new tricks

for enjoying the vallejo heat. giant kiddie pool!

topanga canyon

canyon airstreams 
canyon flora

we traveled to the much storied topanga canyon this weekend. a friend of m's got hitched in a handfasting ceremony led by a shaman. the loves stood on the edge of the canyon and told each other poems they'd written and sang to each other. we all tied ribbons of different colors around their wrists. all connected. rather lovely.

m and i took a hike. the canyon's flowers are different than the bay's (obviously). somehow that was so refreshing. a new landscape—similar, yet different. blooming and slithering with lizards. hazy with dusk. and then just minutes to the beach, foggy in the morning. grey with bolts of pink shirts and yellow surfboards. sand underfoot and waves eternal. 

the photos to prove it. 

yard views

views of late

 
a blue diamond morning
an eve on the carquinez bridge with the moon and marilyn

spring 5: blooms!

our rose bush is bonkers.

garden beginnings

we visited dog island farm in vallejo to get some heirloom tomato starts. the good folks there sell inexpensive heirloom starts that they've tested in our climate. ran into a neighbor there at dog island.

we hauled soil to our house with the help of a new awesome vallejoan friend's truck. same new friend is bringing us bees she'll keep in our yard (a story for another post).

we built four planter boxes with the help of another new vallejoan friend, with tools from two different neighbors. 

at mid city nursery where we went to get veggie starts, we met an enthusiastic fruit tree expert who is going to come to our house and assess our yard's fruit tree growing potential. 

it takes a village to start a garden! at least when we are doing it. :-)

we've met so many friendly people since moving here. it has taken me by surprise, this friendliness, this eagerness to connect, and it has made me happy and grateful to call vallejo home.





 

spring 4

more spring growth: 
first lemon on our little tree
leaves of our very tall rose

chants by my sweetie. she just started making (almost daily) these beautiful, soothing, short chants she calls sound sketches. 

 

spring 3

spring duet 3

spring is my favorite. posting more below and soon above, too. 

spring 2

spring duet 2 in SF and Port Costa

hello again | spring 1

 spring duet 1

california love

california rising by friends eric and annie at three fish studios. also in multiple papers!

california knows that immigrants feed america

and that we need to protect trans kids

everyone should see this photo by emilio morenatti. refugees are fleeing their beloved countries because their lives are threatened. they are in pain and have faced terrifying journeys. we should be embracing them, not shutting them out.

dusk oaks in martinez

so sad and worrisome that sudden oak death has spread so widely now.

trumpet!

from the yard

vallejo: outside | inside

 martha sings around the bend

home in vallejo

feeling settled in our home in vallejo

started an around vallejo photo set. 

outside and inside

light and shadows

strangely beautiful days despite political madness 

moments of muddle and moments of clarity. sadness, anger, frustration, despair, love.

as many have said, this is a call to action. listen to more music, read more poems, make more art, take care of one another. stand up for each other. here we go.

today

fika and a silvery ferry ride

finally back to the blog after moving to vallejo!

september light

summer trip!

snaps from the pickathon music festival on pendarvis farm and some pretty portland drinks



and from san juan island visit

north beach date

m and i did some touristing in our former home city of SF: buildings, food, views, and the (heretofore not visited by either of us) enchanted gardens of telegraph hill.
more

north beach has always felt like a foreign place to me, a destination (even when i lived in SF). m and i remarked on how in the many years we lived there, no friends of ours ever lived in north beach. i did temp occasionally, in 1998 or 1999, as a teller at a bank in north beach. the chinese folks would line up for the chinese-speaking teller and the italians for the italian speaking teller. i guess i served the people who spoke english and/or who didn't mind my lack of other useful languages (there not being many swedes in north beach). on lunch breaks i went to the italian deli next door for seriously delicious sandwiches made by seriously italian men. i rode the increasingly packed bus through chinatown to downtown to go home, north of the panhandle. the whole thing was a fun intro to SF.

more summer pies!

(to be exact: key lime with graham cracker macademia nut crust, blueberry pie, and not pictured: peach/nectarine galettes and another blueberry/lemon verbena pie) 

and a window cat 

and macademia nut chi chi drinks at forbidden island 

grateful

summer peaches

the best

dose of pinky leon

land | sea

a belated happy summer solstice and glad midsommar!

outside | inside

colors

feet over the years

park life

dreamy SF day at the de young (mainly in the garden) and in the castro. 

feelin' lucky. 

here's a delicious flower near my work.

pancakes with pinky

last weekend

critters

my springtime sweethearts

ploughshares nursery

great wild edibles talk and tour of ploughshares, which is part of the awesome alameda point collaborative. marigold went along for the ride. 

indigo dye day

over in jen and bob's lovely back yard. fresh outdoor made eggs and coffee and chiminea cocktail times too.

check out how the indigo oxidizes from yellow to green to blue. 

all the photos