What I Haven't Been Writing About

The summer is passing quickly by on Whidbey Island. As you know, this blog has been silently collecting cobwebs most of the summer, while I've been busily enjoying myself here. There have been many moments when I thought I'd write something, but somehow they all went by unrecorded. Some of the things I considered posting included:

... the birth of a new colt next door in the pasture. He is chestnut colored, with white socks, and it has been wonderful watching him explore his new world, try out his gangly body, and romp around in the meadow.

... a kildeer who made a nest on a driveway down the street, not 5 feet from the roadway, in a gravel bed. She nested for over a month, fiercely defending her eggs from the neighborhood cats, dogs, coyotes, eagles, osprey, and people, finally hatching three healthy chicks. They grew quickly and vacated the nest, presumably all surviving. Madame Kildeer's defense tactics included feigning injury, to distract attention from the nest, dragging her wing or tail and shrieking pitifully as she hobbled around the driveway. It was great local drama for several weeks, and the source of many conversations with concerned neighbors cheering for a safe outcome.

... Zuma's latest accomplishment, catching and eating a small rabbit. Well, she is a rat terrier, and her genetic pre-disposition came through for her! I think it is the first time she's ever caught anything. We have (thankfully) an absence of rats, but a huge abundance of bunnies here.

... the 49 shades of grey that we have been living in for much of the summer here. This is not a complaint - it has been lovely in its way, and cool too. When everything is grey, the colors of all the plants and flowers and birds pop out dramatically against the leaden skies. The flowers and vegetables and fruit trees are abundantly producing this year, cherries, plums, peaches, apples, and tomatoes all dripping with ready harvest.

... oh, and the millions of blackberries about to be ready for the picking, literally everywhere, everywhere, everywhere.

... a day trip to San Juan Island, on a ferry, threading through many small islands en route, on a perfectly sparkling day, crisp and sunny.

... a richness of good books and movies. Add to the list from the last post a recommendation for a fabulous Danish film, After the Wedding, a rich and complex family story with so much development of all the characters. It is one of the best and most thought-provoking films I've seen in many years.

... the pleasure of spreading out in this borrowed house, having a huge kitchen and guest rooms, so that we have had the chance to entertain friends and family from off the island, and cook some pretty great dinner parties too!

... my ongoing despair with and rage at the current political regime. Every day, just when you think it can't get any worse, it gets worse. I stay well-informed and read a lot of news and commentary, and agonize about what to do to change things. You might think it would be easy to detach from it and just enjoy life on this beautiful and simple island, but I find that to be impossible, even without TV. Thinking about the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, the immigrants now being held in custody here in the US, the families who are homeless or without health care, the gross inequities between the rich and poor, the degradation of the environment, the lack of concern on the part of so many of us. Well, don't get me started....

... anyway, things are good here, and I'm so grateful for all the blessings of my everyday life, big and small. Let's hope that the miracle of peace comes to the world soon!

Good Viewing

We have joined the happy millions who subscribe to Netflix. Since we have no TV on the island, and not much in the way of movie theaters, etc., it is especially appreciated on these long evenings. Here are a few of the things I've been watching and loving:
Reckless - a 4 part series from England, that was on Masterpiece Theater several years ago. It is smart, sexy, funny, surprising, passionate, and beautifully acted. It's about a love triangle, it's contemporary, and it knocked my sox off!Painted Lady - part of my Helen Mirren immersion. This was also a British film, a murder mystery, and yet another way to showcase the brilliance of Helen Mirren who plays an aging hippy folk-singer. Awesome!Prime Suspect - This series was also from BBC, and began showing in the early 1990's. Helen Mirren (again) plays the role of Detective Inspector Jane Tennison in an ongoing series of murder investigations around England. Once again, a stellar cast, smart and sparkling scripts, and edge-of-your-chair suspense. Highly recommended.
Second Sight - One more series about detectives. This time, the hero loses his sight in the first episode, but with the sharpening of the rest of his senses, he continues his career as a detective. I haven't finished watching this series yet, but it promises to be another winner.

What prompted much of this was recently seeing a list of PBS TV's lists of most popular programs. I've always been a fan of Masterpiece Theater, but haven't always gotten to watch it. So now I'm catching up on some I've missed.

