ROME 23/10 – Day 21: “Tastes like chicken”, a Solemn Mass vestment project, some video and audio

On this Feast of St. John Paul II, the sun rose at 07:28 and it will un-rise at 18:21.  The days are squeezing down.

The Ave Maria bell is in the 18:30 cycle as it chases the sun in fits and starts.

The weather has really shifted, which is surely a sign that we are all about to die.  The unseasonably warm October has cooled and some rain now sweeps through unpredictably.

Yesterday I decided to run a quick errand to a nearby grocery for something I was lacking in view of Sunday repast.  Heading out the door there was a slight drizzle.   I’m NOT a fan of rain.  I don’t do rain.  However, “Beh”, quoth I, “I can do this.  It’s not so bad.”

I got to P.za Farnese up the way and stopped in the relative shelter of the wall of the Bridgittine church – aptly named St. Bridget – and took this.

Stepping out again, the down pour began – BAM- like someone turned on a faucet soaking me in an instant.

Having arrived at the store, I noticed an interesting bottle of wine, a Bonarda.  I don’t remembering seeing an Italian Bonarda – then again, I haven’t looked for one either.

This is an “Oltrepò Pavese”, which is not the same grape as the Bonarda Piemontese. The OP Bondarda is also called Douce Noir and has been confused with other varietals like Barbera in California and Dolcetto Nero. In California it is Charbono, not surprisingly like Charbonneau. I recall that there are some OP Bonardas that have different names because over the centuries they figured it was its own thing. Turca? Nope, it’s really OP Bonarda.

I’ll have to head over there on Monday and get a bottle and try this for the first time. The price is good, too.

For supper, something that I have made with some frequency here … (as I write it is positively pouring rain outside)…

…chicken.  I really like the chicken here because it tastes like chicken!  You know what I mean.  Spatchcocked galetto, onion, carrots, a few tomatoes, a little white wine.

Having extracted the chicken from the pan, I reduced the juice adding chopped porcini mushrooms and, at the last minute, baby peas.   That stuff in the front right: slightly over-done but delightfully crunchy oven-roasted potato slices.

The rain is coming and going, like the women in the T.S. Eliot poem.

Meanwhile, solve this.

Things are looking a bit cramped for white, don’t they.  That black bishop is nasty.  Black’s horsey is rarin’ to leap onto d4 and supply additional irritation.

But it is white’s move, not black’s.  Exchanges won’t be so horrible after all.  And I am seeing that the enemy queen doesn’t have all that many squares…. hmmm.

White to move and win material.

1. Bc1 Qc5
2. Rb5 (with fist pump)
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

Interested in learning?  Try THIS.

Here comes the sun, again.

Use FATHERZ10 at checkout

Please remember me when shopping online. Thanks in advance. US HERE – UK HERE  These links take you to a generic “catholic” search in Amazon, but, once in and browsing or searching, Amazon remembers that you used my link and I get the credit.   Sometimes the portion of the sale I get is just pennies, depending on what has been purchased, but it adds up over the span of a month.

NB: I received a note from one of the priests at Ss. Trinità, a fellow ham by the way, who does quite a bit of their vestment coordination.  I worked with him on the baptismal font project and on the recent red vestment project which you so generously participated in.  (They are so beautiful.)

I believe I mentioned before that there could be a project for a white solemn set which would also include a gremial for Pontifical Mass at the Faldstool, cope, an altar frontal, and tabernacle canopy.  Father wrote:

The idea is to make something in the style of our existing green solemn, namely damask and inserts from a stunning velvet fabric and short bushy fringe edging. In this case, the base damask would be white(ish) and the velvet would be kinda goldy with some red and blue in the pattern.

I’ll float this initial survey by you.  Don’t send money yet.  However, drop me a note.

Finally, as I was writing, Noon struck.  The last time I was here, the bells of the Brigdittines up the street were way off noon, but they’ve updated.  Now they overlap with the bells of the VEC across the way.

You can hear the Noon cannon from the Gianicolo and there are bells from Sant’Andrea in the distance.

I thought you might enjoy a little Roman Sunday Noon and more rain.

The first time I was in this apartment, I recorded the Noon bells across the way and I use it on my phone to ring Noon each day when I am NOT here.   Funny: when I arrived this time, I still had my Noon alarm on and I was getting the bells from two directions and slightly off.