With bonus deer tracks.
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Sphinx in the Snow
The Emil Winter mausoleum, a bit of Cecil B. De Mille Egyptian fantasy in the Allegheny Cemetery, was designed by John Russell Pope, architect of the Jefferson Memorial and the National Archives in Washington. It is almost an exact duplicate of the Woolworth mausoleum in Woodlawn, the Bronx, which means that—believe it or not—there are two of these things in the world. The sphinx guardians are probably its most striking feature.
Camera: Kodak EasyShare Z1485 IS.
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The Charlotte Apartments, Observatory Hill
A typically dignified small Pittsburgh apartment building in the neoclassical style. This particular one has an enviable location, right at the entrance to Riverview Park, with a view of the Allegheny Observatory and the Byzantine Metropolitan Archbishop’s palace. Smaller Pittsburgh apartment buildings of this era were frequently given women’s names.
Camera: Olympus E20n. -
Allegheny Observatory
As seen through a gnarled tree, which is the best way to look at almost anything.
Camera: Olympus E20n.
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Study in Brown
Yesterday’s rain made the leaves damp and the streams flow; overnight the temperatures plummeted, and today there is snow.
Camera: Kodak EasyShare Z1485 IS.
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Church of the Assumption, Bellevue
Camera: Samsung Digimax V4.
This splendid church was designed by Bellevue’s own Leo A. McMullen, an architect and organist who is almost forgotten today, but whose works were highly regarded in his time. The American Institute of Architects counted him as one of “six architects who shaped Pittsburgh,” according to his obituary in 1963.
The four evangelists—Mark, Matthew, John, and Luke, in that order—are lined up on the façade, each holding open a book that displays the first words of his Gospel.
Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
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Phipps in the Winter
Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
One of the great challenges of landscape design is to find some way to make the landscape interesting in the winter, when deciduous leaves are gone and there are almost no flowers. Bright red berries certainly add a lot of winter interest, as we see above.
In the picture below, the tree with the very interesting skeleton is a Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides), a conifer that loses its leaves in winter.
Camera: Kodak EasyShare Z1485 IS.
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Winter Orchids at Phipps Conservatory
Every season is colorful in the Orchid Room. Here are some of the orchids that were blooming just after Christmas.
Dendrobium “Sokol Blue.”
Liparis condylobulbon “Henry Shaw.”
An unidentified hybrid (there was no tag) that Father Pitt would guess probably involves Miltonia and Odontoglossum.
Paphiopedilum Whitemoor “Norriton” FCC AOS. The “FCC AOS” means it was awarded a First Class Certificate by the American Orchid Society, which means the AOS thinks this cultivar is pretty peachy.
Dendrobium bracteosum.
Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
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Shields Chapel and Mausoleum, Edgeworth
Camera: Kodak EasyShare Z1485 IS.
Camera: Samsung Digimax V4.
The Shields Chapel was built in 1868 as a Presbyterian church donated by Eliza Leet Shields, extremely rich person, on the grounds of her estate. After sitting vacant for a long time, it is now occupied by the second congregation of Grace Anglican Church.
Camera: Samsung Digimax V4.
Next to the church is what appears to be another church, immemorially ancient; but it is actually the Shields family mausoleum, built in 1893. Apparently no mere cemetery was classy enough for the Shields family. This is an enormous mausoleum, as big as a church, and in fact Grace Anglican’s congregation met in it before the Shields Chapel became available. There is space for thirty-six permanent residents here, of which number eighteen have already moved in.
Camera: Kodak EasyShare Z1485 IS.
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Poinsettias at the Phipps Winter Flower Show
Breeders have been working on our friend the poinsettia. There is no need to be content with plain old red when you can have gnarled pink or candy-striped.
For extra credit, if you visit Phipps during the show (which continues through January 11), point out to your friends the other exceedingly dissimilar species of Euphorbia, the genus that includes poinsettias, that are planted along with the poinsettias as a sort of botanical in-joke.
Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
