We are up to around 10,000 cases in Spain with 500 deaths. Land borders are closed except to returning citizens and residents. China is sending materials and some experts. At least 19 dead in a nursing home in Madrid. Some 150 died in one day. The Health ministry says they can not test everyone that might be infected. Now there are 500 deaths.
The Spanish government expected to approve a moratorium on mortgage payments for those effected by the pandemic. See in Spanish https://elpais.com/economia/2020-03-17/el-gobierno-aprobara-una-moratoria-para-el-pago-de-hipotecas.html
Grocery stores have slightly reduced hours and limit the number of people at one time. Lidl limits entrance to one per family. In some they limit the number of identical articles you can purchase.
Starts at hour 11 eight minutes
Peg writes: The City falla was being assembled when Fallas was cancelled. This morning it was burned. The video is 11 hours long because no one knew when the burning would take place – the officials did not want a crowd to assemble. Apparently, it was at about 4 a.m. this morning.
The main part of the falla was Ayto, a woman seated in a Lotus position. On the left side of her torso you see her head still on the pavement. You can see that the artistas falleros added a surgical mask on the day Fallas was cancelled.
The fire actually starts at about 11:08 on the video. It is a pretty good representation of how they all burn on March 19, except that it took longer for the fire to start because it rained for a couple of hours before the burn.
The burning is even sadder with the music playing, and there has been a constant stream of sad comments since the video was posted.
Every night at 8 p.m. everyone opens their window or steps outside onto their terrace to clap for the health care workers who are working on everyone’s behalf.
Travel plans, smavel plans. Our flight to on April 1st to Egypt went through Bergamo, one of two airports serving Milan, a region infected with Covid-19 and the area first shut down by the Italian government. I had already started drawing some of the sculptures and wall paintings. Latest update on the situation at end of post.
Head of Amenhotep, conte crayon
Our issues are as nothing compared to those who have become ill or those whose family members have died, but is part of the economic devastation the virus spread has caused. Here in Spain all non-essential activities are prohibited. The police can stop and question those whose activities might not be in compliance. Bars and restaurants can not make a centavo for the next two weeks at least as the government attempts to reduce and spread out the stress on the health care system. The biggie is the cancelatin of Fallas, the annual festival that brings some 800,000 people into the city each March. It was rescheduled to July, creating economic hardship for thousands of workers.
Before the Valencian government canceled we attended the first night’s fireworks at the port. The crowds were a bit less than the usual huge but it was far from vacant. The display was terrific!
They had installed street lights and transported some of the sculptures. We took a walk through an area known for its fantastic and large works.
The venders were set up, selling buñuelos (donuts made with pumpkin) and porras (deep fried cones stuffed with sweet creaminess) on street corners throughout the closer in areas of the city. After the closure they left.
Bus routes had already been changed to deal with the streets being converted to pedestrian only. The trash containers, recycling bins (separate for paper, glass, metal-plastic being combined) had already been moved. City workers had delivered the barricades that the casals (the local groups that organize and fund the sculptures, street paellas and the like) use when they have paella (they make small fires on the pavement to make the rice dish) and to cordon off music and other events. In the main plaza the huge fence was set up to contain the magnificent daily mascletas, one each day at 2 p.m. from March 1-19. They managed to do ten before the cancellation. In the video you can hear the Fallera Mayor order the commencement of the display.
The enormous fallas’ (sculpture) for city hall was in place awaiting assembly. I can not find a photo. Below is a photo of the crowd. Perfect place to pass along an infectious disease!
40-50,000 people squeeze into Plaza de Ayuntamiento
Falleras (the lady members of the casals) had prepared their fabulous gowns for the many parties and the major event called La Ofrenda (the Offer), where they walk from their casal to the Plaza de la Virgin each with a bouquet that is placed on the 25 meter (80′) tall rendition of Mary with the baby Jesus in her arms and two children at her feet.
The Ofrenda
Dresses are back in the closets. I suppose those who make the bouquets will get their paychecks and those who deliver them will have this job again in July if in fact Fallas makes it back.
In the meantime people panic buy toilet paper, meat, pasta and jarred beans while standing in long lines to check out. I hope they are all being careful as they stand there. In our trips for groceries they were, and everyone was respectful and orderly. The supermarkets in some cases were not able to fully replenish supplies each night of the several that have passed since the lock down was announced.
