Mithras at Ostia

The top two photos are from Ostia's Mithras baths,
with a reconstruction of the original statue.
The bottom two show the statue in the Ostia museum,
along with a detail of the inscription on the bull.
This dates from the first century A.D.
I am very pleased to have these pictures in my collection,
as I find Mithraea very interesting.
(Mithras was a Persian solar god who slew a mythic bull
and thus brought life to the world.)
I love this Mithraeum, too.
It's extremely atmospheric,
and visiting it was definitely my favorite part of Ostia.

Ravenna: the Squinches at San Vitale

For years I had been searching in vain for good digital details
of the San Vitale squinches that support the dome.
However, most people who post vacation pix
don't look at things like a squinch.
So, I had to go off to Ravenna and take pictures myself!
They turned out rather well, considering that:
1) I didn't have a specialized zoom lens and
2) no tripods were allowed in San Vitale.

Ravenna: Galla Placidia's Mausoleum

Now that I'm home from Italy and back in the land of boring winter,
I am going to post some of my Italian adventures on my blog--
mostly as pictures.
I will be focusing especially on monuments that I teach.
It can be really hard to get high quality, high resolution photos
without copyright problems,
from internet sources.
So-- I'm using these in my class,
and maybe some other instructor will be able to find them useful too.
This is the late Roman mausoleum
of Galla Placidia,
an imperial Roman lady who had a lot of ruling power,
and who has a gorgeous (if small)
tomb building next to a now-ruined basilica,
and the larger, later, famous church of San Vitale.
I love the mosaics, especially Christ as the Good Shepherd,
the apostles and doves,
and the alabaster window panes.

Ethan the Pasta Chef

"Santa" bought me a pasta maker for Christmas.
It is the same brand I used in Italy,
only a bit smaller.
Ethan and I tried it out tonight.
I used basic American unbleached flour
but it worked out pretty well.
We tried both a linguine cut and a spaghetti cut.
Here's Ethan with our spaghetti, ready to go in the pot.
It was delicious!

Christmas Day

Driving home from my sister's,
the light was just perfect on the American Fork temple.
What a beautiful Christmas Day sight!

Houston Christmas

When I was visiting my cousin in Houston,
she took me to see this house near her neighborhood.
No snow, but one has to admire the Christmas spirit!

My Buddy Bertram

This is Bertram the Bison,
at the wheel of my car.
He is a National Parks Bison.
In fact, here he is at Palo Alto National Battlefield:

And also at the top of Port Isabel lighthouse:

I met Bertram in a national parks gift store.
He had a tag on him saying "I am Buddy the Bison and I like to go to parks!"
I LOVE to go to National Parks and so he is a terrific companion.
But Buddy just wasn't his name.
He definitely is a Bertram.
And I intend to take him to a lot of national parks!