These days particularly, although I cannot possibly explain it to you, I am always returning to my home in the village of the Nine Houses. And always I am returning to this photo, which I took on a recent visit as a way to remind myself. The flowers makes me think of summer and good smells. Incidentally, the little niche was made for saints. Almost every house has such a place. Most of the time the figure is Mary, draped in her blue coat, our sublime mother and protector. In the beginning, I thought I must do that too.  I began looking in flea markets, thinking she might appear among someone’s forgotten momentos.  But then one day I walked into a little gallery in Gradz, Austria, and there was this vase. Very heavy, crusty and old looking, made of cement; the top is finished with a beautifully painted and glazed white and blue flower motif. Two extremes that attract. I think of it as Mary in the abstract. Mary in all of her alchemy. Mary as the source of fresh water, beauty and divine magic.