The Christmas Card Revealed

Every year, my Christmas card, which is of a painting that I have done, is a secret until the cards have been sent.  I always take my cards to the post office the day after Thanksgiving, so I am pretty confident that everyone on my list has received it.  I have even heard from several of my European cousins that it has arrived.

So here is my card for Christmas 2020...

This is a painting that I did of Lake Halwill in Switzerland.  In summer of 2019 I met up with my cousin Gail and her husband Wes in Switzerland so that I could introduce them to our Swiss relatives.  Our cousin Werner took us for a boat ride on this lake which is not far from our ancestral town.  I used one of the photos which I took and reimagined it as a winter scene for this painting.

To all of my readers, I wish

a very happy holiday season,

and may 2021 be much better!

¡Feliz Navidad!

Fröliche Weihnachten!

A Kitchen Experiment

 Not all of my kitchen experiments work out, but last week I made a concoction that I will definitely make again.

I always have several cans of garbanzo beans in my pantry.  They are supposed to be very healthy.  They are high in fiber and good for your cholesterol.   I put them in salads, and I throw them into curry dishes.  I decided to try them in a variation of "molletes".  I have written before about "molletes"... a type of Mexican open-faced sandwich.  A crusty roll known as a "bolillo" is split in two, topped with refried beans and cheese, and grilled until the cheese melts.  I have done a gringo version using English muffins instead of "bolillos". 

For this experiment I used a can of low-sodium garbanzos, drained and rinsed.  I put them in the blender along with a can of Mexican style dice tomatoes (with jalapeños).  I seasoned it generously with sweet paprika, cumin and tumeric.  I pureed the mixture and then added some sautéed, diced onion and garlic.  I topped my toasted English muffins with the garbanzo puree and shredded cheese.  It went into the oven just long enough to melt the cheese.

It was very tasty, although it is definitely a knife and fork type of sandwich... too messy to pick up and eat with your hands.

It was so good that later in the week I made the garbanzo puree again for a different dish.  I was watching a cooking show on PBS and they were preparing vegetarian stuffed peppers.  I thought, "Why can't I use the garbanzo mixture to stuff peppers?"  I mentioned this to my friend Gayle (she called me while I was in the middle of cooking), and she suggested adding rice to the mixture.  Good idea!  I topped the stuffed peppers with grated cheese and put them in a 375 degree oven for a half hour.

The peppers were also very good, although if I make them again I will add even more rice.

Now I'm thinking that this garbanzo puree would also make a tasty sauce over chicken and rice.

Pilgrims Stay Home

Yesterday was the feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico's patron saint.  Normally pilgrims from all over Mexico and beyond would be flocking to the basilica on the north side of Mexico City near the site where the Virgin supposed appeared to the peasant Juan Diego in 1531.  Basilica is second only to St. Peter's in Rome as a Catholic pilgrimage destination. 

The new basilica, built in 1976 replaced the 18th century church. (The old basilica still stands and is just out of view to the right in this photo.)  Both shrines face a vast paved atrium.  

Normally the basilica, which can accommodate 10,000 people would be packed, and the enormous atrium in front would be jammed with more pilgrims.  Last December an estimated ten million people came to Mexico City.

But this has not been a normal year.  Mexico City has been hard hit by the pandemic.  One can imagine the catastrophic results if throngs of people crowded the basilica for the masses which are normally held continuously. Imagine how many pilgrims would carry the virus home to their villages.  The Archdiocese and the city officials announced that the entire basilica complex would be closed from December 10th through the 14th.  Streets leading to the basilica have also been closed.  Roadblocks were set up on the highways leading into the city, and pilgrims arriving by bus, truck, bicycle or on foot were turned away.  The atrium, normally be packed with worshippers, instead was covered with tens of thousands of candles.  Virtual observances were televised nationally with mariachis singing "Las Mañanitas", the Mexican birthday song, in honor of the Virgin, and a mass celebrated in the empty basilica.

Alejandro does not live far from the basilica and is near one of the major roads leading to the shrine.  He said that this year he saw very few pilgrims and heard fewer of the usually incessant firecrackers which are set off on feast days.  He told me of one disturbing incident that was reported on the news.  One man in a car plow through a roadblock near the basilica, and ran over two policemen.  The driver escaped, and the policemen were taken to the hospital.  As of last night Alejandro had heard no further reports on the incident.  If that driver's intent was to visit the shrine, he certainly is a sorry excuse for a pilgrim!           

From the Court of Burgundy

We will continue with the visit that I made to the Cleveland Museum of Art shortly before it was closed again due to the pandemic.