Last night at 10 PM we heard clapping and cheering. We went out to the balcony. Friends from across the street were out there too – they’d had lunch with us that day. It turns out to have been a gigantic applause for the health care workers in the clinics and hospitals. It was a heart warming gesture in the midst of so much gloom.
LATEST UPDATE: I’ll keep you updated on the situation here. Deaths have skyrocketed overnight to near 200, from just 1 on March 3rd, doubling overnight. Number of cases doubled from 2 days ago to 8000.
Her first name was really Sebastiana, an Italian name, but she went by Diana since around 1928. She was born in Brooklyn. Her sister was born in Sicily, probably Partanna where her father, my grandfather, was born.
My father Frank, graphite
Mathew (Matteo), digital
Mathew, as we knew him, was born in Partanna, Sicily. He was our uncle. He came to the US around 1914. His last name differs however. I obtained his birth certificate. Unlike the others, the parents names are not stated. We have no idea who his father was.
Peg and I in Pennsylvania, digital
My brother’s wife, Caroline, who recently passed away
Camillo, my half siblings father , acrylics
Camillo was born in Marsala, Sicily (yes, home of the famous wine). My brother says his hair was not curly as I have depicted it. He died during WWII while at work at the Brooklyn shipyards. I found his death certificate, upon which my mother’s first names were both used. I needed this to show the Italian consulate that Diana and Sebastiana were the same person. This allowed me to claim Italian citizenship.
Self portrait, acrylics
These next two are my more creative and less realistic portraits of older relatives
I have never seen a woman conduct a band or orchestra. At the concert on February 4, 2020 we were treated to her skillful conducting and for me her fabulous gestures. Too bad it was too dark to draw. In addition, there were two composers in the audience whose work was performed by the Banda de Valencia, a symphonic band (no violins).
Beatriz Fernandez Aucejo, charcoal drawing
Beatriz Fernandez Aucejo trained locally first as a clarinetist and in Murcia to the south of Valencia as a conductor. She’s conducted numerous bands in Spain. She often flashed a great smile at the band as she conducted while she almost danced her intentions to the musicians.
Santiago Quinto Serna and Vincente Ortiz Gimeno were in the audience. The band performed the former’s Un Deber de Amor . There are numerous performances on youtube. Here’s one
They performed Serna’s Rapsodia Hernandiana
These two pieces are representative of modern Spanish composition. Valencia is an internationally recognized center for music composition, especially for symphonic bands. In the province there are about 600 symphonic bands, many of whom annually come to Valencia to compete.
What is uniquely mine comes from what it means to be me somehow. Sometimes even I can not emulate me, some of the colors I have mixed I can not quite duplicate. These colors are a mixture of what I have learned academically and my flying by the seat of my pants, pure instinct for fuel.
Nefertari ( d. circa 1255 BCE) was the first wife of Ramses II. Her tomb is in the Valley of the Queens. The astounding art of the tomb in the Valley of the Queens ( d. circa 1255 BCE) is at 38 minutes.
The film is about the powerful women of ancient Egypt. Gary Bob says check it out!
As a result of my interest in Italian citizenship I made contact with a high school classmate with expertise in the scientific aspects of genealogy in 2008. She arranged for me to have a Y-DNA test to the 37th allele. The Y test traces your paternal heritage. This is more appropriate for heritage tracing where the mother drops her family name for that of the father. The results of my test are in https://www.familytreedna.com/. The test showed the presence of relatives from the general area of Central Europe west to Ireland. This was to be expected given my father’s Scottish Celtic heritage.
While in Ireland in the mid 1990’s I went to a shop and bought a print out dealing with the Kirkpatrick clan, my first notification that the family originated in Scotland, not Ireland as we had been told. By 1998 I’d learned of a town called Kirkpatrick-Fleming in Scotland near the border with England. We drove past it on the way to Glasgow. While in Glasgow for a two month period I noticed the many instances of the Kirkpatrick-Kilpatrick name such as Kilpatrick Hills (Kilpatrick is a variation). When we were in Flackwell Heath, England in 2014, one of the volunteers helped me research the Kirkpatricks using their ancestry.com account, at which point I learned about Roger de Kirkpatrick and the Closeburn Castle, owned by the Kirkpatricks from around 1200 to circa 1750.
