Dust Up @ The Birdbath

A lot of puffing of chests and mid air fighting around the birdbath this morning. I guess we should a maximum occupancy sign.

SLC Grand Cocktails

While working in Salt Lake City, I often found myself in the late afternoon enjoying a few pages of my current book and a cocktail in the lobby lounge. You could have a different drink each night and never repeat a concoction. Very civilized.

SLC Ellen

 Ellen and I were recently working in Utah. On a fine sunny morning, a very dapper DP chats with our actor. Below is the view on my return to LA after a week of high altitude.

Summer Shuffle

Our Lion's Tale plant out front has died. It was in a bad way for awhile. The Tipu's expanding canopy might be beginning to affect the full sun plants. So we ripped it up and moved an under performing tea tree bush in it's place. Where the tea tree was, there is now a:

 Calliandra eriophylla or Pink Fairy Duster.

Over on the other side of things, we tore up one of the invasive but pretty iceplants. After a quick trip to the California native specialists @ Theodore Payne, we replaced it with:

 Baja Spurge and a few clumps of Canyon Prince Rye grass. Hopefully they can live together and gives us some blooms next Spring.

Of Figs and Wasps

The fig tree out back is producing a lot of fruit this year and before the squirrels get to them, I've been harvesting the juicy ones. This morning there were some very small fly-like bugs crawling out the bottom of a few. My brain searched that part that stores all forgotten trivia but google provided a faster answer. Fig wasps pollinate the fig "flower" and lay eggs inside. These little women I saw were on their way out, to find a new fig tree to pollinate. The visceral reaction has been now to cut open all the figs and see what's squirming inside. Fascinating stuff. Read more here or watch here

Weekend Dog +4

It's been four weeks since we lost Seven's light and I find walks to have become boring. Without my friend's unseen sense of smell, I now rush past those places that before would have given us pause. I would contemplate on his process as my friend sniffed and compared a lifetime of smells to this current one. Would he then lift his leg to alter it or dismiss it and walk on? With only the banality of sight, our past paths are now devoid of the layers he brought. I do miss my guide.

Beach Babes

After lunch along the PCH, we headed to Point Dume and stuck our toes in the Pacific. After a 15 hour flight, Sara will be dipping her toes in the Pacific from a Sydney beach, experiencing both the east and western edges of the ocean within 24 hours.

Hi Brow vs. Low Brow

Future niece in law Sara H blew through town on her way to the South Pacific. The first night, after a hearty vegetarian tagine, we drove over to Pasadena to watch "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad", alfresco style. The next day, with Simone joining us again, we trekked to the Palisades and the Pompeiian inspired Getty Villa. Great gardens, mosiacs and some excellent herb ideas. Fascinating exhibit on the Byzantine going on now.
Via Simone:

Downtown Cars

A week ago, I was downtown doing some car footage. The DP got to play with the Movi stabilizing system. It looks a bit like a video game console.  As we pulled out of the lot on one occasion, I got a glimpse of a real classic in the monitor.

PM @ VPAM

I have been knee deep in Vincent Price's 1959 autobiographical love letter to art and artists, "I Like What I Know". What luck to have his museum so close in East LA.  The Vincent Price Art Museum began with over 2000 pieces donated from his vast collection to a community college in Monterey Park. Over three floors, there are several galleries of what the actor thought exciting and new in the 1940's and 50's. Not to mention his huge love of ancient North and South American pottery. And then the bigger galleries are reserved for the kind of modern art he would, I suspect, approve of.

Paintings and Puppies

We spent today on the Westside, venturing to Pepperdine's Weisman gallery to view the work of famed illustrator Bob Peak. Great to see his collages, water colors and oils from the 50's through the 80's in person. The detail in his tableauxs are remarkable, and the staging of his pictures and subjects always ring true to the events pictured. The exhibit closes the first week in August.
We then stop by a Dalmatian rescue event in Santa Monica. The puppies had us wistful, a bit melancholic. Great to see so much young life.

The Shrine

We put together a little shrine in the living room. We won't be getting the ashes until Wednesday. The box will remain empty til next week.

One Week Past

He's been gone for one week now.