A long time ago, and still resonating today

Hello, everyone.

A long time ago, on the other side of the world, on a December night, angels appeared to shepherds, who were staying with their flocks in the night to protect the sheep.

The nights are long in December in the land of Israel, and the shepherds were excited to hear and see the angels. They went to see the Babe that had been described to them, lying in a manger, in the only reasonably private part of a house very full of company.

At about this time, wise men in another land, who observed the stars noted something odd in the sky. They interpreted it as the sign of a very important King having been born and set out to pay Him their respects. 

Later on, probably when the Babe was some months old, these wise men came bringing gifts.

And all of this excitement and visiting was because the Son of God had been born to the Virgin Mary. An event which continues to amaze us and fill us with happiness even today, two thousand-ish years later.

Merry Christmas to all of my readers. 

(Updated to fix spelling.)

A small break in our series of the pilgrimage: Christmas decorations

 Hello, everyone.

Today, as I become aware that time is creeping up on us fast, I want to take a small break and show how the Jingle All The Way quilt and some other things were used in the decorations.

The Jingle All The Way quilt, in the living room, next to "the egg tree"--the one that almost all of the decorated eggshells end up on, plus other small things. There are beaded ornaments in different shapes and some acrylic faceted sparklies to reflect light.

This was brought from the old house. The tree shape is made up of Log Cabin blocks and the star is appliqued on at the top. The sides were made from various pieced squares that were either in stash already or made from stash. As the curtain rods for these are new this year, a new hanging pocket was needed.

Both of these fabric hangings are using Command Strips (heavy duty) and the red "velvet" yarn I found at Hobby Lobby to stay on the wall.

Detail of the main tree, showing the ostrich eggshell nativity and various other treasured memories.

I keep meaning to decorate the other ostrich eggshells in the house, but never get around to making decisions and getting started. 

Recap of San Salvador, part 5

 Hello, everyone.

After our rest day in Pola de Lena, we set out bright and early in the morning en route to Mieres del Camino. This was a short day, because the "standard" day goes all the way into Oviedo from Pola, and that's over 30 kilometers. Mieres breaks the day in half, and has places to stay and to eat.

A view of part of the trail; it wasn't difficult and was pleasantly shaded for some parts.

Santa Olaya, a lovely church in a town just before Mieres.

The priest was in and he stamped our credenciales. He also said that we were welcome to visit the interior of the church.

There was a bakery near the church so we got to sit down for a little coffee and rest.

This is the info sign about the church. I believe the second language here is Asturian but I don't know for sure.




















When we got to Mieres, we had a pleasant walk through much of the town to our hotel, and then we went out for a glass of cidre. 

Recap of San Salvador, Part 4

 Hello, everyone.

We woke up in the albergue at Llanos de Someron, ate a bite of toast, and headed out. We encountered a sign at the edge of the village, just before beginning to walk downhill on a small, paved road. It had a map, with two routes on it, going down from Someron to the next village, Fierros. The left line was marked 5* on difficulty and the right line was marked 1* difficulty. We were beat, and so we began walking the easy way down. About 3/4 of the 4 kilometers down, we saw the cut-off for the hard way. It went uphill steeply and after the previous two days of hard walking it just looked like too much. Besides, we were on the easier way and they would both go the same place, right? Famous last words!

At the bottom of the mountain, we followed the arrows past the train station and through a protected sidewalk. The village looked like very few people lived there. There was no bar to stop and chat at if we had any questions. Arrows seemed to have stopped at the end of the sidewalk. At the end of the village we followed the road and one arrow. It pointed around the side of a little chapel.

We followed the arrows and they led us around a little house and began climbing up over rocks, then leafy dirt, and the path became very overgrown. When we encountered a tiny bridge over a tiny stream, DH asked me to wait as the route was becoming questionable to us. He found a missing board in the bridge--note well, you need to use poles! His poking the pole where he proposed to step prevented an injury--and after crossing followed the tiny path around a bend. A few minutes later, he came back and said that the path had grown more overgrown, seemed not to have been walked on at all, and possibly was an old, no longer used route. So we made our way back down and went back to the sidewalks, looking carefully for arrows. The arrows had fled. Or so it seemed to us. After much back and forth over the half kilometer or so of Fierros, we went to the train station. Which was one of the self-service variety with signs of the schedule and no way to go inside and pay the ticket. A man was pacing on the platform and he told us that the system is to pay when you get off the train when you board at a station like this. We decided that we would hop the train for a few stops and re-join the route farther on.

