Another magnificent sunset, alas, this one is our last. We have come to love this old beach town and its people. The apartment has grown on us, mainly because everything around this building is so well run. Cathie and Heidi who manage the apartments,...
Continue ReadingSomeone remarked that it sounds like we?re in paradise. We are. The light is ever-changing, the sunsets are spectacular and the sea fetches up the most remarkable sights. As I was calling our friends Ralph and Vivienne about dinner the other day I saw...
Continue ReadingWhat a week. It stopped raining here in California and turned into paradise. On the home front as cousin Paul says ?the entire lower floor is on the first floor.? Everything is chaos and confusion. Since I?ve never made an insurance claim before, I?m not...
Continue ReadingI thought things would improve but it's continued to pour rain here. The the house is worse than I thought. My friends and family have got it all upstairs. Who'd have thought I had so much stuff. And now I'll be camping out partly...
Continue ReadingI thought I would be looking at plants all week. It rained. I thought I?d be writing whole chapters of a new book. But I am distracted because our real home has flooded. Our house might have floated away (we?re on a stream, we...
Continue ReadingCARPINTERIA CALIF 1 We have arrived in what can only be described as paradise. Carpinteria (Carp as the locals all call it) is a funky little town in between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles smack dab on the Pacific. On our way to the place we?ve...
Continue ReadingAmaryllis are designed to make us happy in winter. This one is Amaryllis 'Inotaki' given to me as a?Christmas?present by my friend Mark Disero. He also gave me lots of instructions that sounded really smart: ?put it in a largish pot (about 10 inches wide)...
Continue ReadingOur electricity went out at 10 p.m. on Thursday and from that moment for 24 hours we were without electricity, heat, light. ?Scary? You?bet. At one point I was in bed with all my clothes on, plus long underwear, duvet, blankets and all the candles...
Continue Reading[caption id="attachment_741" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Acer griseum, paperbark maple"][/caption] I was at a really fabulous party last night, able to finally get out of the house after the endless cold subsided. The divine baked beans, great people and laughter. What a contrast with the past two weeks...
Continue ReadingNYE this year the garden looks like a skating rink. We had snow, then rain, then warmth and now snow again. It looks very beautiful but it's lethal for the plants. There is, however, nothing I can do about it, except to sit back and enjoy...
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