One of the galleries of medieval art is devoted to art from the Court of Burgundy.   In the Middle Ages the Dukes of Burgundy controlled much of northeastern France and all of the Low Countries of modern-day Belgium and the Netherlands.  With their great wealth and taste for extravagance, they were major patrons of art.  Some of the leading craftsmen and artists from many parts of Europe were drawn to the court at the city of Dijon.  Here are some of the exquisite pieces from that gallery...

This statue of the "Enthroned Virgin with the Writing Christ Child" dates from around 1400.

 It is sculpted from limestone and painted and gilded.  By its style it is thought to be the work of an artist from the Netherlands working in France.  The theme of the "Writing Christ Child" was popular in the late 1300s, and it refers to Christ's position as a teacher in adult life.

This Books of Hours is from 1404 and was done by an Italian artist living in Paris.  

Books of Hours were collections of Gospel texts, prayers and psalms that were popular with medieval aristocrats.  The vellum pages are beautifully illustrated (or "illuminated") using ink, tempera paint and gold leaf.

This stained glass window, perhaps from Alsace, is from the late 1200s.  Since at that time the Cistercian Order of monks had a ban on figural art, it is thought that this panel might have come from one of their churches.  It is the oldest piece of stained glass in the museum's collection.

This window from France dates back to the first half of the 15th century.

These statues of mourners come from the tomb of Duke Philip the Bold.  Philip had planned and commissioned an elaborate tomb for himself in a Carthusian monastery near Dijon.

The tomb was surrounded by figures of mourners.  The statues were highly realistic portraits of members of the court.  They are wearing special mourning garments.  The monastery was destroyed during the French Revolution, but these sculptures survived.

After Philip the Bold's death in 1404, his son, John the Fearless, decided that he wanted an equally ornate tomb in the same monastery.  Before work could begin, however, John was murdered in 1419.  It was left to his son Philip the Good to commission a Spanish sculptor working in Dijon, Jean de la Huerta, to design his father's tomb.  It also was surrounded by statues of mourners, and this piece also survived the French Revolution.

These marble statuettes of kneeling Carthusian monks are thought to come from the same monastery as the statues of the mourners.  They date from the late 14th century.

This alabaster statue of the Archangel Gabriel dates from around 1350.  It is part of an Annunciation group.  The accompanying figure of Mary is in the Louvre.

This gilt silver table fountain from 14th century France entertained dining guests at an aristocrat's table.

It would have been placed in a basin.  Water pumped up through the center would come out as jets through nozzles.  This would then turn a wheel and ring tiny bells.

There is still more to come from the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Ancestral Homes

 No, I am not going to show you pictures of English manor houses or European castles.  These photos are of much humbler abodes and close to home.

Yesterday the temperature rose into the upper 40s, most of the snow was gone, and the sidewalks were mostly clear and dry, so I decided to take a walk.  I headed into the neighboring town of Berea, and I passed a few houses that played a part in my family's history.

First is this house on Lincoln Avenue where my great-grandmother lived.  

Susan Marti emigrated with her family from Switzerland, and they settled in Berea where her father worked in the sandstone quarries.  When she married she lived on a farm in Middleburg Township that belonged to the family of my great-grandfather, Charles Plau.  My great-grandfather died at the age of thirty three, but they had five children in the nine years that they were married.  In 1902, eight years after his death, Susan remarried.  She and her new husband bought this house, and she lived there until her death in 1945.

This is the only photo that I have of my great-grandmother.  She is standing outside her house between my father (to the left) and my uncle (the husband of my mom's sister).

A short walk from Lincoln Avenue took me to Pearl Street where my maternal grandparents lived.  My grandfather, Clarence Plau, was Susan's third child.  Clarence and my grandmother, Lola, lived in this house.

They bought the house sometime in the 1940s, and lived there until Clarence passed away in 1956 and Lola died in 1957.  I have vague memories of this house, and it looks much the same as I remember it.

On my way home, I passed by this old brick house on Prospect St.  My cousin Gail has told me that her great-grandfather, the brother of my great-grandmother Susan, lived there.  Behind the house the hill goes down to the former sandstone quarries where he worked.

The house used to have a front porch, but some years ago it was closed in.  In my opinion, it spoils the historic appearance of the house.

I Just Finished Reading...

 

My friend and former teaching colleague Carol and I frequently exchange books to read.  I just finished reading one of the latest books that she gave me... "Magdalena" by Wade Davis.  In this book the author writes about his travels along the Magdalena River, the great waterway which crosses nearly the entire length of the nation of Colombia from the Andes Mountains down to the Caribbean coast.

