Blessings and Challenges

Happy that I can still do the splits.

My late husband often said, "No one said it was going to be easy." And as I review my long life I can view it as a part I have been playing on this stage of life. I have had great blessings and many challenges, as we all do.

Saturday August 13, I celebrated my 82nd birthday in Mexico City with my youngest daughter, Cynthia Hamilton. We both love that huge city and all the art and culture it has to offer.

The Tamayo Museum is the place the place we usually start. We took our first Uber ride from our hotel in Col Roma .
The day was wonderful. I talked to my other 2 daughters via Skype and cell phone, ate and drank well and felt completely fulfilled.

We returned to San Miguel Sunday night and our dogs came back from their vacation with their favorite person, Janet Krem. Janet is a dear friend and an angel who has a wonderful animal boarding center. She brought our happy dogs back Monday afternoon and by Tuesday our 8 month old puppy must have eaten something poisonous on the Monday evening walk around our community. She became more and more ill and has been at the animal hospital for a week, hanging on by a thread.

I raised my 3 daughters alone and had many a crisis, broken bones, deep cuts requiring stitches, the baby poisoned with ant poison; several times little stomachs had to be pumped; the death of my mother, the brain tumor of my husband... I had 18 hours to leave our home in Spain, find house sitters, get plane tickets and get him to New York where he died 5 months later. So when I felt that the puppy, Sasha, was dying in my arms, I completely lost it, sobbing and shaking. Fortunately, Cynthia kept herself together and got the pup to the emergency vet. I won't describe what a roller coaster ride this week has been, just that I realized that this was the first time in my life I couldn't take charge and everything must have caught up and all my emotions overflowed.

These photos are from Mexico City and the last one is in the pet hospital

First stop, the Tamayo Museum. Our favorite spot. This is outside where the happy dogs played in the wate

Col. Roma

The Buffet at Delirio

Cynthia on the stairs of the huge bookstore

A loaf of bread; a jug of wine

Walking around Col Roma. There is always something new to discover.

How did everyone know it was my birthday?

tapas in the hotel room after the museums

dinner in our favorite restaurant, Casa Virginia, Col Roma

A vegetarians' delight - plenty of meat dishes for others

Contentment

back in the room for chocolate torte, champagne, flowers and a gift. All arranged by Cynthia.

Fun, fun, fun

Sasha looks like a starving street dog after not being able to eat for 10 days. She is receiving medication including vitamins, antibiotics and was force fed today. She stood up to greet me today, walked out of her cage and put her head on my shoulder. The vet thinks she may make it.

A Hero And A Victim

We, my daughter Cynthia and I, share a lovely home outside the city of San Miguel de Allende Mexico. Our neighborhood has been victimized by robberies and attempted break ins. Our older dog, Ziggy , a Boxer, had been poisoned in May. The quick response of Cynthia saved his life . He is a great dog but when alarmed by suspicious activity he is a force to be reckoned with.

Our next door neighbors were robbed in daylight while we were in Mexico City for my birthday . Ours dogs were also on vacation and not at home. BTW, my birthday was fantastic.

We got home Sunday night. The dogs came home Monday. That night when Cynthia took the dogs out for their evening romp, she saw 3 men on bicycles in front of our neighbors gate. Our hero Ziggy went after them and they raced off, but not before they threw down an old blanket, that is used to cover razor wire or broken glass that tops walls around houses,  and a hanger-like tool that helps scale the walls. At this time they also dropped the poison used to kill guard dogs.

Ziggy was the hero, but our 8 month old puppy  Sahsa, consumed the poisoned bait. She was the victim. She is under care and we and supportive friends are praying for her survival. We believe all the vet care and the prayers will give her the energy to heal and come back to us.

I have not spent much time in the studio this week and my computer crashed today so there are no photos.

Tomorrow morning I will have some dental surgery and get my computer to a geek .

Reverie, The New Series

Almost finished. Perhaps one more day day of work.

As I am in the last part of my sojourn on this planet, meditation and contemplation are most important to me. "Be still and know God" My daily prayer is "I will perform all duties serenely, saturate with peace"

This sense of peace has influenced my work for a few years now. Perhaps that is why working with my older colorful abstract does not pull me at the moment.

I am working on my latest series, "Reverie" and enjoying the challenge of accurate representation of the model, while keeping the paint strokes fresh and un-blended.

Here is what is happening, so far:

Detail

In process

Russian Robots

Frustrating!! This last week my blog has been taken over by Russian robots. Hundreds and hundreds of hits coming from Russia. I doubt anyone in Russia has an interest in my musings about my art.

So today I will post images from Lou Ros, one of my favorite painters. I wish I could paint as loosely as he.