Located in Doylestown, PA, the Mercer Museum, Research Library and Fonthill Castle are owned and operated by the Bucks County Historical Society.  The Museum was first listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. The Fonthill Castle and the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works are listed in the Register as well.

The structures on the grounds are concrete, built to the specifications of Henry Mercer. He wanted to make his estate, which would house his collections of artifacts, fireproof. He succeeded.  The mansion was built between  1908 and 1912; the Museum was finally completed in 1916.  

Mercer was a gentleman philanthropist who collected artifacts from all over the world and brought them back to the US. The Museum houses a wide variety of the artifacts that Mercer collected. The Tiles that decorate the house, including the ceilings, were designed by Mercer. 

We went and visited the Museum, Tile Works and Mansion over the weekend. It was pretty cold, wintry and dark. The darkness was more pronounced in some parts of the mansion and Tile Works. But my trusty Leica Q2 was up to the low light task. Some photos form the visit are below. 

JFB

As 2022 draws to a close, 2023 begins to come into focus. We have a lot of travel scheduled for the coming year with a lot of photos to come. In early January we are going to begin a very long cruise that starts in Miami and ends in Barcelona. We’ll be positing periodically as we visit different locales along the way. Anyway, I have posted below a promo video of the planned trip to give everyone an idea of the types of places we are going to see.

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Washington D.C., which at the moment is unseasonably warm, is chock full of extraordinary museums. We decided to take advantage of the weather and visit some of them. First was the National Gallery of Art. It is currently exhibiting work of John Singer Sargent as well as some of the paintings of Johannes Vermeer. After the National Gallery it was on to the Freer Museum. The Freer featured an exhibition of Asian Art as well as an exhibition that included the Peacock room designed by James McNeil Whistler. Photo taking is permitted so I put an iPhone to work. Here are some samples below.

Through the University of Virginia, the state runs an arboretum that is part of the Blandy Experimental Farm. Officially known as the Orland E. White Arboretum it is more popularly known as the State Arboretum of Virginia. It is open to the public. 

The Experimental Farm is huge—to the tune of 700 acres willed to the University of Virginia by Graham Blandy in 1924.  Consistent with Blandy’s wishes it was used to train college students in agricultural methods. Orland E. White, the  first director of the farm also used it as a field research station. There is actually a long and unfolding history of the farm which you can read about at this link. 

One of the more interesting sections of the farm is Gingko Grove, which contains a large number of Gingko trees whose leaves change from green to a spectacular yellow in Autumn. 

We visited the farm recently to and wandered around the grounds. Here (below) are a few photos from that trip.

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The Potomac River and its waterfalls can be seen from Maryland or Virginia. Great Falls National Park is located on the Virginia side and is a great place to visit the falls, have a picnic, or just go hiking. We stopped by the other day to take a look at the falls and the tree leaves tuning colors as fall begins to head towards the winter months. We were not disappointed.  Here are a few shots from out visit. 

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Cape Breton Island is one of the premiere sightseeing places to visit in Nova Scotia. There is just a wealth of things to do and see. We went on the Cabot Trail in Cape Breton Highlands National Park where we went on a hiking trail, visited the Bay of Fund, got on a boat and did some whale watching. We were lucky on two counts: the weather was glorious and we saw a lot of whales. Some photos are below. 

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We spent most of the 3rd day in  Nova Scotia visiting Lunenburg and Peggy’s Cove. Lunenburg is known for its Victorian architecture in the Old Town Section. The Old Town section is one of only 2 urban communities in North America designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site, Something like 70% of the original colonial buildings from the 18^th and 19^th centuries are still in use with their colorful facades. 

After Lunenburg we were off to Peggy’s Cove and its famous lighthouse. Peggy’s Cove is a small, picturesque fishing village with one of the most photographed lighthouses in Canada. Or at least that’s what the claim is, although it’s hard to tell how that could be measured. Needless to say, some photos of these places  are below. 

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The next day we saw some more of the city of Halifax, which is the largest city in Nova Scotia and a major economic center.  But with a population of about 440,000 people it is kind of a small city by most standards. 

The city is an important tourism center with numerous National Historic Sites including Citadel Hill which is where Ft. George is located. Downtown Halifax is a major shopping center which includes Scotia Square, the Maritime Mall and Spring Garden road where the city maintains a public garden. 

The city is home to numerous colleges and universities including Dalhousie University, University of Kings College, Mount St. Vincent University, NSCAD University, and Nova Scotia Community College. With so many colleges and universities located in such a relative small town, there is no lack of student bars and there is always good pizza to be had.

We wandered around the Halifax Harbor Boardwalk, visited the Maritime Museum, went for a ferry ride to Dartmouth and back, visited the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, the cemetery where many of the victims of the sinking of the Titanic are buried, and had several excellent meals at local restaurants. 

Some photos of our wanderings are below.

JFB