High Lights

A highlight of yesterday was listening to conversations between a four-year-old and two sixty-something-year-old friends, Chris and Nellie.  Intent on decorating masks with Nellie, Elena said, "This is the greatest day!"

After a brief warm-up meeting people, she holds her own in conversation plus some.  The girl loves to talk! When Chris was showing us her beautiful arrangement of jewelry made of natural stones,  bones, silver and copper, Elena wanted to be sure she showed Chris her new plastic bead bracelet from Bonnie.

***    Friendships

"You sure have a lot of friends," she said. "Who is your best best best best friend?"

Well, that's a hard question to answer on the spot, every friend a treasure.  "You," I said--to which she responded, "That's what I wanted you to say!"

"Who is your best best best best friend?" Nellie asked Elena.

"Yenna!" she said.

***   Ravens

So today, Nellie and I drove to Castroville and met Joy who showed us around and told Nellie all about the Alsatian history.

Nellie loves to read all the historical markers wherever we go and she loved soaking up the history of beautiful Castroville.

At lunch, Joy and Nellie were talking about their shared love of ravens--and the lore of them.  Later, on our way to a wine party at Fiona's, Nellie stopped by Dollar Tree.  She came out with three plastic chirping ravens for us to wear to the party and one to give to our host, Fiona.

***  Bright Colors

Nellie brought me a beautiful print of one of her flower paintings!  It's perfect for the new room I'm building--and looks great with the wild fabric I chose.  I'll post pictures later.

Chris--whose color palette in her home is more rich earth tones--had a small quilt in my colors and she gave it to me!  I'm going to hang it on the wall too.

Tomorrow morning, we'll be looking for frames at garage sales.

*** Wine

Fiona and Lee own the upholstery shop.  Lee is married to Fiona's daughter.  Every other Friday night, Fiona and Sarah (her daughter) host a wine party.

Nellie took a bottle of Trumpeter wine and everyone else brought wine and cheese and crackers and dips.  We had such a good time, Nellie and I wearing our ravens.

Fiona is from Scotland, but she lives in Spain three months out of the year with her husband, Justin.  She's planning a trip to Spain for a bunch of us women at the party, and Nellie and I are in!

Fiona and her mosaic bathroom