Ernest Hemingway wrought iron gate auctioned on Ebay
An original wrought-iron gate from the one-time Key West home of Ernest Hemingway is being auctioned on eBay.
The gate hung at the side entrance of the property where the Nobel Prize-winning author lived in the 1930s and wrote many of his classic works. It is believed to have been installed in 1935, when a brick privacy wall was built around the Whitehead Street home Hemingway occupied with his wife and sons.
In 1964, the property became a museum honoring the author.
The gate was replaced in 2011 with one that better protected the nearly 50 cats that reside on the property. The original was donated to Helpline, a non-profit local crisis hotline, to be auctioned for fundraising.
Custom Ornamental Iron Works develops innovative Wrought Iron Designs
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From prleap.com
Councillors bid to buy wrought iron courthouse
ARMIDALE Courthouse could house a revolving display of artwork from the Hinton Collection if a bid by councillors to buy the building succeeds.
Armidale Dumaresq councillors Margaret O’Connor, Jenny Bailey and Laurie Bishop want ratepayers to buy the heritage-listed building from the NSW government when it is vacated later this year.
The building is owned by the NSW government and a spokesman from the Attorney-General and Justice department confirmed it would be listed for sale when the new courthouse opens later this year.
On Monday, the three councillors will ask their colleagues to consider a plan to buy the building “on favourable terms” and mull uses for the site.
Cr O’Connor said yesterday: “We want to put the idea to the community and elicit their comments as to how this unique Armidale icon could be used by ratepayers.”
Built in 1859-60, the courthouse features wrought iron gates, cedar furniture and joinery and a clock tower that was added in 1878.
The government spokesman said the old courthouse would be sold to the highest bidder through Property NSW.
Friends of the Hinton Collection spokeswoman June Hodgson agreed the old building would make a good site for a revolving collection of artworks from the Hinton collection.
“There are about 1300 pieces of artwork in the collection, many of which are stored at NERAM,” Ms Hodgson said.
“The collection has often been described as a ‘hidden jewel’. This plan would make that jewel more accessible and attract more tourists to the town.”
The plan will be debated by councillors at a full meeting on Monday.
Ljubljana’s castle and wrought iron
Slovenia’s capital a little charmer
JUDITH DOYLE
The expression “small is beautiful” must surely have been coined for Slovenia and its riverside capital, Ljubljana. Look at a map of Europe (not an old one – Slovenia only became an independent country in 1991) and you’ll find this neat little country tucked between Croatia, Hungary, Austria and Italy. Its area is about half that of Canterbury.
Driving from coastal Croatia, much of it dry and stony, I find it a refreshing change to be in the rolling green countryside of Slovenia. More than half the whole country is forested. Little gabled houses are clustered together in a clearing from time to time, a church spire pokes up above the roofs, and farm animals graze in surrounding paddocks.
Ljubljana (the “j” is pronounced as a “y”) almost means beloved (ljubljena). This would be totally appropriate for this charmer of a city (only 270,000 inhabitants) which spreads out along both banks of the Ljubljanica River.
We make first of all for Ljubljana’s hilltop castle. It was built in the ninth century, rebuilt in the 15th and then upgraded in the 16th and 17th centuries. Afterwards it served as a military outpost and even as the province’s prison before another restoration was carried out in the 1960s. The result is a bit of an architectural mish-mash.
But it has an absolutely splendid tower. After a near-perpendicular ride in the funicular, we slog up to the top of the tower via a double wrought-iron staircase. Someone in our group counts 95 steps as we go round and round. I’m too puffed to count.
From the top, we take in the stunning panorama. We can see the hazy Julian Mountains in the distance (where the skifields lie) – and nearer, dense forested slopes. Closer still is the leafy playground of Park Tivoli. Below us, we look over the winding river, the leafy squares and streets and the terracotta roofs of the buildings.
Many of the buildings are art nouveau in architectural style and decoration, a legacy from the city’s earthquake history. Like other regions of the former Yugoslavia, Slovenia is earthquake-prone. The first recorded quake in the city was in 1511 when much of mediaeval Ljubljana was destroyed. Rebuilding in the 17th and 18th centuries resulted in pale-coloured baroque churches and mansions.
In 1895 a powerful earthquake struck again and the city had to rebuild once more. Art nouveau was all the rage in Europe at the time and many of these wonderful buildings were erected then in that style.
Ljubljana has been through torrid times in other ways. In Roman days it was called Emona, and remnants of Romanesque walls, dwellings and early churches still remain. In the 5th century Emona was sacked by the Huns. Tribes of early Slavs settled in the area in the following centuries.
from stuff.co.nz
Wrought iron for the Poe House opening
The Poe House to open March 5 in Hendersonville
Grand opening April 16
By GARY GLANCY
In the opening verse of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven,” a distraught lover awakes to hear the sound of a “gentle rapping” before proclaiming: “’Tis some visitor … tapping at my chamber door — Only this, and nothing more.”
