January 9, 2017

Elevenses

When I lived in the UK, at 11:00 every day, the whole place would take a break for tea, which was called “elevenses”. As an American who was used to working through lunch most days, this was a novelty! We also took an office-wide break at 3:00-ish for coffee. image

This blog is your elevenses – a short break for light refreshment. Shockingly, this is my 11th year of blogging. I am as curious about things as I was 11 years ago when I sat down to write my first blog post.  In the early days, I wrote about John Derian, Scalamandre fabrics, tea, copper pots and pans and one of my favourite shops:V.V. Rouleaux, the amazing ribbon shop near Sloane Square in London. image

So, you can see that the things I do and I write about are still as eclectic as ever! After spending several days down with a stomach bug, I did some exploring this weekend and discovered this gorgeous old pumping station in Baltimore.image I should do a series of pictures about the pumping stations in Baltimore, as some are quite lovely!

January is already shaping up to be a busy month, with lots going on at work, including a quick refreshment of our largest room. We added trim and re-hung the painting collection, including a few gathered from other parts of the building. We still have a few things to do, but the improvement in this room is 100%!IMG_5013

While we were working on that, one of the workmen opened a display cabinet for me. I pondered how to open it for three years, and discovered that the panel of glass in front slides up and down, just like a guillotine! The cabinet holds what we call our “Napoleon Chest” and I will write about it later. But here’s just a sneak peek of what is inside!image

Stay tuned!

4 comments:

  1. Hello Meg, I love the pumping station; please do show us more such hidden treasures. The glass case did not surprise me--many Chinese god cases work similarly with a sliding glass front. I am looking forward to finding out about its Napoleonic contents.
    --Jim

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    Replies
    1. I can't wait to do more research on the Napoleonic case!

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  2. public buildings used to be works of art -like that pumping station. Such a shame now that they're just 'utilitarian structures' meant to last 20 years.

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  3. The box i s most intriguing! I have elevenses on the hour every hours...

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