Interested in spending a day or so looking at a bunch of humbling woodworking and artwork? A trip to The Shelburne Museum would be worth your while then ... I big recently went to see a Ansel Adams show and found that that was just a small part of how I spent my time there ... I had been a long time ago when the kids were small (15 years maybe ??) but had forgotten the depth of their collection ... I do remember the Dentzel carousel though ... probably the best carved and painted carousel youll find anywhere ... They have extensive documentation of the ongoing restoration and conservation on Facebook and there is more info there ... Click the photos to enlarge them ...
the artistic color choices and details are really good ...
In person, they sort of seem almost alive ..
and they are housed in a beautifully detailed round barn at the entrance to the museum ..
with beautiful framing
and a wonderful quilt exhibition on the lower level of the barn ..
Two other displays of interest to me were regarding painters who lived and worked for years in the Manchester, Dorset, Pawlet area, Ogden Pleissner and Jay Connachoice ... They both had a whole building dedicated to their work and Pleissners actual studio (below) was assembled there on site
on to the tools
and metal stuff
and the working blacksmith shop which Kits counts as perhaps one of the things that sparked Sams interest in blacksmithing and metalwork
Then there is an excellent collection of carved decoys in original paint, with info on the makers as well as at least a half dozen sneak boxes and market guns displayed in a house moved to the museum from its original location in North Dorset.
Then theres The Ticonderoga, a 220 foot long steam powered ferry that was moved from the lake across a mile of frozen cornfields to its present location ... It has recently been re-restored and is a gleaming example of curved and angled ships carpentry ...
I didnt have time for the Electra Havermeyer Webb mansion which houses Electra Webbs high Federal furniture and other objects from her New York City apartment ... Been there, done that ... Its beautiful ...
There is much more to see than I have covered here .. check it out if you are in the area ... Youll be glad you did ...
I was having my coffee yesterday morning when Kit said that the baby orioles were on the feeder. I didnt have my tripod at home, but managed to get a couple of decent hand held pictures anychoice. This is something I have never seen before and I dont know how long it will go on, but it is a really cool thing to watch. This morning I was prepared, and the light was a little better. They didnt stay long, but I did get a short video that you can see at the link below. Click the pictures to enlarge them ....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89oXq5AjUqY
Scene of the action ... I usually have my coffee while sitting on the couch in the foreground with the wide purple arm. To take the pictures yesterday, I rested the camera on the green couch arm and the feeder is about 8 feet from the window in the orange circle ...
