Anne's Jazz Night Out

So, on Sunday I came home with groceries and Balu escaped! In chasing after her, I broke my foot! Now, I am in a big boot, given to me by the doctor. It is gradually healing, but I had to miss two big events, a Passover celebration at a friend’s house, and cello rehearsal for our upcoming Spring recital! 

Fortunately, Anne got to go to the two events, one, a jazz party, and the other, the Annual Dragon Boat Race and Festival at Ladybird Lake! Here are a photo of her dancing with Andy Boutot, the singer of the band, The Big Night Quartet, and you can see the video of Anne at the Dragon Boat Festival here:

At the Big Night website, I found this video online of Andy Boutot singing with his band:

Press Release for Superstars

Volume 1 of My China in Tang Poetry, Superstars, is now available for pre-order from the publisher, Earnshaw Books, and at Amazon! Here is the press release, and you can find out more at my website:

Anne at Dragon Boat Festival

Here's Anne at the Dragon Boat Festival:

Trees in Spring

Remember at the beginning of the season I took pictures of my Texas Camel’s Foot? Well, now it is coming out in full force! Hard to show the full splendor, not being a professional photographer, but here's a photo to give you some idea! See how the leaves look like a camel’s footprint? Albeit a teeny camel!

And here’s the Eastern Red Bud with its tiny bloodred hearts. They will later turn into large, green leaves. This is just a little sprig. This stage doesn’t last long but my little tree is full of them!

Switchplate Opera Cats

It’s harder to take photos of the switch plates, but here are two with the Opera Cats to show you they’re like of switch plates. (More about the Opera Cats here and here and here.)

These creatures on switch plates are what first gave me the idea to call my little business Puck’s Gold in the first place. Guess why? It has to do with Puck in Midsummer Night’s Dream and Peter Pan’s gold dust, or more accurately Tinker Bell’s gold dust. Also, my daughter, Anne, who has Down syndrome and does not control much of what goes on in her life, loves to turn lights on -- wherever she goes in the house, the lights go on -- I imagine it’s because this is one way she can control her environment. In this way, she makes light!

This plate is in the kitchen. The four Chinese words read from right to left: HEALTH, PEACE, LONGEVITY, FORTUNE. Most Chinese people say this blessing in reverse order of what I have painted here, but to me, this order makes more sense.

This character reads PLENTY. This plate is also in the kitchen!