When I visited Scotland in May of this year I started my visit in my favorite city in the UK and Ireland; Edinburgh. Edinburgh is cultural and architecture lover’s delight. From the old town’s medieval buildings to the new town’s Georgian splendor and the art galleries and museums there is something for every cultural taste. It also happens to be the only city I would want to live in the inner-city due to the abundance of parks, rivers, and the Botanic gardens on your doorstep.
As you may have guessed I love museums, art galleries, country houses etc. A lot. Like a whole heap of a lot. I make my living working in museums and heritage and as an historian of Irish dress. Naturally, I like to visit museums both at home and abroad both to fuel my love of museums as well as provide interesting reading matter for those interested in my blog.
As mentioned in my previous blog post I visited ‘The Art of Wallpaper – Morris & Co’ exhibition at the Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh in May of this year. To say that this was one of my favourite exhibitions I have seen recently is an understatement – I came away wanting to decorate my future house with everything and anything William Morris designed and made!
One of my favourite things to do is to get on my walking boots (pictured above and muddy to boot!) and go for walks. Long walks, short walks, sunny walks, wet walks. I walk in nearly all weathers and don’t go outside unless it’s particularly snowy or very, very, very windy, and wet. I have taken it for granted that I can go out by myself and feel safe and walk. I live in Ireland; it’s relatively safe to walk most places even hiking and solo walking trips. I took it for granted that it was always like this but lo, and behold this wonderful book made me think again about women who walked before me who were walking trailblazers walking in a time when women being alone was seen to be dangerous and circumspect.
In May of this year on my holiday in Edinburgh I visited the exhibition, ‘The Art of Wallpaper – Morris & Co’ at Dovecot Studios. I had wanted to visit Dovecot Studios for quite sometime which meant that I was doubly excited that their latest exhibition’s theme was William Morris and his contribution to both interior design and art history.