Prague trip....folk museum

We went to the Musaion in Kinsky Park, a wonderful little museum full of beautifully presented folk costume and folk art, it was all laid out in seasons, spring/birth/  marriage/summer harvest etc....and lots of wonderful toys and sculpture.

The winter section was my favourite, this display really made me gasp, it frightened and fascinated me....so beautiful and so scary

"the first sunday in December opens the Advent, the time focused more upon the spiritual values of life, preparation for Christmas and the birth of Christ. This period of preparations is accompanied by figures with masks related to the way of thinking of pre-christian times. They appear in several groups of customs as witnesses of human conscience with punishments for committed crimes and rewards for promises into the future - Barbara, Lucia, Nicholas, and with them the devils, angels, various demons and animal masks. The time of Christmas continues to belong up to now to the peak periods of the year. The folk tradition has retained many values both in the spiritual and the creative spheres. Folk nativity scenes represent a connecting link between both these spheres"

Polaroid

When my first son was born I used a fabulous way of capturing his baby years....polaroid film. It was instant, and captured those magical moments of babyhood, then the pictures faded, his little features were bleached out and I lost my memories . However i felt about losing these precious memories I still see them in my minds eye when i look at the faded photographs, memories are polaroid coloured. When I heard that Polaroid are no longer making the film I panicked, i got out my old camera and bought some discontinued 'unsaleable' film. I have bought possibly the last of the old stock and find that every photo I take has got to be precious.........I can't make precious photos, I may lose them again, so I have been 'snapping', and find that each of the pictures taken have a glow of memory already imbued by the polaroid process.....I am so sad that the film will not be made anymore

I have been on a short break to Prague. I really enjoyed it and think that I will have to return to have a look the things I know I didn't get time to see. The two most exciting places for me were the toy museum and the folk museum, I would have bought books from both places but they were all in czech ....

these are some of the faces from both museums, I have got many more photos and may put them up here, but most of them will be on my flickr pages.