The cloud breaks + shop promotion

Most of these cushions/throw pillows are from photos I took in LA 2008, some combined with older patterns from my archives. They really express what living in Venice felt like to me creatively, it was a whole new world of colour and light and pattern. Memories of that sunlight and Ocean living really perked me up this week when we were mired under low grey cloud and cold fog for 8 days.  
Somewhat bad timing because the front Cherry Blossom, Prunus Cerasifera 'Nigra', had opened during the previous week and was doing it's best to cheer up the view in the absence of sunshine (taken when things lightened up enough to actually get a photo)...

The Forsythia can always be relied upon to brighten even the darkest day...

Luckily the cloud and fog have lifted this weekend and we finally had a sunset...

Today I finally got my fix of some much needed sunshine and Cherry Blossom in the garden. Hard to photograph though because the sun returned with it's near constant companion these days - strong wind! It's been so hard to photograph anything in the garden in the last 3 years because it is nearly always jiving around like 50's teenager...

In a very brief moment of stillness and extremely bright sun I spotted this little ladybird exploring the flowers of Pieris 'Debutante' which have been really abundant this year. It's a very compact little Pieris and it's leaves keep a fairly consistent green in all seasons, good for small spaces and places where you don't want any unexpected colour clashes from changing leaf colour...

And finally the deeper toned flowers of the larger and more seasonally varied Pieris 'Mountain Flame'...

Summer food memories

LA Dormobile (like the one we lived in years ago, but ours was yellow)



La Blues March 2008

Anna sent me in the direction of What the World Eats: Part II.
I'm always fascinated by how other people eat, particularly in other cultures or other countries. Of the 11 they show in Part II I'd opt for the diets of the families India, Guatemala and Turkey.

I'm pretty sure my time in Turkey was the healthiest time I ever had food-wise without making an effort. So much was organic purely because it was grown locally in gardens and people grew things suited to the soil and climate. Everything tasted like it should, not bland like supermarket food. You could taste the sunshine in the vegetables. I definitely think Mediterranean food is closest to what naturally suits my body. At the time I struggled a bit with the cheeses, I didn't know about my lactose problem so I was still a cow's cheese lover and found goats cheese really sharp and unpalletable (though I forced it down out of politeness). Now I adore it (unless it smells or tastes fishy) and long for all those gorgeous meals my boyfriend's mum used to make full of her homemade goats cheese.

Blue stays, red fades to pink

LA has an abundance of blue walls changing tone with the passing of the day. If we'd had time I'd have loved to do a series of the same walls over the course of a day to see how much those blues change.

Touches of red

LA Trip, March '08, Venice parking sign

LA Trip, March '08

I've no internet access until Tuesday so I'm scheduling photo's for each day I'm away.

Blue signage

LA Trip, March '08

I've not internet access until Tuesday so I'm scheduling photo's for each day I'm away.

Loosening up

Net experiments 1990-92

I worked out some yoga adaptations to suit my health and my dodgy bones. So far so good. Aching all over from a year of tightening up, but I can feel, under the ache, a loosening up of the muscles (reason for tangled picture above) and a deepening of the breath (reason for picture below, which I've shown before but seems so appropriate just now).


Breath: ceramic tablet (intentionally broken) 1993

I've finally accepted that I simply can't bend and twist in ways that I used to, and it's ok. Even if I only manage 5% of a session it's still beneficial, and at the very least it amuses the cat. He likes it when I'm on the floor, and he can sit above me. Yes Your Feline Highness, you King of all you survey and I prostrate myself at your handsome feet.

Drive-by shooting, the good kind

LA drive-by (click image to enlarge)

Mum used to worry about drive by shootings in LA. But it's ok when it's me doing the shooting, with my camera. This shot, like so many, was taken as we flew by in the car. I love it. I love the degrees of focus/unfocuss, blurring/sharpness. I love the white picket fence with the red/pink flowers peeking over the top against that lovely grey blue background and the man walking by with the baseball cap. I love the soft shadows on the building, the pistachio ice cream colour of the metal tubing (I think it was for a billboard). I love the crisp clean lines of the cables against the sky.


Marina Del Ray drive by (I think)

It's 4.53am. I can't sleep cause my PHN has flared up massively so I've spent 3hrs catching up on Alicia's blog. It's amazing to think that in the past I used to visit the people on my side links most days. Certainly not less than weekly. Now there are many I've not been to since New Year because I'm too tired. I feel bad because I do really want to keep up. My friend in Australia text me yesterday to ask how LA was. I felt so guilty cause I've never had the energy to write up a proper email about the trip. Even what I've posted here has been image based. She wants me to use facebook but I really struggle with anything that requires a password to access it. I have too many passwords to remember.

