I Went Somewhere

Can you guess?

I'm still polishing up all my pics.  (And doing laundry and fighting jetlag!)

In A Little While........

I will be back.  To tidy up this blog which has been looking like it's wheels were falling off.

And to tell you what I've been up to.  And why I haven't posted for over a week!  

It's hot in L.A. but the sun has crept left on my Western Horizon.

What have you been doing?  I hope to catch up very soon!

An Arty Place - Barnsdall Park

Where is this?

A breezy hill overlooking East Hollywood and across to the whole of the Hollywood Hills.

From this vantage point you have a direct view to Frank Lloyd Wright's crumbling Ennis House.

There is a museum of Contemporary Art

And a center for art making.

Mostly for kids.

It's a lovely place.  What's the best part about it?  Art making out of doors!

The art center also shares the hill with Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House.  It is owned by the City of Los Angeles and is in the midst a lengthy and much needed refurbishing.  More about it here soon.

Hope everyone is having a good week!  Making any art yourselves?



Still in that Sepia - ish Mood

Haven't done one of these in awhile.....

Hope it's great weekend!

In Mostly Black and White

I'm always surprised when September comes.

 (Photo: Emily Hadden via All the Mountains)

Because it always RAINS!

(Source unknown this and following pic - sorry!) 

right on schedule.

 Even in southern California.

 (via ChristelleisFlabbergasting)

(Sabrina Meyns via Poema Bat Soilik)

So here's a post steeped in grisaille.

(via laat-mij-in-die-waan tumblr)

Have I already posted this cobbley street with its ragged trees?

(can't for the life of me figure out where I found this one and the one pic below)

We must be terribly clever human beings after all these years

to cue our calendars right up alongside the caprices of Nature.

(Photo: Robert Frank)

Because now that it's September, it's hard to imagine that Mother Nature could possibly know

(DottieAngel)

that a human calendar page has been turned, and with it, the summer sandals left behind

(via Iloverainandcoffee tumblr also below)

and heavier, gloomy foul weather gear pulled out of cabinets and closets.

As I sat.  Posting this post.  Big fat drops of rain fell hard on my keyboard.

And Los Angeles was covered in dark clouds.  How does that happen?  Couldn't we fool Mother Nature into thinking that it's still summer a little while longer?

Bart's Books, Ojai, California

Did everybody have a good weekend?  Ours was gorgeous here in L.A. and perfectly peaceful.  Aside from the 4,000 acre fire that we can see Southeast of town, in the Angeles National Forest.  It is fire season in California.  This is a "normal" part of life here.  Over the weekend, I saw a truck fire at close proximity that had spread to a hillside.  It's scary.  I don't know if I would still want to live in Los Angeles if I had to experience one of the big fires close up, or felt my home and family threatened by one.  Ditto for earthquakes.  Although we have had a constant succession of small ones in the area all summer.  Anyway, I will let you know if it ever happens!  I will be sure to announce to everybody that "I AM OUTTA HERE!"

But on a much more encouraging and tranquil note, here is a post about the kind of place that you can only really find in Southern California and it might be, you've been looking for one of these your whole life.

You just haven't actually known it until now:  It's an outdoor bookstore!  What do you think?

Bart's Books lure you in with 50 cent hardcovers.

An endless choice of comfortable seating is provided.  It goes without saying the climate will be perfectly perfect.

There are fixings for tea and coffee.

Quiet corners.

Casual company.  And.......

The requisite CATS.   Of COURSE!  The prices are right.  I got a stack of gardening books and a fat Vikram Seth novel all for twenty dollars.  (All gently "pre-owned".)  I was very pleased.

Southern California is not looking sooooo scary now, is it?  Hope all of you are safe and having a good week so far.

Just A Good Pic

It's a quiet weekend around Los Angeles so far.

(but this is London)

There aren't many people about.  How's yours going so far?  Tomorrow is Labor Day in the U.S.