Monarch butterflies (not to be confused with Catholic Monarchs, such as Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, who sponsored the exploration of the New World by Christopher Columbus) require milkweed plants to survive. In fact, Monarch caterpillars eat only milkweed. But the breakfast table can easily become the lunch and dinner counter too. Each… Read more »
Think Red What images come to mind when you think red? Little red dress? Red lipstick? Blood? Red has a diversity of symbolism. Sin – (red-light district) Salvation – (The harlot Rahab and her family are spared when she places a scarlet cord in her window. Joshua 2:17-20) Power – The British army had red coats to denote virility during the American Revolutionary War. Red… Read more »
A shopping mall is my area has a Catholic bookstore, so I went inside to see what they had in their fiction section. I passed by a lot of plastic trinkets probably made by Chinese Buddhists, and the usual jewelry, rosaries, crosses, baptisms and confirmation gifts, etc. on my way to the books. There I… Read more »
A few months back, I was in Santa Fe for a cooking class. Since the class didn’t begin until the next day, my husband and I dined at a local restaurant, which shall remain nameless for a reason you will soon learn. Santa Fe, if you are unaware, is a food lover’s fantasty. (No, that… Read more »
Take a walk of about twenty-five hundred miles— and never leave your seat. That’s what I did when I read the eye-witness account of the 1540 expedition led by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, written a mere twenty-some years after the event. The Pedro de Castañeda de Nájera Narrative of the Coronado Expedition may have been… Read more »
In the shadow of Table Mountain to the east and the Rockie’s foothills to the west, the 2014 Women Writing the West conference took place in Golden, Colorado. The autumn sunshine brightened gold leafed cottonwoods that nibbled the edge of Clear Creek, and as much as I wanted to go outside and play, I had… Read more »
During a recent visit to the Toledo Museum of Art (Toledo, Ohio—not Spain), I spent most of my time in the wing that houses Renaissance art, and, surprisingly, I did not find a portrait of any woman not wearing some sort of headpiece. So I wondered, when did the custom of wearing head coverings begin?… Read more »
My father is 84 years old. His mind is sharp, his memories vivid, but the photographs he stores in a shoebox on his desk are in bad shape. Since digital programs are available to repair the cracks of age, I decided to scan a few pictures and return them to their original glory, but when… Read more »
The Aztecs called gold teocuitlatl (teh-oh-KWEE-tlah-tl), or excrement of the gods. My guess is, that name fits, and probably for the same reasons you might surmise. I’ll wait for your comment to find out. The most beautiful artisan application I have personally seen are the gold shoes discovered in King Tut’s tomb. Gold has many… Read more »
When was the last time you woke up excited to clean out a basement? “You never know what you are going to discover,” said Dr. Timothy J. Standring, exhibition curator at DAM, otherwise known as the Denver Art Museum. (More organized than mine, even so … ) It was he who found, underneath layers of… Read more »
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