Tough Love

Since moving out west I've fallen in love with succulents--I am a notorious plant-killer (not by choice, people), and succulents are like a second chance for me--an opportunity to redeem myself to all those poor ivies and house plants I've overwatered, underwatered, scorched, let my cats eat, etc in the past. They're not 100% fool-proof (please, if you know of any plants that are, please let me know!), but they can withstand my neglect and decidedly un-green thumb better than any other plant I've encountered.

This particular succulent (bonus points for you if you can tell me it's name because I have no clue) is my favorite and today, at the Coyote Point Regional Park in San Mateo, I came across a big giant patch of them, all together. I love their symmetry and the way they unfold out like they are welcoming you in for an embrace---but watch out for that tiny little spikey point at the tip of each perfectly curved leaf. Ouch!

He's All A Blur

I love our front yard. I love the little pink and red rose bushes & I love our cliche little white picket fence. When you think of what the cliche represents--safety, security and comfort, all that American Dream-y stuff--um, yeah, sign me up. We don't own the home and not everything about it is exactly as we would have it if we did own it (one of our bathrooms is slightly "Lost Weekend in Las Vegas" themed, but whatever). But for now, it's ours. And the front yard is one of my favorite parts of it. Especially now that it doubles as Ethan's soccer field. Every night he wants to be out there, kicking and blocking and running around being 4.

I've gone back and forth about this blog--will it be all moody shots of things that strike me as beautiful or will it be just a regular old documentation of my every day life (much of which, incidentally, also strikes me as beautiful)? I've decided that it will probably end up being a bit of both. I'm not a photographer; I just like taking pictures. Of my child in particular. If I get some other things in there here & there, super. If not, he's pretty easy on the eyes, I promise.

The Sunday Creative--Illuminate

This week's theme for The Sunday Creative is "illuminate" and my thoughts immediately went to the shelves of books that live on one wall of our living room. I've been an avid reader my whole life, opting to skip naptime in kindergarten so I could have the shelves of Little Golden Books all to myself. The books lining the shelves in my home represent some of my most amazing journey.

I have vowed to never own a Kindle or a Nook; I'm one of those people who can't imagine a world without paper and ink books--I fully expect to be an ornery, curmudgeon-y old woman p'shaw'ing at my children and grandchildren as they download text books and carry their semester's worth of literature in the cold, impersonal featherweight heft of their laptops. I will be pulling real books down off of shelves to show them, letting them hear the soft rustle of the soft-with-wear pages fluttering through their fingers and smelling the faint yellowed & musty scent of a book long neglected. I will show them the places where I took notes in columns or underlined phrases or words that touched me, or changed the way I looked at the world around me.

Books will be illuminating to them, too, I am sure, even as they read them on a screen--an illuminated screen, no less--but I will feel badly for them that they missed the age of the real, paper book, the ones that stack or lean against each other on the shelf, decorating the walls of your home like pictures of old friends and far away places.

Redwoods, Saratoga, CA