A Really Beautiful Space

Gentle Friends, on Saturday while driving around we stopped at a place I pass every Saturday on my way over to the Richmond to a couple of my go to thrift shops.  It's the Carmelite Monastery of Cristo Rey.  It sits on the corner of Parker and Fulton streets...

.... I think it is often overlooked since directly across the street on the corner sits.....

... St Ignatius Church, part of the USF Campus.  You can just see the Monastery in the lower left corner.  

On the wall of the Monastery is this plaque...

...  the web site is not very informative about the building so the plaque is about the only info I could find.  

The doors are open until 4:30 pm so you can just walk in any time.....  

and a quick visit is well worth taking trouble to make as it is a great space in a busy city....

....just to the left  of the narthex is a chapel to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Here's a snap looking down the nave towards the alter....

.... the columns along the nave are fluted with Corinthian capitals.  There are other more decorative with high relief carving columns both in the narthex and around the alter and look like this...

 ... also with Corinthian capitols.  The alter is covered in a Balanchine...

... the solomonic columns also have Corinthian capitols and decorated with gilded leaves and vines.  The Easter decorations were still up.  While we were visiting the sisters (from behind gates to the right) started singing a Latin Angelus, which added immensely to the our time there.  Here's a Latin Angelus sung by the Daughters of Mary...

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There you go sports fans.  A lovely place to visit for contemplation and a break from our busy lives.

Take care,

edgar

A Little "Briar Patch" Stitchin'

Gentle friends. another weekend quickly passed.... why is it that weekends creep up, fly by and then are 5 looong days away????  It's a phenomenon I do not understand but deal with constantly.  :)

This past weekend was no different from others, we shopped at thrift and consignment stores, 

ate out, drove around , visited a lovely space......  and I stitched.

Today let me show you an updated snaperoo of the "SMS"......

... as you can see I spent the weekend stitchin' with the darkest brown, "Briar Patch."  I finished out the right side arm and couple of the wavy lines.  It seems that quite a bit was done , but there is still a mountain left.....

There you go sports fans.  Thanks for stopping by, do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

Lettin' it Go.....

Gentle Friends, it's a super busy Friday here at the old salt mine, but I wanted to stop in and post this little ditty....

...  from a great little film you might have heard of... that juggernaut from Disney... "Frozen."  Alex Boye and Lexi Walker's version of that Oscar winning song "Let it Go."  Look past the silly wig and odd acting and listen to the music.....  a really nice version of a pretty terrific song!

Have a super weekend!!

edgar

Thrifty Thursday

Gentle Friends, last Saturday I picked up a few things out thrifting...

.......  a great book of Hopper Drawings from the Whitney Museum, a novel of about Emily Dickinson and some DVD's.  Overall a rather productive morning.

There you go, only one more day until the weekend, I can't wait!!!

Take care,

edgar

Collecting Royal Stuff

Gentle Friends, if you have been reading this Blog for a while you know of my interest in European Royal families, both Major and Minor Royals.  A Couple of weeks ago I picked up a little piece of china commemorating one of the doyennes of the noble house of Windsor.  Here's a snap...

....  a two handled loving cup commemorating the Queen Mother's 100th birthday in 2000.  I found it at a thrift store and just snapped it up.  I have quite a few of these commemorative china mugs and cups. 

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A Quick post for today sports fans.  Thanks for stopping by, do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

A Stitching Snap

Gentle Friends, I hope everyone had a blessed Easter.  It was a low key one for us starting off Friday evening with services for Good Friday.  The weekend itself was a lovely four days off. We sat around with the TV going, watching TCM and assorted DVD's. 

 I did get a bit further along on SMS.  

Here's where she stood last night before getting rolled up and put away.....

......  I put this on the floor to get an overall snap of it, and from the peanut gallery (Rico) the comment I got was "That's a really big one this time!!" - and the who hounds were all over it, you can't see them but there are quite a few hairs that didn't get shaken off.

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That's about it for today sports fans.  Thanks for stopping by, dos top again!!

Take care,

edgar

Happy Easter!!!!!

Just a quick post to wish everyone a happy Easter....

.... aren't these Ukrainian Pysanky great!!!

Take care,

edgar

Dinner on 24th Street..... and a Peep report

Gentle Friends. I think I'll wrap up the week with our dinner from last Saturday.  On 24th Street are quite a few  restaurants, Noe Valley boasts a number a  really fine dining places.  One of these places is Le Zinc French Bistro.  It is a place I have seen since moving to the area 10+ years ago, but just have never stopped in for a meal - it always seems that we go out of the neighborhood to eat dinner.  We were invited by some friends and they settled on Le Zinc.  What a treat we in store for us......  here's some snaperoos..

... I started off my meal with some delicious escargots served on little potato slices with a side of sauteed mushrooms....

... Mindy ordered three Appetizers instead of one and dinner, the first to come out was this Saumon Fume one...  and....

... steak Tartare.....

.... Rico and Tom had the Salade du Jour, which was a Frizze salade with crouton and bacon...  the main courses we had were....

...steak with caramelized onion and pomme frites, Rico had this..... I had....

....... Boeuf Bourguignon, which is something I really enjoy and this did not disappoint, it was delicious!!  Tom had.....

...Saumon aux Epices.........and Mindy's third Appetizer came out....

.....Ravioles au Crabe......  we wrapped up the meal with these tasty deserts.....

