Arty Sunday

So Mr. Pointy Sticks and I decided to go to the Walters' Art Museum this weekend and my brother and his girlfriend thought that sounded interesting, so off we all went this morning. We were going, in particular, to see an exhibit on maps and mapping. And there was also to be an exhibit of photos from the Hubble telescope. Well, we were a little early for the map exhibit. Like a month. Sigh.

But the photos from the Hubble were amazing. Mind-boggling and awe-inspiring and a little sad making. I mean, here are photos of galaxies hundred, thousands and millions of light years away from us....I'll never know what's out there. Well, none of us living now will, most likely. But think of it! Think of the marvels and beauty that's out there that we'll never know.

There was one large photo of a section of sky 30 million light years away (30 million light years! Wrap your head around that one). At first glance it appeared to be just a field of stars of varying sizes and brightness. And then you realize that a lot of them...images the size of your thumb nail or smaller...well, those are whole galaxies.

And then there was a photo that showed a galaxy and the caption said something about photos of this particular galaxy showing redshift and that that proved that the universe was expanding. Expanding into what? I mean, it's the universe. What's outside it? Too much to wrap my tiny brain around.

As one of the comments in the visitors book said, I've never felt both so large and so small at the same time.

I love the Walters. It's a wonderful old museum that has been added on to in the most complementary and beautiful manner in a very modern style. Just lovely. We wandered around for a while, despite the lack of maps.

Here's a shot of the central atrium, in the old section. I remember coming here for school trips when I was in elementary school.


In the atrium, there are lovely sculptures around the walls, currently topped with more Hubble photos.


And I liked this bronze of a greyhound, named Tom.


After walking about a bit and visiting the gift shop, we headed to Zen West for lunch. We would have eaten at Cafe Hon, but they were still (at 2 in the afternoon!) only serving breakfast (and a few sandwiches) and none of us felt like breakfast.


Only in Baltimore...

Current Reading

Just before we headed off for culture this morning, I finished A Storm of Swords. Wow. What a ride. Great use of paper. I have the fourth volume but, based on something a Readerville friend told me, I think I'll wait to read that until the fifth one comes out.

So this evening I picked up Stephen King's latest, Duma Key. There is a description of an auto accident (well, pick-up truck and construction equipment accident) that is incredibly vivid and you just know King is writing from experience. Yikes.