We were sitting by the fire in our living room the other night watching the Caffee Lena Live Stream, a gypsy jazz band; we are both extremely grateful to have this wonderful music available to us every night for pennies.

Sometimes Maria watches, sometimes she sketches, and sometimes even reads while the music plays.

I usually watch and listen, sometimes closing my eyes. I love music, to hear it and focus on it.

I felt some movement in the room and opened my eyes, and Maria the Dancer, a lesser-known part of her life, got up and was dancing to the gypsy jazz music, music one could belly dance to.

There are many things we love to share: museums, art, music, and the very best British mysteries on Netflix or Amazon. This week, we’re doing all of them. What a gift to have good and live music coming into our house on these dark and icy nights.

I like indie and folk music the best (both are key elements on the stream), but the gypsy music – The Hot Club Of Saratoga, a top gypsy swing ensemble – was special, exciting, and new. The dancing was a bonus; Maria felt the music in her bones.

I am not a dancer; I’m a listener. We both had it our own way.

It was a beautiful thing to see, Maria has been working on her dancing for five or six years now, and she has come so far. What a sweet time that was, me sitting and listening to live and good music, tapping my food, then my fingers, and she did some of her belly dancing moves.

I rarely get to see her dance; it is so natural and fluid for her now.

Listening to the music, she just got the call. Zinnia, the Queen of Chill, wagged her tail and went to sleep. Nothing rattles this dog.

She is a dancer now, as well as a gifted artist. How could I not love a person like that?

And what a sweet night it was on that cold and dark night.