During the 12 days of Christmas, a look at the Christmas Day wreath

Hello, everyone.  As we all know, Christmas Day was the 25th of December.  The Octave of Christmas, a whole week of official rejoicing, ended on the first of January.  The 12 days, however, go on through the 6th of the month, culminating on Three Kings' Day. In many places around the world, the remembrance of the visiting wise men was, and in some places remains, the day for giving gifts.

At Christmas, the season of Advent, with its purple and pink candles,  is over. Our decorators found a lovely statue to place in the wreath for the festive season. 

On the home front, half-completed Christmas crafts are still being worked on. When the current one is finished, I'll post a picture.

Happy New Year to all y'all!

Working out a new skill

Hello, everyone. As y'all might remember,  DH was really interested in a modern art painting at the Museo Thyssen-Bournemisza (spelling guessed from memory here) that was essentially a "color play" painted and modified version of a log cabin style quilt block. I think it was by Mondrian, and the general effect was a square spiral in a collection of similar-mood colors. He asked me to make a quilt like that.

the first try at getting the idea together.

There are about 22 squares that have the accent strip going diagonally down the middle, with each half a different color.

Today the trial divided square: 

and the size, without trimming

Pretty much right on!

Whoopee!

Córdoba is very historic

Hello, everyone. Our visit to Córdoba fell in the hot season, and this year we were able to readjust to Texas temperatures during our few days here.

We visited the Cathedral, the Alcazar which had been a royal palace, the Botanical Garden, the Archeological Museum, and various parks and eating places. We also were able to attend Mass at San Juan y los todos Santos, a beautiful Baroque church near where we stayed. 

A quick snapshot after Mass was over at San Juan parish church 

View of street trees (jacarandas) from the train station 

This impressive thistle, with its little buggy visitors, is a relative of artichoke, Cardo, which is grown for its stems. That bumblebee was really big!

People in Córdoba are really into potted plants as outdoor wall ornaments. These are geraniums (pelargoniums type) and someone comes around to keep them watered, so they're very nice.

The tower at the Alcazar. It has a good view of the royal gardens and the whole area. We went up there and the stairs are a real workout.

Portomarin to Palas de Rei

Hello, everyone. This was another day of mostly good weather--a few drops of mist, but not enough to put on our ponchos--and going over hills and through trees and fields. It's flower season still and we saw so many beautiful azalea and rhododendron shrubs in peoples' gardens.

These ants have been photographed before, as we're now walking stretches that are included in several routes, but this year they are black. There are more ants in the beer garden now, too. 

Cute potted plant arrangement made of wooden fencing.

We stayed at Casa Curro in Palas de Rei. This little pensión had the cutest room, with its cheerful red and white color scheme.

At the exit from town, an arrangement of the town symbol.

Ponferrada to Villafranca del Bierzo

Hello, everyone.  There was no post yesterday because there was not enough wifi in the building to use it in the room.

We walked to Villafranca on a pleasant day, with dry weather for most of the day and sunshine for part of the day. On the way to Villafranca we found a little museum about the vines and wines of the Bierzo region. (Bierzo has an official origin system for wines, in which if the grape varieties, growing methods, and processing qualify the vintner can label his wines as Bierzo wines.) They had a number of pieces of equipment and other displays available for viewing. 

I guess this art piece is an old fashioned wine bottle?

Villafranca has the distinction of having a Pardon Door. There are only 2 on the Camino before Santiago. The idea was that people traveling to Santiago might fall ill en route and be unable to complete their trip to visit the shrine.(As in by becoming disabled or dying. Travel was a lot more difficult in the middle ages.) If they made it as far as a church with a Pardon Door, they could still obtain the graces they would have gotten in Santiago.

We spent the night in a former collegio, a school for older students rather like high school.

Our room had something I had never seen before: an electric toilet seat. We didn't try out its functions because the controller was labeled entirely in, I think, Japanese.

Atapuerca to Burgos, in cold rain

Hello, everyone. We got into Burgos yesterday about noon. The walk was wet but otherwise okay. We turned off the Strava at the McDonald's at the edge of town. (We go to McDonald's if we need to use internet, and the ones in Spain have good cafe con leche, too.) Then we looked at our info on the place we had reserved the day before and thawed out a bit before going on into the main part of the city. 

Breakfast was at 0800 at an open cafeteria/bar on the way, just before the rain started. 

The first church we came to, after McDonald's.  The crucifix inside is really nice, but when I tried to add it in here Blogger turns the photo sideways. 

Today, we are having a rest day. We went to the Museo de la Evolution Humana, where the artefacts from the Atapuerca Mountains archeological discoveries are still being made. The museum is really neat, the anthropology museum we have been in. 

This nifty fellow is an atmospheric decoration near the entrance. He and his buddies (horse, rooster, wolf, maybe some others) are just fun. The exhibits about the geology and archeology are really neat. And by consolidating all of the work from the area together, over quite a collection of cave discoveries, they are able to build an exhibition about the continuum of the people and animals over the epoch.

The gift shop had a cute fabric tote with a print of the cave but I thought about carrying it for 300 miles to Santiago and left it in the shop. 

It's amazing what one can see traveling

Hello, everyone.  Recently DD and I were in the airport in Harlingen and discovered some really cool art pieces.

