More Crèches

Julie asked for more photos of the crèches I saw on Saturday, so here they are. This top set of figures are actually puppets! And very large, too. They were created in the Slovak Republic.

This figure of Joseph on the left was carved from ivory in Alaska. I think I heard someone say that the ivory had petrified. I liked the colors of his robes and the imperfections in the ivory that give it texture. Click on the photos to see larger versions and enjoy all the details.

On the right, these tall elegant figures are from Venezuela.

The next photo on the left is a set that was made of felt. I do not know where it was made but that is a yurt behind the figures!

Likewise, I do not know where this happy group on the right came from. The faces on some of the figures were quite severe, so it was nice to see this smiling group.






Next on the left is a set that was made by Robin Teller of the Isleta Pueblo in New Mexico. It seems the entire Teller family are potters. On the right below is a set made in Tasmania.









I am going to finish this collection of photos with this colorfully painted crèche that was set inside a wooden box. I love the faces on the animals!

Crèche Fetish

What a busy weekend! On Saturday, Bart and Kathy invited me to go with them to an open house being hosted by a woman who collects nativity sets. She had them all on display throughout her house, including the bedroom and yes, the bathroom! There were nativity scenes on the walls in the hallway (like the Indian painting at the left), crèches filling the bookcase shelves in the kitchen, on top of the fireplace mantle as well as in front of the hearth, and spilling over the top of her baby grand piano onto the floor where there was a needlepoint rug displaying a nativity scene. The hostess was even wearing a necklace with the figures of Mary, Joseph, and the Christ Child strung on it.

She has been collecting these sets for years and from all over the world. Each set was labelled with the country of origin and sometimes the artist, or artists, who created them—Germany, the Slovak Republic, Mexico, the pueblo Indians of New Mexico, Tasmania, New Orleans, Russia, Kenya, Rwanda, and even an origami set from Japan. The origami set one was created in a box and when you want to store it away, you just fold up the lid of the box. No need to move anything!

The materials used were equally varied—wood, ivory, stone, paper, cork, beads, glass, and one unusual set that was carved wood blackened with coal dust and resin from West Virginia. It was very hard to get a good picture of that one. Some were very ornate like this set from Peru, and some were plain and simple like the one up top. Some were very old and some were contemporary. It was a photographer's paradise and I had a great time taking photos. The only hard part was choosing which ones to show on my blog!

Here are a few more. The colorful crèche on the left is created with thousands of beads glued to some base, wood I presume. It was created by the Huicitol Indians of Mexico. And I just fell in love with the expression of the faces of this polyform set made by Jovenia of New Mexico.

But my eyes really lit up when I saw the knitted set below that the hostess herself had made. Like the gnomes of last year, I just had to have the pattern. So did a lot of other people. She graciously dug out the pattern book and it turned out to be another UK booklet by Jean Greenhowe. If you want to get the pattern, you can order it from Annie's Attic in the US.

December Canyon Walk

Joan, Jeff, and I walked the canyon again today. It was a glorious day! Cool and dry. It was so nice to see the plants reviving after the good rain we had last weekend. This Lupine surprised us first of all because it was in bloom in December, but secondly, because it was so lush. But it and the surrounding plants were taking advantage of a run-off spot from the street above. The Lupine was growing in a bed of Nasturtiums that had seeded themselves from a garden above the slope.
I had not brought my camera with me this time and had hung my binoculars around my neck instead hoping to see some early birds. One can only carry so much. But the lovely Lupine plant sent me hustling off to my car to get the camera which was in the trunk. Luckily, it was parked not too far away and since the birds had not gotten really active yet, it being too cool and shady for them still, I traded the binoculars for the camera.

Out of dozens of Purple Sage plants, we found this one lone flower pictured above, but there was new green growth everywhere. The Artemisia was looking much better this time and the California Sunflower was still blooming in places. The only plant that looked in distress was the California Fuschia.

As the sun came out onto the south slope and down into the canyon, so did the birds. Naturally, I now wished that I had my binoculars with me! But I did get a fairly decent shot of this Orange-crowned Warbler. Warblers move very fast, so you are doing good if you catch them at all. He's there, trust me. If you don't see him at first, that's because his yellow-green color camouflages him so well against the leaves of this Mulefat bush. (Actually, this was our first time identifying the Mulefat. Somehow we missed it before.)

The highlight of the morning, however, was this Lupine bush which was gray-green and dry and not at all as lush as the earlier plant we had seen. But it was full of jewel-like caterpillars including these two who were having a tête-à-tête.

In Southern California, spring comes after the rain no matter what month it is.

Free Lecture

OK all you lecture lovers, here's a free UC Berkeley lecture by Gary Taubes, author of Good Calories, Bad Calories, that you won't want to miss. The topic is The Quality of Calories: What Makes Us Fat and Why Nobody Seems to Care, given by Taubes on November 27, 2007, 04:00PM in Sibley Auditorium. It is rather long, almost two hours, but if you stick with it, it is full of interesting information for everyone, not just those watching their weight.

