Friday night at Peace House. I was greeted by this big river hawk as I unloaded the cut flowers I bring every visit. This time, I filled the vase with branches of mock orange flowers and bamboo. I heard him screaming first. He flew right over my head to land low on the limbs of the oak tree just above me. He sat preening his feathers until he grew bored with me and then flew off over the Hillsborough River that abuts their yard.

We drank this rich, red wine and ate asparagus sandwiches Karole made. Tomatoes, shaved turkey, fancy lettuce and homemade dressing. And other stuff. On these Puerto Rican rolls. With thin sliced sweet onions. I'll ask Karole for the recipe to share with you, but they were a-mazing!

I took my Sony Cybershot camera over and uploaded the disk drivers and got it set up. Also put a copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements for them to dink with on the jewelry photos they will take. Tary gave us a demonstration on beadmaking later in the evening. It was fascinating to watch her take the glass rods and form it, add tiny points of various colors around the surface and then drag a tool through the red-hot glass to make hearts. The light from her torch, the lamplight from her work bench outside made this amazing cameo! I was so delighted that the shots I took of her working the glass came out so well and uploaded to their computer that I ran off patting myself on the back before remembering to send one to myself to post here.

We had 'show and tell'. Phyllis brought her art portfolios and we spread all these riotous images out over the dinner table. Everyone found their favorites! Angie, Tary's daughter came in while we were looking Phyllis' artwork. We caught up on weekly news, Angie's boyfriend, our work, talked about the sacredness of dance and saw a belly dance video that Phyllis brought of this dancer doing a Pharonic dance. The dancer was all muscle and control, her moves so fluid that you never saw the transitions. I was a belly dancer and teacher in my younger days. Now I watch.

We spent the night because we had too much wine and I don't travel when I press the grape that hard. For our bedtime prayer, Tary and Karole brought out their tuned Tibetan bowls and we made them sing by ringing them and rubbing the clapper around the rims. We sang along with the bowls. Loud and harmonious women's voices! Janie and Rosie, their dogs sang along with us. What a sight we must have made if you looked in the window, women with their bowls and their voices and dogs singing along.

My friends amaze me! My newest friends also amaze me! Robin has become a solid force here for DWJ and pulls her art and her poetry out of the air like ripe fruit. She became the first poetry submission! I do have promises of poetry from Phyllis McEwen, Demi Wilson and Tary Peace. Will I get to see yours?