RMW Ramblings

  Saint Nicholas December 6 was the feast of Saint Nicholas.  Nicholas was the historic source of the Santa Claus tradition and is strongly associated with the Christmas season.  He is one of three Yuletide Saints that I have painted, heavy with symbolism. Saint Nicholas, Ἅγιος Νικόλαος , was a 4 th century bishop in Myra, Lycia (now Turkey).   The holy man is revered as a generous benefactor of the poor, with attributed deeds and miracles added to his tradition over the centuries.   The three young boys running from a wet-curing barrel in the painting had been slaughtered and left to cure into hams by an evil butcher, but were resurrected by the saint.   We also see the three poor sisters whom Nicholas anonymously provided with sacks of gold for dowries, saving them from an unwed state that would have doomed them to lives of prostitution.   The wine, pomegranates, grapes, and other provisions for the poor are similarly   representative   ...

  Rockford Tower Christmas A Tower Snow Globe I made this snow dome Rockford Tower  with polymer clay painted with acrylic paint.  The globe is filled with water and glycerin with glitter for the snow.

  Rockford Tower Christmas Sledding in the 1930s Rockford Tower is visible above the sledding hill in this past Christmas card.  Sledding on Mount Salem Hill in Rockford Park has been a winter tradition for generations.  Until the end of the 1930’s sledders had to be alert to the occasional trolley on the tracks cutting the corner from 19th St to Delaware Ave.  The tracks were removed with the switch to rubber tired trolleybuses on the No. 10 route on September 24, 1939, the first line converted.  A sidewalk  along the old track right-of-way was removed by the Delaware Division of Parks and Recreation in 2005.   The open arts and crafts belfry on Mount Salem Church also disappeared in 1939, replaced with the current crenelated Gothic  tower.

  Rockford Tower Christmas An Aerial View Rockford Tower has been in my view from our library for 55 years, so it's not surprising that the Tower has shown up in our Christmas cards over the years.  Here's an aerial winter view on a card I did about a quarter century ago.      

  Christmas Trains Sometime a century or so ago, model railroads became a Christmas tradition.  Locally, Hagley Museum has for years had a model railroad display patterned on their local environment.  The Brandywine River Museum annually sets up a major miniature railroad Christmas display set in a mythical Chester County.  This year Winterthur Museum is joining the Christmas rail scrum with  a standard gauge railroad exhibit assembled by the Standard Gauge Module Association.         We don't have an electric model railroad of any gauge, but we have two little wooden trains of different scale for seasonal display on the mantel at our cottage.  Here's one... And here is a Christmas card painting with both little trains over the fireplace...      

  Another Ginkgo Painting Autumna   Can we squeeze in one more ginkgo painting? Autumna is the fall season member of a set of allegorical paintings representing the four seasons.  The painting is about postcard size in a thrift store found frame.  The set of four were in a posting last year,     https://rmw-ramblings.blogspot.com/2021/08/four-seasons.html

  With Appealing Bouquet Last July you saw a hummingbird visit our trumpet vine...    With colder weather the hummingbirds are indoors visiting a glass of wine and a plate of  mandarin oranges. oranges..   With Appealing Bouquet