I have never been to Colombia although at one point it was on my list of places to visit.  When I was in college, there was an exchange student from Colombia who was attending a local high school.  She would attend our college Spanish Club meetings.  After she returned home we corresponded for a number of years, and she would always ask me, "When are you coming to visit Colombia?"  Eventually I lost contact with her, and then Colombia, the nexus of cocaine trafficking, became one of the most dangerous countries in the world.  Scratch Colombia off my list.

Wade Davis, the book's author, is a Canadian anthropologist and ethnobiologist.  He has had a life-long love affair with Colombia ever since he travelled there as a teenager with a school group in 1968.  For six years in the 1970s he backpacked his way through the country.  Since then, he earned a PhD. from Harvard, traveled the world, authored numerous books, and was named a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence.  He returned to his beloved Colombia after the nation emerged from decades of violence, and this book is the product of his travels.

As he travels from the river's source to its mouth he covers a wide range of topics that give the reader an insight into the country's geography, history and culture.   As a biologist, he discusses the nation's rich plant and animal life... Colombia is one of the world's most biodiverse countries... in a land that has everything from high Andean moors, to tropical forests, to deserts, to swamps.  One chapter deals with "cumbia" and other dance rhythms which mix elements from the musical traditions of the indigenous and African peoples.  Another chapter tells the story of Simón Bolívar, the hero of South American independence, who brilliantly fought against the Spanish, but died disillusioned and poor at the age of 27.  

Throughout the book the author details the violence that has plagued much of Colombia's history.  In the 1940s and 1950s a bloody civil war known as "La Violencia" was fought between the Conservative and Liberal.  The rise of the drug cartels, especially the Medellín cartel of Pablo Escobar, led to an era of lawlessness, corruption, murders and kidnappings.  Even after Escobar's death, conflict between Marxist guerrilla groups and right-wing paramilitary forces ravaged the countryside.  Both sides had ties with the drug trade.  The Magdalena River became a dumping ground in which the bodies of the slain floated down the waterway.  It is estimated that more than 200,000 Colombians died during the decades of violence, and that another five million left their country.  As the author writes, Colombia's agony lies with every person, be they in New York, London or Madrid, who has ever bought cocaine.

In 2016 a peace deal was signed with the FARC, the main guerrilla group.  The country has seen significant progress in stability, human rights, rule of law and economic development.  One of the most interesting and hopeful chapters dealt with the country's second largest city, Medellín, once the headquarters of Escobar's infamous cartel.  It has gone from a city terrorized by the violence of Escobar's war against the government and his drug rivals, to a city that has won international awards as one of the most innovative, progressive and dynamic cities in the world.

After reading this book, Colombia is once again on my list of countries that I would like to visit. 

 

  

A Hike to a Waterfall

Last month, while we were still having some pleasant weather, I took one last excursion to one of our local parks.  I visited another reservation of the Lorain County Metroparks, Cascade Park, which is a piece of nature smack dab in the center of the city of Elyria.  I checked out Google Maps to find the best route to get there.  I took the Ohio Turnpike west and got off at the next exit.  It was about a twenty five minute drive from my house.

The park is located along the banks of the Black River.  

 Earlier this year had visited another Lorain County park along the banks of the Black River.  The Black River Reservation was located downstream just a few miles to the north of here.  On that visit I had made an unexpected discovery of a pretty waterfall.  Obviously, here at Cascade Park, the main attraction was going to be another waterfall.

There was not much in the way of signage here, but from looking at Google Maps, I knew that the waterfall was upstream from the parking lot.  So I headed along a trail following the river southward and hoped that it would take me to the falls.  The trail was unpaved and slightly challenging.  In one spot I had to climb steps carved into the rock, and I had to be careful not to stumble over tree roots in my way.  It was not always clearly marked, and a few times I had to guess where the trail continued.

I was quite surprised by the formations of rock and the large boulders.  It was hard to believe that I was in the middle of a city with a population of 50,000.  

  

I am not geologist, but I couldn't help but wonder if the striations on this rock might be glacial grooves, carved by the movement of an Ice Age glacier.

I came to a wooden observation deck where the river split into two... the West and the East Branches of the Black River.  I had no choice but to continue to my right along the West Branch.

I knew that I was on the right path because after a while I could hear the waterfall.  At last I reached it.

An Elyria city street passes over a bridge directly above the falls.  You have an indication of the size of the cascade from the people walking on the bridge.

Another observation deck provided a view of the waterfall.  There was a lot of mist even from where I was standing.

Unless I decide to take some hikes in the snow, that will probably be my last visit to one of our parks until spring.