My ninety-year-old Aunt Joan keeps things: newspaper articles on Spanish cuisine, records of family accomplishments, and letters–lots of letters.  She sorts through her boxes of papers and sends those of interest on to the appropriate family member.

Most often I receive letters written either by myself, or a relative.  Yesterday, though, I opened an envelope from Joanie and found the following: an article I wrote about  teaching that was published in the Monroe-Woodbury Teachers’ Association newsletter, Crossroads.

See this excited author holding the first proof of her middle grade fantasy novel, Tangled in Magic.

The polishing is in progress.  The book will be available for purchase soon!

Saachi comes to Ladythorn Place

Saachi, a Jack Russell terrier, joined our family on August 6th.  She was born on June 14, so today she is exactly two months old.

She is vastly entertaining, but like any baby, she requires a lot of care and attention.

She loves to be outside, digging and rolling and chewing.  Surprisingly, she’s missed noticing the frogs in the yard, even when I point them out to her.

Saachi will be wildly active, chewing on furniture legs, our legs, shoes, and toys for about half an hour.  Then she sacks out for a good two hour nap.

We’ll have Saachi updates as she grows.

Welcome, Saachi!

Story Thieves

by James Riley

published by Aladdin, 2015.

“You just told a character in a book that he was in a book! Do you have any idea what that means?”

“No?” Owen said.

“Me neither!” Bethany shouted. “And that’s what scares me!”

-from the back cover of Story Thieves

            Story Thieves is a fabulous book, and James Riley is a clever writer. The plot moves breathtakingly fast, with one dangerous, impossible situation following another.

Bethany, Owen’s classmate, is half-fiction. Her father was a fictional character and that gives Bethany the ability to jump into books. Even though her mother forbids it, Bethany continues to escape into stories to search for her father. She’s very careful not to interfere with the characters or plots, until Owen discovers her secret. He wants to go into his favorite series and perform some heroics. That’s when all the trouble begins.

Story Thieves is a fabulous, mind-stretching read. What book would you go into, if you could?

Opus 40, near Saugerties, New York, is the life work of Harvey Fite.   He bought the bluestone quarry in 1938, and spent the next 37 years constructing his Opus 40.

In the visitors’ center, we watched a short film about Fite and his work.

Beside the sheer size of this sculpture/stonework, I was most impressed by an aerial photograph of Opus 40.  There we could see the influence of the work Fite did in Honduras, restoring Mayan ruins.

Looking closely at the walls, I was amazed that Fite quarried and placed every single stone.  As we were leaving, we met a woman sitting on a golf cart.  It turned out that she was the wife of Fite’s stepson.  Pat lives with her husband in the house Fite built, and works to keep the monument a busy venue for visitors and concerts.

I wished that my father could have seen Fite’s Opus and his other sculptures.  My father was a sculptor whose work showed similar influences of his era: Arp, Noguchi, and Moore.  He would have enjoyed Opus 40.

Learn more about Opus 40 at   https://www.opus40.org/

In the main plaza yesterday there was an abundant display of the local produce. I didn’t quite know what was going on, but I think several farms belonged to the organization that was showing off their crops.

At our place in Villa Horacia, we have things growing, too: bananas

and olives

We are here only four more days.  I have found many things to love in Spain.  My eyes and heart are enriched.  I am grateful.

This bird is a hoopoe, also known as the “butterfly bird” because of the way it flies.  It comes daily to feed in our backyard in Sanlucar.   The hoopoe eats insects and spiders, which our bird seems to be finding in the grass. This blurry photo was taken (discretely) from our patio.  You can hear the hoopoe’s call on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8kRiEM2BV0

And learn more about it here:

https://www.fromthegrapevine.com/nature/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-hoopoe

I’m delighted that the bird flies over from Africa.  It’s exciting to be so close to that continent which also sends us its warm, sandy winds from time to time.

In the mountain above the city of Guadix, people live in house-caves.  The white pillars that you see sticking up are either air vents or chimneys.  We arrived before the museum opened, but a woman who was cranking out the awning of her store directed us to her “cueva”, to have a look inside for free.

Her husband was waiting to welcome us in.  He’s there in the photo, behind the gatepost.

   Kitchen, dining area, bedroom   and bath.

The man’s family has lived there for four generations.

We explored the church, also a cave dug into the mountain.

The Museum of Traditional Culture was a gem, situated in a cueva that was furnished as it had been in 1928 when the family bought it for less than $2.00.  We saw a film about the history of caves, from practical to religious.   The rooms were full of artifacts.

The caves of Guadix didn’t receive electricity until either the 1940s or the 1970s.  Either way, it made for a very dark residence.  There were only two openings to the outside, one, the front door, and two, a window in the kitchen.  The inside temperature was steady and cool.  The animals were kept in the rooms furthest away from the door.  Pigs.  I couldn’t imagine sharing a cave house with pigs.

This is a water spigot in a courtyard of one of the cuevas.  The cave village was the most tranquil place I’ve been in Spain.  It was quiet, clean, and had the feel of a spiritual community.

In fact, it was the home of Saint Pedro Poveda, whose cueva is also open to visitors, located next door to the museum.  The saint made many practical improvements in the lives of the very poor folk who lived in the caves in the early 20th century.  He died a martyr in 1936.

Sitting in a cafe across the street from the castle in Jerez de la Frontera, I stared at this incongruity for a while: palm trees and a castle.  Somehow my brain doesn’t put the two together.

Here is the lighthouse in Chipiona, with a cafe directly on the water.  We liked the look of this town, although it was still before high season, when it would be crowded with summer vacationers.

“Feed the birds, tuppence a bag—”    This gentleman is one of the regulars at the Plaza del Cabildo in Sanlucar.

These elders are regulars, too.  The woman with the glasses is the lead entertainment for her group.

Quite a “do!” on this rooster in the local pet store.

Aren’t they beautiful?  Useful, too, as the weather rises into the 100s.