Several years later I decided to see if I could trace the lineage back to Sir Roger de Kirkpatrick, our most famous ancestor. I used an ancestry.com paid account. I started with the people whose names I knew, the oldest being my great grandfather, whose name and other details I’d learned thanks to the family tree made by my cousin Lois. I then found his father and then the next and so forth, back to around 1200 and Sir Roger. I added this information to my ancestry.com account Kirkpatrick-Palermo-Peloso.
Among my findings was a James Kirkpatrick who was born in 1719 in Dumfries, Dumfries-shire (same area as Kirkpatrick-Fleming), Scotland and who died in South Carolina. The record I found shows that James moved to Ireland, had at least one child there, then moved to America. He had at least one child born in America, in Pennsylvania. James’ father, Alexander Kirkpatrick, left Scotland and settled in Belfast, Ireland in 1725, presumably bringing James with him. He also immigrated to America but I do not think any of his children were born there. This is the link between our Scottish and Irish heritage. You can say we came from Ireland and to be correct but at the same time it is clear the family originated in Scotland circa 1200. This modifies the family story that we are Irish in origin. We are, in a sense, but much more Scottish, by a long shot.
There you find a reference to Closeburn: “In 1232, Ivone de Kirkpatrick was granted a charter of ‘Kelosburn’ by Alexander II, and here they remained until 1783, when an imprudent heir was obliged to dispose of his inheritance. ” Kelosburn is now spelled Closeburn and is near Kirkpatrick-Fleming.
In Closeburn the Kirkpatricks built a castle called, appropriately enough, Closeburn Castle. It is still in existence and is now a B and B. It is a Category B listed tower house that was until 1783 the family seat. It was sold apparently to settle debts.
Per Wikipedia, the family was granted the lands called Closeburn in 1232 by Alexander II, consistent with the aforementioned rambling account. The tower house dates from circa 1200.
In 1306 Sir Roger de Kirkpatrick (circa 1280-1357) reportedly finished off John “the Red” Comyn, a rival to the throne, whom Robert the Bruce (Brus) had seriously injured. Bruce fled from the scene of the crime saying he was not sure his rival was dead. Sir Roger reportedly said, “I mak sikker” (I’ll make sure). The drawing below memorialized the scene. Less than seven weeks after the killing in Dumfries, Bruce was crowned King of Scotland. He granted de Kirkpatrick an armorial, which you see below. “I mak sikker” became the family motto.
The killing of John Comyn in the Greyfriars church in Dumfries, as seen by Felix Philippoteaux, a 19th-century illustrator.
Sir Roger was a 3rd cousin of Robert the Bruce. He was a 1st cousin of Sir William Wallace, a well known historical figure. Sir Roger recaptured Caerlaverock and Dalswinton castles from the English in 1355. He was murdered by Sir James Lindsay at Caerlaverock in 1357.
Sir Charles Sharpe Kirkpatrick, 9th Baronet (1874–1937)
Sir James Alexander Kirkpatrick, 10th Baronet (1918–1954)
Sir Ivone Elliott Kirkpatrick, 11th Baronet (born 1942)
In the 17th century the family moved from Closeburn Castle to a newly built manor house next door. The manor house burned down in 1748. They repaired the castle and moved back in. The castle was sold in 1783 to a local minister, James Stewart-Menteith. Since then it has since changed hands.
Coat of Arms of the Kirkpatrick Baronets, of Closeburn
Croquis Cafe is an ode to Edward Hopper’s Sunlight In a Cafeteria. Strong lines are offset by soft figures. Unlike the loneliness of a Hopper scene, here we have activity and movement in an art cafe. “Croquis” is the French for sketch.
Croquis Cafe 57 x 76 cm, 22.5 x 30” acrylics on Canson high quality watercolor paper mounted on canvas
Into the Night Sky, acrylics on paper, 30 x 40, 11.25 x 16.5
From the story of Julio and Alicia in El Gran Hotel. The story takes place in turn of the century Spain. Julio looks for his missing sister at the Hotel, finding work as a waiter. He finds a sympathetic ear in Alicia, who is forced to wed a crooked partner of her parents. In the ethos of the time Alicia must not wed below her status as a well to do heiress. She finds this secret room in the hotel, hidden between two guest suites. Here they meet. I did a version in chiaroscuro here http://garyjkirkpatrick.com/couple-views-eclipse-from-bed-in-chiaroscuro/
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