Remembrances of Thangs Past

So.... My sister (that same one I keep writing about) asked for permission to mention my blog site on her very famous Houston Chronicle blog and since this has always been my secret, private blog, I guess I'd better dust up and get ready for company. I actually like the idea, because it will be like getting visitors from home. It is very hard for a Southern girl like myself to live up here in the frozen north lands. The landscape is subtly beautiful and nuanced and the people are kind and supportive, but there are things they just don't understand - eating your own home grown pecans or figs from your back yard trees, the beauty (and intelligence) of a slow friendly drawl, the smell of salt when you go to the beach. There are plenty of wonderful experiences here too: fresh raspberries from the woods, irises that come up every year and don't rot, calls of the loons as they fly overhead, the nuances of grey and brown in the whiteness of winter; Nonetheless one never loses the connection to the world in which one was reared - I miss the moss, the pine needles, the mockingbirds, the bluebonnets and those big friendly smiles!