Objects of Obsession - and - Sonoran "Desert Dreams"

I can't believe these photos date from January of this no longer very new year.

Not much has changed since then in our life.  You might remember that I've had a very sick cat.  (The one on the right.)  This was his very first encounter with his intended replacement.  (The one on the left.)  But my sick boy is hanging IN!  Thanks to lots of meds and a new doctor.  We had thought we were going to lose him.

NOW.........I'm the proud Mom of three cats.  (Not something I had ever envisioned.)  It's a veritable herd of cats, it seems to me, and to Mr. Paradis especially.  I am spending all my "free" time trying to keep them comfortable and healthy.  So much so that I haven't had time for all those adaptation shenanigans that professionals suggest for acclimating the existing cat(s) to a new  interloping, foreign, transgressing, weird-smelling Mommy-stealing new cat.  (A little fear-and loathing going on - yes?  My other girl-cat is the worst about this - any tips are welcome.)

So the new Miss (to the left, above) still spends most of her life upstairs alone -  (I know, very sad) and Mom is ferrying new and existing cats (above) and the Princess (way below) to the new Doctor who has put the fear of God in us about CLEAN TEETH!  So everybody is getting their teeth cleaned.  Because most illnesses - of which Mr. Him-on-the-Right has quite a few - are not remotely helped by multiple system infections and bacteria loads caused by rotten teeth.  If I didn't know before, now I really know.  Anybody brush their animals' teeth out there?

But meanwhile, while this guy was still on Prednisone (a very scary drug to me - but which produces seemingly miraculous physical effects - like turning a skinny, barfing, dehydrated, anorexic cat into a super-critter)..........he had an excellent afternoon one January day watching this gorgeous movie:

Desert Dreams (click for trailer).

  He has never been interested in TV before but this totally hooked him.

Have I mentioned that it is Spring in L.A.?

So yes,

I have an other obsession.  More on the garden soon I hope.  Things are busting out all over.

I wish you a HAPPY WEEKEND until then.

UP LIFT - via Bungalow Classic

And here for you.......

some anti-doldrums pics lifted

by moi-meme last November

from Bungalow Classic a blog(ger)

with a delicious talent for lifting

some of the best visuals from around the internet.  (I have never wanted a Barbie physique but I must say - legs that look like this in ankle laces make me very desirous - of a Cinderella evening in skimpy slippers and a very full skirt)

Even with sun and 80+ degrees here in L.A. this past week

instead of being out and charging about I still favor using this time of year for resting, re-charging,

and dreaming.

When I used to live in cold places, chilly nights would often be spent with plant catalogs and sewing.

With a warm animal close by.

Now I just dream too much about shopping and summer dresses.  Because Spring is still sometimes a surprise too soon here.  And I never feel properly dressed for the new season.

And I think I SHOULD be painting.

It's a funny twix and tween thing.

All that oppositionality (is that a word?) still lives in me.

Between cold and light.  Hello!  How are you?  What are you doing?

Arctic Circle Wonder via the New York Times

Photos by Christopher Miller for the New York Times

These photos remind me of an aunt who traveled to Lapland years ago and whose beautiful reindeer pelt was stolen from her New York City apartment.  She inspired my own love for the larger world.  

The images accompany an article here about this remote place in a part of Canada's arctic circle

where a big new highway is being built.  The article explores how it might change this landscape.

It's Spring here in Los Angeles.  I still marvel about that.  Hope you all are staying warm.

HAPPY WEEKEND to you all

  

Mission. Sunshine. SF's Best Neighborhood in Two or More Parts.........

You need color, don't you?

Sunshine?

Something

different?

I said "sunny",  right?

You are in the Mission, San Francisco.

A place very different from anywhere you have been before.

(That is, unless, you caught my previous Mission posts.)   Full of personality.

Even if we're just talking about bookstores.......

History.

Tour books will always describe a place as "vibrant".  Which always seems to end up being a sort of gloss, or a sheen that hangs over a neighborhood that is otherwise fairly ordinary.

The Mission by contrast, VIBRATES.

It bursts with energy and attitude.

color, variety, individuality.

Diversity.  It's a cultural mashup that individualists and adventurers would have to ADORE.

Where else can you visit a divey local joint called "WE BE SUSHI"?  (and would you dare eat sushi there?)

There are plenty of bicycle shops in the Mission and none of the bikes in them seem to be boring, or average.

There seem to be plenty of unusual things hanging from the ceiling in the Mission.  Looking UP isn't always something you do indoors, is it?  It gives you a bit of an Alice Through the Looking Glass sensation.

There is a strong sense of group identity.  Unusual really, in the days we now occupy.

But an agreement not on being uniform or conforming to an outer world's standards, rather, an agreement on things having to be.....

various.  and OTHER.

There is room for giant rodents.  And cuckoo clock collections.  The Mission makes you realize that maybe YOU have always wanted something like these lot sharing YOUR personal spaces.

Mission Picnic says a little something about the lightness of living in this part of San Francisco in this time.

And the lightheartedness that persists in the Mission.

Despite creeping change.

Could gentrification actually succeed in de-personalizing and sterilizing

This most personal of public spaces?????  I DO HOPE NOT.

We need places like the Mission.  Like we need lungs to breath and eyes to see.

We all need a space somewhere in the world to be different.   And together.

(IMHO)