Saturday, February 13, 2010

Macro Monday: Petal by Petal



DSC04666 red roses


Petals

Life is a stream
On which we strew
Petal by petal the flower of our heart;
The end lost in dream,
They float past our view,
We only watch their glad, early start.
Freighted with hope,
Crimsoned with joy,
We scatter the leaves of our opening rose;
Their widening scope,
Their distant employ,
We never shall know. And the stream as it flows
Sweeps them away,
Each one is gone
Ever beyond into infinite ways.
We alone stay
While years hurry on,
The flower fared forth, though its fragrance still stays.


by Amy Lowell (1874-1925)


For more Macro Monday photos, please visit Lisa at the home of Macro Monday .


Monday, February 8, 2010

Macro Monday – Fleur de Lis

DSC04426 Fleur de Lis Cornice square

My mother lives in the Cole Valley neighborhood in San Francisco where many of the buildings were built around the turn of the century. The architecture was exported from England during Queen Victoria’s reign to many cities throughout the United States. This frothy corinthian column from a house across the street from Boulange de Cole Valley reminds me of the Wedding Cake House of the same era in New Orleans

DSC04181 Corinthian column

The elaborate ornamentation around this window elevates its importance:

DSC04180 window ornamentationThe 

Here is a quintessential neighborhood house and details that hearken back to their Victorian and Edwardian roots…

DSC04422 Green Cole Valley house

… with bay windows …

DSC04177 Cole Valley houses

and eaves adorned with dentil cornices egg-and-dart mouldings …

DSC04424 cornice

… and ionic columns flanking the stairway

DSC04423 ionic columns

Maintaining the delicate details of gingerbread mouldings is costly and time-consuming, thus many of these homes were stripped of their intricate decorations and covered with alternate, lower-maintenance materials like this house, directly next door:

DSC04425 Fleur de Lis house

Though I understand the practical need to simplify, I’m glad they left one detail:

DSC04426 Fleur de Lis Cornice

Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints on their first ever Super Bowl win!

For more Macro Monday photos, please visit Lisa here.


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