Take Me to Pitcairn by Julian McDonnell

To learn more about Julian McDonnell, film director, click here.

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Cocillana Syrup Compound

Guarea guidonia

Recipe

  • 5 Per Cent  Alcohol
  • 8-24 Grain – Heroin Hydrochloride
  • 120 Minims – Tincture Euphorbia Pilulifera
  • 120 Minims – Syrup Wild Lettuce
  • 40 Minims – Tincture Cocillana
  • 24 Minims – Syrup Squill Compound
  • 8 Gram – Ca(s)ecarin (P, D, & Co.)
  • 8-100 Grain Menthol

Dose – One-half to one fluidrams (2 to 4 ct)

Guaranteed under The Food and Drug Act. June 30th, 1906 Guranty No. 6, Park, Davis & Co. Detroit Michigan

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Cleaning Oil Paint Brushes with Linseed Oil and Yardley of London Shea Butter Soap

Linseed oil is readily available in many oil painters’ studios.  Yardley London Shea Butter Soap can be purchased from  a dollar store or pound shop on the cheap.  These two ingredients make for the basis of an excellent cleaning system for cleaning oil painting brushes. Continue reading Cleaning Oil Paint Brushes with Linseed Oil and Yardley of London Shea Butter Soap

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Old Time Recipes for Homemade Wines, Cordials, and Liqueurs

INTRODUCTION

The idea of compiling this little volume occurred to me while on a visit to some friends at their summer home in a quaint New England village. The little town had once been a thriving seaport, but now consisted of hardly more than a dozen old-fashioned Colonial houses facing each other along one broad, well-kept street. A few blind lanes led to less pretentious homes; and still farther back farmhouses dotted the landscape and broke the dead line of the horizon.

For peace, contentment, and quiet serenity of life, this little village might have been Arcadia; the surrounding country, the land of Beulah.

The ladies of the Great Houses, as the villagers called the few Colonial mansions, were invariably spinsters or widows of uncertain years, the last descendants of a long line of sea captains and prosperous mariners, to whom the heritage of these old homes, rich with their time-honored furnishings and curios, served to keep warm the cockles of kindly hearts, which extended to the stranger that traditional hospitality which makes the whole world kin. Continue reading Old Time Recipes for Homemade Wines, Cordials, and Liqueurs

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Travels by Narrowboat

Oh Glorious England, verdant fields and wandering canals…

In this wonderful series of videos, the CountryHouseGent takes the viewer along as he chugs up and down the many canals crisscrossing England in his classic Narrowboat.  There is nothing like a free man charting his own destiny.

The series may watched on Amazon Prime as Travels by Narrowboat.

 

 

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A Few Wine Recipes

EIGHTEEN GALLONS is here give as a STANDARD for all the following Recipes, it being the most convenient size cask to Families. See A General Process for Making Wine 

If, however, only half the quantity of Wine is to be made, it is but to divide the portions of the materials in half.  If on the other hand, double the quantity is to be made, then it is but to double the portions.  So that by variation it will answer every size cask.  Continue reading A Few Wine Recipes

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A General Process for Making Wine


A General Process for Making Wine.

  • Gathering the Fruit
  • Picking the Fruit
  • Bruising the Fruit
  • Vatting the Fruit
  • Vinous Fermentation
  • Drawing the Must
  • Pressing the Must
  • Casking the Must
  • Spirituous Fermentation
  • Racking the Wine
  • Bottling and Corking the Wine
  • Drinking the Wine

GATHERING THE FRUIT.

It is of considerable consequence to the making of good Wine, that attention be paid to the state and condition of fruit.  Fruit of every sort should be gathered in fine weather; those of the berry kind often appear ripe to the eye before they really are so, therefore it is requisite to taste them several times in order to ascertain that they are arrived at the crisis of maturity.  This is an important point to the making excellent wine.  If fruit be not ripe, the wine will be harsh and hard, unpleasant to the palate, and more so to the stomach; it will also require more spirit and saccharine, and take a longer time to be fit for the table if ever it be spring.  if fruit be too ripe, the wine from it will be faint, low and vapid, it will not be strong and generous, it will also require more trouble, additional spirit and expense. Continue reading A General Process for Making Wine

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What is the Meaning of the Term Thorough-bred Fox-hound

Reprint from the Sportsman Cabinet and Town & Country Magazine, Vol.1, Number 1, November 1832.

