I kicked through the brick wall!!

After months of research, trying to learn what the train system was like in 1911 Spain, I accidentally (isn't that always the way it happens?) found my answers! There was an internet posting about a man who traveled through Spain by train in 1911... Now I have scenery through his eyes, what he saw in the villages and what the train was like. And I felt I was there alongside the man and imagined Abuelita sitting on a bench across from him with all her baggage around her..... twisting to see out those same windows. Lovely! It will make my story real as I take Manuela along her journey, leaving her Spanish home with her family all those years ago. Another step up in my ability to recreate her trip. I am certainly high on this one...

AND a first! The snow is nearly gone and I was feeling particularly blessed as I watched the birds swooping down for bird seed after I filled the feeders today --- and could not imagine what a spot of yellow was on the perimeter of my back garden. A fallen goldfinch? No! It couldn't be... IT WAS A FLOWER! My first flower in Charles City with the sun blending its strength into the soil along with the gentle flowing breezes of 50 degree temperatures. There IS a spring at the end of the tunnel....

And I am proud to say I have finally adapted to that dreadful treadmill. I'm at 15 minutes... trying for 20 and then 25 and then............we shall see.
Smiles,
PS