Sunday, April 06, 2008

More pictures from St. Andrew's Abbey and environs

Some friends and I went on Thursday. In addition to St. Andrew's Abbey, we hit a nearby nature preserve, and toward evening we hiked around some poppy fields. Did you know that it's illegal to pick a California Golden Poppy anywhere in California? True story. Okay, starting with the abbey:



A cat had the run of the ceramics shop.



This church totally looks like it was built by and for men. Brick-and-wood pews, sparse decoration, bare planks...



Pretty tulips outside, though.



The monks serve our soup course.



Ever wondered what vegetarian Benedictines eat? Wonder no more! (Jello salad too!)



I've no idea how he got the name.



I think God had fun making the desert horned toad.



"A good plant for the Extraordinary Rite!" as one of our company remarked.



My camera didn't capture the color well, but the poppies made it look exactly as if someone had sprinkled lots of the powdered cheese from Kraft Macaroni and Cheese boxes onto the hills. It was so incredibly windy that the poppies were all closed up, but they still looked wonderful.

1 comment:

Andrew Haines said...

Rachel,

My name is Andrew and I am a seminarian from Ohio studying at the North American College in Rome. I enjoy reading your blog from time to time and was wondering if you might consider checking mine out to see what you think. It seems you have a pretty strong reader-base, and I'd love to know if maybe you could put a little blurb up about what I'm doing, if you had the time or motivation.

My blog is mostly a catechetical/quasi-intellectual look at the faith, with focuses on prayer, theology, philosophy and developments in the Vatican. It's called "In Umbris Sancti Petri": http://inumbrissanctipetri.blogspot.com

Let me know what you think. Thanks!

-Andrew