Wed, Jun 27 - Ladislaus of Hungary

Today we drove to Alamogordo to take a sunset hike in the White Sands National Monument. We didn't end up actually going on the hike because it got super windy and the sand was blowing everywhere. Not that fun. But we did walk around for a while before it got too windy. It was pretty neat:

This little guy has adapted his color to match the white sand. He was scared of us, but he finally sat still long enough for me to snap a shot of him.

Today is the feast of St. Ladislaus of Hungary. He was king of Hungary in the 11th century. He conquered a lot of then-heathen lands such as Croatia and parts of Romania and converted them to Christianity. There are many Hungarian folksongs about him which praise his chivalry. Here is the image of him on which my outfit is based:

I actually brought a different outfit than I'm wearing in the pictures. I have my red skirt, and I brought a brown woven belt to wear. When I put it on, though, it looked weird. The shapes didn't go together, and my tank top was too long for the belt and I ended up looking like some kind of weird farmer's daughter or something. So, I went with jeans again. Ah, well. At least the tank top matches.

St Anthelm

Today is Carlsbad Caverns Day!

It is also St. Anthelm's Day. I don't have a whole lot of biographical information about him, but he was the abbot of the monastery of the Grand Chartreuse which is a very famous Carthusian monastery in France. It still exists and is still a religious house, so no visitors are allowed. Matthew Arnold, the English poet, wrote a poem titled "Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse" when he stayed there as a guest - I guess that was before the No Visiting policy was put in place.

My outfit is based on the liquor Chartreuse which was once produced at the abbey, but which is now produced in a factory nearby.

Proceeds from the sale of the liquor still benefit the monastery, however. Chartreuse comes in two colors - green and yellow. I am going with green today: