tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158951112024-03-07T22:23:15.983+01:00Orwell's Picnic ~Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God.Hilary Jane Margaret Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03771332473693479830noreply@blogger.comBlogger4174125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15895111.post-74461702441723296932020-08-14T09:42:00.002+02:002020-08-14T09:52:11.697+02:00Farm Cat Life<p><br /></p><div class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; display: inline; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLmy4kr95b4ZLxiYq8DU7Z1dovBDfC_S0ijwiHjD6MtQ4bf8qTDSjj6kzF6YfWzdQ7RUTh2T7RX_K4a1rC5rDhMF5BWUEk5hFk3Yt2hl4kvqd5Fvmp_Sf06rifCt5PgdmWC3Nv/s823/Annotation+2020-08-14+093523.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="823" data-original-width="625" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLmy4kr95b4ZLxiYq8DU7Z1dovBDfC_S0ijwiHjD6MtQ4bf8qTDSjj6kzF6YfWzdQ7RUTh2T7RX_K4a1rC5rDhMF5BWUEk5hFk3Yt2hl4kvqd5Fvmp_Sf06rifCt5PgdmWC3Nv/s640/Annotation+2020-08-14+093523.jpg" /></a></div><p style="font-family: inherit; margin: 6px 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: inherit; margin: 6px 0px;"><br /></p><p style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: medium;"> <span face="" style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">In the dog days of summer, the afternoons are very hot, but the mornings are really nice. So every morning this week I've set up the sunshade on the terrace and had my coffee and eggs with my book in the chair in the cool air and this little fellow has come and sat with me.</span></p><p style="margin: 6px 0px;">He's one of Annamaria's little tribe of Farm Cats. They're feral and only barely tame enough for her to feed twice a day. They won't come near me, but one morning last winter, as I was off to Mass at Sant<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;">'Andrea, I met up with Anna walking up the long drive towards the house with a long parade of little grey cats following along behind her.</span></p><p style="margin: 6px 0px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><div class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;"><p style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 6px;">They live rather rough lives, but seem contented enough, sleeping in the shady spots in the day and roaming all over the farm all night. The population remains pretty steady; every year we lose one or two and gain a few new little ones that bounce around very entertainingly for a few months before settling into their lives.</p><p style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 6px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: inherit; margin: 6px 0px;">This is one of the newer ones, born into the tribe year before last. He won't let me touch or get near him, but he doesn't run away now when I sit down near by.</p><p style="font-family: inherit; margin: 6px 0px;"><br /></p></div><p style="font-family: inherit; margin: 6px 0px;">I've been leaving the big stainless steel roasting tin filled with water on the terrace, and the Farm Cats like to come and have a drink. He's waiting for his moment when he thinks its safe to sidle through the kitchen door to see if Pippin has left any food in his dish.</p><p style="font-family: inherit; margin: 6px 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: inherit; margin: 6px 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: inherit; margin: 6px 0px;">*</p></div>Hilary Jane Margaret Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03771332473693479830noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15895111.post-90481311442419055882020-07-28T18:36:00.000+02:002020-07-28T23:36:46.700+02:00Moving right along - size gilding and transfer leafYes, it's been almost a year.<br />
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Deal. <br />
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I thought I'd get back to writing about the process of learning iconography, Byzantine, Gothic and early Renaissance painting techniques. What the heck. If the world's ending, what do you want to be caught doing? Tweeting? Seriously?<br />
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Instead of an interminable post about what I've been doing for the last year, I'm going to assume that most of the readers who come back will have been keeping up on Facebook and elsewhere anyway, so I'll just dive right in where we are now.<br />
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Which is here:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxg4MKbDCpc2MOI55Gto4tukG7p3DL_4wSzuhxUWLpTOm59ldHe7vkpD9mFAuqEw5KV-68NSV3PpRUB1cpeB-xPWfe-FcLYrUFnDE_FOns0Jwf8Ka-yC8ALoVUKjEUBA2vngRs/s1600/Annotation+2020-07-28+164511.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="741" data-original-width="1002" height="472" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxg4MKbDCpc2MOI55Gto4tukG7p3DL_4wSzuhxUWLpTOm59ldHe7vkpD9mFAuqEw5KV-68NSV3PpRUB1cpeB-xPWfe-FcLYrUFnDE_FOns0Jwf8Ka-yC8ALoVUKjEUBA2vngRs/s640/Annotation+2020-07-28+164511.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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It's late July, 4:45 pm GMT+1. The temperature outside is about 38C, and the windows and shutters are closed up to keep at least some of the Italian summer blaze outside. And I've just had some fun unboxing the latest order from Dal Molin.<br />
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It's always fun when you get a box of iconography goodies from<a href="https://www.dalmolinicone.it/it/"> Dal Molin</a>, the Italian iconography supplier Up Norff. They never did stop working and delivering all through our Covid Crisis. The other day they sent their regular online customers an email saying, as a small family business, they were taking a couple of weeks off, most of August in fact. (This is normal in Italy).<br />
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Because I've got three more commissions, and I hope to get going on things immediately, I took the opportunity to order some stuff. Two more books of 23k leaf, a roll of imitation, some Red Oxide pigment and a bottle of oil-based gilder's size. All part of an exciting new adventure in what I think I'm going to call Less Painful Gilding.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/crj9f8OKuIs?start=115" width="560"></iframe><br />
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I've learned two things in this process: 1) I hate gilding with the white hot passion of a thousand-thousand burning suns, and 2) everybody wants gilding. Gilding is glam. Gilding is Noble. It's Real. It's beautiful and lasting and deeply symbolically meaningful.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6xsKp9s-k8wPSlwemT6yP6QdXPuPJyIqmufeb1qbIPz9vdfp9Kwdvx14TAHO-p4HKXCKsTztPaQn_tQhfnP3fMSPnJc77Y2zP43stzdnx3rDuyK2FRmm98xH2huPGxmCovCy6/s1600/Annotation+2020-07-28+184515.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="802" data-original-width="619" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6xsKp9s-k8wPSlwemT6yP6QdXPuPJyIqmufeb1qbIPz9vdfp9Kwdvx14TAHO-p4HKXCKsTztPaQn_tQhfnP3fMSPnJc77Y2zP43stzdnx3rDuyK2FRmm98xH2huPGxmCovCy6/s640/Annotation+2020-07-28+184515.jpg" width="494" /></a><br />
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First sheet for a project in the spring. 23 3/4 carat. Somewhere between 1/8000 mm to 1/10,000 mm thick. It's so thin you can't touch it with your fingers or it will stick to the microscopic irregularities on your skin. You have to close the windows and turn off any fans. You can't breathe when you lift it (with a special brush made of very fine natural animal hairs) or your breath will twist it over on itself. Then it sticks to itself. Then you have to try to tease it apart using only brushes and get it to lie down flat again. You can't move your hands or arm too quickly close to it because the air movement will pick it up. It's incredibly fiddly to deal with and really a massive pain. But nothing else does what it does.<br />
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And doing it has, so far, made me feel like a giant balled fist with clenched teeth. I hate gilding. It makes me want to stab myself in the brain with a chopstick. I was desperate to find some other way of doing it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5HKbBPsKwPX2FR7twEEhJI__UM0C6sv1a-czTo5Jcuywrl6Q19cTsWaFk8fpyTMHruywZHYPp4Vn9T3SxCLUhdJbv5AV0446a3VC27vI9dhcZ0AyE9Zej5-K6WWikGPHf5Vbh/s1600/Annotation+2020-07-28+163540.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="780" data-original-width="588" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5HKbBPsKwPX2FR7twEEhJI__UM0C6sv1a-czTo5Jcuywrl6Q19cTsWaFk8fpyTMHruywZHYPp4Vn9T3SxCLUhdJbv5AV0446a3VC27vI9dhcZ0AyE9Zej5-K6WWikGPHf5Vbh/s640/Annotation+2020-07-28+163540.jpg" width="483" /></a><br />
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So, this is going to seem a bit arcane, but with the new red pigment, Italian Red Oxide, a way opens. In the packet (they send it to you in little plastic zip lock bags) it looked almost identical to the Pozzuoli Rosso I already had. But I mixed them with a bit of water and did a test, and look at the difference. (This pic was taken in bad light with the shutters closed against the afternoon inferno. It's much redder in decent light.)<br />
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But the big difference is the grind. It's incredibly fine, as you would expect with a synthetic rather than a ground earth pigment. The Pozz. Ross. gets its colour from exactly the same substance - iron oxide - but because it's an ochre it's a kind of tinted clay, so is very grainy and much less intense - technical term: "saturated" - than the pure iron oxide pigment.<br />
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More importantly, the two textures are totally different. And this is because I'm going to use it for gilding. The Pozz. Ross. would have been really unsuitable for what I wanted to do with it, which is to create a coloured ground for gilding. You have to have something coloured underneath the leaf because the gold is so thin the colour of whatever's underneath will show through. So if you put it on a white background it will be dull. Red is best. I've also used yellow ochre, which doesn't give quite the same drama.<br />
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But to a two-molecule-thick piece of gold leaf, the graininess of the earth pigment would have been like lying over sandpaper. The little bumps of the ochre grains create little minute shadows which bring down the reflectivity of the whole thing.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/I5rnYbH3Mbw?start=115" width="560"></iframe><br />
Getting an extremely high shine is the point of going to all the extra work when you use bole, sanding, burnishing and polishing it incredibly smooth.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5DqXlni6OsE7GVJwyJXSAb43yeXYWjBixpvYfbqsOeLXFDKciz9lIKrGDemN-MVIQ11hyQftS0vy9tu4GDG4fXQfMkI_El2nB-_5_EqhGdAEyTl-RkxroUt7mNRn6sA5BSc6V/s1600/Annotation+2020-07-28+184150.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="816" data-original-width="619" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5DqXlni6OsE7GVJwyJXSAb43yeXYWjBixpvYfbqsOeLXFDKciz9lIKrGDemN-MVIQ11hyQftS0vy9tu4GDG4fXQfMkI_El2nB-_5_EqhGdAEyTl-RkxroUt7mNRn6sA5BSc6V/s400/Annotation+2020-07-28+184150.jpg" width="303" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Applying the first layer of bole for an icon of St. Joseph in the spring.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Bole is just fine grain red clay and is the same colour as the red oxide pigment. It stays porous and absorbent, so the leaf will stick to it, while being capable of being polished to a very high shine. Then once you've got the gold down you can burnish it again, mashing the grains into each other with the gold on top and this, in theory, gives you the incredible Russian style mirror-shine.<br />
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... like this...<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SOKew5OTPG8?start=115" width="560"></iframe><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">(Every time I've burnished gold it either rubs right off or bubbles up and creates holes. Please Lord, no more burnishing.)</span><br />
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But LAWKS the amount of work you have to do to get there! and the agony of not being able to do it. The least little microscopic flaw in the bole will show through with the gold, and, short of sanding everything off and starting again, you can't fix it. It's incredibly nerve wracking.<br />
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This other method with gilding size and red oxide pigment is, reportedly, way simpler. Though you can't get that Russian mirror shine thing - which I could never do anyway.<br />
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You paint the area to be gilded with Red Oxide pigment - no tempera medium, just mixed with distilled water or a little gum arabic watercolour medium. When it's dry, you apply the size, which is just a special chemical adhesive for gold leaf. You paint it on, and wait three hours. It'll be tacky to the touch, but not wet.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/36s_mC-WTVo?start=115" width="560"></iframe><br />
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Then instead of using the loose leaf gold, you've finally wised up and bought the transfer gold, which you can cut with scissors and lift with the sort of low-friction silicone paper stuff it comes with. So you don't have to use the gilding tip (the long-hair squirrel brush that sometimes picks up a piece of leaf... and sometimes doesn't, as the mood strikes...) you just pick it up with your fingers, lay it down paper side up on the tacky size, rub the paper with your finger so it's good and stuck, peel back the paper and voy-lah! Gilding!<br />
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I'm also looking forward to doing more of this technique, which the Italians call "laghetto" - little lake or puddle - and the iconographers call a "float" because the pigment particles are suspended in a very thin solution of egg medium and water, and so float down slowly to settle on the surface of the panel, giving a very pleasing natural mottled effect, which you use as an underpainting.<br />
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Like this:<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0kJaFzFhL50" width="560"></iframe><br />
But you can't use anything grainy, and the more finely ground the pigment the more even the finished result. So, the Red Oxide along with my Ultramarine is going to look very well, I think...<br />
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<br />Hilary Jane Margaret Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03771332473693479830noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15895111.post-26849387217218856862019-09-29T12:35:00.000+02:002019-09-29T12:35:18.331+02:00PracticeYesterday's practice.<br />
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Subdividing Thursday's blocks of colour imprimatura and learning the trick of creating the secondary colour not by mixing on a palette but by glazing, meaning applying very thin translucent layers of colour over top. <br />
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Learning value by mixing four or five different values of a single colour, applied with tiny brush strokes over top of the base colour imprimatura (that I think the Byzantines call "<a href="https://www.ikonographics.net/ikonographics-blog/category/painting-tutorial#">proplasmos</a>"). <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB6ix7ER7oGJQ0kR-XDxiY-Gx1Tt9OqrW_cX-oGETTKB_K0VCHwNUdYDJuZlyqp0M2Bl6EGP4ZC5T4TvSpWSxudIe8cQ2zC-FclDYTj9lRN58_ZuuPPNuz4IdmpYCkdec31HfW/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-09-28+at+20.56.22.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB6ix7ER7oGJQ0kR-XDxiY-Gx1Tt9OqrW_cX-oGETTKB_K0VCHwNUdYDJuZlyqp0M2Bl6EGP4ZC5T4TvSpWSxudIe8cQ2zC-FclDYTj9lRN58_ZuuPPNuz4IdmpYCkdec31HfW/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-09-28+at+20.56.22.png" width="640" height="631" data-original-width="555" data-original-height="547" /></a><br />
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Tricky. <br />
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~Hilary Jane Margaret Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03771332473693479830noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15895111.post-81719543241694802582019-09-26T15:42:00.000+02:002019-09-26T15:42:15.583+02:00More experimentsIt's funny how the old methods turn out to be better than the new Bright Ideas. <br />
