Kirjahaku

This engaging and enjoyable book takes us into the heart of the garden and, through an abundance of contemporary quotations and delightful engravings and line illustrations, depicts how we have enjoyed ourselves in the garden through the centuries. While there have been many books about gardening itself, and even the pleasures to be gained from the occupation, the theme of this book is something different - the garden as inhabited space, what J.D. Sedding, in "Garden Craft Old & New" (1891), described as the sounds of 'common daily life - the romps of children, the clink of tea-cups, the clatter of croquet mallets, the melee of the tennis courts, the fiddler's scrape, and the tune of moving feet ...'.

A fascinating journey into thresholds and crossing places.

How many Muses are there? Who were the original twelve Titans? Why is Zeus (Jupiter) associated with power stations, and Poseidon (Neptune) with salt-cellars? Who were Aphrodite's (Venus') handmaidens? In this beautiful little book, packed with helpful details and rare early illustrations, picture-researcher Philippa Lewis reveals the fabulous deities of the Classical world, their colourful characters, memorable stories and visual attributes, showing how the immortals live on even today.

An illustrated exploration of our limitless fascination with doors, gates, and bridges. The word "portal" comes from the Latin for "gate," but it refers to any place of ingress and egress. According to architectural historian Philippa Lewis, a portal "is generally an optimistic thing, both literally and metaphorically . . . The word encapsulates the idea of passing through, to a new opportunity, to making progress or moving forward, to entering fresh new worlds." That may be the reason so many people are drawn to the idea of portals--from King Nebuchadnezzar's Ishtar Gate through the walls of Babylon, to mountain passes, the doorway to the Raphael Loggia at the Vatican, pontoons, and drawbridges. Portals also have enlivened fiction and lore--what would Arabian Nights have been without the magical command "Open Sesame " or Alice in Wonderland if Alice had not followed the White Rabbit down a rabbit hole? And in many cultures around the world, a rainbow is a portal that "stands for peace, tolerance, respect for life and diversity." In this beautifully illustrated book, the seemingly everyday means of ingress and egress become things of beauty and cultural significance.