Do you have any suggestions for our future evenings' entertainment?? (DVD rentals that is...;-)

Painting Redux

It's the same one from a few days ago, just have been working on it. Here's the newest iteration. Size is two 16" x 20" panels. Acryllic on black gesso. Below is a detail.

Chocolate Ecstasy

Good chocolate is one of my great loves. Another of my great loves, Daniella, just sent me a generous gift from Kansas City, where she has been taking art classes and attending a Surface Design conference. When we were in KC in September, we found Christopher Elbow chocolates, a tiny shop tucked away in the back of a furniture store, as I remember it. We were stunned! The artistry of these fine sweets is in the combined beauty of each piece as a work of art to look at, as well as a taste sensation to eat! It is hard to disturb the artistry by eating the first piece, and equally hard to decide where to begin to choose. After much consideration I began with Orange Blossom Honey, shaped like a little beehive. It was superb! The promises for the days ahead are phenomenal. Where would you begin??

Another Whidbey Walk

One of my absolute favorite places to walk is kind of a secret spot. I discovered it by accident a few years back. It is a wide earthen dike with a meandering pathway across the top, running between Sunlight Beach and Useless Bay. Scotch broom, wild roses, and blackberries rise up on both sides, opening to breath-taking views in both directions. Bunnies are everywhere - these days, lots of little ones. On one side is a large, muddy bay where the tide seems to be permanently "out". The little rivulets are studded with heron moving in ultra-slow-motion and staring attentively at some potential meal in the water. A wide variety of shore birds scurry busily across the sand. At the far end of the trail, eagles are often sitting in the treetops staring down at us as we pass below. On the other side is lush farmland, with ponds, ducks, marshes, and bucolic views. Kingfishers and swallows swoop overhead. Bees are buzzing in the wild roses. As usual, nobody is ever out there but us. The pathway is about 1/2 mile long I'd guess, and we go over and back. Each time I'm in bliss. Best thing is that this "secret garden" is just a couple of miles from our home up here!

Thundering Hooves

The house where we're spending the summer is surrounded on two sides by horse corrals and pastures. Tonight I was quietly reading and I heard what sounded like distant thunder. Then I realized that the floor was shaking beneath me. I stepped to the back door and was treated to the sight of four beautiful horses running full-out in big loops around the corral immediately over the back fence. I grabbed the camera and tried to capture the beauty and exhiliration of the moment. Apparently those four have just returned to the ranch here after being away for 8-9 months, so they were ecstatic to be "home". They continued to race and kick up their heels and roll in the dirt for about 1/2 hour before they finally settled down. All these photos were taken while I was standing on the threshold of our back door here. These horses are ridden constantly, and used as "polo ponies" in polo matches around the Northwest.

A Painting Fool, or A Foolish Painting.......

I've been painting again. What happens on the canvas is always a surprise. This one started out as an all black-and-white painting, then took on a life of its own. I'm noticing that my past history as a mosaic artist still has a bearing on how I see the world. And I'm getting a little less scared of "abstract". The last two photos are details.

Daily Roundup

I still often feel at a loss about what to write about in my blog. Tonight I'll write about some of the odds and ends of the day. At my 8 am water exercise class, I met a woman, Monica, who turned out to be from Chile. We found out that we had many things in common, and had a great chat in the hot tub after our workout. I learned from her, among other things, that Whidbey Island is at a latitude in the Northern Hemisphere that corresponds to some parts of Chile in the Southern Hemisphere. This area is very similar in landscape and climate to where she and her husband grew up - who knew?? So they are very comfortable here.

Next I took Zuma to the beach for a romp. It was low tide, and the beach was wide and wet and briny. Some children there wondered why Zuma was afraid of them. A little boy, about 3 years old, said "maybe she thinks I'm a giant!" and his face lit up with a joyous grin at the notion that he might be a giant to someone. Adorable!

From there, I drove around to various places to look at houses for sale. A friend's mother wants to move here, and I've got a notion of what she wants. It's a great excuse to go house shopping, a favorite activity up here! I saw a few losers, a few odd but promising possibilities, and a couple of absolutely stunning places with views to make you never want to leave your front porch again (see photo above for an example).

