It's been a while now, and I still miss the Camino every day

Hello, everyone.

My sweetie asked me if I'm willing to start doing hikes in our local area. We had gotten the book _60 Hikes within 60 Miles_ covering hikes in the San Antonio, Austin, Hill Country area and looked at it. Honestly, a lot of the hikes in this book are shorties--2 to 4 miles. After the Camino, these are just tastes of the thing. But I miss walking, and he misses walking, and we got to thinking, there have to be hikes in our local, Rio Grande Valley, area that we can take. Other than the ones we trained on, that is--Mission Hike and Bike, Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge, and the walk from our home to the "duck park", around the park, and home again--that one's about 3 to 3.5 miles.

There is something about the walking. It seems almost unintellectual--but I think really it's more meditational. You walk, you are zoned out on finding the place for your next step. You stop for coffee (and potty) and then you keep going. And somewhere in that you begin to find a new equilibrium of trust, in God and in your spouse. And in the trail. It's not something that comes to you in your daily round of errands, chores, and going to meet people and do things. Even though, yes, chores can give a taste of the peace as well.

Somewhere along the Camino, after the field of pink poppy plants, my sweetie was taken by the shapes and the shades of the greens.

The walking seems to sort your attitudes out. Things that might have driven you nuts are just there, not even really present to you, because here is the next step you have to take. And later on, you realize that they weren't that important anyway.

Maybe this is the reason why the Pilgrimages were so big in the Middle Ages. And why they're returning to prominence again. We need the peace, and the space, and the time.

If you walk the Camino, take the batteries out of your cell phone. Don't be one of those people who is so busy placating their girlfriends (or fussy parents) on the cell phone while walking that they aren't even in the moment of the walk. How can God speak to you and draw you forward into a better you if you don't even notice His call?

And I do very much encourage you to walk the Camino.

New developments on the framing and hanging

Hello, everyone.

The map of the Camino de Santiago came in the mail. And today I got it out of the tube, laid it on the table under a whole lot of books and CD cases to flatten it and keep the cat from napping on it, and trawled the store room for a frame. We had one! It had a poster of "modern military aircraft" in it, but the child who had it hanging has moved out some time back and the poster was just sitting there, taking up the frame. So I took it out and put the map into the 2 foot by 3 foot frame. Added matboard in back of the map, and also used the cardboard the frame came with and the clips.

This isn't the best picture, and I need to get the hammer out and move one of the nails on the side frames, but here it is:

AD 1445 map of the Camino de Santiago. (Please ignore the flash reflection!)

Also today I made it rain! (Well, unless somebody washed their car, that is.) I hung the clothes out on the line, so of course it rained right after the clothes got dry. And I was not home! But arrived home from the store before it progressed beyond sprinkling, grabbed the clothes on the way into the house, and watched the rain quit falling.

I would have been fine with a good soaking after I took the clothes in, really. The garden is dry and I find that the patience to stand there drizzling a good soak onto each pepper and tomato and eggplant and bean and cucumber and the corn patch just isn't there.

But the pecan trees in back have fruited big time this year, and every time I go outside there are a bunch of nuts on the ground. Only a few of them have been invaded by ants. (I so dislike the ants coming out of the nut in my hand and biting me.)

On another note, I've got the birdies taking an afternoon "constitutional" almost every day, so Mr. Guinea isn't nearly as grumpy to the hens. Especially when I put their morning food out in three distinct, separated piles that each is thick enough to be opaque, so he isn't worried that Mrs. Guinea won't have enough to eat. And I include a scoop of kitty chow in with the layer feed, to increase the protein in their diets.

The other day he found a caterpillar on the ground while I was feeding them. She was happily pecking away at the bird food, and he was picking up the caterpillar and calling her. Over and over. Finally she decided she'd had enough of the Layer Feed and wandered over to see what he was all excited about. He's really devoted to her, but she acts like she goes to sleep wondering why it was her fate that her One True Love is such a jerk and won't let her be friends with the other birdies. Meanwhile, he's very protective of her and concerned that she gets all of any food she likes. And when she goes to lay an egg, he stands nearby and guards her.

If he hadn't killed a couple of cockerels, and wasn't so determined to run the hens off whenever he thinks the food pile is too thin, it would be completely sweet and romantic. Instead it's one of those mixed-bag things. I go from thinking what a sweet mate he is to needing to go into the pen and chase him around so he'll understand that the hens are under my protection. Meanwhile, the Barred Rock hen (Princess Stripey) can't decide if she can hang with the gray guineas or not. Sometime Mr. Guinea lets her, sometimes he chases her away. I guess he isn't sure if Princess Stripey is a guinea or a chicken!

Progress on the Red Quilt

Hello, everyone.

I have made progress on the Red Quilt. The squares are sewn to the sashing strips and connected into rows. Which are back in the "audition space" so I could stand on the piano bench and take a picture of the final layout.

Final layout of the red quilt, with the sashing.

There are still a lot of unchosen squares and strips around--can we say Stash Overload?--and so I'll probably make some more after this is finished.

On another note, my sweetie has declared that it's Beer Season. And his first batch of the year is the Pumpkin Beer recipe from Austin Home Brewers Supply.

Beer fermenting in the carboy, dressed to wow in its protective jacket.

Giving the clean bottles a sanitize cycle in the dishwasher

Capping the filled bottles

Ready to go to the beer fridge and mature until ready

My sweetie says that, since these black lids are the last solid color bag in the house, his next batch will have mixed colors of lids--he's pretty sure there are fifty-plus lids of mixed colors in the bag still.
He really enjoys making the beer. He spends a day mixing and cooking and putting it into the bucket for the first fermentation, then he transfers it to the carboy for the second fermentation, then he bottles and sets in the beer fridge--at carefully chosen temperatures!--to mature. The beer needs to be protected from light, he says, when it's in the glass carboy. That's why I made him a carboy jacket--to keep the light away from the developing brew.

