Things Done, Seen, and Visited

Yesterday, I steamcleaned ALL the mould, removed what seemed like a very large number of arachnids, and repainted the downstairs loo!  It may be a small triumph, but I think it still counts as one.

And then today I went to Buckland Abbey with my mother, who fancied a trip out.  We found a Tudor board game, which we did not know the rules of, so we invented some rules and played a game.  I won, or possibly she did, depending on whose invented rules you choose to go with.

Buckland Abbey have a new Rembrandt of which they are terribly proud.  Well, not a new one.  A newly-authenticated one.    There was a special Rembrandt room where you could see The Selfportrait, and a bunch of reproductions of other self-portraits.  I concluded that Rembrandt very much liked to portray himself peering suspiciously at the casual viewer, as if he had been interrupted by a Person from Porlock.

 I've been in the Great Hall at Buckland Abbey before, but it had never struck me before just how many disturbing carvings there are in there.  All around the walls, distressed-looking people are holding the top of the panelling up, and in one corner, is this gentleman who appears to have been abruptly transformed into a wooden chest, and is not at all happy about it.  

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( Things seen, or rather, not seen. )