Plus, I dislike having to read everyone else's comments in order to get a context for what is being said. I mind find it easier if I knew the people, but almost everyone I know on facebook lives in another country, so the people are strangers to me and the extra effort of sifting through their writings fries my addled brain. Anyone else find that or is it just a Chronic Fatigue thing? I like things simple, find site, look at friends post/pics/email,respond if I have energy. No special access required. No unnecessary strain on the brain. My poor confused brain (Liz, your text made me laugh, the one about cognitive dysfunction, especially as those are my initials).


West Hollywood drive-by

The ME/CFS world talks a lot about 'brain fog' and it's certainly been a big reason for my comparative lack of computer use in the last year, especially when it comes to blogs that are heavy on writing and tell ongoing stories. It's like my brain just can't keep all the info together, it muddles up people, places, names and dates (and let's not get into how much is forgotten within seconds of entering, literally seconds). And, of course, I get sucked in, emotionally. I get excited, inspired, enthused, engrossed or perhaps saddened, and I want to leave comments. All things which take up energy I don't have anymore and add to the fizzing in my brain. So, until my brain cells are back to normal I'm afraid, friends, that the blog is still the best I can manage communication-wise. It covers the widest base of people I would normally contact in other ways. A one stop shop, and that all important place where I can feel I achieved something, even if it is just to put a few more pictures up.


Venice drive-by

Well, my goodness, I never expected all that to come tumbling out. Sometimes it just happens that way (usually in the wee small hours if I can't sleep). Yet if I had planned to write any of this it would never have happened. The weight of necessity really pulls me down, so when these spontaneous moments come it's best to go with the flow. But blimey, it's nearly 6am! I've just realised it's daylight outside. I can hear the birds singing and the radiator clickety clicking (weather still pretty cold). I was just saying to Alicia that we are going to have Daffodils in May (unless some more freak weather comes and squishes them before Thursday). It's all ahoo (yes Jill, still plugging away with Jack and Stephen). Speaking of Jack and Stephen, I read a nice line yesterday '...I saw him running about on deck before I came below, laughing like a holiday' (from The Surgeon's Mate, Patrick O'Brian). I like that, though the aforementioned addled brain had changed it to 'happy as a holiday' which I rather like.

These people mean business...

One of a multitude of signs they had on this small parking area.




I'd love to write these around my garden where the kids keep breaking through and killing my plants. Instead of writing 'you will be towed!' I'd like to write 'You will be eaten!'. And maybe have some monstrous teeth drawn top and bottom of the sign :0)

White on grey, house numbers

Fabric Store

This place is has been around about 30 years I think. I didn't go in cause I was on a very tight budget, not to mention no room in my bags for swathes of fabric.

All weekend I've been too tired to do my blog. I have lost my lovely dog walking assistant to the lure of the French Alps (ski holiday). More detail in comments section if you are so inclined.

My trip - clue No.7

I loved this whale mural, only 1/3 showing - it is huge.

Big sign, tiny sign

My trip - clue No.6

There have been a few guesses as to which part of California I was in, and one person hedging their bets with a double guess which contained one right answer...can you guess which one? This post should help confirm it.

The best part of the trip was seeing the change in attitude towards plants. People seem no longer to be striving for squares of green grass. The click click click of sprinkler systems was entirely absent, I don't think we saw a single domestic sprinkler (and only one public park sprinkler). Such a wonderful change, and in place of the dried brown grass such a fantastic array of native plants and other plants suited to the California climate, like these lovely grey blue succulents above. They were everywhere growing very contentedly with other succulents and many beautiful tall grasses.

Numbers with grey and orange

The Golden State

California! Well done to Deedeen and Janet for guessing the correct State. Isn't my brother amazing to pay for this trip... Thanks Bro!

But where in California? Not San Francisco, though I was really wishing we'd had an extra week so I could have gone to visit Lisa and all the other amazing bloggers who live in the Bay area. We were based in one place and were always back there to sleep, so never more than half a day from the images I've been showing recently. Of course, they are images that drew my attention, not necessarily the ones that would catch the eye of other visitors. I reckon it'll take most of you 3 seconds to guess :)

Perfection & Imperfection

I love the imperfection of hand painted signage. The detail was lost in scaling down the dog sign, there are steamy squiggles coming off the dog poo, classic touch, I love it.

I equally love the initial impression of perfection in the bottom photo, all the clean crisp lines, yet close up the beautiful imperfection of the different bricks beneath the blue paint, the different heights of the flowers.

It crazy how much I love these kinds of blues with a touch of red, honestly, my mouth waters when I catch glimpses of this combination anywhere, but particularly if it features weathered paint as it so often did on holiday. Sun bleached reds, weathered blues and fresh whites were in abundance.

Vivid blues

There were many vivid blues on the holiday. The kind I associate with summer. I spent a lot of time deleting photo's because the bright sun made such strong reflections in the car window. I was often not allowed to open the window because my brother loved the rental car air con. Little Miss Eco prefers an open window, but I must admit, a closed window makes for rare 'good' hair as seen above in a sharp reflection (which I treasure on account my hair usually looks like it's been dragged through a hedge).