Another Fine Girl

    Who is this mysterious and breathtakingly beautiful young lady? Why, it's the Great Mary Basquez. And do not take her too lightly, for royal blood doth flow through her veins.

    She's a fine girl, and and a fine, fine friend. By far a better person than I, she inspires me to be better. Mary is genteel; evil is shocking to her and good infinitely praiseworthy. She is my partner in photographic adventures, and has a clever hand with a camera and an eye for beauty.

    The picture is a trifle unusual; taken during late-ish afternoon, the light is very queer. Perhaps it should have been edited or something after I took it, but after a while I decided I liked the brightness and lack of detail. It looks . . . celestial, somehow.

       Interesting, really, considering how much she means to me, that I was reluctant to meet her in the beginning. She was invited for a Halloween party to the house of our great mutual friend, Emma Daisy. Emma Daisy (about whom I shall be writing, as soon as I can procure an appropriately artistic photograph of her) is such a fine girl that I naturally wanted to have her all to myself, without this other girl whom I'd never met butting in. (Truly despicable sentiments, which I now regret ever having.) Mary's goodness, however, was so powerful as do do away with my imbecilities, and she became as remarkable a companion as one could ask for. 

    

    Miss Basquez moves, speaks, and approaches life with an easy grace that makes others relax. She also has a very interesting approach to the storms of life: to visit her blog, click here.

   

A Fine Girl

    This is Rebekah Caroline. She's beautiful, isn't she? I have seen her fight great battles and win great wars. With one blow of her mighty sword, foes fall where they stand. Here, however, I have captured her at peace. Rebekah at peace is a beautiful sight.

   

    As my younger sister, she has enhanced my life and made it vibrantly colorful. I fear that she views me as rather absentminded and gray-souled, but like a mother hen, she takes me under her wing and does her best to inject some passion, pepper, salt, spice, vinegar, and sparkle into me. Taking pictures of her is one of the finer things in life. 

    She seems to me to channel the spirit of the ideal young American woman. She runs and walks, hikes in the small wildernesses behind the house, dotes on her gigantic white dog, Samwise, and devours beef with greatest gusto. She likes to have good things, and to have them now. She does everything with her whole heart: laughing, grieving, warring, loving. Where we would without her does not bear thinking about. No doubt about it. She's a fine girl, all right. And a precious gift.