MR. Editor,

Will you allow me to inquire, through the medium of your pages, the correct meaning of the term thorough-bred fox-hound? I am very well aware, that the expression is in common use among sportsmen, but inconsiderately perhaps applied. In the old Sporting Magazine for last July, the writer, who signs VENATOR, speaking of the harriers of “H. Ross, Esq. of Rossie Castle,” observes, “they consist of about twenty-four couples of beautiful thorough-bred dwarf fox-hounds.” I am anxious to know if there be any absolute distinctive marks or appearances by which to ascertain at first sight, the “thorough-bred fox hound.” Continue reading What is the Meaning of the Term Thorough-bred Fox-hound

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Peach Brandy

PEACH BRANDY

2 gallons + 3 quarts boiled water
3 qts. peaches, extremely ripe
3 lemons, cut into sections
2 sm. pkgs. yeast
10 lbs. sugar
4 lbs. dark raisins

Place peaches, lemons and sugar in crock. Dissolve yeast in water (must NOT be to hot). Stir thoroughly. Stir daily for 7 days. Keep crock or vessel covered with cheesecloth.

On the 7th day, add the raisins and stir. Let mixture sit UNTOUCHED for 21 days, then bottle. (5 gallon crocks)

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Chronological Catalog of Recorded Lunar Events

In July of 1968, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA), published NASA Technical Report TR R-277 titled Chronological Catalog of Recorded Lunar Events.

The catalog begins with the first entry dated November 26th, 1540 at ∼05h 00m:

  • Feature: Region of Calippus2  
  • Description: Starlike appearance on dark side
  • Observer: Observers at Worms
  • Reference: Hess 1911
  • NASA’s Chronological Catalog of Recorded Lunar Events

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Spem In Alium performed by The Tallis Scholars

Click here to learn more about The Tallis Scholars

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Congo River Boat Ride

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The Field of the Cloth of Gold

Reprint from the Royal Collection Trust Website

The meeting between Henry VIII and Francis I, known as the Field of the Cloth of Gold, took place between 7 to 24 June 1520 in a valley subsequently called the Val d’Or, near Guisnes to the south of Calais. The event derived its name from the sumptuousness of the materials used for the tents, pavilions and other furnishings. It was a spectacle of the greatest magnificence and the several artists responsible for this painting have made a fairly accurate visual summary of the various festivities that took place during the meeting of the two kings.

Continue reading The Field of the Cloth of Gold

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Herman de Vries at Venice Biennale 2015 – Going Caveman With Anti-Matter Fragmentation Art – A Tribute

Dutch artist Herman de Vries – Photo taken by son Vince

The two videos below of Herman de Vries at work at the Venice Bienalle 2015 are quite inspiring.

So inspiring in fact that I moved into a cave for two weeks and wrote Shakespearean tragedy with charcoal.  Filled with great joy I returned to my studio and set about creating a tribute to Herman de Vrie I shall call La Biennale di Venezia de Forest with Five or Six Nymphs2, or Going Caveman with Anti-Matter Fragmentation Art,  a five picture installation which can be viewed below the film.

 

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La Biennale di Venezia de Forest with Five or Six Nymphs2, or Going Caveman with Anti-Matter Fragmentation Art

 

 

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Texas Tea

Photo by Rebecca Humann

Texas Tea Recipe

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Blunderbuss Mai Tai Recipe

Blackbeard’s Jolly Roger

If you’re looking for that most refreshing of summertime beverages for sipping out on the back patio or perhaps as a last drink before walking the plank, let me recommend my Blunderbuss Mai Tai.  I picked up the basics to this recipe over thirty years ago when holed up in a gritty little hotel and bar in Puerto Rico and have worked on perfecting it ever since. Continue reading Blunderbuss Mai Tai Recipe

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Henry Miller

 

 

 

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Cocktails and Canapés

From The How and When, An Authoritative reference reference guide to the origin, use and classification of the world’s choicest vintages and spirits by Hyman Gale and Gerald F. Marco. The Marco name is of a Chicago family that were involved in all aspects of the liquor business and ran Marco’s Bar located at 70 E. Randolph Street and another at 32 S. Clark St. in Chicago back in the day.

First Definition of a Cocktail

Continue reading Cocktails and Canapés

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How to Paint a Vermeer

 

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A Red Letter Day with Henry Miller

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