It is refreshing to find that Taubes was given no time limit to state his hypothesis, that there were no competing opinions to bog the whole thing down like most interviews with Taubes that I have seen, and that he does not pull any punches when describing the science that led to his conclusions. Hopefully, by speaking directly to young students of the School of Health, he will get them to be at least curious about the benefits of a low-carb diet so that the necessary studies will be done and perhaps the future will be different for our children and grandchildren.

Addendum

Over at the Protein Power website, the Drs. Eades are offering free copies of their best book, The Protein Power Lifeplan until December 20th. All you have to pay is the shipping costs. What a deal! Get over there and get your free copy! Only one per customer, though. If you already own a copy, send one to a friend for the holidays. You'll be giving them the gift of good health.

Where can I go?

My children gave me an early birthday present yesterday, a GPS receiver for my car! Now I am itching to go somewhere. My son had one of these devices with him when we went to Boston last summer. We had a lot of fun with it following it around the former cow paths that make up the road system in Massachusetts. It was a godsend in getting us out of Logan Airport and onto Route 2. I told him how much I liked it and how handy it would be for me to get around LA, but that wasn't a hint, honestly. As a musician, I travel a lot from one job to another. That's one of the things I like about my work, I am always finding new corners of this part of Southern California that I hadn't been to before. But while we musicians do pride ourselves on our good sense of direction, a little help doesn't hurt especially when you are running late for a gig.

I used the TomTom to get home from my daughter's house last night just to test it out even though the route is a straight shot down the freeway. I chose a male voice to tell me when to turn, etc. At first, I thought he had made a mistake when he said to stay left after a certain turn when I knew I had to stay in the right-hand lane to get on the freeway. But I later learned that at every exit he would say, stay left, meaning don't exit! The only other slight error was when he told me I had arrived at my destination when I was in front of my next door neighbor's house. Perhaps with updating and use, it will get more accurate. My son's device was very accurate.

When my son and I went for a test run, we deliberately drove off the suggested route to see what it would do. After making several of these wrong turns, the voice finally said in exasperation, "Turn around!" Last night when I was making a freeway change, I guess I swerved a bit too quickly and the thing flew off the windshield to which it was attached by a suction cup and landed on the seat beside me. I couldn't see the map anymore, but the gentle man's voice continued to guide me to my destination.

Ahhh! Tea

There's nothing like a nice cup of warm tea on a cold day. I have been a tea drinker from the get-go because for some reason, I could never tolerate coffee and it's not the caffeine. I used to drink regular teas and my husband called me a tea connoisseur. I loved Earl Grey and a good Darjeeling. But in my 30s I decided to give up caffeine entirely for no special reason and switched to herbal teas. Now I search the stores and the Internet for different herbal concoctions. In the early years it was difficult to get herbal tea whenever we dined out, but now almost everyone has something. When we travelled in Germany and Italy in the 80s, all the waiters thought I was sick because I would ask for chamomile tea after dinner (my all-time favorite) and they had the custom of drinking chamomile when they were not feeling well.

One great place to purchase both tea and coffee turned out to be right around the corner from my sister's house in Connecticut. In fact, she is the one who introduced me to the teas of Simpson & Vail. For years, she sent me a selection of their teas for Christmas or my birthday but this year, I couldn't resist and I purchased my own, shamelessly, just weeks before my birthday. Well, they were offering free shipping from their website and I have been wanting new mugs for quite awhile. I only had one with an infuser and lid which I kept using and washing over and over all day long. Anyway, that's my excuse.

As you can see, I purchased four new mugs with infusers and lids. The blue bone china mug from England, where they know a thing or two about making a good cup of tea, in the front is turning out to be my favorite with the glass mug a close second. The white mug is extra large for when you know you are going to want two cups of tea and the other blue mug has a nice saucer included and a very comfortable handle. There is a problem with the glass and blue pottery infusers in that the holes are too large for herbal teas and bits of tea end up getting through. The china and white mugs have metal mesh infusers which work much better. But I have always loved the idea of tea in a glass container and already own three glass teapots, two purchased on vacations in Scandinavia.

To go with these new mugs, I bought several teas some of which I have had before and some which are new. For that glass mug, I bought Moonlight in the Garden because of its blue color. The mix contains alfalfa leaves, malva flowers, cornflowers, and flavors, one of which is blueberry, 'natch. And it stays blue even after steeping.

Another new tea blend I am trying is Papamint, a combination of papaya leaves and peppermint for good digestion, although I generally do not drink teas for medicinal purposes, only for taste and pleasure. One that I have tried before is Moonlight Snooze which is wonderfully relaxing. The other two teas I bought were Lavender Lace, with lavender, cinnamon, and rosemary, and of course, organic chamomile.

Omnitrix

My grandson Nick (now 11) has been crocheting again. He says this is an Omnitrix which gives its wearer super powers or something. He got the idea from the Ben 10 TV show. Now don't quote me on any of this because I know nothing about the current kids' TV shows or TV shows in general for that matter. My TV gets used only for Masterpiece Theater and playing DVDs.

I was impressed with Nick's creativity and the fact that he remembered what I taught him last Christmas. I'll have to come up with some new projects for us to do when I visit him this Holiday season.