NB! · Museums · Observations · Palaeontology · Nature · Humour

The Giant Fossil Turtle from the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco: This Is How I See Russian Officialdom

A pale stone vase with relief decoration on a short pedestal, with long green blades of grass hanging beside it.

NB! · Observations · Humour

Vase on a veranda in Monte Carlo with a relief resembling both a duck and a ribbon

A vase on our veranda in Monte Carlo has made me look afresh at the "duck or rabbit" puzzle. So then: duck or ribbon?

Through a wrought-iron grille: a gallery with a painted ceiling, a column, a stone wall with arched windows, palms and the glass roof of a conservatory.

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Winter garden with a glass roof and palms, seen through a grille

NB! · Observations · Humour

relatable

A faience lidded vessel shaped like a hen on a scalloped platter, with an egg and chicks beside it, in a museum display case.

NB! · Art · Observations · Humour

Brussels faience in the form of a hen with an egg and chicks

Such faience is a purely Brussels trade. Looking at these sweet chicks, I want to become a vegetarian

A dense tangle of metal structures, some of them blackened, against a blue sky.

NB! · Architecture · Faith · Heritage · Paris

Metal structures on the roof of Notre-Dame in July 2019

The roof of Notre-Dame, July 2019. As you can see, most of the structures are now made of reinforcing steel

Colored engraving of an elderly woman in a high-waisted blue dress and lace cap, seated half-turned, holding a book or folder. Books, an inkwell and a quill are at right.

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Elderly woman in a blue dress and lace cap holding a book

A golden frog-shaped purse made of finely woven thread, with a long cord and pale fabric at the back, against a dark background.

NB! · Museums · Mores · Humour

Women's handbags in the shape of frogs from the seventeenth century

Aww! If you think fashion was once plain and monotonous, these ladies' handbags in the shape of frogs from the seventeenth century will persuade you otherwise. Ribbit-ribbit

An old wooden loom with taut warp threads and an unfinished rug in green and pink stripes, set against a log wall.

NB! · Archive

Wooden loom with a woven rag rug in a log house

A massive wooden structure with curved beams on the grass, with a low picket fence and a rowan tree with red berries behind it.

NB! · Museums · Observations · Heritage

Wooden structure at the Vladimir and Suzdal Museum-Reserve

How enchanting Russia is! The Vladimir-Suzdal Museum-Reserve

A male model in a laurel wreath walks the runway in a green robe with gold trim and old-master style figures, plus burgundy shorts and sandals. A white column is visible behind him.

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Model in a long robe with classical scenes and a laurel wreath on the runway

Wooden bed with a pink silk canopy, patterned blue trim and bronze female heads on the posts, displayed in a museum room.

NB! · Art · Monarchies · Mores · Humour

The 1805 bed made for Napoleon and Josephine and the emperor's love of luxury

The bed made for Napoleon and Josephine in 1805 rather hints that it is time to retire. Napoleon was, in general, a lover of luxury, and the style owes much of its subsequent popularity precisely to the emperor's fondness for it