Tortoise Orchard ~ Footers & Frost Walls

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The Future home of Tortoise Orchard is underway!
The Concrete Footers and Frost Walls have been poured. Now the Forms for the Foundation walls must be put in place to fill with cement.

The Black Madonna of France ~

Our Lady of Good Deliverance,
Neuilly near Paris, 14th C.
variation on 11th C. original

What exactly are Black Madonnas? Good question! Some are images of Mary the Mother of Jesus that portray her with pitch black skin, while her garments are colorful. Others are entirely made of a blackened metal or wood. Yet others simply darkened with patina, the normal aging process that all antique art and furniture undergoes. But - while countless very old statues are dark, only some of them have been honored with the special title "Black Madonna", "Black Virgin" or "Black Mother of God".
Traditionally, a real Black Madonna is not something one can just produce; it is something that happens to a community when Heaven ordains it to be so. Countless wonderful legends tell of the sacred or miraculous origins of these images. More than thirty are said to have been created by Luke the Evangelist, others were presented to humans by angels or the Virgin Mary herself; many were found when simple people or even cattle, guided by divine forces, uncovered statues hidden in the earth, in springs, or in trees.
More research must be done to establish how the process of giving a dark statue the official title of "Black Madonna" worked over the centuries, but it seems to be a grass roots kind of movement. I think, just as in the Catholic Church the faithful usually acclaim a holy person as a saint long before the Church gives its official stamp of approval, so also certain, usually miraculous, dark Madonnas are hailed as Black, first by the simple people and then by the entire church.

By Ella Rozett

For more Information:
http://www.interfaithmarianpilgrimages.com/pages/blackmadonna.html

The Tzar's Children

The children's Christmas tree in the upstairs Playroom, after 1902
Tsarskoye Selo
Alexander Palace

Tzar Nicholas II and Alexandria

The First Christmas Card ~

The first commercial Christmas cards were commissioned by Sir Henry Cole in London, 1843, and featured an illustration by Hohn Callcott Horsley.

Marlene's Christmas Gift

Click Title for a Special Treat !

Meet the Newbie ~ Name that cat !

Thanksgiving weekend someone abandoned their cat on our country road, temperatures dropped to 13 degrees shortly thereafter.
What kind of person does such a thing ?
I'm happy to say after a vet visit the newbie checks out just fine, except for a few fleas and some nasty worms.
The newbie is a Very sweet, affectionate neutered male. He will join the tribe of tigers living with me.
Names under consideration are Marley, Alistair, Bumble Bee & Newbie.
Any suggestions ?

My New York ~ "Holiday Lane"

R.H. Macy & Co.
34th Street and Broadway
Ninth Floor Christmas Department