Usually, I keep my gratitudes to myself. Today I want to voice my gratitude here.

My family is moving from Texas to Cleveland (that's in Ohio) for a couple of years before they re-settle in Florida. That means they will be just south of me and much more accessible. Dallas is very expensive to fly to even though there are countless daily flights from here to there. Since I'm on the subject,  OKC is far more affordable than Dallas which is only an hour away. [I mention OKC because I will be returning in November.]

She's part of my family!

Simplicity is the removal of the useless and the unnecessary--source unknown

She's letting me know she's watching over me.
 Here's what happened. Today had some rough moments in it. A few moments ago, I was working on the computer with my blog Playlist playing, and I heard a song that was not on my Playlist...coming from the computer. I checked, and the song should have been Boy on a Dolphin, sung by Julie London. Instead it was Besame Mucho, also sung by Julie London (I've loved Julie London all my life and have all her music but I had no idea that she'd recorded this song).

By now you're wondering what the hey I'm talking about.

Often when I'm going through rough moments, odd things happen. The odd thing here is that Besame Mucho was a song that my mother hummed while doing the washing-up. I was just a little child, but for some reason it's ingrained in my memory. It still has the power to move me to tears.

Detail of a collage I made of my mother.

The light of my life. My nephew.

And the light of his life (after his wife), puppy Rosie

See you on your birthday Sunshine!

The ties that bind

My maternal grandfather was a professor of philology -- ironically the only exam I failed at university and had to take a second time... He loved words, language, books. I only knew him for five years or so because he died while I was still a child. One of the memories he left me is showing me how he mended old books whose spines were damaged or broken. It was only after I made this piece with part of a book spine and binder's thread that I remembered...

Snow and flamenco on ice

It snowed today on the heels of a couple of almost spring-like days. I'd almost forgotten what it was like. Snow, that is.

Last night I watched our Canadian couple do a breathtaking flamenco on ice in the Olympic games. After that, I lost interest. My sister is the winter sports fan. But I'll watch anything that's flamenco.

Texas a few months ago, with my sister and my niece, Kiley in the middle. I'm smiling happily probably because I'm thinking of those incredible fish tacos my sister introduced me to.