At the second stop we were at where we had planned to sleep for the night, Pola de Lena, so we got off, paid our tickets and strolled through the town down to the bottom. It was around noon, and we called it a rest day as we were still tired. 

We did remember to find the way out of town for the next morning before settling down to snacks and wine and watching the town enjoy their first fiesta in over a year.

Art of the last Station of the Cross on the front of the church altar. 

Ecce Homo statue in the church.

Finding the arrows for departure.

The bridge at the edge of town. Arrow sticker on the rail and painted on the safety rail of the bridge.

Recap of Salvador part 3

 Hello, everyone.

This is about the third day of our Salvador pilgrimge. We woke up in El Embrujo and had a bite of toast and a hot drink before departing. Then it was across the valley and up, up. 

The path approaching the Cruz del Salvador.

View of the cross, against a beautiful blue sky.

After that earlier photo, one might be excused for thinking this is a pic of the path. It isn't. It's just a pretty village in the distance, and some cows close up. The path passed them and at least on this day we didn't have to pick our steps between the cattle. 

The fall crocuses were blooming up a storm. Sometimes it was hard to step around them! 

It was mentioned earlier that there is crossing of wire gates. This is the gate behind Puerto de Pajares...we walked around the building with the bar (after our little break with coffee and restroom) and crossed the open bit (the crocuses above are a crop of that), passed the electric tower, and then encountered a mojon (cement marker) and the wire gate in the fence. We did remember to close the gate. On the other side of the gate, the path was unclear at first, though it was obvious where we needed to end up: at the bottom of this short descent in grasses with some damp mud. We found the most workable descent to the level of the road (very little traffic), stepped over the water channel and crossed the highway to enter the nature reserve. We still had a number of kilometers to cover, with mostly downs and some ups, before arriving at Sta. Martina and climbing the steep little road with the sign for the albergue at Llanos de Someron. Which was actually on the next mountain over, at the end of about 2 km. uphill we walked about .9 km. on a lovely woodland path. 

This was part of the nature reserve. There are peoples' farms in the midst of the reserve and the path pretty much sticks to some caliche roads that wind through it. 

The quoted distance for this day was about 18 km but they were tough kms. and it felt a lot more like mid to high 20's because of all the climbing.

Recap of Pilgrimage 2021: Salvador part 2

 Hello, everyone.

The last update brought us to La Robla. Today's update carries on through Poladura de la Tercia.

When we left La Robla it was easy for a while. Eventually, after going through some villages and stopping at a gas station (they do exist and sometimes they're on the route) we followed a side road into the mountains.

We walked along the side of a narrow road that was clearly marked "Mountain Road" so drivers wouldn't be surprised by snow. Or falling rocks. There were snow poles from time to time. We saw an insect sunning itself on the pavement.

We took his picture, and forgot entirely to take a picture of the small river/large creek alongside the road. 

We eventually arrived at Buiza, around midday, where there was no refreshment supplier. There is a lovely fountain near the entrance of the town, but our water bottles were still full. We followed the trail through the town, passing some windowsill art

and fairly quickly arrived at a pasture with some fencing. One follows the arrows and goes through wire gates and up the hill.

This day takes the pilgrim past the Forcadas de San Anton, a set of very interesting rock formations, which while we walked past them we aren't sure which rocks were the famous ones.

Where the trail split, we took the downhill side, which passes a cross, and goes alongside some water. Then the trail stays pretty level for a long time. The first village we came to was not Poladura. It was San Martin. We had to follow the arrows out the back side of the village, down a caliche road, and then turn at a small building and follow a mostly-unused trail into Poladura. The building does have a yellow arrow painted on the side. And when we walked this way someone had been walking there recently with their (cute) little dog and left trodden down grass that we could follow.

This was a day that is not listed as a huge distance, but all of those kilometers were hard ones.

Our dinner and room at El Embrujo were wonderful. And we met some really neat people at their patio, too. As I don't have their permission, I won't name names, but we learned a lot about the ensuing days on the Salvador from one of them. 😉 And were grateful for the advice!

A small interruption of the recap series: sewing

 Hello, everyone.

Today the birthday gift for DGS3 was finished.

 A backpack/tote sack for the young man's things

with his favorite theme embroidered on it

This is my second time working with Meshin' Around, a pattern from ByAnnies.com. I had bought it at my local quilt shop, along with the cool colored meshes for both of the projects, and found the cactus fabric there, too.

The directions are very good with this pattern. She even includes labels to put on the cut out pieces of fabric, mesh, interfacing, and elastic.