Ruskin's Library ... Brantwood..

Brantwood

This  for me is the most interesting room in Ruskin's home at Brantwood on the banks of the Coniston Water.

We were given the prompt by Geraldine Green to write about several of the curiousities in the cabinets.

I like a cabinet or shelf of curiousities...I have quite a few...the family would say.

Ruskin's Library

The moths are dead and lie under a protective glass dome
no danger to the carpets now         a wasps nest is empty
and the buzzing occupants have fled       to a foreign field
though the hover fly hovers no more              in my mind
I still hear his song of summer       by the specimen chest
it's closed drawers                         and locked cupboards
invite  illicit exploration                or maybe the bookcase
dusted and locked securely                  against the moths
will  reveal the truth              truth about the Turner copy
did the grand man know the artist            was he thrilled
to be chosen to reside in Ruskin's library               where
the Madonna still comforts her holy crying child
now fixed in stone         colour glazed       Liverpool style
over the fireplace            at a window seat there is space
enough     to hide       behind a long green velvet curtain
instructions tell me                I must not touch or horror
of horrors play                with the Armillary sphere     or
woe betide me     if            I  use the ornate writing tray
with its inks to pen my  inktober poems           better far
to find my own curled leaf   out      in the gardens where
freedom  reigns                        and rain brings freedom.

A Shelf of Curiousities with the potter's ceramic clown at the front.

A Box of Vanitas....Broken Bird's Eggs found in the field

Venus of the Bay...vanitas

Have fun this week everyone. x

Ruskin's View.

"For most men, an ignorant enjoyment is better than an informed one; it is better to conceive the sky as a blue dome rather than a dark cavity; and the cloud as a golden throne than a sleety mist"
John Ruskin, Modern Painters ( 1856).

This is "The last word" quote in the Times today, and the view of Ruskin.
Each early spring we plan to go up to Kirby Lonsdale to walk the Lune and climb the steps up to "Ruskin's View".

We park the car at the old bridge and take the river path along towards the town. We've been doing it since forever it seems and yet it still makes us sigh with the beauty of all that is there.

Often the water is icy on the edges and makes wonderful patterns with stones.

By the time we get to the bottom of the steps I'm never sure if I'm going to make it to the top!

The river at this point is smooth and deceptively calm but underneath the currents coming from a couple of different directions merge and a fierce battle takes place beneath the surface.

Ruskin was an odd old fellow but he certainly knew a good view when he saw it , and the joy of getting to the top of the steps is rewarded by not only the sight across the river.......

 .........but the beauty of the ancient church yard that we then walk through to get some sustenance in the glorious Sun Inn.

Neither was he a slouch when it came to painting  watercolour landscapes. There are quite a few in the Abbott Hall Gallery in Kendal and I'm hoping that there will be some more in the big Watercolour Exhibition coming to London at the end of February.