Just little things

Hello, everyone.

I'm afraid I don't have a lot to talk about today. We took all three dogs to the vet (at the same time!) The dogs survived the experience. They rode very sedately in the back seat on the way home, without sticking their noses out the window or jumping around. (Wow!)

I've been looking around for another peyote idea to bead, but nothing really strikes me just now.

I did do some more work on the Red Quilt. (So named from its dominant color.) The Red Quilt is a baby sized quilt, with 4 squared across and 5 down. I'm adding sashing in a navy solid, with little white-print cornerstones. The last picture I have of the Red Quilt was during the auditioning phase:

One of the auditions of squares for the Red Quilt

I think some of the squares may have moved around a bit since then. I did add navy blue sashing--which is being attached to the squares now--and I'll also put navy blue for a border next to the squares. Probably that will be it, except for the binding. Usually in this size of quilt I use satin blanket binding. (When I was a baby I liked satin a lot. Still do, in fact!)

But that's really all I have to talk about today. Maybe tomorrow I'll show y'all pictures of Beer Making Season.

Bead project finished

Hello, everyone.

Today I finished the beaded shell project.

Y'all probably remember the last picture of it:

Peyote stitch shell project, at end of weaving stage

You can see that the shell seems to be placed too far down in the blue background. I decided to add a fringe to balance the colors. Looking online led me to this article about beaded fringe that seemed to be the right kind of a thing. Using a pad of graph paper, and basing the structure off of the fringe in that article, I counted the number of strands at the bottom edge, separating the "up" beads from the"down" beads, and drew a pattern for the strands.

Each tiny square of the paper was one bead, marked B for blue, W for white, R for blush ("reddish"), F for fringe, etc. It seemed hard to read, so a line of light orange at the color changes was added before beginning. The hanging crosses are an inspiration from the miniature  wall tapestries we saw in Istanbul souvenir shops. Many of them were icons and had a collection of crosses and eye beads hanging from the bottom.

The pattern for the fringe, with the completed bead thingie.

Happily, the fringe pattern uses up more of the Delicas that are in the basic shape, plus some enameled crosses, perles, hearts, and Delica fringe-beads that are in the stash.

After finishing the fringe, I held the project up in front of a mirror and discovered that this is just way too big to make a necklace out of. I supposed that if I'd been thinking of it and drawn it differently, it could have been a bracelet. Maybe the next one will be! But this isn't a bracelet either. So...I laid it on my purse and had a look at the proportions. It fits!

Completed purse ornament.

I used some more of my favorite thread, Fireline, to attach it to the purse with a pair of 6mm blue glass catseye beads for the transition at the top.

Fireline 6 lb test line and Rappala line cutter. You cannot use normal scissors to cut this stuff! You will ruin the edge on your blades. Go to the sporting goods section and get fishing-line cutters instead. Mine are from Wal-Mart.

Friday fish dinner

Hello, everyone.

You may remember my gushing over the St. John's Day sardines in Fisterra.

We came home determined not to let the wonderful new foods fade from our memory. You will recall the post about making Pulpo.

Today we had sardines. Our grocery store, HEB, has been stocking little bags of frozen, fat sardines. They're not quite as fat and wonderful as the St. John's Day sardines--but the nice man at the fishing museum in Fisterra told us that the sardines start out very fat at St. John's Day and get, well, leaner and drier as the season progresses. I presume that all the frozen sardines we see were caught in the middle of the prime sardine season.

We eat the sardines with fresh baguette bread--that being basically equivalent to the barra breads we were buying in Spain.
The recipe for preparing the sardines, from my end, is really simple: thaw bag of sardines. Hand over to Sweetie. (He grills them over charcoal.) Serve with slices of baguette, sea salt, extra-virgin olive oil, and a nice white wine. No extras required. Fight off the pets who are crawling into your lap trying to get some!

The sardines (these were fresh, not frozen, but still...) we ate in Fisterra. With bread chunks and a nice albarino wine. 

And my sweetie was very proud of having caught me in a picture with the sign "pirata."

Eggs, eggs...Christmas!

Hello, everyone.

The picture of one of the decorated eggs reminded me--I think I have pictures of more eggs.

You see, I used to have pet ducks. And more chickens. Plus I had elementary aged kids in the house. So once in a while we'd have Christmas in July--decoration making.

The kids would paint eggshells, I'd paint eggshells. And I also used a Dremel--my sweetie's Dremel at first!--to cut an opening in the eggshell to use it for a scenic egg. My grandmother's friend used to make those, and hers were beautiful. Mrs. Beckley, I think her name was. She sent me an eggshell once, when I was young. I still have it. It's a scenic egg with an angel inside it. Pearls around the opening, too.

Here are a couple of eggshell pictures.

At the lower right, three eggshells with scenic decorations attached to make an ornament, with a tassel. There is bead netting around the edges of the shells.

Mom gave me some ostrich eggshells. One had a crack--the cut gave me this partial shell for a scene. I put a Nativity in it, perched on top of brown satin. This one is heavy, I have to find a fat branch to hang it from!

I thought I had pictures of the eggshell ornaments with paintings of blossoms and suchlike, but apparently I didn't get that. Yet.

Christmas is coming. (Bwah ha ha ha!) I'll try and remember to take pictures of the eggshells then. Who knows, maybe I'll have time to blow out some guinea eggs and decorate them!