... Tom had these Profiteroles au Chocolat......  Mindy and Rico had.....

... this impressive Fraise Melba.... and I had ......

.... this warm Tarte Tatin......  It was a wonderful meal!!!!

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The Peep report for today ventures back into the combination of chocolate and Peep.....

...... but with much better results.....

..... I think it is the ratio of Peep to chocolate that makes these much more successful than the other fully dipped Peep.  These also are the traditional Peep were the others were not.  

The peeps are just regular white inside dusted with yellow sugar, but then just the bottoms are dipped in chocolate, which when bitten into has a nice little crunch/snap to the chocolate.  On the Peep-o-meter I would have to say they rate 6 almost a 7, so lets go with 6.5.  i think they would be better with a dark chocolate they were certainly quite tasty!

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Our Easter Lilly is really lovely and blooming to beat the band.....

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That's about it for today sports fans.  Thanks for stopping by, do stop again!! 

 I'll be back next Tuesday.

Take care,

edgar

Shopping on 24th Street and a Peep Report

Gentle Friends, last Fall a totally cute shop opened up in my neighborhood called "Buttons Candy Bar."  It is just packed full of the old fashioned candies and fun treats.  

 Last week we stopped by to see all the super Easter goodies.  Of course I had my camera along and here are some fun snaperoos......

.... lots of Easter candies.....

..... a detail of those darling rabbits......

.....here is the main candy case full of delicious chocolates, and behind, in big jars are all types of licorice's....  especially my favorites.....

... Pontefract Cakes..... delicious!!!!  These are really hard to find locally so I have had to resort to ordering them on line and having them shipped from England for my "Pontefract Cakes" fix - now I only have to walk a couple of blocks for a treat!  Buttons is a great shop for classic candies like Bit-o-Honey, Fire Balls, Root beer Barrels, Mary Jane's and Necco Wafers.  If you are ever close by stop in for something sweet!!

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Today's Peep Report is another Limited Edition Peep.....

... Orange Creme.....

..... orange in colour, and delightfully orange aroma when you pop them open.  They are covered in orange sparkles  - and have a nice orange flavour when eaten.  These are by far the most interesting and tasty of the Peeps I've been trying, so the old Peep-o-Meter rates them at a whopping 8.5.  You all have been mentioning the lemonade/lemon Peeps, and i am having a devil of time finding them.  Could they be exclusive to Walmart??  Since there is no Walmart in the City or near me I may have to travel to find them, but I'll keep an eye out.

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That's about it for today sports fans.  Thanks for stopping by, do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

Lunch on 24th Street.... and a Peep Report

Gentle Friends, over the last week or so we have been enjoying our neighborhood, 24th Street, much more than usual.  If you remember it is down the hill a couple of blocks from our home so it is very convenient and there is lots to see and do..... and quite a few fun places to eat!!

On Saturday, after running around, we decided to stop at a great hamburger place called "Barney's."  There are 8 locations in the Bay area and two location down by Los Angeles.  

...  it's nice that there is a choice of dining inside or out on the patio in front.  We decided to eat inside..... the menu has lots of variations on the hamburger theme....

.... and if you can't find something that looks good you can always make you own burger up.  We started off with a basket.....

.... of some delicious steak fries....  Rico ordered a Sunshine Burger and I ordered.....

... a guacamole burger without a bun and so rare it was still moo-ing.  I do like that they will cook to order.  But, what I really come here for is.....

a Turkish Coffee Shake, delicious!!!!  And, so big you can take some home to enjoy later!!

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The Peep report for today is about a limited edition Peep.....

... Vanilla Creme.....  they are all white and have bright sprinkles all over them.   When you pop open the package you can really tell they are Vanilla, the aroma is really strong.

... they look like regular Peep's and have a delightful vanilla flavour, so on the old Peep-o-Meter they rate about a 7.2.

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That's about it for today sports fans.  Thanks again for stopping by, do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

A "SMS" Stitching Update

Gentle Friends over the weekend I got a bit o'stitcing done on the "SMS" and today want to show you an overall snap of the piece as it stands.....

.... I really had an itch to see just how big this sucker was going to be - so I worked out the border to the turn.......  I've got quite a way to go!!  I am really happy with the way the piece looks with the colour changes I made..... I am sure there will be others as I go along.

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There you go sports fans.  Thanks for stopping by.  This will be a short week for me as I am off this Friday and I took off next Monday, so it will be a nice long weekend!!  Do stop again!

Take care,

edgar

Another Peep Report

Gentle Friends I know I usually have a stitching update on Fridays, but this week has been a hassle and a half regarding the stitching front - lets just say it ain't been a good week, and sort of leave it at that.

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So, lets have another Peep report.....  sweet Rico brought home some Peeps, in festive Easter colours....

... they are all regular Peeps, just dusted with different coloured sugars......  I found this interesting Peep at target.....

... even though milk chocolate is something I really don't care for very much, I thought "why not?"

..... inside is.....

.... a Peep silhouette covered in milk chocolate..... biting into it you find.....

.... yellow coloured marshmallow that is overwhelmed by the chocolate coating.  The marshmallow is only coloured yellow and is without a discernible flavour.  I can see if one likes milk chocolate then this would be a perfect Peep.  Since I really don't care for milk chocolate the old Pepe-o-meter hits a very low 2 1/2.  

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There you go, another week down, just remember there's only 257 more days until Christmas!!!!

Take care,

edgar