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Trying to be a bit more systematic, learning the rather tricky egg tempera glazing methods and colour mixing. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDb2HYQvhotR7mCWW0_1IluBemrey38kby9S_ALRppq2uuAQwQ-LMdEmmAPhxmNF_ERRztUVGY0wIS81B9WTUf70-XLBI80JOk98fAsBmS5FPJoHI6_s0kYTD2lDkWdGy9cDmW/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-09-26+at+15.34.57.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDb2HYQvhotR7mCWW0_1IluBemrey38kby9S_ALRppq2uuAQwQ-LMdEmmAPhxmNF_ERRztUVGY0wIS81B9WTUf70-XLBI80JOk98fAsBmS5FPJoHI6_s0kYTD2lDkWdGy9cDmW/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-09-26+at+15.34.57.png" width="481" height="640" data-original-width="406" data-original-height="540" /></a><br />
Italian ice cube trays are ridiculous for making ice. Teeny little cubes that melt before you can start drinking your drink. But for colour mixing in egg tempera...<br />
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This is the other icon painter/egg tempera channel I'm using. <br />
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Cp7kQ3XdyZ8" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
All in French but it's not that hard to understand. (And maybe my French might get a little better...) <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrT-gKx-FFMOX4WQImWXpI8FTohyphenhyphenPnZuwjWsVPQ0NtawgiJtDO9cEIm0NbyQQkli_VbGHuWQPIoGhxfLIRuWnraFJBGFK-YK-7cZl0aEIhNI-x88OY8cVzW8UDrqnvAOQORcLz/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-09-26+at+15.41.24.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrT-gKx-FFMOX4WQImWXpI8FTohyphenhyphenPnZuwjWsVPQ0NtawgiJtDO9cEIm0NbyQQkli_VbGHuWQPIoGhxfLIRuWnraFJBGFK-YK-7cZl0aEIhNI-x88OY8cVzW8UDrqnvAOQORcLz/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-09-26+at+15.41.24.png" width="640" height="451" data-original-width="680" data-original-height="479" /></a><br />
Here's my first stage. I'm going to wait until it's bone dry, then do the glazing. The idea is that egg tempera paint is translucent, so the first layer of colour shows through and you put a thin glaze over it to make a third colour. Yellow over a blue base makes green, etc. <br />
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The top row is all from the same colours: Yellow ochre, Alizerin crimson and Burnt umber with a dab of ivory black. It shows how much difference can be created just making very small changes in the mix. <br />
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~Hilary Jane Margaret Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03771332473693479830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15895111.post-51040433360827120472019-09-25T21:08:00.002+02:002019-09-25T22:08:22.480+02:00Having a goA couple of months ago I signed up for the Patreon page of <a href="https://www.patreon.com/ikonographics/posts">Ikonographics</a>, run by a woman, Julia Hayes, from South Africa - who lives in Athens - and has been studying Byzantine iconography for many years. <br />
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She has essentially the same idea I have about art; learn to do it the hardest way possible. Do all the traditional techniques, learn the practices and materials that created the great works. Once you've mastered the super-duper hard stuff - like learning to draw icons free-hand, no tracing or even copying, you can have the freedom to do work that just learning the cheap n' dirty, easy way can't give you. <br />
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This is obviously not the way to do a finished icon, on watercolour paper. It's just an exercise in things like getting the drawing proportions right, colour mixing, using the paint, getting used to the way egg tempera goes on with a brush, what kind of brushes work best - and what tools and materials I'm going to have to buy. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2ZEoj5NrK4fOPgSYAmXyPiPAhORjbP8GXQ_dnIjt3Xrr1kkGB3_FiBRW06UeDYiKhTxtFp4aNKzwkqCb1AAyP1urgCCG2bk31FKowJeC3hWQadeYZ1q2FYKDvzsU6k7IkKgEM/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-09-25+at+20.34.05.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="407" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2ZEoj5NrK4fOPgSYAmXyPiPAhORjbP8GXQ_dnIjt3Xrr1kkGB3_FiBRW06UeDYiKhTxtFp4aNKzwkqCb1AAyP1urgCCG2bk31FKowJeC3hWQadeYZ1q2FYKDvzsU6k7IkKgEM/s400/Screen+Shot+2019-09-25+at+20.34.05.png" width="301" /></a><br />
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I spent an hour yesterday just doing pages and pages of ovals. I bought a box of cheap-o copier paper to practice drawing on, so I can just cover the pages in doodles and scribbles, and not feel bad about tossing them at the end of the day. It's amazing how hard it is to draw a simple oval shape - not pointy on top like an egg, or flat sides, or bumpy or lop-sided - just by eyeballing it. I've got several pages in my workbook of hands, eyes, noses...<br />
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Today I thought I'd have a go at using the paint.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgldh_KeaHikUzLHM34xeR-a_qBV_wE3PGSv0BAgmLETsCtWJoEsmXuxZuGuENOuOnVySTYPOA12QKIj4r4bvIhxEa_KF-cl8vfGaKI41_1efewPWp19qwGuTCk99mByPy-IRf/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-09-25+at+20.57.15.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="532" data-original-width="404" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgldh_KeaHikUzLHM34xeR-a_qBV_wE3PGSv0BAgmLETsCtWJoEsmXuxZuGuENOuOnVySTYPOA12QKIj4r4bvIhxEa_KF-cl8vfGaKI41_1efewPWp19qwGuTCk99mByPy-IRf/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-09-25+at+20.57.15.png" width="484" /></a><br />
Wobbly oval on a centre axis line. Hilariously difficult. (It's off-centre on purpose.)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhshZtIQbHXPklNEKcjF3YrubWy8dM0nhtCCuLx8sYzI1fbThI_O5Pp8sB9JzM4hGTjT83ET5ndz5ZYVNuDboeyFiUX7iMdO-vIBv1dKq-hK0B-4nTc9snnvu52OxbP9oALO0eb/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-09-25+at+20.59.56.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="528" data-original-width="413" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhshZtIQbHXPklNEKcjF3YrubWy8dM0nhtCCuLx8sYzI1fbThI_O5Pp8sB9JzM4hGTjT83ET5ndz5ZYVNuDboeyFiUX7iMdO-vIBv1dKq-hK0B-4nTc9snnvu52OxbP9oALO0eb/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-09-25+at+20.59.56.png" width="500" /></a><br />
Finished the drawing, but then you go over it with a gum eraser to pull the graphite off, or it shows through too much.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyDz7_BA5SCsqbcX68_NhFacvFU_ktcfH7IBD6fbxvygcadggvHjNGAgDcR9koMgnEU7-DMEgV9arY19Z5ean_9aaMH2b1mYcOMpmpTXNhGJe-bSZ-FZTVSRawFwKmg-KgNxid/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-09-25+at+21.01.35.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="538" data-original-width="408" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyDz7_BA5SCsqbcX68_NhFacvFU_ktcfH7IBD6fbxvygcadggvHjNGAgDcR9koMgnEU7-DMEgV9arY19Z5ean_9aaMH2b1mYcOMpmpTXNhGJe-bSZ-FZTVSRawFwKmg-KgNxid/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-09-25+at+21.01.35.png" width="485" /></a><br />
First few layers are yellow ochre, mixed with egg medium and thinned way down with distilled water. (Yes, it's supposed to be streaky.)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD6LuR-HSuYtocukQJ3Un9DVSN5aBf1qn9npGKR6h4fdycLa36pIuzg7_cagitTb1NRWQM_yrKqKSxYQoOwpKx9xP-atBB-X7NG2Wkl0C9NDV4j_EAjfaJmweh6SKpOgNcBUxj/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-09-25+at+21.03.35.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="525" data-original-width="403" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD6LuR-HSuYtocukQJ3Un9DVSN5aBf1qn9npGKR6h4fdycLa36pIuzg7_cagitTb1NRWQM_yrKqKSxYQoOwpKx9xP-atBB-X7NG2Wkl0C9NDV4j_EAjfaJmweh6SKpOgNcBUxj/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-09-25+at+21.03.35.png" width="491" /></a><br />
It's certainly not at all like any painting technique I'm used to. You do one colour at a time, and you just paint right the heck over top of your drawing. Then you mix up a little dark tone and go over the drawing - which shows through the translucent paint.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMeA2XItMRJkuXwCMbU9hSg_L2-PAlZ5jx8KYNVYzCci9R6MWg42O1-tPCnptaA5fz2KlRHlSc6XEeMmBapW7DI_rdiqwhEynkA00e0N7m7muqdrjsWQ1jrcps_8IF7Bxy-cdt/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-09-25+at+21.05.34.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="542" data-original-width="402" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMeA2XItMRJkuXwCMbU9hSg_L2-PAlZ5jx8KYNVYzCci9R6MWg42O1-tPCnptaA5fz2KlRHlSc6XEeMmBapW7DI_rdiqwhEynkA00e0N7m7muqdrjsWQ1jrcps_8IF7Bxy-cdt/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-09-25+at+21.05.34.png" width="475" /></a><br />
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I've been using egg medium mixed with artists' quality gouache - Windsor and Newton among others - and have been very pleased with the way it changes the gouache as a medium. Gone are the frustrations with it drying darker or lighter, it flows and lays so much easier.<br />
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Drawbacks with practicing using watercolour paper is the drying time. Egg tempera paint dries in seconds, but the paper absorbs the water, so the pain won't set as well. This means if you do the next layer too soon, before the paper has had a chance to dry out sufficiently, the water in your next pass will reactivate the paint underneath, making it lift. So, you just have to wait a lot longer between passes. I got the hair dryer out, and tried it for a few seconds but then the thought, "There's no way this will not end badly." So, never mind impatience. Let it take the time it's going to take. <br />
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The neat thing about iconography, as you can see in this video that I'm using as a model...<br />
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QLMzeSF-Tv0?start=466" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
...that you do it dark to light. You start with the darker values and slowly layer by layer build up to the highest highlights. So it's like the figure is emerging towards the viewer out of the darkness. <br />
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Another hilarious fun-fact about egg tempera paint: "How come Byzantine and medieval painters mixed their paint colours in little cups or sea shells and not on a palette, like oils?" Egg tempera is runny. You use it very thinned down. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivvapMmTdAbE1xm_AIg59KQJV_j3yjGxcNHrJ9DCOaFVQoGlf26LaJ-9dYR8jNQwvCrcbz85gAjvvD_iQpcbFdnxbv5R2FcFmuGW_ef1XGxPJ9bMHMBIf7ip180Riv125xSrMe/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-09-25+at+20.44.55.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivvapMmTdAbE1xm_AIg59KQJV_j3yjGxcNHrJ9DCOaFVQoGlf26LaJ-9dYR8jNQwvCrcbz85gAjvvD_iQpcbFdnxbv5R2FcFmuGW_ef1XGxPJ9bMHMBIf7ip180Riv125xSrMe/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-09-25+at+20.44.55.png" width="493" height="640" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="519" /></a><br />
This was three colours when I started. Live n' learn.<br />
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Of course, the traditional method is to use raw powdered pigment, to mull it yourself with egg medium and paint on a board treated with many layers of home-made gesso. I do have a bit of powdered pigment, but I think for me, learning something like this is best treated like algebra; add only one variable at a time. (Also, glass mullers are hella-spensive.) I also bought the makings for rabbit-skin "True Gesso" a while back, and hope to give it a go soon. <br />
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Learn one new thing each time. I'm a long way to mastering the drawing (don't look at the hands!) and just starting to get used to colour mixing. One thing at a time, I figure.<br />
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~Hilary Jane Margaret Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03771332473693479830noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15895111.post-19059489272681163052019-07-22T13:14:00.003+02:002019-07-22T13:30:43.849+02:00By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul lovethWho was Mary Magdalene? <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9rJglOffKJgH8aeJdaScKME9JI_gbjbfjENc1Ni7AAdyijv5jBGDDkg-awMlknj7IHo7xOSDMF6m3RenyX8l2D9YkCrpKTBgeGd6DCjLUhcqJhZs6JzuI6hZ9b97FI4RnryyN/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-07-22+at+13.15.58.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="469" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9rJglOffKJgH8aeJdaScKME9JI_gbjbfjENc1Ni7AAdyijv5jBGDDkg-awMlknj7IHo7xOSDMF6m3RenyX8l2D9YkCrpKTBgeGd6DCjLUhcqJhZs6JzuI6hZ9b97FI4RnryyN/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-07-22+at+13.15.58.png" width="563" /></a><br />
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"Woman, why weepest thou?"<br />
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From the 4th Lesson of the 2nd Nocturn of Matins:<br />
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Mary of Bethany, sister to Lazarus, is identified, according to a common tradition, with Mary Magdalene and the unnamed woman called in the Gospel, "the Sinner". But inasmuch as neither Mary of Bethany nor the Sinner is therein styled Magdalene, most Greek Fathers distinguish these as three woman, or at least two; whereas St. Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas leave the question undecided. St. Gregory the Great, however, taught that the Sinner was by name Mary and by title Magdalene, and that she was sister to Martha and Lazarus of Bethany; and his teaching came to be widely followed in theWest. Thus in the East Mary Magdalene is by some commemorated on July 22nd as the Myrrh-Bearer, and the chief saint of the Resurrection, whereas according to the other tradition, she is not only accorded this honour, but in addition venerated, with St. Peter, as a great Penitent, who being forgiven much, came thereby to love much; and is otherwise known as Mary of Bethany, to whom Our Lord said that she had chosen that good part, which same would not be taken away from her, either in time or eternity. <br />
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<br />Hilary Jane Margaret Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03771332473693479830noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15895111.post-13723420958453301382019-06-28T18:34:00.001+02:002019-06-28T19:01:00.724+02:00Italian air conditioning<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBeSxyWh-VkiX3f9reCyWRfIQkywUg1Aeu8ZWSSm3zsy3-aM6kU7oAvAsAE8DjflXtKlRlIKF6X1xF336SF-nWQUqKyJsTo0oi-Jv-73gtRjsu9pIEOQkUfqIb9B6t-uz6DRWu/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-06-28+at+18.22.21.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="539" data-original-width="405" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBeSxyWh-VkiX3f9reCyWRfIQkywUg1Aeu8ZWSSm3zsy3-aM6kU7oAvAsAE8DjflXtKlRlIKF6X1xF336SF-nWQUqKyJsTo0oi-Jv-73gtRjsu9pIEOQkUfqIb9B6t-uz6DRWu/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-06-28+at+18.22.21.png" width="481" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">20 inch thick stone walls, a big floor fan and shutters = coolth.</td></tr>
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So, the temps have finally become seasonal here, which is to say that this week we've gone abruptly from the more or less reasonable 31-35 range, to shoot up to the late 30s early 40s. Now, Italians don't believe in air conditioning. They think, probably rightly, that AC makes you sickly, weak, enervated and dependent on artificial things that just divorce you from reality. At first it's pretty purgatorial if you're from a temperate climate like England or Western Canada. I spent a little time as a child in Manchester, UK, but mostly grew up in Victoria, British Columbia, on Vancouver Island, a place that is famous for possibly having the best climate for human beings on planet earth. It pretty much never goes above 28 degrees in summer and rarely snows in winter. It doesn't really have humidity or mosquitoes either.<br />
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So, when I left to go live on the Mainland (people from The Island divide the world into two places, The Island and the Mainland, the latter defined as anywhere that isn't The Island) I was shocked to discover that you could live in a place where it got to be 34, 36 or even 40 degrees in summer and not simply explode or drop dead in the street. I did my five year stint (obligatory for Canadians) in Toronto - which still has the worst weather I've ever lived in and four years in Halifax NS, where I experienced the hottest day of my life (until the Great Drought Italian Summer of 2017, which I'll get to) at 42 degrees. That was where I learned to take a plastic water bottle or two, fill with water and freeze. Then when you go to bed, you take the block of ice, wrap it in a tea towel and put it between the sheets. It acts like the opposite of a hot water bottle, cooling the air under the sheets by several degrees.<br />
