How Much is Too Much Now that I have done my “Year in Provence” year on this hilltop, I am faced with the ongoing issue of where to stop and enjoy versus keep improving. It is a very personal decision. Have you seen those quirky houses that someone invariable does a segment on. The sea shell house that has sea shells imbedded in concrete, stone walls and stucco walls is one I recall. The Who…
Moonlight Madness In my new life on this hilltop, I am acutely aware of moonlight for some reason. That strikes me as particularly funny because when I bought the house in 2012 and was searching for just the right name for it (something I had done for my other vacation homes that I cared most about), I came up with the name Casa Moonstruck. That name was intended to bring the Hispanic nature of the…
The Mulch of Life I’ve gotten through my life very nicely without mulch up until now. You may recall that last year I made the logical, but ill-conceived decision to hire a horticulturalist for an advisory session. The cost of the advice was about the same as two days worth of hard garden work by Joventino or his father Benito. It turned out to be worth considerably less, 30% because of the extremely hard-working nature…
Door to Door on DST We have been having an uncharacteristically cold week here in sunny San Diego. Between that and the intermittent rain over the last week, I am reminded that the nice weather we usually enjoy is truly a blessing. I guess this is how we learn to appreciate what we’ve got, or at least what we usually got. The clocks changed yesterday as we moved to Daylight Savings Time. Spring forward and…
Catatonic For some reason, I don’t like cats. When I am around them and when they want to be social, they seem fine, but I am slightly put off by all the things that others generally like about cats. Independence seems to be a big cat theme. They amuse themselves and seem to be less gregarious creatures than not and seem inclined to live more solitary lives, jumping from here to there and then casually…
Buck Naked The human form has inspired many artists and writers over the millennia, and yet, humans are the only species that have found it necessary to work hard to drape that form with coverings and clothing. From our perusal of the pages of National Geographic when we were young and rooting around in the basement, we learned that primitive man seemed less inclined to cover the human form as much as we in civilized…
Fiction or Not I have now written 52 pages of the new book I am writing that is somewhat outside my normal comfort zone. The book is a compilation and expansion on a series of stories about the peacetime high-jinx of a group of young military officers who share a house on Virginia Beach in the early 1960’s. That 52 pages represents the first draft of the Prologue and first three chapters. I keep saying…
Raptors I Have Known The other day, Kim and I were coming home from an afternoon errand and, after stopping to pick up the mail, we were driving through our entry pillars when Kim shouted at me to look. I was somewhat taken aback and didn’t know what she was pointing to at to my left. Then I saw it. On the left stucco pillar there was a small red-tailed hawk. It was just sitting…
Dead Presidents Tomorrow is President’s Day. That makes this President’s Week when many school have their winter holiday. My own grandkids are up at my house in Ithaca enjoying the snow during their week off. George Washington was born on February 11th, and conveniently, the only other United States president whose birthday we choose to deem worthy of celebration is Abraham Lincoln, who was north on February 12th. For many years we celebrated each of…
Commander Softpants Today Kim handed me a letter that was addressed to me and she had glanced at the addressee. She asked me who Commander Softpants was. I tried to think of something witty to tell her, but then I decided that the actual truthful story was better than anything I could make up. So, I decided to turn it into a story. I mean, why waste a perfectly good title and an interesting story…