The Potting Bench

In bocca al lupo.  m

The Day Begins

The day begins.

I've added a few sites to my links that are fun and inspiring for the textile side of life.  I've been so hit and miss here lately that I've gotten behind on the other sites I link to.  I really enjoy the photos posted by 3191 Miles Apart, and Valerie Jardin with her international street photography workshops.  Take a moment and look through these sites.


And then there's the "kitten fix":

Phoebe.

In bocca al lupo.  m

Containers

This week's diptych. Fortuna in a basket, euphorbias in a pot.

In bocca al lupo. m

Garden Life

Outside in the garden I have so many visitors and, well, residents.  There has been this one-eyed, young cat I call Mimi.  Eight weeks ago she had two kittens.  I'm watching them all closely and when the time comes the three of them will be gathered and chauffered to the SPCA to be spayed and then brought back to the garden.  They have been living, at my invitation, in my studio. It's working out very well as they keep the rodent population at bay.
Looking back I'm realizing the last kittens I've seen around here were Emily and her sister nearly 18 years ago.  Growing up there were always kittens everywhere.  Generally there'd be young children sitting with a box at the entrance to the grocery stores with a note tacked to the side of the box announcing "Free to good home".  Sometimes there was even the inclusion of food.  I'm having a blast watching the two kittens growing and playing and being cared for so well by their mother.

In bocca al lupo. m

Holiday Afters

The holidays have come and gone...though we haven't had Epiphany yet.  But the get togethers, the greetings, the sendings, the wrappings, the cooking and baking are behind us for this season.  Time to rest, review, and recover.

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

Another Page

Another page...

In bocca al lupo. m (no v)

It's a Cat Kind of Week

On the potting bench.

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

Rest and Relaxation

This is how it's done. Relax on the softest, coziest pillows you can find.  Fortuna lives up to her name. Bella Fortuna!  She is not a chess player, btw.

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

Garden Chess

Playing chess in the garden on an Autumn afternoon...your move

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

Tabby Cat

My best buddy...

Still being lazy...

Pulling random shots from the past year starting with my friends' beautiful cats.

We remember Buddy Webster

Schilling

Maya

And favorite walks at the beach

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

Today 3/19/15

Behind the scenes: the bosses.  These are who I answer to. They even have their own furniture.

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

My Family and Home Life

I've spent a few days working on the upcoming My Dog Spot Photography web site.  I have such a headache!  I am amazed at all the new things I need to learn and even more amazed that I learn any of it.  What is the best of all that comes out of this is the amount of support I'm getting from my friends and associates.

So much has happened in my life since I decided on the title of this blog, or more to the point, the sub-title of this blog: a home and family life, and not necessarily blood ties.  It's good I added that.  At the time it was because v and I had such a small family: we were the two of us and r, his beautiful daughter, in Portland, Oregon.  Now it is just r and I and that extended family of non-blood ties.  Home life is me and my two cats and the succession of possums that come by in the evening for a small snack in reward for keeping the garden organic and snail free.

Home life is my circle of friends; a friend who would come by a few evenings a week to help break the new and crushing silence that had become so rare in this house since v moved in those years ago. With her help I've eased into the rhythm of my own movement and the sound of my thoughts.  It is my kind and thoughtful neighbor dropping by to see how I am and to share his own small business adventures and woes (please remember Fog's End Distillery's Monterey Rye and California Moonshine!). Another neighbor who has taken the time to attend to my apple trees. It is the daily emails with the reconnected life-long friend now in Georgia, the morning texts from my oldest friend still in Southern California, and the wonderful letters from a dear, dear friend in Pennsylvania who also lost her husband way too early--another gentle, loving, and passionate Italian... lucky us! My weekly connection to the aquarium and my new, but no less dear friends, who have become a part of that non-blood family. Home life is my two cats, one sweet and one crabby (there always has to be a balance).

And now home life is about re-inventing myself and trying to succeed with a new endeavor.  Fingers crossed!

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

Black and White

Black and white editions.  More fine tuning to stay tuned for...

My baseball buddy. She looks like this when the broadcasters get excited. I like to think she's enjoying the game with me.

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

Monday in October

This is the first post for October, my favorite month.  I married in October.  I always loved the warmth, color, and fun of Halloween.  In Southern California there was, usually, a promise of cooler weather and here on the Central Coast there is a burst of a summer, finally, after all the drabness we normally experience in the actual summer months (though not this year).  So this is just an odds and ends sort of post. Pictures from today, starting with a bowl of curiosities.

Bruschetta and...

sauce about to happen.

Already

Gone...

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

Sometimes...

Sometimes I'd rather just be one of my cats.  Then they could feed me, they could open the door every time I wanted in or out, they could make sure my water bowl was full and forgive me if I had a neurotic habit of pushing my water bowl across the kitchen floor constantly.

I'd be cajoled (and forgiven for intemperate language) when I'm irritated over being left out on my own all day just because I'd had a last minute urge to get a breath of air just as they were about to leave for the day.  It's just those little things I think I'd enjoy once in awhile.

I doubt they'd see it that way...

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

Shout!

The beginnings of a portfolio.  An event! 

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

Studio Work

Working in the studio with Fortuna.  I didn't have the catnip with me...

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

Summer Day

Carefree.  A summer's afternoon nap

Interrupted by a friendly photographer...

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

Experimentation

Setting up to work in the workshop/studio. I'm wondering if the shop lights that I have will work for photography.  I started with hardware

Then moved on to a live model

Who determined when the session was over

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)