Written Against the Odds

Except for the Jesus portrait Fiorella did for her brother when he was a child, Fiorella does not do religious paintings. She considers them, even the famous masterpieces, to be fantasies that all too often people take for real and embed with supernatural powers, like the Russian icons, like "holy" water, like religious medals. For Fio, God is all around us, in every breath we take, and the veneration of material items is a mistaken form of worship. (No, Fio would never have bitten off the toe of a dead "saint" and take it back to Rome with her.)
*
Now that the weather has turned, Fiorella is turning her attention to her rocks again. She emptied the trunk of the car of the bigger rocks she'd filled it with a couple of months ago and filled her little red wagon full of smaller rocks she'll back the bigger ones up with, if any of that makes any sense. If it doesn't make sense, blames it on the scorpion sting and the mosquito bite Fio got while clearing out her rock pile.
*
WARNING: Dora, la computadora, has been acting up lately and Fio doesn't know what's going on. In case Dora doesn't heal herself, Fiorella might be out of touch for a day or two.

Pigs, Walls, Celebrities, Landscaping, TV Killings

Well, judging by how her guinea pig post came out, Fiorella needs to learn a little more about transfering pictures from FB.Sigh, just one more electronic hitch in Fio's life. Wasn't technology supposed to make it easier for her?
*
Fio, of course, is as happy about the defeat of Trump's attempt to toss Obamacare out the back door as she was about the judicial rulings on the Muslim bans. That's two down. Now let's take after the stupid border wall. The delusional border wall.
*
Regarding Jennifer Anniston, the Duggars, or any present, past, or future Kardashians--Fiorella doesn't care.  She has a mild interest in Harry and Meghan, but a once-a-month update is enough. On the other hand--April the giraffe, that's news!
*
Fio and Husband have planted twenty-six boxwoods, two gardenias, three nandenas, and one ligustrum in the front garden this spring. They've also been shoring up the rocks lining the driveway, and once that project is finished, they'll move on to the side yard, also known as armadillo heaven.
*
Husband is watching a detective show on TV as Fio writes. So far, there have  been six corpses. This is not Fio's favorite kind of show. She knows people kill each other, but doesn't understand how they can bring themselves to do it.

*

Always Trying to Make It Better

As you might have gathered, Fiorella has been looking over her old short stories lately.  Most of them still resonate so she's thinking of re-editing them and trying to get them published as a book.  Hey--maybe her agent could help with that!
*
On the local front, the shelves on both sides of the fireplace in the den look good now so Fio is planning to move on to the shelves above the built-in desk--and she is merciless.
*
Fiorella has been looking at some of her old paintings with an eye to touching them up, but just for her own sake.  She's never yet let a good piece of art rest in peace.

Art

Fio has paintings, prints, and sketehes in almost every room in the house.  Walk into the front room, and you are hit with two of Austin Son's pieces, an inherited maritime, a pair of Chinese prints, and five of Fio's family portraits. Move into the dining room and you get Son's premier digital painting, an inherited floral, and two more family portraits (only one by Fio).  The den sports a black-and-white, a fantasy,and an O'Keefe-type charcoal, all by Son, plus a charming pencil sketch by Sister-in-Law.  The kitchen has four works by Son above the cabinets. The guest room has four framed molas and one of Son's pics. Three of Fio's paintings hang on the bathroom wall

Moving up, the stairwell displays eight portraits (one being of Wendy Dog), four landscapes, one nude, one abstract, and four Chinese prints.  Going down the hall, you are surrounded by Husband's photo display, four guinea pig oils, three of Fio's childhood paintings, and a door poster.  Husband's office features four of Fiorella's oils, and another of Son's larger works, and Fio has a pencil sketch of Son in her study.  The available walls and cupboard doors in the workroom/laundry are covered with art.  One upstairs bathroom displays three nudes. and the other one has two landscape paintings affixed to a cupboard door and one sitting on the counter.

On to the master bedroom. Where is the art?  Out of all the eighty-plus works of art on the premises, the most powerful are . . . the patterns of bare tree branches through the window glass.

.