Hi, Friends and Family! I want to share some photos and comments, so this is the place!       Denise Wreede

DeniGirl I was born to a wed mother in the poor little village of San Marino where at the age of three I learned to steal flowers which I could sell in the neighboring hamlet of San Pasadena.  When mother was ill it was the only money we had for food, although sometimes we had to eat the flowers.  (Flowers are best with olive oil and garlic, but terrible with horseradish.)  We lived in a tool shed at the back of a Chinese laundry where I learned to read and write.  I wish it had been English, though. As I grew older I learned to liberate other things which I could sell for more money.  I discovered that the rich people who lived in the City of Temples to the south of us often forgot to take in their garden hoses at night and I could sell the better ones for a silver coin each at the San Gabriel Mission thieves market.  I quit doing that, though, when one night I found many of the residents of the City of Temples had gathered and were wielding pitchforks, on the lookout for whomever was taking their hoses.  Me.  The money did, however, allow mother and me to redecorate the tool shed. The shed, like all sheds, was small on the outside, but we had managed to make it larger inside, and it was home.  from the anteroom you could step into the library, the music room or the main living area.  Mother's sewing room was next to the gallery and there was a wide hallway leading to the back of the shed where the kitchen and recreation rooms were located.  A mahogany staircase curved around the inside wall rising to the twelve bedrooms upstairs.  My bedroom was on the third floor, overlooking the atrium.  We were very poor, but the little tool shed kept the rain and snow away. One day from my bedroom window I saw a ship sail into Alhambra Bay where men unloaded great boxes of cargo and piled them on the dock.  When they had finished, the ship sailed away again.  I wondered what was in the boxes and crates!  I had to go down to the sea and see. I made my way along the tenebrous docks of Alhambra Bay until I came to the boxes, barrels and crates stacked near the wall separating the open storage area from the warehouses nearby.  When I found what I was looking for I stopped and slowly gazed around - nobody was watching.  One of the crates was broken and I could see what was inside!  Inside were thousands of small cardboard boxes wrapped in cellophane!  I opened one and found 52 beautiful pieces of art.  There were four portraits of kings and four more of queens as well as four of princes.  The rest of the art pieces were of the numbers from 1 to 10, arranged in four categories.  I decided I would call this collection a Deck of Cards.  I took as many as I could carry in the tote bag I had brought and made my way back through the docks, which were still tenebrous.  (I only recently learned that word -- you will have to look it up.) I knew just where I could sell these beautiful card decks, too.  The next day I started a journey to a distant village known as Holliewud, or something like that, which took me through the Valle de San Gabriella along a narrow path known as Vallee Boulevard - an odd name for such a little trail.  Anyway, there was a legend that a mighty castle was in that far away place, a place where wizards and magicians gathered every evening to practice their craft and show off to one another.  I was sure I could get a nice price for my new merchandise.  I had heard that beautiful pieces of art, such as my card decks, were used frequently in wondrous enchantments and demonstrations of magical prowess. I reached the castle about dusk and saw a great many exceedingly rich folk arriving in the very best of attire, so I went around to the back and went through a little used basement entry.  I found a small table and spread my wares on it, waiting for the mighty wizards and magicians to see what I had brought.  I was in luck!  A group of apprentice magicians came down the stairs from the main floor heading for a classroom nearby.  They bought every one of my decks, and at premium prices!  As they left I thought I would take a peek into the classroom for a few minutes...  Perhaps I could learn a bit of magic myself. Surprisingly, the Master Magician in front of the class of neophytes waved me to a chair in front of him.   His name was Thorsen the Magniffisant, at least I think that's right, and he looked at me very kindly, as if he had known me for a very long time, perhaps from a different age or some distant place. TO BE CONTINUED . . .