low, wide steps descending to the museum lobby and gift shop.

The street entrance to the courtyard and thus to the museum is through a simple archway on the Münsterplatz.

Before the museum was renovated in 2011 by Herzog & de Meuron, the Schürhof* was not open to the public. The museum shared a door with the Museum of Natural Sciences around the corner.

Looking at a “before” photo (here, fourth image), the old courtyard appears to have been used at least partly as a parking lot.