California Modern

These are two of the houses in our neighborhood. I love these two. I've really never thought much about owning a house... I sort of assumed I want to, one day, or it's the "right thing to do", or the grown up thing to do, or the thing Suze Orman said is really financially important to do... I think I have Peter Pan syndrome. I don't want to grow up.

It wasn't until I moved to this neighborhood recently that I started to think I really want to own a house; one of these houses! They were built in the late 50's and early 60's, during the height of the California Modern period. They are designed to be low and softly colored, and not overshadow the landscape. Most of them have an atrium inside!

Tomatoes.

It's funny when fruits and vegetables grow these little appendages. Appendages is probably not the right word... we got these delicious dry-farmed Early Girl tomatoes at the farmers' marketing today.

Tillandsia, or "Airplant"

On a lunch break one day about a month ago, a co-worker and I stopped by the local garden store. There we saw these tiny little cactus-looking plants that were light as feathers, seemed pretty dry, and were not potted in soil, but instead attached to driftwood, wired to a gazebo, or just set into little pots with nothing holding them in.

My co-worker bought one for me and one for herself... they were tiny ones, less than three inches tall. We learned that they are called "air plants", "airplants", or Tillandsia, and they don't need soil. They will flower once in a while, and they just need a misting of water or a weekly drench to stay alive and thrive. Someone told me they grow all over Florida, but to me, they are pretty exotic.

I started reading about Tillandsia on the internet, and eventually I went back to the garden store and got a few more small specimens in the $2 - $5 range. At work, my friend Ashley admired the ones I had brought back to the office, so I gave her one. I then ordered a specimen online... it's a huge ball bigger than a big grapefruit, and it has a thin wire attached for hanging. My intention was to hang it, but after reading the instructions, I realized the most suitable place in the apartment was on an open shelf under a frosted skylight, so I placed it there. Not since carnivorous plants when I was a child and orchids for the last several years have I been so fascinated and enamored of a plant. Much like when you're infatuated with a new lover, I think about Tillandsia about fifty times an hour.

Iitala Kartio Glassware

I recently discovered iitala's Kartio glasses and pitcher. To say I discovered them is silly - they were designed in the late 1950's and have been around ever since. I've wanted these drinking glasses for a while, and they're not terribly expensive, but since I had plenty of generic, works-fine-but-not-inspiring clear drinking glasses from places like IKEA and Crate & Barrel, I never got them. Moving to a 557.5 square foot miniature house with the help of professional movers who charge by the hour seemed a good reason to give a dozen old drinking glasses away before the move and purchase six iitala glasses instead and have them shipped to my new place. Okay, I also got the set of 4 mixed color small glasses (good for juice, cocktails, a small serving of ice cream or yogurt) and a carafe/pitcher in "blueberry blue", a discontinued color. These glasses are a dream to hold, and the glass is so beautiful and so clear. It's amazing how different a drinking glass can be... apparently designer Kaj Franck was obsessed with this simple object - the drinking glass!

Wild Blackberries!

I grew up in a very dry climate; the desert. Now, here at my new home, I was shocked to see wild blackberries growing throughout the neighborhoods and along the side of the road. They are plentiful, and they are ripe! We got a handful this morning and we washed them well and had them with yogurt from the Farmers' Market...

18 Miles Away

After several years of living in the coldest, foggiest part of San Francisco, and escalating unhappiness with my neighborhood and my downstairs neighbor (downstairs neighbor number 4, she was), DD and I were ready to move. As most people do when they are looking for an apartment, we had a "wish list" of qualities we were looking for in a new apartment. There's always the Dream List and then as you start looking for apartments you have to give on certain items on the Dream List, because you're really not going to find a place with updated kitchen appliances, a washer-dryer or washer-dryer hook ups, a parking space, an energy-efficient heater (or hell, just a heater, period), decent neighbors, a view of something interesting or pretty, or just not dumpsters or chain link fence or better yet, a wall...carpeting or floors that don't have bodily fluids in them. A sink without a chip. Caulking without mildew. Toilet without stains. Stuff like that.

One thing on our Dream List was outdoor space. Just a little wee balcony or something like that... a few feet of cement outside the door, even. A little place to put a potted plant and two chairs, a place where, hopefully, the sun's rays might hit a few days out of the summer. We weren't too hopeful about this. It was just an item on the Dream List.

Well, we found it! Our new apartment is a dream come true. It has every item on the Dream List and then some. We have a yard! And a round stone patio right outside our door, under the shade of a beautiful bay tree. We have a fig tree full of baby figs! And pink lilies, purple agapanthus, deadly nightshade and a tiny orange tree. Bees and hummingbirds. All the power lines are under the ground in our new neighborhood! The sky is beautiful at night and there are no neighbors above us or below us. Our landlords are real people, nice people, not a "property management company". I would so much rather give these people my rent money... they take care of their property and beautifully remodeled our apartment a few years ago, with quartz floors, wood beams, new cabinets, double paned windows, and skylights. I've never lived in a more beautiful space! It is truly amazing...