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But I've been in Italy nearly eleven years now, and I've found that no matter how old or stodgy you are, you do slowly adapt. This summer I have been out in the garden, digging and puttering around until noon in 33 degrees and thought, "Huh... I wonder when it's going to get hot..."<br />
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Where I'm from, if the house is too warm, you open a window. This would be a bad plan here.<br />
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Instead, you start to do things Italianly. You buy electric fans of course, but you also learn the heat management strategies that have served this country and other Mediterranean places for millennia. First, your house is made of stone that's 20 inches thick and the roof is terracotta tiles. So the heat of the day won't be getting through. You also have double glazed windows, but more than that, you have shutters. And you learn which direction your various windows face and you use your windows and shutters in sequence depending on where the sun is.<br />
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And most important, you adjust your life schedule. You don't sleep late; that's disastrous. You get up at six or earlier. The first thing I do every morning is go onto the terrace and put up my sunshade umbrella to cover the front door in shade. This immediately cools the air that comes into the kitchen. All the windows are open from bed time the night before until about ten am, when the air outside starts to warm up. The houses are all designed so that the air flows smoothly from one room to the next when the windows are opened. This means your house is lovely and cool most of the night. Even in the hottest weather, I'm still using covers on the bed to keep the late night, early morning chill off. Though the fan runs 24 hrs a day now, and helps with the airflow.<br />
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The kitchen, front door and terrace face due east, so the morning sun pours into the kitchen. About ten or eleven am I shut the east and south facing windows and shutters. This means the air inside stays cool as the sun swings around to the south west side of the house. The bedroom and workroom face west/south, so about three pm, I close the shutters on that side. This also means the house is darker, but it's a nice, intimate cave-like darkness that's very restful. And the ferocious Italian sun lights the rooms sufficiently anyway, even with the shutters closed.<br />
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This method means the house is warm, but not hot (about 10-15 degrees cooler than outside) and dark between 3:30 and about 7:30. This, typically is Italian/Mediterranean nap time - Siesta in Spain, and "riposo" in Italy (pronounced to sound like "repose-oh"). Given that you've been up since five and in the garden all morning in the warm sun, or busy with work or whatever you do, you're pretty tired by four pm, and the interior conditions of your home are very restful, so napping just makes sense.<br />
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This timetable heat-management strategy is why Italians eat dinner so late and everything closes in the afternoons. No Italian restaurant will serve you dinner until 7:30 at the earliest and lunch is never served after three pm. In most Italian towns and villages, you go home for lunch and take a rest after, and go back to work about 4 pm, until eight or so. So normal is this that there are usually bylaws restricting noise in the afternoons, though sometimes not at night - you sleep in the afternoons, so you're usually up late with the fam at night. This is why Italian shop hours are so odd to us Anglos. You don't shop in the afternoons. You're supposed to be at home resting.<br />
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The only trouble I have with this system is that my shutters are made of metal - aluminum, I think. This means that when the sun has been on them for a few hours, as it is now, they are like barbeque grills. And even though they keep the light out, they just heat up the room as if you've turned on the oven and left the door open. The glass of the windows can get quite hot. So when the temps get up to the mid 30s or higher, I take clothes pegs or metal clips and attach blankets and quilts to the insides of the shutters, essentially insulating the space between the shutter and the window.<br />
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In the Horrible Summer of 2017, even this was insufficient. We shot up to 35 half way through May, and the temps crept up to the mid-40s - without a single drop of rain - until the end of September. (It was a year of disasters. The previous October, the worst earthquake in 300 years knocked down the town I had been living in. The following winter - when people in Norcia were living in tents - was the coldest and snowiest in 70s years. Then the next summer devastated Italian agriculture. My landlady said the ladies in the village thought it was all a sign from God of His displeasure with the modern world.) That summer the nights never cooled lower than 25 degrees, so the house just got hotter and hotter. I was keeping six plastic water bottles in the freezer, and sitting at my desk with my feet in a bucket of water with the ice blocks in. I was packing everything I could find into the space between the shutters and the windows. Sofa cushions, floor rugs, blankets, quilts... I felt like I was fighting to keep zombies out.<br />
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At least it was something to offer up for my manifold sins and wickednesses.<br />
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We anglosassone of the 1st world assume that we are entitled to have the world - even the natural world - conform to our demands. If it's above 72 degrees we consider ourselves very hard-done-by and devote all our resources, including considerable quantities of cash, to damn well <i>make </i>it 72 degrees <i>AT ALL TIMES! </i>At least indoors.<br />
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One of the nice things about living in the 2nd World is that you learn you can adapt. It's rather relaxing to not be in such a panic to have your own way all the time.<br />
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~Hilary Jane Margaret Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03771332473693479830noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15895111.post-44794732064387238982019-06-25T21:47:00.001+02:002019-06-25T21:47:32.116+02:00The pursuit of holiness; how to train your brain<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NIn7opOQWGQ" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
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What is procrastination anyway? Most of us assume it's a moral failing. This is probably a bit true, but it's certainly mixed with a bunch of other psychological brain-trickery. <br />
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As a good friend recently reminded me, a big theme of my writing over the years is that "your brain is not your friend." In simplest terms, we have habits of thought - often deeply engrained - that do not correspond to reality. This messes us up. <br />
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There's a whole huge deal of stuff that psychologists are just now starting to get hold of - the ideas behind Cognitive/Behavioural Therapy (it's been a long day trudging around in the blistering summer heat, so I won't go into it right now - Google it) and all of it corresponds beautifully with Thomist thinking on how the path to holiness is through the subordination of the passions to the intellect and will - the right ordering of the human faculties. <br />
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In other words, procrastination, fear, anxiety, depression - all of these are mental habits that involve us indulging in things that are not in keeping with reality. Procrastination especially is a way of avoiding reality. The method of overcoming it is to exercise the will to choose The Real over Fantasy - defined as adherence to a personal preference in conflict with observable reality. This is the way to overcoming poor self-discipline (endemic in our culture), procrastination, fear, anxiety and depression - but much more crucially of rooting out our habitual sins and faults. The saints and theologians all talk about the methodology of sanctification, the "purgative way," and this, in essence, is it. <br />
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This is the work of the interior life that has to be done before we can start advancing in holiness. This is what the whole thing is about, getting your<i>self</i> under control. <br />
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Hilary Jane Margaret Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03771332473693479830noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15895111.post-52901993927599558102019-06-17T12:23:00.003+02:002019-06-17T12:23:48.509+02:00Catch of the dayIt's the time of year when we pretty much get a lizard a day. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1Y_3wsFvntR8EF2_CEzNVgY9zFf3eeCSPG7t7tgWc8rs8UngTl6G8gSewS2tv0w58JEdHWVCqDcKLHokgqLc3v1R0_LrhLY2d8-_uO1iy8D2AIKydN0YJVSefjMt_A1tqc9T8/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-06-17+at+12.04.58.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="492" data-original-width="408" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1Y_3wsFvntR8EF2_CEzNVgY9zFf3eeCSPG7t7tgWc8rs8UngTl6G8gSewS2tv0w58JEdHWVCqDcKLHokgqLc3v1R0_LrhLY2d8-_uO1iy8D2AIKydN0YJVSefjMt_A1tqc9T8/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-06-17+at+12.04.58.png" width="531" /></a><br />
Lizards are a specialty of my little silky black and white ninja, Bertie. But lately it's been a favourite of Pippin. I kicked him outside this morning because he was doing his usual trick of finishing his own breakfast and then shoving Henry aside to steal his. All their little lives I've had to feed Henry separately. He's so good natured he just lets himself get bullied out of his meals. Pippy's a real lovey-dove, and just the sweetest little guy, but he's an incorrigible scamp too.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht4TVdsaTAI73y9QBQFPJW21e9cikqKDqbNvn1goCb-pf5mMkq_kaB1TWELzSE-TrH1xghkzKu6bewy5EJqPdrCdqgdYy-l-r-BdFywCrQ8mC9miG8lv99Ii4VIGTCQPRDRBDC/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-06-17+at+12.05.12.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="525" data-original-width="399" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht4TVdsaTAI73y9QBQFPJW21e9cikqKDqbNvn1goCb-pf5mMkq_kaB1TWELzSE-TrH1xghkzKu6bewy5EJqPdrCdqgdYy-l-r-BdFywCrQ8mC9miG8lv99Ii4VIGTCQPRDRBDC/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-06-17+at+12.05.12.png" width="486" /></a><br />
I can't resist picking them up and taking a close look. In life these guys are lighting fast, and it's difficult to get a close look at their markings. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinpRUbyz3Lh7-07_7gFbIMYpCLhfiO-_AsvhLLlOWqgxUn7H8Xpj2Prg47bWCd6FU52yE6qQIZ76D2l_5pXUMVB5kP0_FpPDbAzoP7nJCcZJkm7m_bj33Q9WCNBQk7-4xvClJB/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-06-17+at+12.05.23.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="513" data-original-width="386" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinpRUbyz3Lh7-07_7gFbIMYpCLhfiO-_AsvhLLlOWqgxUn7H8Xpj2Prg47bWCd6FU52yE6qQIZ76D2l_5pXUMVB5kP0_FpPDbAzoP7nJCcZJkm7m_bj33Q9WCNBQk7-4xvClJB/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-06-17+at+12.05.23.png" width="482" /></a><br />
The daily lizard. It should be the name of a punk newspaper. <br />
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The terrace in June. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWsJm48MLD-kPhyr8mGavA-iIJpqDkBRUu10aynq4iBMyxGxvMJ1Mw0Lvs9XGcSYgmmrQR-BbyRTWvNE1LoKHvY7yJ9MmplEXpLJaN06fydSngcUjiRm5C_ow0gz7ruVfg5VLd/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-06-14+at+13.37.29.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="538" data-original-width="721" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWsJm48MLD-kPhyr8mGavA-iIJpqDkBRUu10aynq4iBMyxGxvMJ1Mw0Lvs9XGcSYgmmrQR-BbyRTWvNE1LoKHvY7yJ9MmplEXpLJaN06fydSngcUjiRm5C_ow0gz7ruVfg5VLd/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-06-14+at+13.37.29.png" width="640" /></a><br />
Snap dragons finally getting close to finished. They never died back this "winter" and were already starting to flower in February.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc-ERkHFODmjNBbk3GTnJ_L1ldUxDFag9xT5ZkwhgMANolsk8mK3TaH95ExTSK_zG2HokTm8E3P_JP3HcYjKED-LhEnzew0bLcrwldF2r11lmh6mUetmuPxIbCOktkla6LebWd/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-06-14+at+13.37.42.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="541" data-original-width="405" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc-ERkHFODmjNBbk3GTnJ_L1ldUxDFag9xT5ZkwhgMANolsk8mK3TaH95ExTSK_zG2HokTm8E3P_JP3HcYjKED-LhEnzew0bLcrwldF2r11lmh6mUetmuPxIbCOktkla6LebWd/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-06-14+at+13.37.42.png" width="479" /></a><br />
Still some pansies holding up.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhClDB_X3Zhj8mR4gdbhIRaJUP-lOpHv60l6-JWi1_hUUDfnk_IPkIoKYvLyF6613AzWBT0LYHIw-ZZ0qCf9ZvmQK0QV0r7t57BGDQ16qLXZ2cydQasHXl5HXxUuX5dAugCl0Rk/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-06-14+at+13.37.51.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="547" data-original-width="407" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhClDB_X3Zhj8mR4gdbhIRaJUP-lOpHv60l6-JWi1_hUUDfnk_IPkIoKYvLyF6613AzWBT0LYHIw-ZZ0qCf9ZvmQK0QV0r7t57BGDQ16qLXZ2cydQasHXl5HXxUuX5dAugCl0Rk/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-06-14+at+13.37.51.png" width="476" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDG286h3AgwGQW37SDTv7kA0-EZ3KFgUBm3InPFw8mYFNqNyGXQ1om7uJ78zmcBa0WhbUrYnEhyphenhyphenhjj-FCsWaLkmQ_cyJhZICl49sEQQAfPl3vp_jsV2ixvSrSPBRO6EeKXdBvj/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-06-14+at+13.38.01.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="543" data-original-width="407" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDG286h3AgwGQW37SDTv7kA0-EZ3KFgUBm3InPFw8mYFNqNyGXQ1om7uJ78zmcBa0WhbUrYnEhyphenhyphenhjj-FCsWaLkmQ_cyJhZICl49sEQQAfPl3vp_jsV2ixvSrSPBRO6EeKXdBvj/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-06-14+at+13.38.01.png" width="480" /></a><br />
Sweet peas finally starting to blossom. The dill are all volunteers from last year's stray seeds.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2ukIp3bD8UxufWbA-iVp-uKPO7DnJRX2FXwusD9pFDETCCfR3KL5eYVIm6dWpTxoyzxs8qIoMFddodnsFrp-L2zMa6V8gHrizEuCYn9lkTrzvDqOqSjRiYl3mnAxap7_7CArM/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-06-14+at+13.38.13.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="408" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2ukIp3bD8UxufWbA-iVp-uKPO7DnJRX2FXwusD9pFDETCCfR3KL5eYVIm6dWpTxoyzxs8qIoMFddodnsFrp-L2zMa6V8gHrizEuCYn9lkTrzvDqOqSjRiYl3mnAxap7_7CArM/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-06-14+at+13.38.13.png" width="484" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ7NE0jS9MTkCpVeKvrdU6Dalait99DyKJa3W6L02X-Lbh5Xy9Je4DNvpcXX1x-M-pCgNZbb6nsQBB4xfw83TayHPAXbPhVFlIxp7kHgLK72ygb_QqLKgWJrpsOYpIPv87b7gM/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-06-14+at+13.38.25.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="541" data-original-width="405" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ7NE0jS9MTkCpVeKvrdU6Dalait99DyKJa3W6L02X-Lbh5Xy9Je4DNvpcXX1x-M-pCgNZbb6nsQBB4xfw83TayHPAXbPhVFlIxp7kHgLK72ygb_QqLKgWJrpsOYpIPv87b7gM/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-06-14+at+13.38.25.png" width="479" /></a><br />
First passion flower.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjmpT5PmJEBYcw_eM4wN-iKkNWwzP4yIlQoHoIqUtDBy4juTLVjIJHnxpV082dJQzS5y4KiE37WXp58nOJ2Z9yVNK2p-SWOsPeBaFJzi1jL0IcOA6D_8h-nS3V0MdLEZwvTXbq/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-06-14+at+13.38.49.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="724" height="477" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjmpT5PmJEBYcw_eM4wN-iKkNWwzP4yIlQoHoIqUtDBy4juTLVjIJHnxpV082dJQzS5y4KiE37WXp58nOJ2Z9yVNK2p-SWOsPeBaFJzi1jL0IcOA6D_8h-nS3V0MdLEZwvTXbq/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-06-14+at+13.38.49.png" width="640" /></a><br />
If you keep them in a shady place they will flower almost to July.<br />