Then Zuma and I went to a second beach for another run-around before coming home for lunch. This afternoon I worked on a painting I'm making, and that was all about being lost for several hours in the process, and all of a sudden it's 5:30 and the dog is giving me that look like "hey, I'm hungry, I'm bored, are you ever going to come back to this planet?"

Tonight a charming quail couple sat on top of the fence in the back yard, between us and the horse enclosure, looking like they were surveying our back yard for snacks. Later, when I walked Zuma down our street, a pair of crows was kicking up a major ruckus. When I walked down closer to the lake, I could see that a large bald eagle was sitting on the tip-top of a big tree, and the crows were dive-bombing it relentlessly, coming within inches of its head. The eagle was clearly annoyed (did those crows have a nest nearby that they were defending?), and frequently stretched his neck up and snapped at the crows as they whizzed by him. Don't ever think we lack for drama and excitement up here on our little island! It's a happening place, believe me!(photo by Ballard Blog)(of course I forgot my camera!)

The Deep Green Woods of Whidbey

I've often written about the Whidbey Island beaches, lakes, and meadows. Today I've been walking with Zuma (above) on some of the numerous trails through the nearby woods. Many of these trails are used for riding horseback, but they're great for walking too. Mostly when I walk in there I see nobody. The woods are silent except for the numerous bird calls from high above in the trees; the tapping of woodpeckers on old wood; the occasional snap of a branch under my own foot. Otherwise, the silence is complete. No car or airplane noises, no voices, nothing. I feel safe in here. Unlike many places where a walk alone in the woods can be unsafe for a variety of reasons, in these woods I breathe deeply and feel my body relax. The pathways are soft beneath my feet. As I gaze into the deep greens that spread out in all directions, I feel peace and serenity and a sense of timelessness. Zuma, on the other hand, feels frisky, adventurous, and excited. With her tail wagging, she races down the trails, only looking back at intervals as if to say "can't you hurry up??!"

Our New Digs .....

This summer we're staying at our neighbor's house while they are away. Normally we stay in a small studio apartment, but this place is spacious, commodious, and offers all the comforts of a very lovely home! It is right next door to our place, so it shares many of the same views of the lake and the horse farm, although from the back yard the horses are much more up-close and personal. I've taken a few photos to give a feeling of what we're looking at. Above is the front yard, with blooming azaleas.Here is a view from the front of the house looking at the horse pastures, and a glimpse of the lake.
This is the side yard, seen across the front of the house.Of course there are always eagles. A few days ago, this huge bald eagle sat for hours on the tree beside our driveway, just watching the lake and the marsh.An artistic collection of bird houses in the yard.
The back yard and patios. You can see our studio in the background, a brown building with a round window.Canada geese sleeping in one of the pastures while the horses graze nearby.

From Brill-o to Chill-o

In the last few weeks, since we got back to Santa Cruz, I've been engaged in a frenzy of deep cleaning, getting ready to leave our Santa Cruz home for several months. We have people coming to stay there throughout the time we're away, and I wanted everything to be in the best possible shape for our visitors. It actually felt good, in a way, to empty every drawer, closet, cupboard, box, and junk area and clean it all out. I made numerous trips to the Goodwill drop-off, and to the Dump. By the time I was finished, it was hard to leave. The place looked better than it has in years. Even the garden was glorious, with new plants just getting ready to burst forth, and so many things blooming.

But indeed we left, and after two days of driving north, we made it to our favorite summer location, Whidbey Island, Washington. I brought along lots of good books, my paints, the dog, my bathing suit (for water exercise), binoculars (for the birds) and most of all an intention to enjoy every minute of this lovely place. Picture me here.......

Four Good Men

Today I’m thinking about the human landscape of this journey. In particular, I’ve had the pleasure of spending quality time with four good men, all of whom have enriched my travels immensely.

MY BROTHER DICK
What a great guy! He is everything a brother should/could be – loving, fun, playful, creative, brilliant. He writes the most amazing humor pieces (wish I could get him to publish his letters). He plays music. He can make absolutely anything with his hands – the ultimate craftsman. He cooks fabulous meals. He has been happily married to his lovely Marnie, for ~35 years, and is a super-Dad to his 3 boys. Although he is an actual twin to my brother, Hunt, I often feel as if Dick and I are really the twins. Our DNA seems to vibrate in synch. I love it when he phones me early in the morning and asks “are you working on the crossword puzzle?” and I am, and he is too! Obviously I adore him!