As y'all can see from the caption photos,  they have made a scavenger hunt out of the viewing experience. This is fun, and it makes the baggage collection experience much more pleasant. I also enjoyed noticing the Duplo bricks and other toys, and the many unmated sandals, that they included.

A surprise in the art museum

Hello, everyone.  While we were visiting Alaska, we happened to stroll into the Anchorage Museum. This turned out to be a combination of art and ethnographic in nature. There was a sadly didactic multi-media piece on the theme of recycling (?) that was wall-sized.

The phone turned this on its side but I don't think it is any worse for it. 

The curled up can lids work as a unifying element, along with the blues. It's really more of an advocacy poster than a work of art, what with all of the random slogans scattered around on it. 

They did have some more interesting exhibits of various items that were used by the various native groups living there in the past. 

This sewing bag has caribou embroidery decorations.  I imagine that these days the skill of this kind of embroidery has been lost. 

And, the surprise: 

A blast from the 1970's! A crocheted tote bag made from plastic bags. You never know what will be put on display at an art museum. 

Airport Art

Hello, everyone.  It's an unofficial ongoing series around here, when I see Airport Art and have to to snap a picture, I  share it with y'all. (Sadly, ANC Anchorage Airport has some very nice art but I didn't have time to make pictures of it. If any of my readers has some, y'all can add it in comments if you wish.)

This was in the terminal at Seattle Tacoma Airport. It's a sort of fantasy canoe. The silhouettes on the side are actually mirrors that show different colors depending on where the viewer stands. The long fringe like stuff on the sides is, of course, the rowers' paddles. 

Perhaps it's supposed to be a dragon boat?

Beautiful Bead Embroidery

Hello, everyone.  I have mentioned in my last post that I made a trip up north. While there I visited the Alaska Native Heritage Center, a kind of hybrid between cultural demonstration and art museum.

This beautiful piece was on display there. It is bead work on smoked moose hide and the design and execution are wonderful. It was inspirational. 

Visited the Museo de Las America's, also the needle, and tested bus time

Hello, everyone. Today we were strolling in Madrid. 

First we tracked down the booth with city tourist information.  The nice lady gave us a downtown map of the city, and a metro route map, and told us about the lovely 001 bus that goes right to the area of the Museo de Las Américas. While we rode it, we noticed that the opposite direction of travel ends at Atocha Station. Which is where the Yellow express airport bus departs from. Synergy!

These are weapons used by the natives of the Philippines before they got iron tech from the Spanish. (Sawfish jaws)

We visited the museum--honestly it's a bit of a "grandma's attic" place but with some beautiful pieces--and then rode the elevator of the needle 92 meters up to view the city. Interesting info boards in the viewing platform. Then, starving because we hadn't eaten breakfast and it was after 1 pm, we stopped at McDonald's for a coffee and cheeseburger in the university area. Caught up to that same bus where it turns around to head toward Gran Via and then Atocha Station. 

We timed the ride from where we will likely board to the Atocha end of the route, about 20 minutes,  and then by way of the Decathlon store, the Barrio de Las lettres, and the Mercado de San Miguel, strolled back to our place. (There was, of course, drinking and snacking en route.)

Ourense rest day

Hello, everyone.  As mentioned in the post title, we're taking a rest day in Ourense.  This is a very old city, dating back to the Roman Era. At least.

There are hot springs in the area, but the things we are more interested in are churches and museums. Today we visited the Cathedral of St. Martin. This St. Martin is the Roman soldier of Tours. He's famously depicted as sharing his warm cloak with a poor beggar in art. The Cathedral treasures a small relic of his, a bit of bone. I felt privileged to see it, as I had understood that during the French Revolution the anti religious revolutionaries in Tours had burned all of the relics of St. Martin they found in their church. Apparently this little bit had already been given away before those folks entered the picture. 

Statue of St. Martin aiding the beggar. We can see from the clothes that the artist thought of St. Martin as his own contemporary. That often happens with sacred art.

We also walked over two of the bridges on the river Miño. (Once each direction) 

This picture was taken from the old Roman Bridge. It looks to me like a suspension bridge. (The cables remind me of the Mississippi River bridge at Alton, Illinois.) 

The swooping structure is a stepped walking surface. As y'all can see in the picture,  the river was very calm and held beautiful reflections. 

The Roman bridge, taken from the Millenial Bridge.

Temperatures in this area are running cool, with dawn hitting in the low single digits C (40 ish F?) and afternoon getting up around 22 C (70ish F?) with clear, sunny skies.

We start out walking with about four layers of clothes, and gloves, then peel off as it becomes possible. 

Wow the formatting went crazy in here

 Hello, everyone.

My computer shows the pictures I uploaded--did that post from my cell phone--but they're huge and the sidebar things are displayed on top of the photos. I have no idea what happened, but I think the people in charge of maintaining Blogger have messed around with something (to "fix something") and it broke something else. Documentation is our friend!

A photo from May 2023 for today, to test the way it will appear when posted:

I believe this is one of the Holy Week parade platforms in Sevilla. Anyone who knows, please correct me if I have gotten this wrong. Note the beautiful shells on the right hand figure's robe.

Edited to add: this was posted from my desktop and it came out fine. Maybe the issue is in the Blogger app?

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.

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.