Tales of Home [7]

I can't figure out which country you're in half the time, Figgy. Maybe you should post a calendar.

its 50/50 at the moment. Westeros/Essos.

I finally took my day-trip to the Library of Congress in Washington, DC yesterday and while I was there I snapped a few pictures. These are already shrunken down versions but they may require opening in a new tab to see the full thing depending on your screen resolution.


The dome in the main reading room.


Statuary around the edge of the main reading room.


The view from one of the alcoves (which had tiny spiral staircases to get between the two levels within).


The book I was most interested in reading (goes for $425 on Amazon).

Cool. (A bit astentatious, but I guess that's half the point.)

very impressive architecture. its a temple of learning and fitting for one of the most important libraries in the world. if not the most important.

Most tourists don't realize the Library of Congress is worth a visit. It's really not to be missed.

The Thomas Jefferson Building is one of the most beautiful buildings in DC, so I always recommend it. The reading rooms are off-limits unless you're registered as a researcher, but you can see into them through the windows in the arches (just below the statues in the second picture I posted). Actually, the tourists up there were making quite a bit of noise and it was kind of distracting; I recall it having been quieter on previous visits but it could just be that I was sitting in a bad spot.

The experience of reading in the main reading room (most of the other rooms I've been to are not even remotely as ornate) is really something special. It gives me a certain feeling of connectedness with the intellectual legacy that the Library represents. But yeah, the neoclassical style is sort of DC's "thing". I really like it, personally. A lot of the buildings in DC and the institutions they house play important roles in the culture and life of the nation, and I like the attendant symbolism. And the Library in particular stays on top of new media and diverse voices; it takes a very broad view of American life and what is worth preserving.

Admittedly, the self-seriousness can go a bit overboard at times. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apotheosis_of_Washington

Science
Minerva, the Roman goddess of crafts and wisdom, is portrayed with helmet and spear pointing to an electrical generator creating power stored in batteries next to a printing press, representing great American inventions. American scientists and inventors Benjamin Franklin, Samuel F. B. Morse, and Robert Fulton watch. In the left part of the scene a teacher demonstrates the use of dividers.

???

https://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/epact/article.php?ArticleID=6

Dividers are one of the earliest and most basic types of mathematical instrument. In their simplest form, dividers consist of a jointed pair of legs, each with a sharp point.

I swoon at beautiful buildings & architecture, Adorned ceilings are awesome, I love this sort of grandeur

Eldorion wrote:https://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/epact/article.php?ArticleID=6

Dividers are one of the earliest and most basic types of mathematical instrument. In their simplest form, dividers consist of a jointed pair of legs, each with a sharp point.

Oh, what we call a compass these days. Also a stupid term. We need a better word for those things.

They're still called dividers when used for plotting, in navigation for example. If you ask for a compass, you're likely to get one of these:

{{Actually have a day off work today! And the weather to go with it!  So thought I best at least go for a walk so I did.

That's my destination ringed in yellow, in the glen between those two hills  }}}



{{The lower slopes are covered in gorse in bloom. The seed pods heat up and pop in the sun- the yellow blossom, the heat of the sun and the sound of popping pods sum up summer for me    This is the path through the gorse I will be taking }}}



{{Even from here you can get a sense of having climbed a bit already, and this is right behind town at the foot of the hills looking across the Clyde towards Gourock}}



{{{'The path goes ever on and on!'- leaving the gorse bushes and heading for the foot of the road that will lead me to my destination}}}



{{{Bit higher up now}}



{{This is the road that leads where I am heading, but its a road which is boring so I wont be going that way}}



{{Instead, I will be going up this path across the river}}



{{Symmetry!!}}





{{The rocks round here have a lot of iron ore in them, turns the water a sort of rust colour}}



{{{Trees. And the path winds on up through them- lucky I had spare buckie under my kilt, chilling }}





{{Eventually I reach the destination- the towns reservoir- its maintained but not in use any more, its kept as an emergency back up water supply- but its never been in use in my lifetime}}











{{{And the view back the way I came, at what appears to be a ferry chasing a naval frigate!}}}



{{On the way back home I was taken by just how much colour has appeared in the last week everywhere}}}

You make Scotland seem an almost reasonable place.

Much of that vegetation seems suited to somewhat arid climes. I thought Scotland was all full of rain and crabbit.

{{It is, most of the time, but you also get these sudden hot sunny days no one is prepared for and cant acclimatise in time to and they make us sweaty, sticky and crabbit about that instead }}}

that little path through the Gorse bushes looks sweet, but its probably killer Gorse with crabbit thorns or something.

It's good I finally get a picture of gorse bushes. Ever since Winnie-the-Pooh I've sort of wondered about them.

that little path through the Gorse bushes looks sweet, but its probably killer Gorse with crabbit thorns or something. - Figg

{{They are indeed Figg, rather prickly }}

I knew it, you have been naked rambling again.

{{{{ I can assure you Figg I was properly attired in my kilt! And what pricks go on under there as I trape through the gorse are no ones business! }}}

Pettytyrant101 wrote:{{Actually have a day off work today! And the weather to go with it!  So thought I best at least go for a walk so I did.


{{The lower slopes are covered in gorse in bloom. The seed pods heat up and pop in the sun- the yellow blossom, the heat of the sun and the sound of popping pods sum up summer for me    This is the path through the gorse I will be taking }}}

This looks a lot like our beach dunes trails. They introduced scotch broom and gorse in the 1930's and 40's, supposedly to "stabilize the soil", and we've been chopping broom out of our pastures ever since. You only mentioned the gorse. Does the broom grow elsewhere or do they intermingle like here?

That picture could have been taken here! There is literally nothing that would be out of place to my eye! We're about 3 to 4 weeks ahead of you this year due to the warm currents of El Niño just off shore. Our daffodils have been and gone, but our scotch broom is only just coming into bloom in the last week. Maybe it's biological calendar is still linked to the Old Country?

{{{The broom and gorse tend to grow together intermingled- great for starting fires goes up really fast with a whoomph and a lot of fizzling- we used to make fires out of it as a kid just because it burnt so well (and it was so abundant, as I'm sure your pastures know!) hopeless for a long term fire though as it burns away in no time.

As to its biological links- well takes a long time for a scot to forget their roots }}

I enjoyed that ramble

Looks like a nice place to get lost in Petty.

I had an interesting discussion earlier this evening. While out for a bike ride I saw an unfamiliar pickup truck parked where it didn't belong. There was a man cutting firewood (a favorite income for junkies around here) while his girlfriends sat in the truck. I went up to him in a friendly way and explained the local "guidelines" while he looked at me nervously, his hands shaking and the chainsaw still running. In the end we agreed on rules of respect and I wished him a good day. It occurred to me as I rode away that some of you may never have had a conversation with a junkie carrying a running chainsaw, so I thought I'd share