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Four years ago yesterday I got a call from my friend Emanuele to come down to the shop to pick them up.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GMIFnTSBEUY" width="560"></iframe><br />
A friend had come to Norcia to visit, but had picked a day when the monastery guesthouse was all full up, so Br. Ignatius called me to ask if he could camp in my living room. He had to put up with this all night.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wIEiOJzA1L0" width="560"></iframe><br />
I took this one just about a week after they arrived. I kept them in the study for a few days to let them get used to me. Bertie was the first one to claim me as his own. <br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7kmyfLCJfLQ" width="560"></iframe><br />
Bertie and Pippin helping in the garden in Norcia. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis0tZYfyIVt-SaD2Bvh6dwvv6cZeaR7diDGTMonz8kfEDlzUcQD39G3Ce4tqNOP8ZBW5xjmgl_zNCN7KRCJZO9HFFvQKI7-Ah8s4d6OMyuic2TseXq_0UqflkciCz6vPCudtue/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-06-17+at+12.25.33.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="516" data-original-width="394" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis0tZYfyIVt-SaD2Bvh6dwvv6cZeaR7diDGTMonz8kfEDlzUcQD39G3Ce4tqNOP8ZBW5xjmgl_zNCN7KRCJZO9HFFvQKI7-Ah8s4d6OMyuic2TseXq_0UqflkciCz6vPCudtue/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-06-17+at+12.25.33.png" width="489" /></a><br />
Bertie's favourite perch in the evenings. He likes to keep an eye on things.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTIAcrhnXm_R_TLN_v6T467ohu70WMlLj4-yhADZsHilT8bKbWKwRsIG-4KGiJBrtU0q_iHgdUeREK3n5OtVA3qWxT0wFFgxPd8ShGYgYwFUe3WDUdFhZgjoWG3RNPNIn8mo5P/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-06-17+at+12.26.20.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="545" data-original-width="405" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTIAcrhnXm_R_TLN_v6T467ohu70WMlLj4-yhADZsHilT8bKbWKwRsIG-4KGiJBrtU0q_iHgdUeREK3n5OtVA3qWxT0wFFgxPd8ShGYgYwFUe3WDUdFhZgjoWG3RNPNIn8mo5P/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-06-17+at+12.26.20.png" width="476" /></a><br />
Henry napping yesterday afternoon. <br />
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<br />Hilary Jane Margaret Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03771332473693479830noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15895111.post-82132387555761814242019-06-08T14:19:00.000+02:002019-06-08T14:19:32.410+02:00Egg white and cauliflower pancakes<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Ca5oEF_p4SJuuSdpOM2K293xVdP9QrJXA7-XEkQQyW0pSZ6DPWO2nP5KmYLrINqaxAQ7PpqxDpANHvp6bMcNOGsIuAD4dbnX7K22V8fj9SBbRvoiuSbnrzCdNAa3WIRydY1h/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-06-08+at+14.21.21.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="486" data-original-width="396" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Ca5oEF_p4SJuuSdpOM2K293xVdP9QrJXA7-XEkQQyW0pSZ6DPWO2nP5KmYLrINqaxAQ7PpqxDpANHvp6bMcNOGsIuAD4dbnX7K22V8fj9SBbRvoiuSbnrzCdNAa3WIRydY1h/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-06-08+at+14.21.21.png" width="521" /></a><br />
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Finally figured out what to do with the egg whites left over after making egg tempera medium. <br />
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Take: <br />
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whites of two eggs<br />
2 cups finely grated raw cauliflower<br />
salt n pepper<br />
handful of almond flour, coconut flour or other keto/low carb friendly flour of your choice<br />
oil for cooking (I've just bought a hella-spensive jar of coconut oil... not sure about it yet)<br />
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Whip egg whites to stiff peak and fold in the "dry" ingredients. Season. Heat up the oil in a pan to just under smoking-hot. Spoon the mixture into the nice silicone crumpet rings someone sent you in the post but you can't use anymore because you're not eating carbly anymore. Fry over a low heat. Remove the rings and gently flip. Toast a bit on the other side. <br />
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Top them with sliced avocado, soft goat or sheep milk ricotta, load some sauteed mushrooms on top. <br />
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Eat. <br />
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The pancakes come out sort of cakey, not at all cauliflowery. They'd be fine for a sweet thing too, with a little low-carbly-approved sweetener (stevia... barf...) or stewed fruit, or tahini or something nice like that. <br />
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~Hilary Jane Margaret Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03771332473693479830noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15895111.post-72098277867704210332019-05-26T10:53:00.000+02:002019-05-26T10:53:21.761+02:00A hearty Sunday lunch<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xq8tj1uy1Gk" width="560"></iframe><br />
I'd be inclined to marinade the pigeon breasts in the port and herbs overnight. And I'm afraid with that many whole cloves the pie is going to taste of cloves and nothing else - which is a pity considering how expensive those truffles must have been. I would have ground the cloves very fine, mixed them with the other spices and used only two or three at most for the whole mix.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OUGjxi6SHHU" width="560"></iframe><br />
Boiled crust, also called hot water crust or standing crust, is a lost art, but SO easy you won't even believe. It's very forgiving with none of that annoying fussing over not allowing the gluten to develop, making sure everything's ice cold, etc. that can intimidate beginner pie-makers. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPMIIEiHvF__hz8w_q-qb2njl4u548RdphjXzp_f8wvOuYk1T16ktx16QDkCusFkC2ER1fpsaQtMGkts6wKEbcU2WLgMbYqq779QwpWav39NXHbI4hqrkrL3S5WctbkWhQyxVM/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-05-26+at+10.39.33.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="455" data-original-width="600" height="485" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPMIIEiHvF__hz8w_q-qb2njl4u548RdphjXzp_f8wvOuYk1T16ktx16QDkCusFkC2ER1fpsaQtMGkts6wKEbcU2WLgMbYqq779QwpWav39NXHbI4hqrkrL3S5WctbkWhQyxVM/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-05-26+at+10.39.33.png" width="640" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwq67fPnqHC3AZ0uhXxKP97zFk_7YaSB_mhnr5z9-EowU8V25Pz047G4SN-2gN-W1OmLyNt-NKRaijMva28YYT1nYDg61dcngWvBdVpRorGIgNDUsE3h3TgaHdMr-ad087hrn_/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-05-26+at+10.39.47.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="444" data-original-width="601" height="473" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwq67fPnqHC3AZ0uhXxKP97zFk_7YaSB_mhnr5z9-EowU8V25Pz047G4SN-2gN-W1OmLyNt-NKRaijMva28YYT1nYDg61dcngWvBdVpRorGIgNDUsE3h3TgaHdMr-ad087hrn_/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-05-26+at+10.39.47.png" width="640" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJSXj-e336_DXNaokpN7R27uwE0PqJNw8kybbeV-wIXhsjb_ZXJQwsoykcl1hWugYqdOswTGaagy7R4p7RCNu-tl56fZyZ6BhfsC7iMoQ3Tz6WogO3BN47tLKmxRcj1Ua-XWwB/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-05-26+at+10.39.59.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="442" data-original-width="602" height="470" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJSXj-e336_DXNaokpN7R27uwE0PqJNw8kybbeV-wIXhsjb_ZXJQwsoykcl1hWugYqdOswTGaagy7R4p7RCNu-tl56fZyZ6BhfsC7iMoQ3Tz6WogO3BN47tLKmxRcj1Ua-XWwB/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-05-26+at+10.39.59.png" width="640" /></a><br />
My own little efforts, some years ago; piggy pies for an Epiphany dinner party in Santa Marinella. Unfortunately, the juice boiled out of the steam holes and discoloured the top of the pie, rather spoiling the effect, but it was pretty good for a first effort. Make sure the crust on the sides is as thin as you can make it. This is quite a heavy pie crust, and a little goes a long way.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0HrKFmkUIL8yv9EkbslUAyOSaXwK9bn3vqG6f-XeSLz0ik9j1gK5tC4Qh1zNcdPZbVCMpKMQ2H8TW7TDOOcIfn4hqRR_5SzRZX4OFb0ZLAMqDktUqsczj3yYTP9aAzEer8Vm_/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-05-26+at+10.50.50.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="335" height="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0HrKFmkUIL8yv9EkbslUAyOSaXwK9bn3vqG6f-XeSLz0ik9j1gK5tC4Qh1zNcdPZbVCMpKMQ2H8TW7TDOOcIfn4hqRR_5SzRZX4OFb0ZLAMqDktUqsczj3yYTP9aAzEer8Vm_/s400/Screen+Shot+2019-05-26+at+10.50.50.png" width="400" /></a><br />
This, of course, is also how you make a classic Melton Mowbray pie, which is served cold at lunch with some nice hot English mustard. You bake it, then pour the gelatine and stock mix into the holes and refrigerate until the gelatine sets. If you can find small spring-form cake tins these really help with forming the crust into the traditional shape. Line the tin with some baking paper, so even if the stock boils out a bit, it won't stick to the tin. Spring form baking pans come in every size and are one of the most useful multi-purpose things you can have in the kitchen.<br />
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<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OUGjxi6SHHU" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
Raised pies are something that need to be revived. It's an entirely different sort of pie crust than we're used to, being designed to be waterproof. In fact, boiled pie crust was intended to form a seal that helped to preserve the meat inside and they were often kept for a long time in a cool place like a root cellar or dairy. In the old days, one didn't eat the crust (unless one were poor) but treated it the way we do the wrapper on a hamburger. <br />
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A standing pie is a great way to use up leftover turkey or chicken or any cooked or roasted meat. They're especially nice with sliced apple or carrots, caramelised onion or some other lightly flavoured, sweetish vegetable. (Pass on the brussel's sprouts though, or any brassicas).<br />
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Hilary Jane Margaret Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03771332473693479830noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15895111.post-90847325526666909452019-05-25T16:00:00.002+02:002019-05-25T16:10:23.673+02:00Garden in May<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SVEWkKt60qE" width="560"></iframe><br />
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Expecting great things from my passion flower vine this year. Grown from a seed in Norcia, and one of the few things we managed to rescue in the last escape, it took a while to get going again.<br />
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We've had a very strange spring. Dry, cold and incredibly windy in February, that dried out all the soil, then the howling wind continued all through March while the weather became like June. Then the temps dropped in April and we got the rain we were supposed to have in Feb and March. Through April and May it's been raining pretty steadily, interspersed with a few warm days. The result is that not a great deal of the work I'd planned ended up being possible to do.<br />
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But the poppies seem to love it. And in fact, everything is looking amazing. This was actually over a week ago, and it's even more lush now, with absolute masses of poppies, and the calendula growing enormous.<br />
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Last year I saw that we had very little elder in the area, almost none compared to the small forests of elder we had in Norcia. But then I found out that you can make a fine Robinia flower liqueur that is almost as nice as elder liqueur. So here it is. You just pick a big basket full of the flower heads, strip off the florets and put them in the jar (no washing!) with a layer of sugar over each layer of florets. It "cooks down" in a few hours so they're all in the same jar now. After two or three days, pour in 1.5 L of vodka, seal the lid and let it steep for four months.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCItBflBi-pxG_P2iKqmpG3i1iJolkq-pC1t6HP6CnlVGmR2rGQYMFbuBzR8ZKXgJ1sgY1uJnPOIreShZdzJcrYOJMU71EYuwoo3LkoJVhGXpIwoGATr74ZtKmaYPRFRM9JNLP/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-05-25+at+15.38.00.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="506" data-original-width="715" height="453" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCItBflBi-pxG_P2iKqmpG3i1iJolkq-pC1t6HP6CnlVGmR2rGQYMFbuBzR8ZKXgJ1sgY1uJnPOIreShZdzJcrYOJMU71EYuwoo3LkoJVhGXpIwoGATr74ZtKmaYPRFRM9JNLP/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-05-25+at+15.38.00.png" width="640" /></a><br />
I managed to catch the Robinia at its peak. Cascades of flowers and the scent on the air, blowing in through the bedroom window every morning, rain or shine.<br />
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Silene vulgaris, "Bladder campion" is one of my favourite wildflowers and I'm so glad it has decided to take up residence on the terrace. The mass of green in the back is the morning glories that are just poised to start leaping up for the sun.<br />
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Still having a frustrating time with the nasturtiums. Normally as easy to grow as beans, the ones I've had just refuse to sprout. Even after a good long soak only a few have come up. They flower well, though, so I think I'll get a few more packets and see if it was just getting a bad batch.<br />
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How to propagate basil. You know those basil plants you get in the supermarket? You can make them turn into dozens of plants.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Ebq6_1DNIDPVSkce8hp63xE9wrN6VfsK2Qg5cU184mCyXmVhCQFDATQJe8hTQowcawh4-fLivg_FJeAtoZbsWF3K3APr8sGfqK1BVxTp_l9IKgoPcApD_bLGhBVWLV-i1Ymj/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-05-25+at+15.42.30.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="400" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Ebq6_1DNIDPVSkce8hp63xE9wrN6VfsK2Qg5cU184mCyXmVhCQFDATQJe8hTQowcawh4-fLivg_FJeAtoZbsWF3K3APr8sGfqK1BVxTp_l9IKgoPcApD_bLGhBVWLV-i1Ymj/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-05-25+at+15.42.30.png" width="500" /></a><br />
Choose the biggest ones with the longest stems, and cut them so there's plenty of stem, stick them in a glass of water and wait. Toss the ones that don't produce roots and then plant them out when they get to about this stage.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtTshxNpek-0kKv-P53TnEZPG0FC3qwytDdJjPh3zF3c8zTuYuvvEmzIGtINFkXkbI_kdtwnvqZViBWoLPbf5HObYJ9N5zDXG4OWW2SES8gpEIkfH6GkxCWjdOZABaZ16aMdcn/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-05-25+at+15.40.16.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="701" height="489" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtTshxNpek-0kKv-P53TnEZPG0FC3qwytDdJjPh3zF3c8zTuYuvvEmzIGtINFkXkbI_kdtwnvqZViBWoLPbf5HObYJ9N5zDXG4OWW2SES8gpEIkfH6GkxCWjdOZABaZ16aMdcn/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-05-25+at+15.40.16.png" width="640" /></a><br />
Heavy on the strawbs this year.<br />
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You can also do basil from seed, of course, but it takes a very long time. I soaked these basil seeds and a great many more sprouted than did last year when I just sowed them straight into a pot on the terrace. To the right are beetroot seedlings, starting late, I hope the coolish weather lasts long enough.<br />
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First year's seed experiments still going strong.<br />
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Basil, cosmos, hollyhocks and my two beleaguered wisteria - first the snails ate them, then the cutfly ravaged their new leaves, then Pippin decided the seed tray they were in would make a good litter box. Not sure they'll make it. (Cats!)<br />
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In the big pots are a combination of self-seeded dill and in the middle, little clusters of sweet peas that are only now really getting going after our weird, cold spring.<br />
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At some point I'm going to have to break down and at least buy one of those portable mini-greenhouse things, the kind that's basically just a shelf on wheels with a clear plastic cover. Part of the battle has been the danger of late frost all through April, and the forever-to-be-cursed snails. I have no idea how they get up onto the terrace, but I've been having a snail-pogrom every week. I've had to resort to taking all the seed pots indoors every night, and putting them all back out every morning. A bit tedious.<br />
