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Things to come:  Pages/Blogs/Essays/Galleries in the offing:

Australian Politics and Government

This should be riveting, ahem. No, Really. My lecturer for this subject was Nick Economou, and my tutor was Zareh Gazarian. Both these gentlemen are frequently sought for their expert opinion by the ABC and the Australian news media in general. IMHO Nick is one of the most entertaining and engaging political commentators in the country; a veritable mine of salient and fascinating information on Australian political process and history. My intention is simply to transcribe my notes of his insightful and entertaining lectures. They make great reference material across the spectrum of our country’s wild colonial political landscape.

Life and Culture in ancient Greece and Rome

beginning with a gallery of random pictures from my days wandering over the piss-stained cobblestones of ancient Roma

Earnest James Kent:

My grandfather was an extraordinary man. Practically a youth, he survived the horrors of Gallipoli only to be sent on to the Western Front. Recently I have transcribed one of his war diaries. Following that terrible war, he introduced the benefits of electricity to the inhabitants of the pretty country town of Healesville in Victoria’s Yarra Valley, while pursuing a keen interest as a noted field naturalist.

Archaeology of Indigenous Australia

Big questions, from why the Tasmanians stopped eating fish to who painted the Kimberley ‘Bradshaws’.

Reviews from the stage and galleries

Reviews of events as they happen

Poet’s Corner

The work of some of my favourite poets

Experiments in Writing

My sounding board for ideas in, and variations on, the forms and themes commonly available in narrative practice: bio’s, novellas, fairy-tales, plays and poems. Inversion of the common tropes and experiments in inter-active reading-writing, where both reader and author contribute to a dynamic story-line.

 Melbourne Diary

Stories and pictures of some of my favourite, secret places.

 

The Middle East

A photographic journey – departing Turkey and arriving in India.

Faraway times and faraway places. Wonderful places, mysterious places, like Herat and Kabul, Lahore and Mashad; sadly places no longer readily accessible to the inquisitive traveller.

The photos are in no particular order. It was a time when I was more preoccupied with character than with vista, from a visual point of view.

The gallery

 

The Buonomini

The little church of San Martino del Vescovo (or dei Buonomini) is home to frescoes from the workshop of Ghirlandaio. The fresco cycle follows both the actions of St Martin of Tours and the work of the Buonomini confraternity in the local community.

I was fortunate enough to be visiting at a time when the frescoes had very recently been painstakingly refreshed.

The story of the mid-fifteenth-century lay confraternity of the Dodici Buonimini, or Twelve Good Men, is a fascinating tale…

Tuscany

Within these pages I will explore the beautiful northern region of Tuscany in text and images. The main focus will be on Florence, the region’s capital, its art and architecture, politics and history, and some of the remarkable characters from the time of its Renaissance. I will also visit the fascinating medieval city of Prato and admire the art of cities such as Lucca, Sienna and Pisa, after visiting the beautiful upland valley of the Mugello, the Medici homeland and the foundation of their wealth and authority.

 

The magic of Buontalenti’s Grotto in the Boboli Gardens

Within the Boboli Gardens of the Pitti Palace, in Florence, lies a magical grotto

Buontalenti's Grotto - entrance
Buontalenti’s Grotto – entrance
Buontalenti's Grotto - watching over the entrance on one side
Buontalenti’s Grotto – watching over the entrance on one side
...and the other
…and the other
Buontalenti's Grotto
Buontalenti’s Grotto

 

Photo: LeeB
Buontalenti’s Grotto – Michelangelo’s Prisoner
Photo: LeeB
Buontalenti’s Grotto

The grotto was a place of shelter for the shepherds

Photo: LeeB
Buontalenti’s Grotto

with Michelangelo’s contribution

Photo: LeeB
Buontalenti’s Grotto
Buontalenti's Grotto
Buontalenti’s Grotto
Buontalenti's Grotto
Buontalenti’s Grotto
Buontalenti's Grotto - Michelangelo's Prisoner
Buontalenti’s Grotto – Michelangelo’s Prisoner
Buontalenti's Grotto
Buontalenti’s Grotto
Photo: LeeB
Buontalenti’s Grotto

 

Buontalenti's Grotto
Buontalenti’s Grotto
Buontalenti's Grotto - Bandinelli's Ceres
Buontalenti’s Grotto – Bandinelli’s Ceres
Buontalenti's Grotto - Helen and Theseus
Buontalenti’s Grotto – Helen and Theseus
Vincenzo de Rossi's Helen and Theseus
Vincenzo de Rossi’s Helen and Theseus

 

What do you think of the fantastic walls of the grotto? I find them extraordinarily beautiful.

Click here to access the beautiful gardens in which this magical grotto lives: The Boboli Gardens