January what can you say....

January is one of those months where everything starts slowly after the Holidays. People are back to work, more debts on credit card than would be advisable, apparently this is why the Canadian dollar is falling in value on the Stock Market, too much debt by individual Canadians, unemployment is also up to 8% while it is going down in the USA. We are not past the ides of January and it's the first of two winter school holidays. Some will head south, others will go skiing, others will just go to the mall. One wonders what would we do if we did not have the malls, as if you could possibly need more stuff just after the Holidays. I have not set foot in a mall since 1985. I am no longer sure what they look like, not a bad thing.

The days are getting longer a few minutes everyday, on a bright sunny day like today when the sun is so bright as it is reflected off the ice and snow that you need strong sun glasses in order to see anything, it can give you a pick me up feeling.

Puppies continue to lounge in the sunshine, it seems that they cannot get enough sun on any given day. January is also the time of the year for yearly physical and I have already done my blood work. Next week it's the examination, I do not expect anything to be revealed. Good health is precious and worth more than gold.

The late Hugh Lord Cholmondeley (chum-lay) at his home in Houghton Hall, Norfolk with his collection of toy lead soldiers depicting here the battle of Waterloo.

Houghton Hall, Norfolk

This week is also busy with little things, like going to the car repair shop to have the damage to the rear bumper fixed. A minor accident due to very slippery roads and black ice. I was parked and in a shop and saw it happen. Luckily for me the gentleman stopped and gave me the necessary details and his insurance paid it all. For a minor thing it still was one thousand dollars in repair and handwork.

Even walking is difficult and most people walk in the street because the sidewalks are impossible as they are covered with a thick coat of very slippery ice. 

Next week two days of volunteering at the museum which always keeps me very busy and tired at the end of the day, but it is a lot of fun and challenging. I will try to explain the Renaissance to 11 year old kids in 50 minutes. I have to be efficient and to the point in my presentation, difficult to do when they have not studies geography or world history and have a very sketchy idea about art in general.

So the Renaissance is very far away from their preoccupations but who knows they may find it interesting, I will try to connect it to their reality in some way.

If you wonder about the late Lord Cholmondely and Houghton Hall well I also have a collection of about 140 lead soldiers, no where near his impressive collection and my house being somewhat smaller than Houghton Hall, I would have no room for such a large collection. But nonetheless I should rearrange my army. I do not know if David the current Lord Cholmondeley is an avid lead soldier collector.

Here is David Lord Cholmondeley who is also Lord Chamberlain of Her Majesty at Houghton Hall
posing by a painting of Geoffrey Kneller's of Juan Carreras. The only painting bought by Czarina Catherine II the Great in 1779 to have returned permanently to Houghton Hall. His ancestor Sir Robert Walpole sold his painting collection to Catherine the Great. A wonderful exhibit of the collection was held in the fall of 2013 at Houghton Hall, the first ever of this fabulous collection now permanently at the Hermitage.
My point is have you noticed his socks? Now you can tell this is a gentlemen, purple socks, I need a pair, such raffine taste.

January 2, 2011 A walk at Villa Borghese

Today was sort of a cloudy day with a few sun rays and mild weather around 17C. We went this afternoon for a walk at the Villa Borghese, one of the nicer parks of Rome. Built by Prince Cardinal Scipione Borghese, just outside the Aurelian walls so that he could get away from it all and ride in his carriage through what was then his private garden full of ancient ruins and statues. When you are the Cardinal nephew of a Pope the pressure gets to you, so you need to chill as they say. The park is located on a hill overlooking Rome, it is gigantic, full of old trees, artificial lakes and fountains, it also houses the Villa Borghese, this palace built by the Cardinal to house his private art works, which is one of the finest in the world. The palace is so big many people believe that it was a house for the Cardinal, no, in fact no one ever lived there, it is and remains a museum. The Cardinal could come at leisure and sit in this magnificent building and admire his oeuvres d'arts in quiet meditation. I took the opportunity today to walk in and reserve a place to go and visit the Villa Borghese. You need to book ahead of time and each visitor is allowed no more than 2 hours to visit the entire collection. Only a very limited number of people are allowed in at any given time so that when you visit you can do so without the crowds.  I only visited the ground floor of the building a year ago on the anniversary evening of the murder of the painter Caravaggio. The ticket cost 13.50 Euros per person, it is one good thing as Martha Stewart would say.

We then walk down to the Belvedere overlooking Rome and Piazza del Popolo and Piazza Flaminia which is the formal grand entrance to the Villa Borghese Park.  The Belvedere is the former site of an Imperial Villa to Emperor Nerva, the view is nothing short of spectacular. The only other view of this kind that I know of is from Villa Aurelia aka the American Academy in Rome, located on the other side of the Tiber in Trastevere, but that is not open to the public like the Belvedere.

In the far distance the Dome of St-Peter. Piazza del Popolo with the Obelisk of Augustus.

Steeple of the French Church Trinita dei Monti and the Obelisk atop the Spanish Steps.

Palazzo Medici aka The French Academy in Rome.

The dome of San Andrea della Valle or Tosca's Church

From the Belvedere if you look straight across you see in the distance the dome of the Basilica of St-Peter and the Sacred Apostolic Palace where the Pope lives. To your left is the French Church of Trinita dei Monti (Trinity of the hills) and the Obelisk a top the Spanish Steps, also to the left in the Medici Palace aka the French Academy in Rome. We walked down the Spanish steps and made a right towards Via della Croce and went down it to the Antica Enoteca, which is one of the most popular in Rome.

We met friends there and had a glass of wine and a bit of a chat. All in all a good afternoon in Rome.