It's late, 10:44 p.m. to be exact and I still had not taken any photos today.  Had to do an airport run, plus some shopping for extra lanterns and flashlights in case of power outages again.  So here goes:

This painting (the original is painted on heavy paper....what I photographed is a giclee of the original) was done by my friend in Beijing, Mr. Tai.  He is an art teacher as well as artist and has a story behind every painting.  "The Grandmother" is the title I've given to this one from his story about her.  She lives in the countryside, as depicted by the stone wall behind her, and she's lived there all her life.  She was unaffected by the Cultural Revolution because she already LIVED in the countryside, so she was not sent out of the city to be re-educated.  The cultural revolution is represented in the scrawl of Chinese characters at the top of the wall....a slogan, like those that were written everywhere during Mao's rule.   Grandmother has everything she needs:  she has a goat so she can trade goat's milk for another food item she might like......she has a grandson so she knows the family name will go on and she has one thing of beauty, a pink flower, because everyone needs a little beauty in their lives.  She has everything she needs. 
There's a posting of his portrait of me (under the sea with all the fish keeping me company....she is named "Fish Mother".....) on March 17, 2016....not the entire image...