Ms. Sara Dhooma has new videos out on Youtube!

 Hello, everyone.

Ms. Sara is indeed posting new Camino videos. Here is the link to the start of the new series, a walk on the Camino Olvidado (the "forgotten camino") in, it appears, the warm weather of earlier this year.

As of today, she's up to day 20 of this beautiful Camino. There have been some days where she depended on Santiago to find her a place to sleep on this one. As we all know, Santiago watches over his pilgrims!

As she starts out at the church of Santiago in Bilbao, here is one of my pictures from there:

Enjoy!

Another park: with animals!

Hello, everyone. 

In addition to visiting the recreational area near Ft. Custer, we also made a short visit to another park. Hudson Mills park is smaller, and doesn't have lakes, but it does have a lovely, clear river and many pleasant benches along the walking paths. At sunset, about, one might see deer.

In spite of having water around, there were no notable mosquitoes. 

A pleasant visit in nature

Hello, everyone. 

A couple of days ago I went with family to visit the area around Battle Creek, Michigan. There is a lovely state recreation area called Ft. Custer State Recreational Area there. 

A cute, little mushroom alongside a walking path.

This is a sample of poison ivy, which is native to most of the US. For my European readers, this is a plant you should not touch. It doesn't sting like nettles, but it does in most people create an irritated rash. If you're looking it up online, try the generic name Toxicodendron, IIRC.

This is the outflow from one of the three little lakes/large ponds. There are many lily pads growing in the water.

Goldenrod!

Some lily pads with their blossoms.

This is a lovely natural area, with paved access and many walking trails. There are areas with picnic tables and little fire boxes. 

This was a very pleasant outing, and the walking trail was gentle and not too much for my recovering leg.

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.