Author Archives: pennimania
SylvaC Stories: Bunny Boilers.
Once upon a time, rather more years ago than I care to remember, I found a dear little green pottery bunny in a junk shop on the Isle of Wight. As I have a predilection for green ceramic items I … Continue reading
La Fontana delle Scimmie.*
*warning blog post contains references to Florence (again) This is the Museo delle Porcellane di Boboli, an exquisitely faded small palazzo in the gardens of the Pitti Palace. It has a superb collection of porcelain and chinaware and delicious … Continue reading
We Have Lost the Taste for Acorns.
About 2000 years ago the Roman philosopher Lucretius wrote: “We have lost our taste for acorns. So we have abandoned those couches littered with herbage and heaped with leaves. So the wearing of wild beasts’ skins has gone out of fashion … Continue reading
Egrets: I Have a Few.
Ever since I came back from Florence I’ve been thinking about egrets. In fact, I’ve already written about them here: The Lake of Lettuce The one pictured above is a lesser egret – you can tell by the black beak and … Continue reading
Forget What Did.
‘ Forget what did. Have decided not to keep a journal anymore.’ So wrote Dorry, the younger brother, in ‘What Katy Did’ by Susan Coolidge. After a few short, sweet days he gave up the unequal struggle between recording the immediate past … Continue reading
Lares et Penates II: Knick Knacks
The Oxford dictionary defines a knick knack as a “cheap ornament, trinket, trifle, bauble, bric-a-brac, bagatelle, gimcrack, gewgaw, bibelot or kickshaw.” A sample sentence in the dictionary uses the word thus – “Her flat is overflowing with knick knacks.” But … Continue reading
Lares et Penates.
Henry Willet* once described the commonplace pottery ornaments on our mantelpieces as a ‘kind of unconscious survival of the Lares and Penates of the Ancients.’ The lares and penates were the household spirits of the ancient Romans. They were represented … Continue reading
