Airport art

Hello, everyone.  

I saw a new example of airport artistic decoration recently. 

This geode butterfly is really big! It's beautiful,  too.

It's also an ad for the Quinta Mazatlan, an old house with gardens that people visit in McAllen.

One more beautiful church DH visited in Madrid

 Hello, everyone.

As has been mentioned before, when my leg got injured, I spent days recuperating in the room and DH wandered the city. He brought back photos to share with me each time.

One was a church we had actually never heard of before. It's a very old church and it may have been the official cathedral in the past. (Now La Almudena, across a large plaza from the Palacio Real, is it.) It was a Franciscan church, so there are numbers of paintings of various saints who were members of that order.

I'm not sure if this is St. Francis preaching, or St. Anthony de Padua.

Emblems of various military orders that served over the centuries. To the right of the Hospitallers is the Order of Santiago.

St. Francis receiving the approval of his Rule for the order.

Because this church is in Madrid, there are also themes of historical and cultural significance that don't involve St. Francis or his disciples, too.

The apparition of St. James as Santiago Matamoros at the battle of Clavijo, in an unusually hands-on image. I thought that the saint appeared over the heads of the nearly-beaten Christian army and inspired them to rise up and charge to a miraculous victory. The cross, the sword, and the white horse are always part of the depiction. 

Possibly St. Dominic? He's showing the rosary. 

I thought at first this was a depiction of the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Now I wonder if it's actually a depiction of her Assumption into heaven at the end of her life on earth. (I'm basing this on the way the angels are lifting her up. 

While he was out, he got a neat reflection photo of the church and the oncoming weather.

A little bit more about Merida, and leaving the city

 Hello, everyone.

Earlier posts about the day of the very long walk talked about the church in Aljucen, and a bit about the monks in Alcuescar.

The very beginning of the day was very different from both of those subjects, and we enjoyed the things we saw and learned.

At right, a detail of the aqueduct at Merida. The storks have nests atop the stone construction.

At left, a photo of more of it. The sun was just coming up.

The information sign about the over-2,000-year-old dam. This dam was built to supply, via the aqueduct pictured above, the city of Augusta Merita. Which is now called Merida. The dam still holds water, but the aqueduct is a ruin, so the water doesn't go to the municipal water system anymore.

A view of the waters of the Embalse de Proserpina. There are pretty walking trails along the edge, some of them being sorta-kinda beach accesses. For beaches that are just the native soil of the area, not the sort of artificial sand piles that St. Thomas, USVI, has.

About mid-morning, we passed through El Carrascalejo. The village's community-center bar was just opening, so we stopped and had a bit of rest and cafe con leche.

We did notice that the village seems to be trying to have an albergue for pilgrims to shelter in. If someone had spent the night in Torremejia, and didn't decide to stay at Merida (I don't know why, but some people aren't interested in the historical aspects of the Camino) they might find that El Carrascalejo falls just at the time of day they would like to stop for the night. Though I'm not sure what food availability the village has. Probably someone thinking of that would want to find out, in case they need to pack a picnic dinner from the grocery store in Merida.

If they did stop at El Carrascalejo like that, they would find that the next day, while long, would probably be less than 30 kilometers of walking. They could breakfast at Aljucen and be fresh when walking the Via Pecuaria through the long dimension of the nature area.  

Another Scrap-bustin' Project Completed (edited for autocorrect stupidity)

Hello, everyone. 

As y'all know, leftover fabric is part of the sewing, quilting,  and embroidery hobby zone. This little bag used up stash on hand, both in the fabric cabinet and in the button collection. Plus the zipper and hardware were in the stash! It's my hope that some young lady will be happy to receive it as a gift at Christmas. 

I think of the flower and bee as the front of the bag. There are still about 8 bee buttons available to use in other projects. 

The pockets with little daisies I think of as the back--but the bag's owner can pick whichever side she wants to be more on display. They are functional slip pockets so she can put little things like troll dolls or [shopping] shopkins in them if she wants.

Pockets were left over from a pink clothing project. Daisies hand embroidered with tiny buttons for centers.

Main fabric was a dark gray fabric left over from, I think, a dress, quilted to give it more body. The lining is quilting cotton in a pink print.

A sewing club project

Hello, everyone. 

The sewing club met this past weekend and, as usual, we worked on a new project. 

This meeting's project was an in-the-hoop pouch with shadow work, appliqué, and stipple. We worked with polyester organza for the shadow work.

The front of the pouch. There is stippling here, too, but it's in white thread on white. 

It's shadow work because the shell and the stars and flowers are all on an underlying layer of the organza. The leaves and the detailing on the flowers, stars, and shell are all added to the top layer of the organza.

The back of the pouch. The stippling is blue. (Just because.) 

I think the next time I do this I might use a white zipper. The tape of the salmon zipper is clearly visible here. 

The pouch was surprisingly difficult to turn out; perhaps more attention to reducing bulk might have helped with this.

DH thought it was pretty, but "kind of small." It's not so small that it's only big enough for a lipstick and a credit card, but it does tend in that direction. 

My sweetie wandered by the Amazing Gummy Shop in Madrid (edited)

 Hello, everyone.

As the title says, while DH was walking around the city, he passed by the Amazing Gummy Candy shop. It's in the general area of Puerta del Sol.

The gummy bananas.

Cute little things. Strawberries?

Look like chiles, don't taste like them.

Gummy soda bottles.

Gummy fried eggs.

I will allow my readers' imaginations to do a little work: the shop also had green-and-white gummy frogs. Unfortunately the only photo of that I have is of him clowning around with the frog halfway in his mouth. I'll let y'all just imagine that sight!

All of the gummies he brought back to the room smelled rather strongly of almond flavoring. In case that is an attraction or a discouragement, I mention it.

[In prior years we have also passed by the gummy shop, and there are some pictures that were posted back then, too.] Well, I thought I had, but I didn't.

Things my sweetie saw that I want to see

 Hello, everyone.

While I was laid up (not to use the colloquial expression "stove up") DH walked all over Madrid. This was hard for him, as we customarily go together to see the churches, the gardens, etc.

He found more than one church that we had never seen together.

And, of course, he visited our favorite art museums: the Prado and the Thyssen-Bournemisza.

I will try to get the pictures that he took together over the next several posts to share them with y'all.

This was a church near the place where we were staying. I share a few of the many photos he took.

This view of the niche was amazingly beautiful.

San Rocco, with the dog who brought him bread when he was ill.

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, with the scapular.

This was a lovely church. I am excited to be there to visit in person when next we go to Madrid.

Madrid Sights: the Botanical Garden

 Hello, everyone.

DH visited somewhere we had never been while we were waiting for our flight home: the Royal Botanical Garden.

Lots of things were blooming. DH took pictures of them for me.

 I love this flower, but I'm pretty sure I can't grow it.

Not sure if this is one of the artichoke breeds (the artichoke is the flower bud, the other one is for the stems) or some other kind of thistle. I love the way DH caught the bee hard at work!

Callas are so graceful and elegant. 

If in Madrid, this is a lovely place to visit.