Sunday, August 10, 2008

My First Post

HI, bloggers! It's exciting to get started on my own blog after peeping into so many of yours. I want to thank my friend, Patty Kelly of Dogpatch Primitives, for helping me get my start! Can you keep a secret? Ok, I call her Yoda because she's short, but not green, and is full of old wisdom and great advice. I don't know if she likes it but...well, you know how nicknames go!

Anyway, I'd like to use this space to express my inner most thoughts and put myself right out here in hopes that others might get to know me better because I have learned so much about many of my prim sisters - it's amazing - like seeing the heart behind the name.

Lately, I've spent alot of my daydreams thinking about home. Most people I know are home or can get there fairly easily, especially during the holidays. Home for me is pretty far away. When I was a baby, my parents packed us all up and moved to South America. I have one brother and one sister and the five us shipped out to the lands of llamas.

Our first years there were spent in Peru. We lived high in the Andes mountains in a little town called Cerro de Pasco. I don't remember too much about Cerro except that I would play alot. The women that cared for me would tote me around in a bundle on their backs. My favorite memory was going to the ponds to wash clothes. My babysitter would load all our dirty garments into a funny hat that was shaped like a bowl on the bottom so she could balance it on her head. While she busily scrubbed clothes between rocks in the ponds, I would sit in that cool water and catch tadpoles. There were lots of ladies there, so kids were plentiful and there was always someone to play with. I spoke spanish before english and considered these beautiful people my family.

The air had a smell to it - like fresh bread. I haven't touched foot to that soil in 0ver 40 years but can still smell it as though I were standing right atop one of those mountains that secretly surround little villages and hold all their secrets. I remember most people were barefoot or wore very primitively sewn shoes, without socks. To this day, I love to be barefoot!! The minute I get home - off come the shoes!!

There's alot to tell about my life in South America but for now I just want to say - I miss home! I'm planning a trip to Cuzco, Peru. I want to see Machu Picchu again. I was there once but don't remember it. All I know is that when I see pictures of it I have a yearning. My brother told me last month that he isn't surprised! He recalls that when we were there, I never wanted to leave. Something about those ruins and the majestic views that held me spellbound - even back then. Well, I'm headed home! Not for a couple of years but I am going home!!

For now, I spend my daydreams in a land high in the mountains were the air smells of fresh baked bread and the wonderful people are welcoming me home with gentle eyes and warm smiles. Here are some pictures I found to bring my dreams some life and oh how I love to look them.





















These represent the first faces I ever knew. The precious sweet faces of Peru!

I can't possibly close this blog without sharing Machu Picchu with you. Last year, new seven wonders of the world were unveiled. The old seven wonders either do not exist now or never really did. The new seven wonders are all places we can see and can you imagine my delight when Machu Picchu was selected as one of them! I was so proud - I cried!!! Enjoy machu Picchu. I'll be back to tell you more real soon!