Just...................whatever [6]

Very nice indeed. I kept thinking about ecological succession while watching it as I'm studying (yet again) natural ways of growing food and continuing to experiment in my garden (which some might describe as survivalism). One day I hope to walk through my garden picking fruit and vegetables and chicken eggs but be hardly aware it's a managed environment.

you have chicken egg trees?

A humming bird made from paper.........

A beautiful bridge in the Gothic corner of Barcelona.........

Fairy lights in Japan.........

Oh this I do love .......... its one of the writing studio's in the Chateau De Cristo, home of Alexandre Dumas .....

A frozen dewdrop using macro......

And pebbles painted to look like "weeb,weeb,weeb," Guinea pigs !

I look at some of these architectural examples, and wonder if we've really progressed.  Or maybe we've progressed in some ways and given ground in others.  We have all this amazing medicine and technology, and new ethics we didn't have before, but can we build a gothic cathedral?  Does anyone talk like Shakespeare anymore?  

Reading letters from the American Civil War it's clear that people were much more articulate back then.  There's a couple modern cathedrals around, and though the National Cathedral in washington DC is breathtaking, it doesn't astound you the way the old ones do.  Another is a half hour walk from me (Cathedral of St John the Divine) and claims to be the highest gothic structure in the world...but its pillars are poured concrete.  We just don't have the drive anymore - it's all poured into roads and shopping malls.

azriel wrote:Oh this I do love .......... its one of the writing studio's in the Chateau De Cristo, home of Alexandre Dumas .....

that is truly gorgeous.

halfwise wrote:I look at some of these architectural examples, and wonder if we've really progressed.  Or maybe we've progressed in some ways and given ground in others.  We have all this amazing medicine and technology, and new ethics we didn't have before, but can we build a gothic cathedral?  Does anyone talk like Shakespeare anymore?  

Reading letters from the American Civil War it's clear that people were much more articulate back then.  There's a couple modern cathedrals around, and though the National Cathedral in washington DC is breathtaking, it doesn't astound you the way the old ones do.  Another is a half hour walk from me (Cathedral of St John the Divine) and claims to be the highest gothic structure in the world...but its pillars are poured concrete.  We just don't have the drive anymore - it's all poured into roads and shopping malls.

I blame Le Corbusier for the architecture thing, he made decoration a dirty word and led to concrete Brutalist architecture of the 60s and 70s.

RE: Halfy's point, I find Niemeyer's work quite stunning in its own way. It doesn't have the same feel as Gothic cathedrals at all, but I think a big part of that is simply because it's not as old. There's no way to replicate the sense of being within walls that have stood for hundreds of years, but you can do other things that are meaningful too.

Cathedral of Brasilia (built 1958-70):

Also consider the various Baha'i Houses of Worship, most famously the Lotus Temple in New Delhi, which was constructed with poured concrete in 1986:



There's another one just outside of Chicago, which I had the pleasure of visiting once and so can personally attest to the experience of being within it:

Mrs Figg wrote:I blame Le Corbusier for the architecture thing, he made decoration a dirty word and led to concrete Brutalist architecture of the 60s and 70s.

Bastard.

Those examples are stunning, and very encouraging, Eldo.

Glad you like 'em.

I feel that the speed and transience of modern culture is not really all that compatible with great, lasting architecture (not that I'm an expert in it), but I too am encouraged by people still doing good work.

I think there's too many people that have lost the will, imagination & zeal to garnish anything anymore. Those that do are seen as "oddballs, weirdos & freaks". On tv at the mo is a programne about how people decorate their council houses on the inside.Outside you would think its just bog standard but inside ! Anyhoo, we need decoration, we need architecture at its best. It lifts the spirit, makes you smile, makes you look & think. Like Im gonna get that from a lump of concrete.

Riiiiii-iiighhhhhhht?

Id read it ! He aint as daft as he sounds

I never thought he was. The stupidest people on t.v are often among the smartest. Look at Donald Trump...

Yes! they deliberately come across as thickies to throw you off the scent & then, when your guard is down....WALLOP ! they hit you with a double whammy ! Its standard issue, 'take over the world' syndrome.

I feel so out of the loop.I shall start by saying I miss you all so much.
Just work, homeschooling and school and waiting, waiting , waiting to see the bone specialist. Every day we wait for our call to fly to Vancouver and see whether Hasia must have spine surgery or a brace. I wake up shaking during the night and when I hear my little one cry out from pain from her rib cage curving. She was diagnosed last April. Such a waiting list. When she is in terrible pain, the specialist here just prescribed pain killer.
Tomorrow we are having an early Valentines Day because ash Wednesday is the day before Lent starts.
Hasia has her Batmitvah in July so she is busy reading the Torah and doing her mitzvahs. And her third year along with Clayton-Ashley in Tai Chi .The wiii do the short form again under So Fu Howard, the master and then thenlong form with the sword. So Fu. Howard's master is 101 and still practising daily. It is so soothing and beautiful

Anyway if any of you pray, please pray for Hasia to be made well soon
And all children who are going thru this.
I just care about each of you so much.

Hello Leelee ! So good to hear from you IL pray for Hasia, poor little thing. Kids are so amazingly resilient, I am often choked with tears at how they can still smile even tho the poor things are hooked up to Chemo or waiting for life saving transplants etc. Sending my love & very best wishes, be strong