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Today's desk flowers: calendula and love-in-a-mist (Nigella sativa) with a little sprig of thyme.<br />
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Been a busy few weeks. Much to write about, but must concentrate on some writing-for-pay... back later.<br />
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<br />Hilary Jane Margaret Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03771332473693479830noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15895111.post-21196518147435277292019-05-13T15:27:00.000+02:002019-05-13T15:27:43.037+02:00Exhausting<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS4OUgbsqd6hISnqWy93VKHIS-8NKIwDnlPspnlJZH4-2dfH9b5lSPuhuQjFq3LnBUspkv4kbGworWk_X1R8AXBwY4NV98Z3kT_RNzDmmfepq43pNnutBk_knRn8abf32T6TKV/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-05-13+at+15.26.35.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS4OUgbsqd6hISnqWy93VKHIS-8NKIwDnlPspnlJZH4-2dfH9b5lSPuhuQjFq3LnBUspkv4kbGworWk_X1R8AXBwY4NV98Z3kT_RNzDmmfepq43pNnutBk_knRn8abf32T6TKV/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-05-13+at+15.26.35.png" width="573" height="640" data-original-width="417" data-original-height="466" /></a><br />
How the internet makes me feel. <br />
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~Hilary Jane Margaret Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03771332473693479830noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15895111.post-33888028233316050882019-05-12T14:35:00.003+02:002019-05-12T14:35:56.321+02:00Hail Mary, full of graceOur Lady and the Blessed and most holy Trinity, <br />
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<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WQEIT3nWe1c" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
A talk by a good old friend of mine, Fr. Eduardo Garcia of the Chicago archdiocese, one of my favourite people.<br />
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~Hilary Jane Margaret Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03771332473693479830noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15895111.post-85787321822830863972019-05-07T22:58:00.000+02:002019-05-07T23:09:18.985+02:00The book that started it allEveryone has a book that started some kind of lifelong interest. This is the one that really got me gardening: "Betty Crocker's Kitchen Gardens" by Mary Mason Campbell and with illustrations by Tasha Tudor. <br />
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I had forgotten where the mental image of exactly these illustrations came from until I was looking at a Tasha Tudor page a while back and it hit me like a weird ghostly echo of a thunderclap out of the past. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHdhw6E6mAOBPv51aRV5Ybj2iRoOSqSayhyJia-R6QAwR1jy_XISdF_zZB1QccO7F3CgwgEDCEkSNrKzh77nDnapvYuUEkZzdNWYWgbWCcIvGEbgnNjOHgHvGnV3l7ZTe-iph-/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-05-07+at+21.57.37.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="695" height="460" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHdhw6E6mAOBPv51aRV5Ybj2iRoOSqSayhyJia-R6QAwR1jy_XISdF_zZB1QccO7F3CgwgEDCEkSNrKzh77nDnapvYuUEkZzdNWYWgbWCcIvGEbgnNjOHgHvGnV3l7ZTe-iph-/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-05-07+at+21.57.37.png" width="640" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5eroj-_6unlvhMBjfbYLsFKmx5aVFwm5B7x1xvB92TikCxzUJltm80qzf-pv51xJ_hgZGjEbXn4L2iNjzFoWVVaH9HqNzi1vbgIhbnzt9KdJsTQ1eVi3hWxWkrXeLu_-VYg6P/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-05-07+at+21.57.47.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="514" data-original-width="418" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5eroj-_6unlvhMBjfbYLsFKmx5aVFwm5B7x1xvB92TikCxzUJltm80qzf-pv51xJ_hgZGjEbXn4L2iNjzFoWVVaH9HqNzi1vbgIhbnzt9KdJsTQ1eVi3hWxWkrXeLu_-VYg6P/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-05-07+at+21.57.47.png" width="520" /></a><br />
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It's funny how an image can stay in your mind for a lifetime, and how much it can go to forming your inner mental world. I must have only been a child when I first found the book in the library. It seemed almost magical to me, and in some way I don't quite understand it still does.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLQJMEP6jftK6UYJ06Hbyw4gfvYEaCQ-wgHxA2J4UxFGI0ZNULycW5KipEHA-QqrepkoFudiql8GVpQWvqRgICSUSQC2AxRDzkIw0qzxyecdtx3xJIikdtLY73slkGPOOsJnj8/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-05-07+at+21.58.03.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="531" data-original-width="447" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLQJMEP6jftK6UYJ06Hbyw4gfvYEaCQ-wgHxA2J4UxFGI0ZNULycW5KipEHA-QqrepkoFudiql8GVpQWvqRgICSUSQC2AxRDzkIw0qzxyecdtx3xJIikdtLY73slkGPOOsJnj8/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-05-07+at+21.58.03.png" width="539" /></a><br />
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Even though I must have been very young, I knew when I saw it that this is what I wanted my life to look like. This was the world I wanted to live in. And what an indescribably strange feeling it is to hold it in my hand again and see these pictures and remember how important it was to me so long ago.<br />
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Anyway, I mentioned it all to a friend, how strange it was to have these exact images come back to me, and to find them on the internet, like seeing a ghost, and he bought the book for me for my birthday. It arrived in the post today. <br />
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~<br />
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First nice sunny day in a few days of rain and wind and chilly temps. Down to 4 C last night. I usually stick my nose out the door before going to bed to see what's happening, and if the kitties want to come in, and I could see my breath on the air. Extremely odd for May in Umbria, and especially after such a strangely warm March. It's as if March and May have changed places.<br />
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So much to do at this time of year... <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOSKAkMWRuYDy0YsAD-AI_7VKVbAnGLqgN136Ig70nTms5JnF_59JRBX65mxhkYDg50R1klh2FRoG8vbt_oAdLfM8D0aGLRHM1pIUJO4tHrQlgyzk0ORT7MxjQHvBE68e3HMSP/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-05-07+at+21.58.22.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="527" data-original-width="710" height="475" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOSKAkMWRuYDy0YsAD-AI_7VKVbAnGLqgN136Ig70nTms5JnF_59JRBX65mxhkYDg50R1klh2FRoG8vbt_oAdLfM8D0aGLRHM1pIUJO4tHrQlgyzk0ORT7MxjQHvBE68e3HMSP/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-05-07+at+21.58.22.png" width="640" /></a> <br />
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Anna keeps telling me that the field poppies are just weeds, but I love them. I went out last year while they were just getting started and collected a bunch to transplant. Of course, they self-seed, and now they're all over. If you give them decent soil and enough sun they are really magnificent garden plants, though the flowers don't tolerate cutting. They just fall apart before you can even get them into a glass. But they're so beautiful. I love having masses of them all over.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji71OwM4hLhNCZpp88kltOSI7raXNXzt-pKLv7_-vrcrQMWamuOPukK5K7jtjEh2dlYAHsOgHoB9pxRyOXUEbE1SyNQuLBgoJsueHF6j8rF6pnjwJV00fMWrdwLK_sTG6llZO_/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-05-07+at+21.58.41.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="529" data-original-width="393" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji71OwM4hLhNCZpp88kltOSI7raXNXzt-pKLv7_-vrcrQMWamuOPukK5K7jtjEh2dlYAHsOgHoB9pxRyOXUEbE1SyNQuLBgoJsueHF6j8rF6pnjwJV00fMWrdwLK_sTG6llZO_/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-05-07+at+21.58.41.png" width="472" /></a></div><br />
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There's actually a big block of tufa in there that he's sitting on. It's for standing on when you need to weed the bed.<br />
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The Big Round Bed is divided into three sections with these blocks. But it all turns into a big mass. Right now I'm sinking old bathroom tiles (beautiful blue... would have been awful in the bathroom, but they're nice in the garden) to create a bit of a barrier for the lemon balm in hope it doesn't just drown everything else... or get into a big fight with the white campion.<br />
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The Big Round Bed is mostly herbs, with three kinds of thyme, lemon balm, a pot of mint, big patch of sage, calendula (wild and cultivated), some kind of wild oregano that I found in the hills and brought down from Norcia, lavender, borage, garlic, and chamomile interspersed with flowering hellebore, daffodils, gladiolus, day lilies, thrift, dianthus. And now cosmos, which I seeded last year and didn't do anything and that have now come up all over, and is just about to start. I had forgotten I even put them there and thought they were stray carrots when they started. I'm hoping to see the blue corn flowers later too and the nigella sativa that I seeded last year but only got a few of.<br />
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Gardening is one of those things you either have to resign yourself to being disorganised about, or go completely OCD and make a list. I've never in my life made a list of things to do in the garden, but the other option means things are a bit disorganised and random. Today I was going to just fill the beet bed. I have a zillion beet seeds sprouting and I desperately need to finish their bed that I started a month ago. So I revved Gertie up and loaded up the buckets and spade and whatnot, and headed out. But we got to the end of the lane to turn around, and I thought, Oh, I need to cut some more canes for the pergola, because the grape vine is already starting to go nuts... So I stopped and got out and started cutting the canes... An hour and 40 canes later...<br />
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Now too tired to dig out the soil, so I just did four buckets worth and then went and sat down in the shade, all pooped out and read the Desert Fathers. Then was all... Oh, got to go put some straw under the strawberries... so you go over to the orchard to collect up some of the dried cut grass, and on your way you see the little bag of onion sets, the leftovers from the big onion bed you were going to put around about sort of randomly, just for fun, so you grab a stick to dig some holes and...<br />
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But at least nearly all the couch grass in Annamaria's iris bed is gone. For now, anyway. That was nearly two hours. I started it because I was too tired to lift another bucket of dirt.<br />
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Anyway, by the end of the day, the beet bed is still not filled. I did get nine buckets in the bed, but need at least that again. And every day the beet sprouts get bigger and more insistent about being planted out. <br />
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It all needs doing big and little, and battling the couch grass made me feel like I was fighting Morgoth. Found out why Annamaria's calla lillies aren't blooming. Damn couch grass has drilled into the rhizomes and used them as fuel... bastards. I dug up a bunch of dead and rotting calla rhizomes with very healthy couch grass seedlings growing up through them. I really went after them. Pulled up a bunch of the terrace tiles. Dug way down...Pull! Pull!!! PUUULLLLL!!!!<br />
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And then I made a fire and burned them... ha ha HAH! Take that, you jerks! <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSNe16ah7Rv6x1Xj4VI5juY2yJAy2IBV8W3QA983ZAnOGSu1caP3mbfiBB5a9_JkCnPFKwZD27BKV5y_DDV5DbeVIemC_1AM_f7e7vizYpZTdQF613URfU7UxfRP28WJhMCzvh/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-05-07+at+21.58.57.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="528" data-original-width="397" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSNe16ah7Rv6x1Xj4VI5juY2yJAy2IBV8W3QA983ZAnOGSu1caP3mbfiBB5a9_JkCnPFKwZD27BKV5y_DDV5DbeVIemC_1AM_f7e7vizYpZTdQF613URfU7UxfRP28WJhMCzvh/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-05-07+at+21.58.57.png" width="481" /></a><br />
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It's funny how it's so hard to stop, and then even when you're tired and grubby you find you don't want to go in. I remembered there was still a bunch of year-old firewood in the shed and thought, why not. A nice fire in the evening and a little sit-down with my magic book with the bats flickering around, at least until the light goes and the Night Bell rings at Sant'Andrea.<br />
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With the bucket of couch grass runners next to my chair. Grab a few now and then...toss em on the fire. <br />
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~Hilary Jane Margaret Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03771332473693479830noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15895111.post-87237010384475866772019-05-04T20:13:00.000+02:002019-05-04T20:18:48.413+02:00He covereth the heavens with clouds and prepareth rain for the earth.Saturday, 1st Vespers of 2nd Sunday after Easter<br />
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Ps. 146<br />
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Great is our Lord, and great His power *<br />
and His wisdom is beyond measure.<br />
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He covereth the heavens with clouds,*<br />
and prepareth rain for the earth.<br />
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He maketh the grass to grow on the hills*<br />
and herbs for the service of men.<br />
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Happy Sunday.<br />
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Just a few pics from the last few days.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyJx9Yb5njgwBrDWK4qP2yWfgHO0gQZFeeY_Sb9avDIuL4_y7Nt_kL2P1rSl5jpZSGkHdWdcpEhwvV0YtPX2IMUT-M_BfVByurw94i919vrpjbgp1TU-LkPUrR5OV1Nfp7IAXD/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-05-04+at+19.56.09.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="712" height="479" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyJx9Yb5njgwBrDWK4qP2yWfgHO0gQZFeeY_Sb9avDIuL4_y7Nt_kL2P1rSl5jpZSGkHdWdcpEhwvV0YtPX2IMUT-M_BfVByurw94i919vrpjbgp1TU-LkPUrR5OV1Nfp7IAXD/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-05-04+at+19.56.09.png" width="640" /></a><br />
On the way home from the shops.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHV6EbtFRaW2CICubZzGUJei1YV5eqgk1d5Aa1qfvK6xGdiKnqMQS70Nebt8OP1ofglUW1zWemwHAvW37he6soHD9pjBmdVXxYUE5el6yEJMuOMK5AYbjtm-JENAwHBPJ5_YlA/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-05-04+at+19.56.27.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="402" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHV6EbtFRaW2CICubZzGUJei1YV5eqgk1d5Aa1qfvK6xGdiKnqMQS70Nebt8OP1ofglUW1zWemwHAvW37he6soHD9pjBmdVXxYUE5el6yEJMuOMK5AYbjtm-JENAwHBPJ5_YlA/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-05-04+at+19.56.27.png" width="480" /></a><br />
Looking up along our lane to the hamlet of San Fortunato.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij-oauI59OmbPKRv856vAUD489Lh0n9iX9TrybXCmORhbuDCvphTF7004lB4hnm7wYg4QehisXLZKczKHFIHi7r20ZtPnd6rcnhDIljEvIh-vahJEucIb3UApy3dNieDuaktwF/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-05-04+at+19.56.41.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="532" data-original-width="714" height="472" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij-oauI59OmbPKRv856vAUD489Lh0n9iX9TrybXCmORhbuDCvphTF7004lB4hnm7wYg4QehisXLZKczKHFIHi7r20ZtPnd6rcnhDIljEvIh-vahJEucIb3UApy3dNieDuaktwF/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-05-04+at+19.56.41.png" width="640" /></a></div>
Everything coming along nicely. I really do trim it all back regularly. But the next day it's back to this.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjanAaxNplnsFd7zfwKgLc3TasXYDvADxJkNnEW8MhrcdacJ-31-lR6Mn8j0pssVZ11cb-i5P2zCoXBBFCZ6u9dVetLDaA0IXLyewPJ853X6z9gWVptOu3YeNb3UWwOz7TRuWn5/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-05-04+at+19.56.52.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="532" data-original-width="399" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjanAaxNplnsFd7zfwKgLc3TasXYDvADxJkNnEW8MhrcdacJ-31-lR6Mn8j0pssVZ11cb-i5P2zCoXBBFCZ6u9dVetLDaA0IXLyewPJ853X6z9gWVptOu3YeNb3UWwOz7TRuWn5/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-05-04+at+19.56.52.png" width="478" /></a></div>
