Behind the Museum

Solitude by Tuck Langland

We are so lucky here in Lafayette, Indiana
to have the Haan Mansion Museum

and behind the mansion
is yet another museum:
the intriguing no - fee - required
Sculpture Garden

Garden Art by Kathleen Kitch
Click here to see additional sculptures
that Ellie and I have enjoyed
"behind the scenes at the museum."

Speaking of which . . .

All the trees in Museum Gardens are in new leaf and high above . . . the sky is solid blue; if she reached out her hand . . . she could touch it. Fluffy white clouds like lambs pile into each other. We are in quattrocento heaven. Swooping, tweeting birds dance excitedly above our heads, their tiny flight muscles at full throttle – miniature angels of the Annunciation, avian Gabriels, come to shout my arrival! Alleluia!

by Kate Atkinson
from her novel Behind the Scenes at the Museum

I love this mysteriously titled novel -- enough for several re-readings -- but have always felt a little let down that the museum itself barely figures. In fact, the main characters live in a flat above a pet shop. They visit the museum a couple of times in the early years, a couple of times in the later years. That's it.