That is pronounced with a short “a” as the English pronounce it and not with the long “a” as one can hear it in the USA. Why? Because my father, who was brought up by English nannies so that he would learn to speak proper Shakespearian back then in Jerez de la Frontera (Spain) pronounced it that way, so my mother pronounced it that way and I dare say my grandmother and grandfather (if I ever heard them mention tomatoes) pronounced it that way too. Continue reading
INTERNET GRAFFITI
Blogging is not writing; it is
graffiti with punctuation.
(Contagion, the film)
Last night was a momentous moment (can one say that: momentous moment? Oh, well…): I finally beat Kiwi-san at Scrabble and by a humongous 119 points!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is after at least twenty-five games where I have been miserably beaten and one where I almost won (one/won, hmmmm). Continue reading
2011 in review
WHAT A PRESENT! THANK YOU WORDPRESS FOR MAKING THIS BLOG, AND ALL THE BLOGS, POSSIBLE. BRIANDA
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 7,600 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.
2012, THE BEGINNING
There! It has begun! And the miracle, I simply must write even if only a paragraph. The sky bright blue, a sun that has been washed and re-washed by weeks of rain has burst through. Everything glows and glitters, Continue reading
THE YEAR THE WORLD IS TO END…
It rains and rains and rains. It has been raining since I returned and from what I saw of the weather while I was gone (on my I-phone weather button), it rained most of the days I was in Mexico. Continue reading
WORKING WITH A PURPOSE
I am sitting here in daughter’s house in Mexico; she is out. Two of her three children are watching television in an adjoining room. Before me lies a book I picked up in a local bookstore thinking it was a novel Continue reading
ONE YEAR
Dedicated, with much love and gratitude to EL MUSO.
On December 2nd at 5 o’clock in the afternoon I completed my first year in Salies. It was exactly 365 days before that I had 
arrived carrying my suitcases, my dog, quite a bit of excitement and not a few nerves. Continue reading
A SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
A few days ago, I received an e-mail which started out with the following:
One of the keys to living an authentic evolutionary spiritual life
is having a spiritual practice that you’re actively engaged in.
This kind of absolute affirmation pulls me up short when it is expressed even when it is my own mind expressing it, Continue reading
SALIES ON SATURDAY
Saturday is a slow day in Salies, slow in the good sense of relaxed, unhurried; a nothing-else-to-do day all for me. I love Saturday mornings, awaking and knowing I can laze in bed all I want. Salomé is curled up beside me; by her deep breaths I can tell she is asleep. Continue reading
BLITHERING IDIOT
I always check what WordPress tags as Spam and usually what I find really is spam, nothing that would be worthwhile saving. But one day the following comment appeared in the Spam Box:
“That is a super-peachy-keen post. Thanks for really blathering on like that! Seriously, I don’t think I could have spent more effort wishing for something heavy to fall on me to erase that nonsense from my mind! Signed: Blithering Idiot” Continue reading
Writing a life 