Dear friends,
Isn't Spring wonderful! Everybody's flowers are popping into bloom. I'm glad I
pruned our grapes and we had the apricot tree pruned professionally and it has
been sprayed, too. We still have a few cooked and frozen apricots I prepared last year.
In a few minutes I'll go out to sit on the front deck and polish all our brassornaments and candlesticks. I've been putting it off for a good warm, sunny day
and this is the right one.
Finally I felt the time had come to learn to use the new cd player. I didn't feel energetic enough to set things up till now. There are three disks in it which will randomly shuffle themselves and it's on continual play. The first disk
is Yo-Yo Ma playing classical music including "Flight of the Bumblebee" by Rimnsky-Korsakov; J.S. Bach's "Musette" and "Air"; The second is Merando Philoharmonic Orchestra praying "Switched On Classics" with music by Sibelius, Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Strauss and Offenbach and others. These are souped up with
a catchy beat, and sound great! The third disc is a 2002 Baha'i concert that was recorded live in Carnegie Hall in New York city, by "The Voicesof Baha" orchestra and
choir.
Our second daughter sang there at Carnegie Hall with the big choir and orchestra
and I can see her face in the soprano section in the pictures on the front and
back of the cd cover. She sings in three choirs in her home city, and also sang in this international choir. She's a soloist too, and sings at weddings and various events. She has a good range and is able to hit high C. She loves to sing Gospel music and is taking some lessons to help her with that right now.
Our third daughter and her husband are re-opening their Mayan restaurant in a
shop on the ground floor of one of the best office buildings in their city. They say it is a point of honour with them never to pay to advertise. Word of mouth brings them their customers and they have regularly been written up in newspapers, and also a glossy magazine this summer in a two page centrefold with a picture showing the whole family and calling it one of the best secrets of places to eat in that city. The new place isn't far from the smaller, older place they
are leaving so I think they won't lose any clientelle. On Friday and Saturday evenings they serve full dinners to customers with reservations. The way this isarranged is interesting. They keep a list of people who would like to be phoned and offered a reservation on a couple of day's notice. They have a long listof hopeful diners' phone numbers, so they call until they have full seating forthe evening, and then stop. Next time they just start to call from where they
left off. That's unique in my experience, but it works very well for them.
Our first daughter is making her own paper, and painting, painting, painting every day. She's a professional fine artist. Their own youngest daughter who presently works in an art and jewellery gallery just turned 20 and is saving her earnings to put herself through executive chef training at a good college in her city. The two sons are also earning their money for further training. One will become specialized in designing and making fine furniture and other self-designedwood-working projects. He and his brother have a wooden boat which they are restoring and where the eldest son lives. The younger son is an artist and musician
. Their Dad's a computer guru for a big company.
Our eldest, a son and his wife are doing alright, too. He has a senior positionwith a microsystems company and just now is also in charge of what the company
will do to stay up and running if that bird flu does happen to mutate and pass from human to human. She is an international consultant for companies seeking a
large number of new staff. She has a Canadian partner in the USA who handles the US market, and our son's wife handles the Canadian end of things.
Ben's working seven days a week and twelve hours a day now. Thank goodness thiswill slow down in two weeks, at the end of April. I keep an eye on him to makesure in all the rush that he has some balance in his life and eats on time and
properly. I mostly put his new office together and he says every day some of his clients remark on how much they like it. His waiting room is set up more likea family sitting room, so they find it friendly and welcoming. Also, he has
much more room than before.
We still haven't been able to conclude negotiations on that other little business we're trying to buy because of severe chronic illness in the owners. So right
now I'm continuing to work on getting things in good order at home. There's a lot to do with sorting and filing a lot of research material and other informationI've collected over some years into a long shiny black two drawer filing cabinet
with hanging files that Ben didn't need at the office. My paperwork here at home is so far behind that I have to remind myself often that "Slow and steady wins the race!" That's the saying from the story of the Tortoise and the Hare that
used to help me to win so many of the roller-skating races on the smooth city side street where we lived when I was five years old.
OK -- enough. I always enjoy reading what any of you write about your lives, sowrite more! :-))
I'm off to polish that brass that has been waiting out there on the table on thedeck for about a week for me to get to it, and then it's to wash the sheets andchange the beds, and so it goes....
I hope you all have a shining day in one way or another! :-))
Warmly, Mary
