Dona Nobis Pacem, All Hail the Peace Rose

Please click on the picture above for more lovely details

Dona nobis pacem, pacem.

Dona

nobis

pacem.

Thanks to my neighbors Chris and Jeff, who first brought Peace Roses to my attention, and were also kind enough to share some extra pots of these beauties with me.

The altered photo is from one of those rose gifts. The score is a snip from a free download at the free-scores.com site.

Just One More Daughter outta' Elysium, Singing in Beethoven Ninth Symphony

I studied Russian and Romance languages in school and had no appreciation for the emphatic first syllables of the German language, before I first sang in Beethoven's 9'th. Though the words to this music are gorgeous, performing this work with a mass of other voices goes beyond words. Luckily for me, the Stanford Summer Chorus* is singing it this summer. Every Tuesday night I can hop on my cruiser bike, pedal on over and become a part of the vocals behind it. No matter what else is going on, once I get there, Alle Menschen once more werden Brüder. And pedaling home through the darkness of a California summer night, I'm just one more daughter outta' Elysium.

Please CLICK ON THE PICTURE ABOVE to see the lovely detail

Freude, schöner Götterfunken Tochter aus Elysium, Wir betreten feuertrunken, Himmlische, dein Heiligtum! Deine Zauber binden wieder Was die Mode streng geteilt; Alle Menschen werden Brüder, Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt. * Peninsula Cantare is my normal chorus

Joy, beautiful spark of divinity Daughter of Elysium, We enter, drunk with fire, Into your sanctuary, heavenly daughter! Your magic reunites What custom strictly divided. All men become brothers, Where your gentle wing rests.

Spain, Pensamientos finales

Is this Segovian Cupid waving Hasta Luego,

or simply thumbing his nose at me?

It’s time to bring my illustrated journal about my trip to Spain to a close, and return my blog to it’s regular form, as an art-journal of my daily life here in California.

The pieces I wrote about my trip are short themed entries, and are not intended as a blow-by-blow description of my trip. I've listed them below, with links for each entry. Or you can locate them by clicking on particular calendar days above the "About Me" section on this web page.

Each short piece I’ve written since I returned, includes one to four photos that I took there early in July and than brought home to alter in Photoshop. The details in these altered photos show up much better when you CLICK ON each individual PICTURE (try it with the cupids above).

It was hot and I learned to deal with that like a Spaniard. I increased my Spanish speaking confidence and reminded myself that there’s always some way to communicate what I need to – even if that means using ten words instead of the one I don’t know. The colors reminded me that I wasn't at home. When you find a good park, stick with it, and go back as often as you can. I’ll always remember visiting with a group of Madrillenos at the turtle pond at the Palacio Cristal. I gained a new appreciation of sola, when I traveled to Segovia.

Sincerely yours,

The Simple Romantic

• De Colores, On the Colors of Segovia

• Patrónes y formas, Patterns and Forms in Segovia

• Modern Edificios y Negocios of Madrid - Buildings and Businesses

• A Bit of Beauty from the Alcazar Palace(A printable luggage tag I created from an altered photo)

• The Mystery of Trenta

• Historic Edificios of Madrid

• Hace Calor, One Woman's Survival Strategy

• Enjoying the Frutas y Verduras of Madrid

• Getting Neighborly at El Palacio Cristal

• The Rain in Spain Stays Mainly in the Plain, Language Survival

De Colores, Segovia

Y por eso los grandes amores 
De muchos colores 
Me Gustan a mi.

(De Colores, Traditional Children's Song)

PLEASE CLICK on each of these altered pictures to see much beautiful, colorful detail

Patrónes y formas, Segovia

Roman Aqueduct in Segovia and Companion Buildings with traditional decorated walls

(altered photo)

PLEASE CLICK on this and other pictures to see the beautiful detail

It’s hard not to be awed by constructions that are this old. Especially for an American who’s accustomed to seeing only a few man-made creations even a hundred years old. Yes we do have missions in California, but they're an exception. According to Wikipedia, this Roman aqueduct still works and is the best preserved such structure on the Iberian Peninsula. It’s construction likely dates back about 1900 years.

Modern Apartment Building

(altered photo)

What really struck me in Segovia were the artful patterns on the walls. You see them everywhere, from the walls of the centuries old Alcazar palace, to clearly modern designs on buildings and above doorways. They’re cut into plaster with molds or simply pressed in with a firm instrument by hand.

Modern Detail above a Doorway

(altered photo)

View of the Tower from inside The Alcazar Palace

(altered photo)

I managed to communicate my interest in the artistic formas en las paredes to the woman who sold me my ticket to the Alcazar Palace. She replied in voluable Spanish, the gist of which I picked up. (I smiled when I understood her and repeated a lot of words and phrases to make sure I got her main points). She indicated that this is a local art form, specific to the that area. I replied that when my parents built a house in Ventura, California the one thing they did pay someone else to do was to form beautiful patterns in the plaster that adorned the house. We speculated that perhaps some of the ancestors of those artesanos Mexicanos might have come from the area around Segovia.

* As my parents had done a number of other times, they built that house with their own hands – they didn’t pay someone else to build it

The Alcazar Palace

(altered photo)

CLICK on the picture and Check out those walls!

Modern Edificios y Negocios (Madrid)

PLEASE CLICK on these pictures to see the lively detail.


Modern buildings and city businesses in an unfamiliar country, are just as intriguing as the historical ones. They look so similar to the ones I know at home but, then again, something tells me that I'm not in Kansas any more.

A Bit of Beauty from the Alcazar Palace, Segovia (printable tag)

Please CLICK ON THIS PICTURE to see the lovely detail.

The tag prints well on postcard stock and can be used for a gift, organizational or luggage tag.

I created this tag from a photo I took of a ceiling medallion at the gorgeous Alcazar Palace in Segovia. I wrote a bit about my day trip to Segovia in a previous blog entry, "The Rain in Spain, Stays Mainly in the Plane". The Alcazar is, of course, the palace where Queen Isabella retreated for safety's sake, shortly before she was proclaimed Queen of Castille. Modern western people tend to remember this queen more than others because she was the mother of Henry VIII's first wife, Katherine of Aragon, as well as financier of Christopher Columbus.

Isabella is one of those gals about whom I have mixed feelings. She sounds like a pretty strong woman, a good example of feminine power and strength. But she was also one of the main instigators of the Inquisition, a centuries long event of genocidal terror bent on stamping out religious tolerance among Spanish Jews, Muslims and Christens. Isabella wasn't the first ruler to think that her way was the only way, but she was a terrible crusader for her own cause. She left a legacy that continued from her time, in the late 1400's, in one form or another up until the 1800's.