Ghulf Genes

Rarely in our travels have we passed a cathedral we did not at least briefly visit. Thus many years ago, on a trip to California—wh...

Readers of this blog interested in architectural detail probably know that our house has an arched extension ( link ). Nice but humble, jus...

The virtue of the true arch, whether used for an opening into or a hollow space within a structure, is that in ages before steel came int...

One barely sees the old spires pointing at the sky unless by chance the landscape opens from an unexpected angle. Brigitte has weekly swim s...

Years ago now—many—I happened to rise very early and, turning on the television (something very rare, but it happened that morning) I chance...

They rest, float, hang. They’re scraped, found, dug, hung. They’re formed of pebbles, sticks, living plants, horse-hair, reed, stalks, mud, ...

During my walk yesterday, just supervising Winter’s rapid retreat, I came across a green door in a wall. A modest house, a proportional wall...

An eave is the over-hanging portion of a typically slanting roof. The roof slants in order to carry water as quickly as possible away from t...

Words turn fashionable and then fade; they also undergo gradual changes in meaning. This occurred to me this morning jotting notes—because, ...

A comment by Brandon on public art in the context of a library—see the post on “Libraries” below—reminded me of the delights I once experien...

The word in German ( Kulturlandschaft ) has just a little more bite, but to explain that fully would take up space. People who really posses...