Thursday, Sarasota Florida

March 31, Day 27

It turned out we could take pictures anywhere we wanted on the complex, but without a flash.

John and Mabel Ringling gave the state this mansion and museum with its art in the 1930’s. http://www.ringling.org/

On the way to the house we went through the rose garden, three people pruning the roses.


Shirleen's favorite



Many statues place around the garden.

We toured the mansion, the Ca' d’Zan., fashioned after the homes in Venice Italy. Again it is one of those gigantic brick mansion overlooking the bay. The different part about this house was the glass in the windows. It was black glass, clear, then it was painted a see through pastel color. Had we had sunshine, not a tornado watch, it would have danced onto the marble floor. There is a self guide tour we paid for the docent guide. Turned out one of the poorer one we have had. We had wanted to go to the third and fourth floor but because of the weather and the outside steps to the tower, we could not go this time.

The secret garden is to the right of the house with the grave sights behind it.



Wall way stone with rose petals



Many of Peter Paul Rubens large paintings, we viewed four of them and all in one big room. Massive! It was good to have a docent gives us a tour of the six gallery’s of John’s personal purchases.



Painting found in an Italian church bought $250 now worth $125K

 She gave insight to the method and meaning of different parts of the painting. Shirleen even found a Rembrandt among the many painters. The setting for his paintings were in highly decorated rooms not the normal white walled cubes.

Another exhibit was a jade collection, these I could take pictures of, as you see I did.



Angie, this is your Peony fern

 Another exhibit was etched and engraved pictures of flowers which were then painted.

Lunch was on the museum grounds, Shirleen had the Asolo,

a plate of grapes, strawberries, blueberry’s, dried apricots, blue cheese, cheddar cheese, brie cheese and a white hard cheese; I the Caprese Panini, fresh mozzarella, sliced tomatoes and basil on brioche, pressed and served with a cup of portabella mushroom soup with bacon and duck accompanied by a lettuce salad,

Howard Tibbals he has been building the layout for 50 years. He named it Howard Bros. Circus because John Ringling did not leave him use his name.

One usually thinks of a circus as the lion tamer or trapeze artist. I had always wanted to buy the HO scale circus layout but didn’t. This then fits my dreams. What I learned was much. There were about 1,200 people who worked the one day stand. In came the circus, unload each flatbed from a train about 150 wagons. This all takes a bunch of people working together. You have to have a food tent, prepare meals for all these people three times a day, - they had a video of a man flipping pancakes, looked like they speeded up the video but I guess not, who fixes broken wagon wheels, feeds the animals, cares for the sick people and animals, who cuts the peoples hair, who fixes the motors when they need repair, who puts up tents, spreads the sawdust – what have I forgot about a town on wheels. Well this layout has them all. 12,000 could be seated within the big tent. He built each seat in the tent and each chair folds like its big counterpart. It is said that within one of the railcars there is a man with a ledger and cash register with bills in it, all carved out of wood. Each of these figures were hand carved by Howard and he is still adding items.

There was much to view in the museum, old costumes, hand bills, posters and memorabilia.

It is thundering and lightning; I go and get the car for Shirleen, as the umbrella was safely in the car, so there was only one of us to get wet. jerr