Masks off this month in LA County. Fingers crossed!
Louise, my next door neighbor in Northridge for so many years, is living in a wonderful assisted living community keeping company with her third boyfriend in the six years she’s been there. I drove Marija and Ljubica out to Palmdale for the party. It was a delightful event and I’m very happy for Louise that on this occasion she could be surrounded by so many of her near and dear.
Lilly and I tried it again to catch some light in crystals and here’s a nice handful of rainbows. Also here’s another go with Lilly’s (crystal rock? get the name!).
This is Ann welcoming us to her home where we will eat like hungry hungry hippos, drink cocktails because Ann always makes us cocktails, and eat some scrumptious home made dessert because that’s just the way we roll.
Marsha came over on Friday to watch CODA (she hadn’t seen it yet) and The Tragedy of Macbeth (we both hadn’t seen it) and it was a great double feature for movie night.
Then Alex and Carol came over on Sunday and we watched The Oscars. Yes we did… A&C had seen even more of the movies than I had and that’s impressive.
Here at the Getty Center with Ingalill to spend a couple hours kicking around the grounds.
Here come three pictures of a rare explosion of color on the campus outside the formal garden.
The Featured Exhibition, on until May 8, is Poussin and the Dance, that includes a few rooms of large scale paintings and then some videos of modern dancers taking inspiration from Poussin’s work.
I walked with friends – walk, eat, visit, home. Wow, first time in Two Years (from before lock down in March 2020) that I did a good walk three days in a row. Thankfully!
Hilda and Marzi (of the Persian Poetry group) shared a picture of their Nowruz Haft-sin table, a traditional preparation to welcome in the Persian New Year recognized on the Spring Equinox. Then there’s eating, so much eating. I copied the below mostly from wikipedia.
Typically, before the arrival of Nowruz, family members gather around the Haft-sin table and await the exact moment of the March equinox to celebrate the New Year. The number 7 and the letter S are related to the seven Ameshasepantas as mentioned in the Zend-Avesta. They relate to the four elements of Fire, Earth, Air, Water, and the three life forms of Humans, Animals and Plants. In modern times the explanation was simplified to mean that the Haft-sin (Persian: هفتسین, seven things beginning with the letter sin (س)) are:
The Haft-sin table may also include a mirror, candles, painted eggs, a bowl of water, goldfish, coins, hyacinth, and traditional confectioneries. A “book of wisdom” such as the Quran, Bible, Avesta, the Šāhnāme of Ferdowsi, or the divān of Hafez may also be included. Haft-sin’s origins are not clear. The practice is believed to have been popularized over the past 100 years.
Hilda says you should do the 7 requirements and then you can add anything that is meaningful to you. I thought of a few other occasions where gathering objects is used to mark significant occasions, there’s Dia de los Muertos, the Passover plate, even the Christmas Tree.
I don’t remember this office but it must have been my office at some point. I was probably around 40? I remember the dress though because in another picture you can see the belt. I remember having to get a new belt because the belt that came with the outfit was too tight. I remember thinking ‘I’m too fat for this dress but oh well.’ Now I can hardly imagine I ever fit in that dress.
(internet picture)
And it costs plenty to get them to leave! They’ve got two traps working. The service charges $50 every time they come out and $100 for each animal they relocate. So in the last four days Windy has released three cats and the service has taken away four adult possums, one of them a mom with 8 or so babies clinging to her body. I forgot to ask her if all the babies cost $100 each or maybe there’s a bulk rate…
Kathleen, Eileen, Carolynn, Cheyenne, Scott, Rowan, Greg
Ireland Forever. Kathleen across the street had a small St Patrick’s Day festivity and as always her parties are so fun, eating and drinking and being merry. Nice you guys!
Here’s another one with me in it:
Aboard the Battleship Iowa! (I need to get the names and particulars from Rome. Angela took the pictures in the backyard and Rome took the one from the ship.)
Sofia, Emily, Rome
Seven of us came today and we enjoyed a green salad, a Caesar salad, a vegetable salad, steamed veggies, potato casserole, dolmas, and chicken. We never know the menu but it’s always good, even if everyone brings watermelon.
We celebrated the 81st birthday of my MUCH older sister Lona with a delightful brunch at Republique on La Brea, former home of La Brea Bakery and Campanile. Trevor and Beth are in town and Windy came too. Thanks for the fun guys!
Sharon and Nancy and I went to this fun restaurant, The Sunset, on a side-road at Zuma Beach. Not my picture and we didn’t go at sunset…but the experience had this feel. What you can’t feel however is all the crazy wind and whitecaps to the horizon.
A BIGGER BOAT! Alex and Carol have decided to move on from their beautiful sleek (and dang small) sailboat, Nepenthe, to the comforts of a motorboat in the ‘trawler’ style, a boat where you can get out of both sides of the bed, and have a separate living and dining room, and an outdoor lounge with a swim deck, two bathrooms, and a Guest Room!
I visited Red Sky at its current home in Marina del Rey. Thinking I would get the pictures from the listing, I didn’t take any, but the only one still available is this one. A&C will be moving the boat to Long Beach as soon as a slip at their marina is available (keeping the name but changing the location to Long Beach “we are not Marnia del Rey people…”) and at some point selling their beloved Nepenthe, the boat that took them on an amazing many years long journey around the western hemisphere.
It’s like a double day since two things is my usual max. I took TeeTee and Halayna to the airport in easy early morning traffic. Even the airport itself was cooperating. My Persian Poetry group is finishing Attar’s Conference of the Birds so Hilda invited a friend of hers, a Rumi guy, to give us a very interesting presentation on what we might read next. I went to the Valley for my weekly hit of the valley girls. And then I had a fairly productive meeting at B of A. Yay!
Inside! Since I can get my old gappy-windowed creaky house only > t h i s < warm I have to remind people who are coming for dinner on a cold night “please don’t forget, wear socks and an extra sweater.” We had cozy conversation and warm fun anyway. This is getting ready to go, so you can see it is burr-zy outside too. About 55 degrees…a California cold snap.
Muriel and Jo Ann
They’re heading back to North Carolina to settle in for a permanent stay. Be well!
These are all Lona’s pictures.
That’s me and my old golfing pals, usually/always hosted by Alex ‘back in the day’ when we were all working. The last one, Phil, is retiring in April. YAY. These are the guys who let me play ‘par golf’ and what fun it was. Phil, Alex, me, Merlyn.
I haven’t seen Phil in an age and today is once again thanks to Hilda for making a fantastic party, this being the second year in a row Merlyn has celebrated his 70th birthday (you can click on the link for last year’s festivity). Happy Birthday Merlyn!
Our often-outing: B&B swing by to pick me up and we go to The Annenberg Beach House, eat at their delightful Back at the Beach Cafe, and then take an easy going stroll along the shore. Ahh, so nice. In the second picture (Bonnie is in the first and the second) it’s cool how the clouds reflect in the wet sand.
Bonnie took the picture of me and Ben below.
