Category: Architecture

Autumn in Umbria

It is distinctly autumnal in north Umbria. Mushrooms, truffles, gourds and pumpkins are on display in the shops; and chestnuts. The view across the valley from L’Ospidale to Monte Santa Maria Tiberina is beautiful. L’Ospidale was probably a hostel for pilgrims and was restored by its current owner about 25 years ago. Today we drove… Continue reading Autumn in Umbria

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

(That’s the only French content in this post.) This is what the old Odeon in Kensington High Street will look like after it has been re-developed as flats with seven cinema screens in the basement. Looks good to me. The Art Deco facade has been preserved but the conservationists are still furious. 

What Do Bloggers Read?

Where do chefs go to eat? What do wine-makers drink? What do bloggers read? I have had little luck in finding good blogs and then, like the buses, two come along at once. You might like them as well.

Stones of Venice

A new exhibition opens at the Ashmolean today; drawings of Venice culled from the Uffizi, Christ Church and their own collection. Among others they are by Titian, Tintoretto and Canaletto.

Bungalow Bliss

Last year Jack Fitzsimons died. His legacy as a principled Irish politician should never be forgotten but he will be remembered more by me for writing Bungalow Bliss.

A Grave Matter

On Sunday I went to check up on the family plot in Mortlake. It was last used in 1935 when Uncle G (my grandfather’s uncle, George Leopold Bryan, later Bellew), was buried there and again in 1940 by my great-grandfather’s second wife.

Ruins on the River

My idea of the Danube was almost entirely formed by reading Greenmantle, by John Buchan, in which Richard Hannay smuggles himself onto a chain of barges carry arms down the Danube from Germany  bound for Turkey.