I first fell in love with an owl when I bought a print of Albrecht Durer's Screech-Owl (1508). I was maybe 12. Then I started to collect owls.
At the age of 17, I lived in the shadow of one of the best owl roosts in the world -- The Parthenon in Athens, a temple built for the Greek goddess Athena often depicted with one of her symbols, the owl.
By the time I was in college my interests wandered and most of the collection disappeared on its own. Then as an adult, my father started to give owls to me.
It all began with a t-shirt that my father brought back from Kauai. It was grey green with Poipu Beach and an owl on it. Every spring he went to Kauai and always found another owl to get for me. He even brought me a sweat shirt, the match to the original t-shirt. I continue to add to the collection now that he's gone.
Back to the spectacular owl's roost, I watched the PBS show NOVA on television this weekend. This episode was titled Secrets of The Parthenon. It chronicled the last 30 years at The Acropolis Restoration Project in their magnificent undertaking. There goal was to save The Parthenon from the ravages of pollution, ill planned restorations and history itself.
One of the initial discoveries is that there are almost no right angles in The Parthenon. Each block of marble is individual and can only fit in one place. All of these tiny adjustments just add to the enormousness and grace of the temple.
The original temple took about 12 years to build in mid 5th century BCE Classical Greece. In modern times, the turn of the 21st century it took 30 years to discover the secrets of the building's structure and then restore it.
At the age of 17, I lived in the shadow of one of the best owl roosts in the world -- The Parthenon in Athens, a temple built for the Greek goddess Athena often depicted with one of her symbols, the owl.
By the time I was in college my interests wandered and most of the collection disappeared on its own. Then as an adult, my father started to give owls to me.
It all began with a t-shirt that my father brought back from Kauai. It was grey green with Poipu Beach and an owl on it. Every spring he went to Kauai and always found another owl to get for me. He even brought me a sweat shirt, the match to the original t-shirt. I continue to add to the collection now that he's gone.
Back to the spectacular owl's roost, I watched the PBS show NOVA on television this weekend. This episode was titled Secrets of The Parthenon. It chronicled the last 30 years at The Acropolis Restoration Project in their magnificent undertaking. There goal was to save The Parthenon from the ravages of pollution, ill planned restorations and history itself.
One of the initial discoveries is that there are almost no right angles in The Parthenon. Each block of marble is individual and can only fit in one place. All of these tiny adjustments just add to the enormousness and grace of the temple.
The original temple took about 12 years to build in mid 5th century BCE Classical Greece. In modern times, the turn of the 21st century it took 30 years to discover the secrets of the building's structure and then restore it.
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