Whalehead (figure 1) is a plutocrat’s estate in Corolla, North Carolina, near the northern extreme of the paved roads that run up and down the Outer Banks. It was built with Art Nouveau decoration and is surrounded by the remnants of very attractive landscape architecture, not least in the form of noble live oaks that dot the property. The family sold the house long ago and after some interesting uses to which it was put in the meantime it now finds itself well restored and part of a public park.
The builder and original owner, Edward Knight, was one of those fellows who must have laughed especially hard when Elmer Fudd shoots Daffy Duck in the face and Daffy’s beak spins around.
Or so I infer from evidence preserved in the mansion’s basement of Knight’s obsession with hunting the ducks that were once so plentiful in those parts that they gave a town to the south the name Duck. There are log books of a sort that record the deaths and bodily statistics of thousands of erstwhile avian inhabitants of the northern Outer Banks. But I digress.
Amongst the charming landscape features of the estate is a bridge that crosses the entrance to a little lagoon on the grounds. We were lucky enough to have some weather behind it on our latest visit, last Friday.
Figure 1. 52 mm, f/8, ISO 100, 1/500 s. Nikon Z 7ii with Nikkor 24-70 mm f/2.8 lens.
Figure 3. 62 mm, f/8, ISO 100, 1/640 s. Nikon Z 7ii with Nikkor Z 24-200 mm f/ 4-6.3 lens.
Συγγράμματα 