In the famous 1845 poem, the visitor was a bird. Next month, Kimberlee Young and her fiancé, Derek Schuler, will eagerly await the arrival of wine and craft-beer enthusiasts to their new downtown Hendersonville business, The Poe House.
The Hendersonville couple have been working with their friend, carpenter Paul Posthummus, to transform the space underneath West First restaurant — which formerly served as the Henderson County Democratic Party headquarters — into a Charleston-style, Poe-themed retail store that will sell a wide range of wines and craft beer as well as homebrewing supplies and equipment.
Young and Schuler also have obtained their license to sell a host of hand-picked wines and microbrews by the glass for consumption in the shop’s rusticlooking tavern and Charlestonstyle courtyard. A soft opening is planned for March 5, with a grand opening scheduled for April 16.
“I think it’s a wonderful addition and a pretty cool service to have right here in downtown Hendersonville,” said Bob Williford, president of the Henderson County Chamber of Commerce.
A fan of craft beer, Williford said the closings of specialty beer/wine shops Rabbit & Co. and Adventures in Wine and Beer left a void in Hendersonville, underscored by the excitement generated by Sierra Nevada’s arrival in Mills River and the explosion of craft beer in general in Western North Carolina. Young and Schuler agree.
”There’s really nobody here (in Hendersonville) that’s doing anything as far as the beer scene goes,” Young said. “And, unfortunately, with the way the economy went, we lost a lot of our wine shops as well, so we felt there was a real need to have something like this.”
Young, a certified sommelier who has sat on national wine-tasting panels, is equally passionate about wine and craft beer. So is Schuler. The couple own and operate Travels in Wine, which this spring enters its fifth season providing private WNC winery tours out of Hendersonville and Asheville.
They have hired a new marketing director and tour guide, Hendersonville resident Dana Hensley, and also have expanded to Charlotte and Greensboro for tours in the booming Yadkin Valley wine region. Now, Young and Schuler — both Hendersonville natives — plan to begin offering weekly brewery tours in WNC as well beginning in May.
Adding a retail component had been part of the business plan to grow the company, though not right away. However, two things happened that accelerated the process. First, Young and Schuler returned from an outing in Greenville, S.C., inspired after visiting The Trappe Door restaurant, which offers Belgian cuisine and beer in a fittingly dark, Medieval-style basement setting.
Then, back in Hendersonville, Young and Shuler walked into the space under West First, which they planned to renovate into a new corporate office.
“Derek is a visionary, so he walked down here and saw something,” Young said. “I mean, we had a dream to do it at some point, but it was kind of a couple years down the road. But then when he got down here and started looking around, he said, ‘Hey, if we did this and we did that, then we could go ahead and start a couple years early.’” Armed with a vision that includes a love of Poe and the Romantic Gothic period theme, Young, Shuler and Posthummus — whom the couple called a “godsend” — went to work to realize what they’ve called the building’s “Poe-tential.”
First, they rewired the entire place and installed ceiling track lighting and Charleston-style lanterns to set the desired mood. They sandblasted the green walls to reveal the natural brick, built rustic-sophisticated wine shelving into them, and painted the ceiling to enhance the dark look even further.
“It’s made a huge difference,” Schuler said. “You’ve got to create the right environment.” Young and Schuler have purchased furniture from Michigan that — like The Poe House bar — is made from recycled wood, including a table in the tavern’s banquette seating area that will feature the image of a raven burned into it as a tribute to Poe’s poem.
Meanwhile, Young’s brother, David Roark, an artist from Mills River, is busy working on murals that include a portrait of the poet as well as a depiction of Poe’s short story, “Cask of Amontillado.”
Outside in the courtyard Young and Schuler envision a décor of wrought iron and a fountain where customer can enjoy a glass or flight of wine and beer.
A teacher at heart Young’s motto is “educate entice, enlighten and entertain.” The couple assure The Poe House will include it all, with regular beer and wine classes and tastings to complement their winery and new brewery tours.
”With beer, I have the same philosophy that I did with wine: Our goal is to make it fun,” Young said “We want people to be able to understand the craft-beer scene and not be intimidated by it.”
On the home brewing side, Young and Schuler have obtained a brew-on premises license and plan to have educational brew-in sessions in the store. They also hope to collaborate with Blue Ridge Community College to offer similar opportunities for the new beer and brewing-related courses at BRCC.
In that regard, the couple believes solid partnerships lead to healthy, prosperous communities, and they see their venture doing just that in the place they call home.
from blueridgenow.com
