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Tea at Trianon: Garden Party at Trianon

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Tea at Trianon: State Deptartment Mass Layoffs: Not "the First of its Kind"

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Tea at Trianon: New Period Drama About 1066

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The Padparadscha sapphire....

Six rose-pink Padparadscha cabochons unfurl amid diamond-pavé petals, their stems gathered by a ribbon of light in 18K gold. via House of Padparadscha

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Fountain of Elias: St. Mary Magdalen

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Lady Antonia Fraser in Marie-Antoinette: The Journey maintains that it was built to celebrate the love of the king and the queen for each other and the consummation of their marriage, delayed for many years. 

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"Superman, like America, is all-powerful. And being all-powerful, Superman and America can afford to be idealistic. Superman doesn’t kill because with power as great as his killing is never necessary, much as liberals would come to see the death penalty as abhorrent in a land where well-meaning government and enlightened social science could overcome any antisocial threat." 

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Une charmante pastelliste et peintre, Rosalie Filleul était décapitée sans raison, le 24 juillet 1794, dans le cadre de la Grande Terreur. Outre son délicat auto-portrait, on connaît d'elle les portraits de Benjamin Franklin, qui fut amoureux d'elle à Passy, de Marie Antoinette, de la comtesse de Provence et des enfants du comte d'Artois. Son talent l'avait fait remarquer a la cour de Versailles, mais Mme Vigée le Brun, qui fut son amie, a éclipsé son dramatique souvenir. J'ai eu la chance d'être reçu dans sa maison de Besne a Montbouis (Loiret) où était conservé en 1989 le portrait ci dessus et le ravissant pastel qu'elle fit de son amie Emilie Chalgrin, fille de Vernet, exécutée avec elle.

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'A Midsummer Night's Dream' by Francis Danby, 1832

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In early February 1913, the intimate daily life of Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna Romanova unfolds with remarkable clarity and warmth in her personal diary, offering a rare, humanizing glimpse into the life of Russia’s last imperial family before the looming storm of revolution. Between February 1st and 4th, Tatiana’s entries reveal a routine deeply rooted in family bonds, education, and the simple joys of youth. She writes of skiing adventures “down the hill” with her sister Olga (“Trina”), moments shared over breakfast and tea with her parents, Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, and visits to the regimental church, a cornerstone of the Romanovs’ spiritual life. The diary captures everyday scenes: from “Papa at the shooting gallery” to evenings spent with close family friends and courtiers, including lively gatherings where “everyone played Dobchinsky-Bobchinsky,” a popular card game. The presence of “Aunt Olga” and close companions like Lili Dehn, a noted confidante of the family, paints a vivid picture of a closely knit court circle anchored at key imperial residences such as Tsarskoe Selo and the Winter Palace.

Amidst these ordinary moments, poignant details emerge, hinting at the undercurrents of the era: “For the first time Mama was sitting and not lying down,” alluding to Empress Alexandra’s fragile health, and young Alexei’s dependence on a chair, likely due to his hemophilia, a secret closely guarded by the family. The mention of a “cinematograph” screening and attendance at the ballet "The Pharaoh's Daughter" highlight the Romanovs' engagement with contemporary culture despite the conservative nature of their world. Tatiana’s diary, therefore, transcends mere record-keeping; it humanizes history’s grand narrative by revealing a royal family’s attempts to maintain normalcy, joy, and faith amid growing political tensions. These entries from 1913 not only chronicle a family’s private sphere but also foreshadow the tragic fate awaiting the Romanovs just a few years later.

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"Kudos to Tulsi Gabbard for staying on mission – Great job." 

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"Elias indeed shall come, and restore all things." (Matthew 17:11) 

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Vaslav Nijinsky and Anna Pavlova in the ballet "Le Pavillon d’Armide" Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg 1907. An old Russian postcard.

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"This isn’t theory anymore—it’s reality, and it follows a disturbing national trend. For years, people claimed that disasters like the Maui fires were being used to clear land for Smart Cities. Now it’s happening in plain sight." 

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'As if to confirm that it will, actually, be the end, 120 prop pieces are to be auctioned off at Bonhams, in London, starting on August 18th and running through September 16th. The pieces on the block comprise a spectrum of fan-enticing fodder. For example, the Grantham family car, a 1925 Sunbeam: "The 20/60 was considered by many to be far superior to the Rolls Royce,” reads the auction footnotes.’