Happy Special Day

Once in Four Years

More time to do more? Or more time to get behind on TO DO list? 

Fire in the Sky

Otherwise Known As Sunset

A fleeting phenomenon.

Blessed Lenten Season

Somber Time

On this day- my brother’s birthday- my father died four years ago, a blessed end, with much of his family around, just before lockdowns hit. It was 12:20, 20-02-2020 (or 02-20-2020 in American numeration of dates). I was there by video. Last week his brother died, 95 years old, also a blessed end with family around and at peace and ready for heaven. May we all pray for such an end, with a Christian family as our legacy. 

As life goes on. 

 This past weekend some of us went to look at a property for sale. A very old, furnished restaurant/house, rambling all over the place in Appenzell. Anybody interested in cheap rent and lots of room for your business? 

With as many chairs as you could want. 

Commercial kitchen, freezers, etc.

Folk art furnishings 

A marvelous ballroom with great acoustics 

With a painted ceiling - one of only two left in the canton. 

Depicting the cantonal folk and their culture 

And flora and fauna

And original log structure attics

Where the community still meets for its festivities.

A piece of history. 

Happy Valentines Day

Hugs

Oma’s Valentine tree with handmade pieces from our “cuddle bug.”🐞 

Another post will follow on the other part of the day. 

Siena 21

The Last - This and That

Here is one last post on Siena.

A church porch



Hotel Atrium. This used to be an open courtyard, when the building was a private Palazzo. 



Now a great glass ceiling makes a gathering room below. The boxy thing on the right is the elevator.



The view from our room



Siena is famous for its Palio, the twice yearly summer horse races 🏇 by the various neighborhoods, each in its traditional colors and patterns. The horses are assigned. The race is held in the town square with slopes, wicked corners, and massive crowds 
The jockeying is brutal. Bareback, mind you. It doesn’t matter if the jockey comes off; the horses can win riderless.



And the shops will sell you a souvenir. 



Or food, fresh and colorful 

Italian pottery is everywhere. All hand painted. Much of it is made in Daruta. 




This plate shows the neighborhood symbols and colors used in the horse races. The black and white at the top is Siena’s coat of arms.



I wanted to take home this Green Man, but I only had a carry-on-size bag, quite full, so he stayed. 



This marvelous sculpture was on a fountain at the entrance of Tortoise Street (in Italian, of course).



We wondered what these rings were for. They were too high to be for tying horses. They were for torches, to light the streets. 



This beautiful wood carving was one of a pair on a door, almost identical, but not quite. The craftsman had either gotten better on the second one, or had gotten tired on the second one, because one was very slightly better made than the other. 



The door knocker on the Egyptian museum



A restaurant, one of innumerable vaulted spaces in the bowels of the brick buildings, probably once storage cellars or pig styies. 

Food was not entirely pleasing on this trip.  I tried not-standard things and got some surprises. 

This appetizer was bacon fat on dried out bread. It tasted good, but I would have fixed it differently. 

The main course was …. Umm…. this rawness over a bed of greens underneath. 

Notice Somebody stayed with true and trusted selections. 

This was a most appealing little shop for writers.


This equine was made from heated plastic bottles pressed in a horse form.


We tried a “cookie.” Like most Italian food, it was heavy. Tasty, but very solid and dense. 


We did eventually go to a place with very fine food that I liked - after a place whose grilled t-bone veal cutlet was still mooing it was so undercooked.

But this place had exquisite molecular cuisine, of which this was the appetizer. Each thing had a delicate and delectable flavor. 


I wanted a pizza while we there, but it was too pure for my taste: bland, no salt, no herbs, only exactly what was written on the menu. I like my own better. 

But the trip was overall good, the sights worth seeing, and experiences gained. 



Then homeward bound on the train, back to winter. 

Siena 20

Painting Collection

A noble family had a large collection of historic paintings that passed to subsequent generations. Some of the collection is now in a gallery setting in the Old Hospital. (Again, please excuse the glare on the varnish.)

Beautifully rendered drapery and skin

Small but beautifully painted

Part of a very large piece.

A very fine piece


Bible story Italian style

The Visit of Mary to Elizabeth. Note the assumption that Joseph escorted his betrothed on her journey there. And note the gentlemanly handshake. This is not a typical scene -quite a unique take, actually. 

And many more, of which I didn’t get pictures.

And that is the end of that particular visit.