Last night ended with a whimper rather than a bang, given the rainstorms that swept through. They still had the big fireworks downtown on the Mall, but we took a bye on that. Visited some friends of PH's for a cookout. Gotta love beer-soaked brats on the grill and two kinds of cheesecake! The scale isn't being kind to me today.
It was quite wet this morning, taking my walk with K and then going down to the farmer's market in Old Town. It didn't help when PH accidentally dumped an umbrella full of rainwater on me as I paid for some produce. At least he said it was an accident. Squish, indeed.
Icon-writing was, as always, wonderful. The Saint Gabriel icon is a week from being finished - I'll post a photo of it when it's done - and then I'll start on a Saint Paul, I think. I also saw a wonderful Theotokos (Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus) that will go into the queue. Baby Jesus has one of his little sandals dangling off his foot, and a round little baby nose, very different and more human than most icons. I love doing this work - it's such a prayerful discipline - I just wish they didn't take so darned long (six months per icon on average, sometimes longer).
PH is experimenting with a Ramos Fizz recipe that he saw in the NY Times Sunday magazine last week. The recipe looks....interesting. I am hoping we get dinner cooking before we start tasting. Somehow I think my scheduled arrival time at church tomorrow (7:30 am) will come very early. At least I don't have preaching duties tomorrow. I do have Lay Eucharistic Minister training to do, so I'm hoping I won't be too cranky.
Please say a prayer for A. His wife, my dear friend M, died of pancreatic cancer this time last year. He just had part of his lung removed - cancer - and the doctors seem to think that he will recover and survive this. We hope so - he's a dear man.
What is icon writing? It sounds intriguing.
ReplyDeleteThanks for asking, Maggie. Icons are religious pictures from the orthodox tradition. They're considered windows through which we can pray to heaven. Here's a link to some images: http://www.ocf.org/OrthodoxPage/icons/misc_in.html . It's called icon writing as opposed to painting, because it is akin to copying passages from scripture. It's not about creativity, it's about faithfulness to an image that brings us to God.
ReplyDeleteHoep that helps.