Visited Monticello today, the home of American founding father Thomas Jefferson, near Charlottesville, Albemarle County, Virginia. I like best, about Monticello, the feeling of its being a big sandbox in which to experiment. Here Jefferson played with: food, agriculture, architecture, technology, business, lifestyle, family, and community.
I particularly enjoyed the small scale of the house. Most rooms are about a hundred square feet in size, the main floor containing eleven rooms. Reportedly, Jefferson lived in this home with up to thirty family members and received so many guests here that 28 folding chairs were arranged daily in the entrance hall.
Compare the economy of scale of this American founding father's country home, with that of those of his royal European counterparts, say, of the Palace of Versailles. Or heck, compare Monticello with today's American McMansion. The latter is about four thousand square feet, intended for one family, which today averages 2.59 people.
This is my bit of a blog. Rambling words about rambling days. No focus and nothing ambitious. I seem to write most about local color, nature, and animals, and there is an incomplete chunk about my road trips of 2011.
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