Guitar Indigo Latin at the Quarter Deck Music Lounge

Francis Purcell Guitar Indigo Latin at the Quarter Deck Music Lounge - Tonferns Rhapsody Please click on the link below. Sit back, relax, enjoy. https://youtu.be/WUcN_Q3FZ3A

At the Quarter Deck Music Lounge - Tonferns Rhapsody

 

At the Quarter Deck Music Lounge - Tonferns Rhapsody 

Please click on the link below. Sit back. relax, enjoy.

https://youtu.be/Ysq2wMXV43c

Summer Solstice Moon & Venus

 

Celestial duo in close proximity on 21 September 2023 

Frame 1 -  Moon 

Frame 2 -  Moon & Venus (Bottom left corner)

Photographs by Tony Fernandes.

Laterite Soil, Stone & the Pick-axe

 

Laterite Soil, Stone & the Pick-axe

Laterite soil is found all along the Konkan Coast - Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, and also in Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and the hilly regions of Orissa and Assam. Laterite soil and rock is rich in iron and aluminium in hot and wet tropical areas.

Vegetables and cashew trees grow on soft laterite hills. Laterite stones, widely  used in construction are acquired from rock quarries along hillsides and carted away to building sites. 

Master artisans, skilled in the art of stone carving, have a special bond with the pick-axe and the stone. 

The Goan 'Picaas' (Pick-axe) is a mid-sized implement for a lot of big-sized jobs.

Forged by professional local master craftsmen and iron-smiths of yesteryear, the pick-axe is a handy tool used in many village households, and also in the construction and agricultural sector in Goa. It was mainly used in stone quarries for cutting out and  shaping the initial rough forms of commonly used laterite stones and for building houses, schools, churches, temples, bridges, river-side embankments, forts, government and commercial buildings, compound walls, culverts, and especially for cutting wedged shapes and circular segments used for arches and round wells by professional masons. The axe can be used for hoeing, skimming, and chopping through tree roots. 

This tool is generally T-shaped. Its head is typically metal,

attached perpendicularly to a longer wooden handle. It has a pointed end on one side of its head and a broad flat blade opposite. A gradual curve characteristically spans the length of the head which gives it the advantage in leverage  -  both for breaking and prying from both ends.

Spanish Miniature Guitar

 

Spanish miniature Guitar, double cutaway, 1/6 Scale, 1/8” thickness white PVC, hollow body, 6 nylon strings. Hand-crafted by Tony Fernandes.(TonFerns Creations). For display purposes only. It balances itself at a slight left or right tilt on its own.

Happy Feast Day of St. Anthony of Padua

Today is the feast day of St. Anthony of Padua. He was born in Portugal. He joined the Franciscan Order and was a proficient preacher and teacher in Padua, Italy, where he died. He is one of the Catholic Church’s most popular saints. He is typically portrayed holding the child Jesus—or a lily—or a book—or all three—in his arms. St Anthony's Bread traditionally refers to loaves of bread blessed and shared in honour of St Anthony, and to alms given to the poor in thanksgiving for blessings received through the prayers of St. Anthony. He is the patron saint of sailors, travelers and fishermen in many countries like Portugal, Italy, France and Spain. He is also a saint of the poor, the sick, the homeless and lepers, the paralytic, the blind and the deaf. His statue is sometimes placed on the masts of ships. And of course he is well known for his miracles all over the world. Incidentally, St. Francis of Assisi was an Italian Roman Catholic friar, deacon, preacher and founder of the Franciscan Order that St. Anthony belonged to.

But to us folks in Goa he is well known too, honoured and respected, petitioned for his blessings, and attributed in religion and in legend in various aspects. St. Anthony is also the one who is invoked for his intervention in recovering lost articles. I remember I did that as a teenager. Even now I often ask for his help, perhaps because of my own fault and bad memory, but nevertheless he always obliges by bestowing his blessing.

As a young lad I remember praying to St. Anthony for rain when my grandma was worried and distressed with thoughts of crops failing. So, on a beaten path making a bee-line through the fields my grandmother led our family and the rest of the folks in the village carrying a little statue of St. Anthony, treading their way to the Holy Cross and singing a Litany to her favourite Saint. While praying and singing in harmony, everyone had trust in the miraculous cross and of course in St. Anthony. Invariably, it rained that very night. When we woke up the next morning the fields were fully soaked to the joy of everyone.

He is the patron saint of my alma mater, St. Anthony's High School, Monte de Guirim, Bardez, Goa. 

Happy Feast to you all.

Tony Fernandes, Class of 1964.

Tonferns 4 wheel drive Miniature Model

'TonFerns’ miniature model 4-wheel drive ‘the Beast’ - 1/8” thick hand-cut re-cycled plywood. 1/18 Scale. Trapezoidal suspension. Hand-crafted by Tony Fernandes.

After a gorgeous day of brilliant sunshine the sunset was  spectacular in the evening sky. But ‘moonwhile’, not to be outdone, in the east a little later the Strawberry Moon in June made its own grand appearance too.

Miniature Violin

Violin 1/6 Scale, 1/8 thickness plywood, hollow body miniature with nylon strings. Hand-crafted by Tony Fernandes.(TonFerns Creations). For display purposes only. It balances itself at a slight left or right tilt on its own.

Miniature Portuguese Guitar 12-string

Hand-crafted 12-string 1/4 scale Portuguese tear-drop hollow body acoustic miniature guitar hand-crafted from 1/4” thick plywood by Tony Fernandes. Fado essential. For display only. Looks beautiful on a piano. Or on a home display shelf.