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A lot of gardening is just waiting to see what will come up. I didn't plant this. Or at least, I don't remember planting irises here. Quite a lot of the seeds I tried last year have only put out plants this year. Nature has its own ideas about things. </div>
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These beautiful bearded irises did nothing for the first two seasons, but I've been trying to make them more comfortable, mulching with compost. It seems to have worked. </div>
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Had the first two today. Not quite perfectly ripe, but the snails were already having a go. It started pouring or I'd have finished the job of collecting some dried cut grass to use as straw mulch.<br />
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California poppies. They came up from a packet of mystery-mix last year and were quite modest. This year I'm having to stake them up and be quite ruthless in cutting them back to give the strawberries enough light and space.<br />
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~Hilary Jane Margaret Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03771332473693479830noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15895111.post-36538702661435763842019-05-03T13:06:00.003+02:002019-05-03T13:17:52.447+02:00Gigantification and the Enstupidment: Why "easier" isn't better<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQmvYiC1Yn-CLMqzIiS-6oOeHT-yzvcvODh94FbUlDpeUrGvH4HN_EWE_iqgMaoQ8v68_5HL-0Fy5iA2SgUFkDNJc6_VYGGnM3gBlrETTAHpXwDmRoXq1IUbeQHjHdj1T4SX2Z/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-28+at+17.26.38.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="633" height="455" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQmvYiC1Yn-CLMqzIiS-6oOeHT-yzvcvODh94FbUlDpeUrGvH4HN_EWE_iqgMaoQ8v68_5HL-0Fy5iA2SgUFkDNJc6_VYGGnM3gBlrETTAHpXwDmRoXq1IUbeQHjHdj1T4SX2Z/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-04-28+at+17.26.38.png" width="640" /></a><br />
It's my favourite meme. Be like Grandma. My own Grandma cooked and sewed, kept a garden, painted and made pots in her own studio.<br />
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I started writing the following here and then decided it would do for the Remnant's blog. I guess it's more or less a manifesto. Get out of the city. Or at least learn to do things for yourself. Anything. Learn to change your own oil in your car. Learn to knit, or at least sew on a button. <br />
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Stop being dependent on the government or Giant-corp for every single thing in life. The government and Monsanto don't love you, don't want you to be happy, healthy or independent. <br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8ugaL6wsXME" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<blockquote>
<a href="https://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/fetzen-fliegen/item/4454-gigantification-how-we-stupidified-ourselves">The Gigantification of life,</a> the doing of everything on a massive and unimaginably distant scale, is all said to be in aid of "saving us labour." But what have we saved all this labour for? So we can live in suburbs and drive cars to go work at a desk doing something that has nothing whatever to do with our own life. So we can forget how do to anything ourselves? It may have saved us all labour but it has also left us with nothing Real to do. What are we saving our labour for? What do most of us do with the time we don't spend weeding a kitchen garden or making beer or milking cows? Have we separated ourselves from the sources of our life only so we can spend more time watching TV? Scrolling Facebook? Arguing for hours over nothing on Twitter? Are we holier? More learned? More enlightened? Do we write poetry and play music? Do we even know any poetry?</blockquote>
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<blockquote>
My landlady, Annamaria, is a contadina with deep, deep roots in this place. She has been teaching me all the contadina things. She’s taught me what time to plant what, and how the phases of the moon can guide your planting and harvesting. When and how to prune grape vines, fig, plum and pear trees. What kind of carrots you can grow in clay soil (short stubby ones). Today I wanted to clip my grass but discovered my hedge trimmers were busted. She took one look, took them into her big magical garage-of-all-things and ten minutes later handed me my trimmers back in full working order.<br />
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But it seems that since the advent of mechanised farming (mass-production of food on the huge scale you see in North America) we've straight-up forgotten the small intimate details of how to do anything. All that about soil management and all the little things that made medieval agriculture work is all gone. Who needs to think about replenishing natural soil nutrients or maintaining the substructure if you've got machines and bags of fertiliser, amirite?</blockquote>
~<br />
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There are good reasons why the referendum on abortion in Ireland went the way it did. The Yes votes all came from the cities - Dublin mostly, while the rest of the country said No. A major task of the Freemasonic take-over of the western world has been to herd people by all means fair or foul out of the countryside and small towns and villages and into the massive conurbations.<br />
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In a big city you immediately lose personal control over much of your life, you accept "services" that come from "the government" instead of doing things yourself, living within your means, being self-reliant, "making do and mending". You relinquish control over the intimate things of life while at the same time isolating yourself. You live now far away from your family and the people you grew up around. You don't know your immediate neighbours except to bang on the connecting wall between your flats when he's noisy.<br />
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Eventually every aspect of your existence comes under external control, including your interior. Your ideas no longer come from your family or your upbringing or your church but from advertising and government-controlled news. You believe what you are told, you do what the people in charge want you do do, you eat what they deign to give you, you wear what the fashion industry tells you to wear, you want the things they tell you to want. City life is slavery, and in such a complete way that the Romans would have found it shocking. Slavery of the mind, the will, the intentions, the desires.<br />
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The artificiality of Gigantified city life, its loneliness and pointlessness, the forcible wresting away of agency, the hopelessness of any thought of escape (false, btw) <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/us-children-are-facing-a-mental-health-crisis-as-suicidal-ideations-climb">is literally killing us</a>. Reject it.<br />
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You don't have to move to Umbria to escape Gigantification (though I do recommend it most emphatically). You just have to start by rejecting it interiorly. All other stages will come naturally after that. It's like repentance; reject Gigantification the way you reject Stan and all his empty promises. Stop letting Mega-Corp and Monster-Govt do everything for you. Become involved in your own life. You'll be amazed how much more fun it is.<br />
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~Hilary Jane Margaret Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03771332473693479830noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15895111.post-47281286630970859922019-05-02T11:25:00.002+02:002019-05-02T11:25:18.661+02:00Medieval whales<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4rm42Aev0_s" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
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~Hilary Jane Margaret Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03771332473693479830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15895111.post-65788689575152068532019-05-02T10:57:00.000+02:002019-05-02T11:24:45.356+02:00Urban farming nuns?<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7yqvLGXfWoVcqz0yAFozKKS6le1kSZcrZ_4B_5SFMOsuvo9j_kIgX4ZwvPiHlWNOsGR4tNOoU_soHQYEoxiRDySFHtSjuZmSIwVmWaaV5LamupeSmvo4nC0PdsGciQZyyg7XS/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-05-02+at+10.56.09.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7yqvLGXfWoVcqz0yAFozKKS6le1kSZcrZ_4B_5SFMOsuvo9j_kIgX4ZwvPiHlWNOsGR4tNOoU_soHQYEoxiRDySFHtSjuZmSIwVmWaaV5LamupeSmvo4nC0PdsGciQZyyg7XS/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-05-02+at+10.56.09.png" width="640" height="400" data-original-width="731" data-original-height="457" /></a><br />
If I were in a missionary/active religious order I'd have the working part of it be urban farming in places like this. <br />
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<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/T-vyjyK6_kg" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
I thought at first it was Detroit. But Kansas City? Holy moly!<br />
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Our entire modern experiment in urban life has gone off the rails and the people at the bottom of the social heap are living worse than animals. "Men beat each over who gets first run at the garbage dumpster." Good Lord! They're being literally dehumanised by the post-civilisation they were born into. <br />
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The urban farming movement can save us, in the material sense. But what about the eternal, supernatural sense? All it needs is some praying people, a daily Mass offered early in the morning before work starts. Imagine this with habited nuns doing the work. Imagine all this turned into an opportunity to show people the love of God, the love of Christ, directly and explicitly. Offering catechism and confirmation classes to the kids who wanted it. Stopping work at lunchtime with a bell and the Angelus, dedicating an urban farm to Our Lady and St. Isidore. <br />
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~Hilary Jane Margaret Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03771332473693479830noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15895111.post-13828793131857851312019-04-29T11:54:00.000+02:002019-04-29T12:10:10.710+02:00Spot the differenceHow gardening makes me look:<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtYwjhRvyLymSERMwuoGnAsAc2Y3Crhpoga4xsWg96dPEI3BWYkYiBumgUWIBB4OY3gFtfKdiRopbMkDEohhwMCANSgcjkx2fh7NBYcd__dFswN2c41MBvUcPntzQGKLswK-nF/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-29+at+10.38.46.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="371" data-original-width="498" height="473" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtYwjhRvyLymSERMwuoGnAsAc2Y3Crhpoga4xsWg96dPEI3BWYkYiBumgUWIBB4OY3gFtfKdiRopbMkDEohhwMCANSgcjkx2fh7NBYcd__dFswN2c41MBvUcPntzQGKLswK-nF/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-04-29+at+10.38.46.png" width="640" /></a><br />
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How gardening makes me feel:<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0sxRDNdKERa1ycaLQqwihpHgfPxLazx_LgpyXForDrzYrxTeRj7y99YUGa55UCeDFEAwAmk6zq8mmVBXQxxlu3pcT7HNg0V8mx1xUosBDFEZl2PqiTUSsRfcfM_3W0-jOCgui/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-29+at+10.12.19.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="511" data-original-width="393" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0sxRDNdKERa1ycaLQqwihpHgfPxLazx_LgpyXForDrzYrxTeRj7y99YUGa55UCeDFEAwAmk6zq8mmVBXQxxlu3pcT7HNg0V8mx1xUosBDFEZl2PqiTUSsRfcfM_3W0-jOCgui/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-04-29+at+10.12.19.png" width="492" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGCy-ZAYMLS81iIfw3XfZ_HBkyqstwlcbUwpJBY15phT8DGRQK3g0H-yIjtoa8R2zJAJoUkxhAbgNEaL-upmz861Vm03YFYoOko_0v1xkATsehNyvkSwXATyHtgcLMhTe3s45g/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-29+at+11.22.37.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="488" data-original-width="912" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGCy-ZAYMLS81iIfw3XfZ_HBkyqstwlcbUwpJBY15phT8DGRQK3g0H-yIjtoa8R2zJAJoUkxhAbgNEaL-upmz861Vm03YFYoOko_0v1xkATsehNyvkSwXATyHtgcLMhTe3s45g/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-04-29+at+11.22.37.png" width="640" /></a><br />
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<br />
What gardening does to my brain:<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LML6SoNE7xE" width="560"></iframe><br />
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What gardening does to my soul:<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/22kCLvXeYoI" width="560"></iframe><br />
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How I feel when I have to write:<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu9g0G2_BPgtLI9y5NK0qt0PbtLDHgke0sQ6ydYFumYuZxJVFw5tQi065OBx85_6NG48lTFtWJx67Z6iJyezwG49nPkz9HAORgdIfxszX9F8j81V9HNmMQtWAMNlwGVXRuiIDH/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-29+at+12.08.31.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="334" data-original-width="590" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu9g0G2_BPgtLI9y5NK0qt0PbtLDHgke0sQ6ydYFumYuZxJVFw5tQi065OBx85_6NG48lTFtWJx67Z6iJyezwG49nPkz9HAORgdIfxszX9F8j81V9HNmMQtWAMNlwGVXRuiIDH/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-04-29+at+12.08.31.png" width="640" /></a><br />
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My face when I'm writing:<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvwVPdtYmDSPl1XmcV7GbAZC0LleVci7KZzUadiG2kox57FpicenhbcZVsKmWqfppcitCDSax6c_yAfpJi73MuTi29vLx51lcsY8i1JSF9z92sBal3jjWiuibACi_xHDJUQKho/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-29+at+12.01.24.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="397" data-original-width="808" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvwVPdtYmDSPl1XmcV7GbAZC0LleVci7KZzUadiG2kox57FpicenhbcZVsKmWqfppcitCDSax6c_yAfpJi73MuTi29vLx51lcsY8i1JSF9z92sBal3jjWiuibACi_xHDJUQKho/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-04-29+at+12.01.24.png" width="640" /></a><br />
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How I feel when I'm blogging about "The Crisis":<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSkNYwFksgrlwMOHKRsPi6zTRaAqygaoTFkWq22KR5Oe7rKhmS7uOiWpmNyfRvrgpHpEOiYkDtu0y-yL3bidxbaW3tErEIjvUXiTL2CjSqG0rJ-seFFpH7KeoMkOjKJbFYFATJ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-29+at+11.41.17.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="404" data-original-width="795" height="325" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSkNYwFksgrlwMOHKRsPi6zTRaAqygaoTFkWq22KR5Oe7rKhmS7uOiWpmNyfRvrgpHpEOiYkDtu0y-yL3bidxbaW3tErEIjvUXiTL2CjSqG0rJ-seFFpH7KeoMkOjKJbFYFATJ/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-04-29+at+11.41.17.png" width="640" /></a><br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5S6VzrQt4Eg" width="560"></iframe><br />
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What blogging about "The Crisis" does to my soul:<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTSPopRUjqBsflifLcDMIhsHE3c6sNS-VgSYJ2v8Axs6k964eyje5itkD0GihYtGWBhBIqDJn5-sTSMesvCSv5ZuysuPNwlSmQUcjalNH3PomLyWPgepant_FqIQUGsl8nShIU/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-29+at+11.31.14.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="537" data-original-width="794" height="433" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTSPopRUjqBsflifLcDMIhsHE3c6sNS-VgSYJ2v8Axs6k964eyje5itkD0GihYtGWBhBIqDJn5-sTSMesvCSv5ZuysuPNwlSmQUcjalNH3PomLyWPgepant_FqIQUGsl8nShIU/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-04-29+at+11.31.14.png" width="640" /></a><br />
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What blogging about art and gardening does to my soul:<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb_f5ON9gZV_O2mVSiQD72XI-PvTxlzw54gGhZKaQd6qdKgPr4LMVldmrg7wF2DW6el5VFjAjim_VT-sr24cp9DrhshBXWdoABu8G5W9KKAz_hqR6BaUYHWGxZEU0AOoQmRW_h/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-29+at+11.45.15.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="444" data-original-width="385" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb_f5ON9gZV_O2mVSiQD72XI-PvTxlzw54gGhZKaQd6qdKgPr4LMVldmrg7wF2DW6el5VFjAjim_VT-sr24cp9DrhshBXWdoABu8G5W9KKAz_hqR6BaUYHWGxZEU0AOoQmRW_h/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-04-29+at+11.45.15.png" width="555" /></a><br />
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Pretty much a no-brainer.<br />
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~Hilary Jane Margaret Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03771332473693479830noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15895111.post-2026131160540690452019-04-27T12:16:00.002+02:002019-04-27T14:35:44.447+02:00Egg tempera is the painting medium of the saints; oil is for profane modernsWell, a whole week away in Rome and Santa Marinella! The glorious liturgy of the Church for Triduum, including the pre-1955 Good Friday (four hours that flew past!), Easter feasting and evenings with friends. It's more excitement than I'm used to, that's for sure. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR_ztDkKRE3JzVLz7WqbvHq2vCjfCkJpwU_KM4htydSbNf5Ur6r7DHZPqy957yrljddGDguHMKlECrM6tcDT-_IhF3PTKSaDeOT9HCapy-7qP-3oUfCwx3bwo2dv8qyOVAsssL/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-27+at+12.02.22.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="528" data-original-width="710" height="472" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR_ztDkKRE3JzVLz7WqbvHq2vCjfCkJpwU_KM4htydSbNf5Ur6r7DHZPqy957yrljddGDguHMKlECrM6tcDT-_IhF3PTKSaDeOT9HCapy-7qP-3oUfCwx3bwo2dv8qyOVAsssL/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-04-27+at+12.02.22.png" width="640" /></a><br />
Bertie is certainly glad I've brought the Lap home with me.<br />
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<h3>
Getting started on a New Thing</h3>
But one big practical reason to go to the City from time to time is the presence of the art supply store that sells ALL THE THINGS! <br />
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<a href="http://www.poggi1825.it/">Poggi on the Viale Trastevere</a>, I learned, has all the things needed to do classical, original-materials egg tempera painting. Right down to the fancy-schmancy <a href="http://www.restaurarconservar.com/Manetti-Agate-Burnisher-No-10-Manetti">agate burnishers</a> and stamping tools, Armenian bole and all manner of arcane sizing and finishing potions for gilding and to decorate the gold. I'm not quite at that stage yet, being determined not to bite off more than I can chew with this learning curve. Strictly going one step at a time.<br />
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But I did take one pretty significant step forward. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtBkRPljB12BUTSkJd2XKN981oCsJPDq4-O1VB9pQzE03nZb_SQfdG7rK1913asRLbMswvpGIGBZxFaPvtqxzrV3nEfZ2zd7n2JO5UxL7H9g3QkGY2NIb_GKnHI0jVF1Aj47ka/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-27+at+10.48.59.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="507" data-original-width="407" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtBkRPljB12BUTSkJd2XKN981oCsJPDq4-O1VB9pQzE03nZb_SQfdG7rK1913asRLbMswvpGIGBZxFaPvtqxzrV3nEfZ2zd7n2JO5UxL7H9g3QkGY2NIb_GKnHI0jVF1Aj47ka/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-04-27+at+10.48.59.png" width="514" /></a><br />
No more commercial acrylic gesso for me!<br />
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Pictured, left to right, are about 400 g of rabbit skin glue granules, 1 kg of "polvere di marmo" - Carrara marble dust - that has a completely different texture from the regular Bologna gypsum - and a jar of ready-made True Gesso (that I'm not too sure about). The marble dust has the highest recommendations from the experts who are doing all the research re-constructing this medium. The difference is quite pronounced; marble has a texture like extremely fine sand or even fine-granule sugar or salt, while the gypsum is more like the chalk dust that used to collect at the base of the classroom blackboard.<br />
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Egg tempera painters call the rabbit-skin-glue-marble-dust/gypsum kind, "True Gesso" (always capitalised) to distinguish it from commercial acrylic gesso. The difference is rather like the difference between egg tempera painting and oil painting in general. Acrylic gesso is Novusordo gesso, a profane, modernist outgrowth of Protestant gesso.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1xHJ90Gx4B8" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/T47B0WSPSj8" width="560"></iframe><br />
It's a bit of palaver to make and apply, but I think that really just adds the value of authenticity to the work. And there's nothing more fun than learning something ancient and arcane.<br />
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Lost arts are the best arts. <br />
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<h3>
How the Protestant/Secular revolution <i>really</i> happened...</h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj564kTfY2wI2ifjVN6NkAJFoBV1Q4DY7CLq9PNh7gVQWVtTMziZuBaqpgcAWYnBVcxpSxhBxGauX3mtC3JeaZaNc7qPP0G27vyFIAjpGojesNnApDzCtoNCO2__WKI62hN-mJC/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-27+at+11.14.51.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="491" data-original-width="349" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj564kTfY2wI2ifjVN6NkAJFoBV1Q4DY7CLq9PNh7gVQWVtTMziZuBaqpgcAWYnBVcxpSxhBxGauX3mtC3JeaZaNc7qPP0G27vyFIAjpGojesNnApDzCtoNCO2__WKI62hN-mJC/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-04-27+at+11.14.51.png" width="455" /></a><br />
Koo Schadler, the recognised queen of traditional egg tempera research and technique - <a href="https://www.kooschadler.com/thebook.htm">whose book</a> a kind benefactor bought for me recently - says something quite profound about the transition in the art of Christendom in the early 1400s...<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TcPOdQc-sSU" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
In one of her articles on her website, "<a href="https://www.kooschadler.com/techniques/history-egg-tempera.pdf">History of Egg Tempera Painting</a>" she notes that the transition from egg tempera to oils was one of the things that changed our civilisation from a Christian to a profane or "secular" one.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Greater realism suited the less spiritually oriented, more scientific and humanistic culture of the Renaissance."</blockquote>
<br />
It wasn't merely the usual story we all know - that society was changing from other factors, that humanism was being born in Europe through the influence of ancient texts newly re-discovered at the Spanish Reconquista. It was the influence of northern European painters, using oils, producing artworks of a completely different - profane - nature brought down to Italy.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Northern European painters were not as immersed in an egg tempera tradition, and their guilds were not as beholden to a particular school or working method. Northern Europe also had a history of an early form of oil painting behind it [Byzantine/Christian Greek]. <b>Thus it was in the north that more experimental materials and methods began to develop. </b>In his book on the lives of famous painters, the 16th c. historian Giorgio Vasari credits Flemish painter Jan Van Eyck with single-handedly creating the revolutionary technique of oil painting. In actuality the use of drying oils in easel painting can be traced back to a long and gradual development. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Oils were used in decorative painting and as protective coatings throughout the middle ages, probably earlier. These early oils were generally dark, thick, and not well suited to easel painting. But by the 1400s texts began to appear that described how to refine <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drying_oil">drying oils</a> to make them lighter in tone, faster drying and have better working properties. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"A commercial renaissance was taking place throughout Europe and with it came the distribution of the new materials, methods, and the paintings that resulted. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
By the late 1300s to early 1400s, northern European painters were working partly or entirely in oil.1 Slow drying oil paints blend more readily than fast drying, linear tempera. This makes it easier in oil to paint smooth transitions and three-dimensional forms. Because of its higher refractive index, oil is capable of darker shadows than can be achieved in tempera. Whereas tempera must be applied in thin layers, oil can be applied thickly (impasto), <b>which contributes opacity to lights and highlights and makes them “pop”</b>. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"In other words, <b>oil is better suited to creating natural light effects, atmosphere and more realistic imagery in general</b>. <b><i>Greater realism suited the less spiritually oriented, more scientific and humanistic culture of the Renaissance." </i></b></blockquote>
...<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
- Panel paintings prior to 1400 are most likely pure egg tempera. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
- Panel paintings from 1400 to 1500 can be either pure egg tempera, or a combination of tempera and oil, or pure oil. The later in the 1400s the work was painted, the more likely it is oil (although not necessarily). More linear brushwork indicates egg tempera; more smoothly blended, atmospheric work indicates tempera grassa or oil. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
- By the early 1500s nearly all panel paintings were executed in oil (with the exception of icons). </blockquote>
<br />
I blame William of Occam for this too.<br />
<br />
It really does explain a lot, particularly about why the northern Renaissance art of more or less the same period as the Italian art has such a markedly different tone or "feel". The subject matter is still broadly the same, since it is mostly the still-intact European Catholic Church doing the commissioning. But the northern painting of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_van_Eyck">Jan van Eyck</a> (c. 1390 – 9 July 1441) is already of a completely different nature - and obviously a completely different purpose - from that of Fra Angelico whose dates, 1395 – 1455, are about the same. And it's pretty significant, I think, that Fra Angelico has been beatified by the Church where his contemporaries, often much more famous and lauded to us moderns as "innovators," and later Italian painters like Leonardo and Raphael, are not.<br />
<br />
It all rather hearkens back to <a href="https://anglocath.blogspot.com/2018/10/ideal-proportions-as-symbol-of.html">what I was saying before</a> about why modern "sacred art" - even when done by consciously devout modern Catholics for authentically Catholic reasons - fails in ways that we modern people have a hard time understanding clearly.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSs3m-39NC5j95gchMldjnbHJGuk9_dA9YcP4aDX908nB7WiUbggbO7ypErnT-5tJWdFlJrVbSZpF4V-Ea-MsaeXt7RKtBUSF3v60WvshrEcEOi4YeOGf2CzGcLYBXA6JdCOOm/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-25+at+11.37.09.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="605" data-original-width="451" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSs3m-39NC5j95gchMldjnbHJGuk9_dA9YcP4aDX908nB7WiUbggbO7ypErnT-5tJWdFlJrVbSZpF4V-Ea-MsaeXt7RKtBUSF3v60WvshrEcEOi4YeOGf2CzGcLYBXA6JdCOOm/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-04-25+at+11.37.09.png" width="477" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"This is why these modern "sacred art" paintings that try to "humanise" sacred persons using modern visual standards fail as sacred art. This is a function of Modernism, both in its artistic and theological expressions; the urge to de-sacralise the subject by naturalising it. But naturalistic visual language has become so ubiquitous - the photograph is now the only visual standard - that modern viewers of sacred art, while they may be aware that these works fail to do what they're advertised to do, fail to do what the art of Fra Angelico did, they often do not understand why."</blockquote>
...<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The point with sacred art is not to depict the subject - the Virgin Mary or an angel, for instance - as looking like a particular person,<b><i> but to depict a completely different order of reality, one that "eye has not seen..." and which cannot ever be fully grasped by the human mind in this life.</i></b></blockquote>
<br />
<br />
These details of paintings by the great transitional (late Gothic/early Renaissnce) sacred painter, Duccio Buoninsegna, (c.1255/1260 – c. 1318/1319) clearly show the development of Italian sacred art from its Byzantine roots. All the "canons" of proportion and form are present. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLaunE353MLj3oZ1_wcflr8345j5RQmO28gfSvwxwcbwr5Zmln1XAvIRA54NohJG3S1MTBEPTkpGbq8OTGj1QTN7rfhghPHsdFkgAd-DhcENDkSrvwYKv-zzl0myYt7nAf4h9s/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-27+at+11.53.31.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="596" data-original-width="535" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLaunE353MLj3oZ1_wcflr8345j5RQmO28gfSvwxwcbwr5Zmln1XAvIRA54NohJG3S1MTBEPTkpGbq8OTGj1QTN7rfhghPHsdFkgAd-DhcENDkSrvwYKv-zzl0myYt7nAf4h9s/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-04-27+at+11.53.31.png" width="570" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM_29LOBcWYZxNRpUsRzbt99BZNXmc57cMeFuPGczRh-WjtCQxUJusFSRx0jXPwgDY5SbLuWc6FsHamEtUtNOhm8VPBfS12PBziipdnAa01sTYC10x_ANW8L7rc_TwEZ3EVV8N/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-27+at+11.54.03.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="604" data-original-width="520" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM_29LOBcWYZxNRpUsRzbt99BZNXmc57cMeFuPGczRh-WjtCQxUJusFSRx0jXPwgDY5SbLuWc6FsHamEtUtNOhm8VPBfS12PBziipdnAa01sTYC10x_ANW8L7rc_TwEZ3EVV8N/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-04-27+at+11.54.03.png" width="550" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitDnArLsvxrTk1HLl1meFrsrJ34eTF5yKHTFrYAFspcmiGpDhf2x9qoNtuALgHQL3pT67xCB_0gQCfTWmTCC7oXp5oScHBoyFdXKsM-5wJVjH7LUI1GvQfzo4mkwfh1JzLSWK_/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-27+at+11.54.23.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="603" data-original-width="531" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitDnArLsvxrTk1HLl1meFrsrJ34eTF5yKHTFrYAFspcmiGpDhf2x9qoNtuALgHQL3pT67xCB_0gQCfTWmTCC7oXp5oScHBoyFdXKsM-5wJVjH7LUI1GvQfzo4mkwfh1JzLSWK_/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-04-27+at+11.54.23.png" width="562" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiZlTljMT2AVpKNGplJVNWH3Ig-Du-FWGkbQBYN2K-2cggFezEBft_o3J4gIicQastkx6827uE-BaqD27KQ129EFUVhQdN9MSXToLQwSNa2yH9rscqLq9vAa5yNRAoj_A8YBzz/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-27+at+11.55.00.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="607" data-original-width="538" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiZlTljMT2AVpKNGplJVNWH3Ig-Du-FWGkbQBYN2K-2cggFezEBft_o3J4gIicQastkx6827uE-BaqD27KQ129EFUVhQdN9MSXToLQwSNa2yH9rscqLq9vAa5yNRAoj_A8YBzz/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-04-27+at+11.55.00.png" width="566" /></a></div>
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<br />
It is hard not to recall reading this article by Koo Schadler that the Protestant Revolution, that protocatastrophe that led us into all this modern misery, didn't start in notoriously secular and materially wealthy Florence.<br />
<br />
~<br />
<br />
<h3>
<b>It is good to be home</b></h3>
<br />
And there's lots to do. Going away for a week at the very moment the spring is making everything spring leaves you with lots and lots of work.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI0WKSNQ4_ANIZM3dJ6xg6i_iIQphslUAsSDy3Xvl-Omh5gzaOV3hkZzgQTKMmfaqT_ZdqBvVYCE2YfLDe_JREOmrmktxERBMKyjarcyrscqKwI5vw6vdRD-LQTxn1mr2KBasn/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-27+at+12.16.07.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="537" data-original-width="723" height="470" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI0WKSNQ4_ANIZM3dJ6xg6i_iIQphslUAsSDy3Xvl-Omh5gzaOV3hkZzgQTKMmfaqT_ZdqBvVYCE2YfLDe_JREOmrmktxERBMKyjarcyrscqKwI5vw6vdRD-LQTxn1mr2KBasn/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-04-27+at+12.16.07.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Beds to finish filling, things to turn over, cantaloupe, hollyhock, nasturtium and squash seedlings to plant out...</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXTGjaAcV-dNeOO-nrPCDzkJSznlSBJiFueKhtYsHiRkn2UO23cwg-ybEVcf_NdtA9VumYQV24QRZSIIb5zP65Bn5f06CK3ivf4DSzZNG7T2OacY_fhdXnaMBvOwIntDcpVCWZ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-27+at+12.16.46.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="542" data-original-width="724" height="474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXTGjaAcV-dNeOO-nrPCDzkJSznlSBJiFueKhtYsHiRkn2UO23cwg-ybEVcf_NdtA9VumYQV24QRZSIIb5zP65Bn5f06CK3ivf4DSzZNG7T2OacY_fhdXnaMBvOwIntDcpVCWZ/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-04-27+at+12.16.46.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Home is best.<br />
<br />
Now the question is, "Do I let him stay on the worktable while I'm gessoing and painting?"<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC7AlgbADKkB3dVLge6TwGt-TBzXNOYNowlHCavXzureUxdB2BIT7ytMnW00dvGpY90zuYgSdE1ugpcb6XKRYCicFv4UxJkZQk6IBlHH-xvO4L6f2_AKxF0-OY7RXm82nMGIU0/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-27+at+14.31.23.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="538" data-original-width="726" height="474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC7AlgbADKkB3dVLge6TwGt-TBzXNOYNowlHCavXzureUxdB2BIT7ytMnW00dvGpY90zuYgSdE1ugpcb6XKRYCicFv4UxJkZQk6IBlHH-xvO4L6f2_AKxF0-OY7RXm82nMGIU0/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-04-27+at+14.31.23.png" width="640" /></a><br />
<br />
On the one hand, Bertie has only just established this as his Spot. Poor chap has been a bit displaced while the other two are more assertive. But cat hair in the paint...<br />
<br />
<br />
UPDATE:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi93MUBPFxzy0j3DdZSiEZIXut9cU2XGabh0x-I0sju93AHR2D9O1akSpT43BIW4DNWV9r5FvFApo7CtBukjSJWJ8y-PcHN6qANBS7JywsD-pfIACaaJZsTqyJ3Vp7KSWoEDcIq/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-27+at+14.37.43.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="542" data-original-width="408" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi93MUBPFxzy0j3DdZSiEZIXut9cU2XGabh0x-I0sju93AHR2D9O1akSpT43BIW4DNWV9r5FvFApo7CtBukjSJWJ8y-PcHN6qANBS7JywsD-pfIACaaJZsTqyJ3Vp7KSWoEDcIq/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-04-27+at+14.37.43.png" width="481" /></a><br />
I should have known. Poor old Bertram just can't catch a break. <br />
<br />
<br />
~Hilary Jane Margaret Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03771332473693479830noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15895111.post-1594144630344679072019-04-21T17:32:00.003+02:002019-04-21T17:43:33.468+02:00Cristus surrexit vere, sicut dixit! Alleluia!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQFbGKTxdnmA9KMY7fKSM840gdrC2X20RNEyZP4aUdMTKQ1gkkCXBnr8_a2tXNZyFf1PWImxyCn9ei-4LaHIDrgTgeiDnNiTmzcJM2atDftJvTNTJSW156f4UFXsjXOUbIxqSf/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-21+at+17.03.29.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="462" data-original-width="821" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQFbGKTxdnmA9KMY7fKSM840gdrC2X20RNEyZP4aUdMTKQ1gkkCXBnr8_a2tXNZyFf1PWImxyCn9ei-4LaHIDrgTgeiDnNiTmzcJM2atDftJvTNTJSW156f4UFXsjXOUbIxqSf/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-21+at+17.03.29.png" /></a><br />
<br />
Mark 16:1-7<br />
At that time, Mary Magdalen, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought sweet spices, that coming they might anoint Jesus. And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came to the sepulchre, the sun being now risen. And they said one to another: Who shall roll us back the stone from the door of the sepulchre? And looking, they saw the stone rolled back. For it was very great. And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed with a white robe, and they were astonished. Who saith to them, Be not affrighted; ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified: He is risen, He is not here; behold the place where they laid Him. But go, tell His disciples, and Peter, that He goeth before you into Galilee; there you shall see Him, as He told you.<br />
<br />
Cristus surrexit vere, sicut dixit! Alleluia!<br />
<br />
<br />
~<br />
<br />
Down in Rome for a few days.<br />
<br />
Here's some pics of adventures so far.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIkTcLCXbco8y0jJf_1Ke8nRqiriT73alTZ76ypo_H3_a5LQyTnTvf4MNE2pIZdXSirUjn5tcdHyvFSlHT0fSWt1z3biKg0nuoGW7v84D5vubhhjrLf6g9ymKqNCJldIR4kU_a/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-21+at+17.25.35.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="409" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIkTcLCXbco8y0jJf_1Ke8nRqiriT73alTZ76ypo_H3_a5LQyTnTvf4MNE2pIZdXSirUjn5tcdHyvFSlHT0fSWt1z3biKg0nuoGW7v84D5vubhhjrLf6g9ymKqNCJldIR4kU_a/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-04-21+at+17.25.35.png" width="488" /></a></div>
A feast for Easter morning. Staying with friends who have four little kids and it was a delight to see them searching the house for chocolate eggs and rabbits.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfXpYvp6-l8DcvUFoiKKVuxiu7r1O1DA8foLGWB5F_HDhkKB0-snMXMoqhYx8VVHdXH151IeyGpjaKRes0Ntk-G0Gn_FEKGh0vqivcjAJniIUdCbjR3xuXQn-X370RhJqdeZvg/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-21+at+16.48.35.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="406" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfXpYvp6-l8DcvUFoiKKVuxiu7r1O1DA8foLGWB5F_HDhkKB0-snMXMoqhYx8VVHdXH151IeyGpjaKRes0Ntk-G0Gn_FEKGh0vqivcjAJniIUdCbjR3xuXQn-X370RhJqdeZvg/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-04-21+at+16.48.35.png" width="481" /></a><br />
This Roman gentleman was getting the tram toward the centro this morning as I was off to the Mass. He'd just been to Porta Portese market, (every Sunday, Easter or not) and bought this beautiful book and allowed me to take a picture of it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVu6Ri3CByuR-xjoUmEl3mOrF1FaFTGz7AWdxSTX4-dLmfblI7Q7_JWfNcQdQHccM9uB8P6jOuiPHqSl3i8dsrGQSO99ipuXntWaOwEJl0XGYHRyzM6sQKb4bT-E2Udsv7y38t/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-21+at+16.48.51.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="406" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVu6Ri3CByuR-xjoUmEl3mOrF1FaFTGz7AWdxSTX4-dLmfblI7Q7_JWfNcQdQHccM9uB8P6jOuiPHqSl3i8dsrGQSO99ipuXntWaOwEJl0XGYHRyzM6sQKb4bT-E2Udsv7y38t/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-04-21+at+16.48.51.png" width="481" /></a><br />
The Divine Office for Holy Week, published in Venice MDCCXC, which is 1790.<br />
He told me he'd got it for 30 Euros. I said it was a great treasure.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5paKCku2ix_TFTRQ_BFZHK7LepfV5z5bj8NgNSGsomGQk1XX015Rtw50vayiIOl1XySNN_Pj5yg5vcyy0s2jHxr53JhYhO-aIE3Vg4Wc8dn2axQm_0tYzDWpqbApxFXPal8GP/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-21+at+16.49.12.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="543" data-original-width="407" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5paKCku2ix_TFTRQ_BFZHK7LepfV5z5bj8NgNSGsomGQk1XX015Rtw50vayiIOl1XySNN_Pj5yg5vcyy0s2jHxr53JhYhO-aIE3Vg4Wc8dn2axQm_0tYzDWpqbApxFXPal8GP/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-04-21+at+16.49.12.png" width="480" /></a><br />
I pulled my missal out of my bag and said I was going to the Old Mass, in Latin. He seemed surprised and said, "But you are so young!"<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwNoSDSv_DMfsC5jMCnydJfv8zQ6V20fC2ZXKXc0bqLYFUlkBQFEUB_5Ky_E7ToL32omD4TWF-wfbWAfKnp-d1M424fi2tjBnGY8CBcUPkicUcqxIZO8ujqt72CnALdei8pr5I/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-21+at+17.14.54.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="404" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwNoSDSv_DMfsC5jMCnydJfv8zQ6V20fC2ZXKXc0bqLYFUlkBQFEUB_5Ky_E7ToL32omD4TWF-wfbWAfKnp-d1M424fi2tjBnGY8CBcUPkicUcqxIZO8ujqt72CnALdei8pr5I/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-04-21+at+17.14.54.png" width="484" /></a></div>
One of the side chapels at Santissima Trinita dei Pellegrini, the FSSP parish in Rome, has one of the very few contemporary paintings of St. Philp Neri as a young man. Here he is shown welcoming sick pilgrims and the poor in the hospital he founded for their care - which is where the church gets its name: "dei Pellegrini" means "for the pilgrims". The chaps in the painting wearing red robes with white collars are members of the confraternity who were entrusted with the care of the convalescent poor. This confraternity has recently been revived at the parish and is now flourishing with new members. They perform many spiritual and practical functions.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAyf1z0Blc18Oi34BqbIsWmAxrCvJUjRtZhRDJ31yQFPCkl2OpbKjd5zvQ6DD71vzVB2qcCm3s7-c6Me_N1HUwXph_roRDY5ddKMeV9UN40AA6Zc0QRcmIpt63xdZ3YdJXtFCH/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-21+at+17.34.36.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="519" data-original-width="741" height="446" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAyf1z0Blc18Oi34BqbIsWmAxrCvJUjRtZhRDJ31yQFPCkl2OpbKjd5zvQ6DD71vzVB2qcCm3s7-c6Me_N1HUwXph_roRDY5ddKMeV9UN40AA6Zc0QRcmIpt63xdZ3YdJXtFCH/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-04-21+at+17.34.36.png" width="640" /></a></div>
St. Philip, the poor sick pilgrims and the confraternity as they are shown in the sacristy.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzODg9arBxuguCsQruiu4PmqcTWWMIVmTdWwpMP1jSGzd0CPy3pF4SLoIH25dTMOGB3wF13p_XRNntrEE0JdUrj7PMq2pJ0mPihqtveUbGxxmeJq-S0VVnkuULaNuvebqitH2f/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-21+at+17.23.25.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="517" data-original-width="381" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzODg9arBxuguCsQruiu4PmqcTWWMIVmTdWwpMP1jSGzd0CPy3pF4SLoIH25dTMOGB3wF13p_XRNntrEE0JdUrj7PMq2pJ0mPihqtveUbGxxmeJq-S0VVnkuULaNuvebqitH2f/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-04-21+at+17.23.25.png" width="470" /></a></div>
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This little shrine to Our Lady was recently refurbished, and there was a queue of people waiting to pray here this morning, an encouraging sight.<br />
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Baroque art and architecture is meant to fool the eye, to make you think it looks smaller than it is. It is difficult to get an idea of the scale of that painting - the great masterwork of Guido Reni - but it might help to know that when new candles are put in the big gold candlesticks above the main altar, the whole thing reaches about 13 feet.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq8DhLYq1152hz8newW_lw_zrJhvFlqVXWlZZ0eSFghtOKfk3bQK8MAdLhMc2aBH3-ZDSAg0KrT0z74Wz8io5M79_EmSxbi-4gwjm36ZVRoWuwIghwVzdGqYd3MC3Abz_wP_l_/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-21+at+17.30.23.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="539" data-original-width="717" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq8DhLYq1152hz8newW_lw_zrJhvFlqVXWlZZ0eSFghtOKfk3bQK8MAdLhMc2aBH3-ZDSAg0KrT0z74Wz8io5M79_EmSxbi-4gwjm36ZVRoWuwIghwVzdGqYd3MC3Abz_wP_l_/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-04-21+at+17.30.23.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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At Easter the parish pulls out all their precious Baroque portrait reliquaries. All those gold busts are gilded wood portraits of the saints whose relics are inside.<br />
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What Catholicism looks like.<br />
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~Hilary Jane Margaret Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03771332473693479830noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15895111.post-41790949349501178172019-04-19T23:08:00.001+02:002019-04-19T23:08:08.935+02:00My people, what have I done to thee, or in what have I grieved thee? Answer me.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvPxVB-JgoGXM5kt7F3a4-5vGsxJqb6NvFfEgS-gZrifAbxWWmEnxAs0YAl47xX0rcSFwDGubzyDOm2P0Fwrx5iO0-GXMPjqg5jfe9o7Tr9gg2_W_FRHizH7Lrgo6_h_2gfHVl/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-19+at+22.57.32.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="527" data-original-width="712" height="474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvPxVB-JgoGXM5kt7F3a4-5vGsxJqb6NvFfEgS-gZrifAbxWWmEnxAs0YAl47xX0rcSFwDGubzyDOm2P0Fwrx5iO0-GXMPjqg5jfe9o7Tr9gg2_W_FRHizH7Lrgo6_h_2gfHVl/s640/Screen+Shot+2019-04-19+at+22.57.32.png" width="640" /></a><br />
Sepulchre tonight, Santissima Trinita dei Pellegrini, Rome.<br />
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My people, what have I done to thee, or in what have I grieved thee? Answer me. <br />
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Because I brought thee out of the land of Egypt, thou hast prepared a cross for thy Saviour.<br />
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Because I led thee through the desert forty years: and fed thee with manna, and brought thee into a land exceedingly good, thou hast prepared a cross for thy Saviour.<br />
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Hilary Jane Margaret Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03771332473693479830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15895111.post-72834388864269633372019-04-17T11:59:00.003+02:002019-04-17T11:59:57.739+02:00Going places<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0jHsq36_NTU" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
Holy moly!!!<br />
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~Hilary Jane Margaret Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03771332473693479830noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15895111.post-67544980838408903082019-04-16T16:15:00.002+02:002019-04-16T16:42:04.601+02:00Worms<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/W2SBhu0303k" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
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One of the major challenges of gardening in Italy is the super-duper heavy clay soil. In the mountains the problem is pretty much no-soil; most farms up there look like they're growing rocks. But down here in the Tiber valley the soil is really deep. I've dug down to try to find the substrate but it's impossible with just a spade. We are in the flood plain of the Tiber river and the soil is really just silt. It's very good for growing, and has all manner of mineral nutrients, but though it's easy to work in the spring when there has been a lot of rain, it hardens into a dense grey brick in summer, and even in spring if there hasn't been a lot of rain (as there hasn't this year).<br />
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It grows the usual staple Italian things quite readily and hardly needs any amending. Aubergine, tomatoes, peas, bush beans, tomatoes, artichokes, tomatoes, finocchio, tomatoes and tomatoes do brilliantly. We have a lot of vineyards around here too, and the climate is good for olives. Also tomatoes.<br />
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Onions do well, but other types of less determined root veg really struggle. Carrots, parsnips, beetroot just can't push through the dense soil. So my solution is raised beds and hugelkultur, basically layering composted and fresh organic matter with the clay soil and the compost-soil that comes from Annamaria's 100-year old family compost pile. I also liberally seeded white clover, which is a good green manure and nitrogen-fixer.<br />
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Something I've noticed is that when I came the garden was a moonscape. I called it The Big Dry Patch, 200 square meters of compacted clay on which absolutely nothing grew but a few trees. Annamaria's family have worked it for a long time, most of the 20th century, and the standard contadina method is just roto-tilling and planting directly into the ground. This works as a temporary, that is single-season fix, but destroys the soil's natural substructure - all the little tunnels made by worms and beetle grubs and fungus mycelium. So when you till it and then let it settle down, it compacts into a brick, which the sun bakes hard.<br />
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<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aii524-gqzU" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
When I started digging in it, I hardly ever saw a single worm and there was not a great deal of organic matter in the soil. Since then I've been building raised beds, the floor of which are just the native soil, and there has been an almost miraculous transformation. In just two seasons the moonscape is gone, and there is green everywhere. And everywhere I put a spade in, I'm not only finding worms, but those super-duper big fat ones. In one of the little round raised wattle beds, I was planting pepper plants from the garden centre last summer, and there were so many worms it was difficult to find a clear spot to put a trowel in. <br />
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<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/n2Fw6mtJ44E" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
I think I'm going to start vermicomposting next. I have to move next year, and I really want there to be a legacy here of greatly improved soil quality and useability. I'll be very sorry to leave it all, but having a really big garden has provided an opportunity for a kind of graduate course in organic gardening and soil management. <br />
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Hilary Jane Margaret Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03771332473693479830noreply@blogger.com0