MY COUSIN JOHN
This one I’ve known all my life too. I went to his and DJ’s wedding when I was 11 years old, and they are still happily together. John spent his professional life as a counselor/therapist, working for VA hospitals and local clinics. He is a wonderful listener, and his compassionate heart seems to always be open. What is so striking now is that, although retired, he lives a busy and full life giving to his community. He volunteers on all sorts of projects, is active in his church, spends quality time with each of his grandchildren (such as taking them on wonderful vacations), plays golf, and knows all about everything in his area of North Carolina. He lives a truly exemplary life, and has fascinating stories which he shares with a twinkle in his eye. It was delightful to reconnect with him.

OUR FRIEND BEN
I know him the least well of all these four men, but so much enjoyed deepening my friendship with him and his firecracker wife, Dee. Ben is a passionate and romantic man. The story of how he and Dee found and lost and found each other again is one of the most moving love stories I’ve ever heard. They are devoted to each other with such intensity, and Ben has been an amazing and supportive father to Dee’s two children (now teenagers). He is deeply engaged in the arts (theater, writing, film), a superb cook, and a riveting conversationalist. I loved watching him fill his back patio with candlelight, just for the pleasure of how beautiful it was! Now there’s a romantic guy!

MARK
In Grand Junction, Mark is best known for having started the highly successful Main Street Bagel Bakery. There, his creative talents are apparent everywhere – in the design and layout of the building, the choice of menu items, the attention to high quality, the superb food, the music, the inviting atmosphere, the cheerful staff. Mark loves to keep improving, and this work he has chosen lets him do that. My history with Mark goes back almost 30 years. I’ve been close friends with his wife, Missy, since our children were all little, and she and I were just young mothers struggling along. Mark, in those days, worked as a stone mason (did beautiful work), but had little to say to me. He seemed shy and shut down back then, and I didn’t know how to talk to him. Over the years, I have grown to treasure my friendship with him. Like a fine vintage wine, Mark just keeps on getting better and better. He is open and aware, kind and generous. When I come to visit, he welcomes me with such warmth and sweetness, and it is very genuine. His passion is music, and he plays his guitar for fun, and is getting a band together. He loves animals, has a great sense of humor. He is a great athlete and outdoor adventurer. He grows more handsome all the time and stays in great shape. He is a courageous risk-taker, and a truly fine man in every sense.

Men – sometimes you’ve gotta admire them!

Rocky Mountain High

Today I'm in Ouray, Colorado, a spectacular tiny town surrounded by towering, snow covered crags on all sides. My friend Missy and I are staying here at a place where there are natural hot springs where we can soak surrounded by these mountains, and by wild deer grazing on the grass a few feet away. I've been in Colorado since Monday, mostly in Grand Junction where Missy and her sweet husband, Mark, own the Main Street Bagel Bakery. This is the most soulful and welcoming place in town, and attracts crowds of hungry people all day long. Mark (below with his dog, Dora) makes the most amazing, frothy, home-brewed Chai anywhere, and their baked goods are just superb. It's worth a trip to Colorado just to eat here!
Missy (photo above shows her at the Bagel shop) and I go way back. We've been friends since our children were little, so probably almost 30 years. Even though we don't see each other often, our friendship is a treasure and we immediately fall into that easy conversation that goes on and on and on for days, deep and free and wandering and wide open to each other. I love her dearly and feel so lucky that we made this time together.

On Tuesday Missy and I drove up to the Colorado National Monument, an area of red rock canyons and hiking trails just outside of town, and hiked up there for several hours of solitary bliss. The trails and roads were so high up that you could sometimes look down at the tops of large birds soaring in the canyons below - awesome!Yesterday was my birthday, and as you can tell, it was celebrated in High style! There was an even more amazing icing on my cake - my niece Amy gave birth to her new baby daughter, Kathryn, yesterday morning in New Hampshire. Those of you who know me know how I adore Amy and her husband, Carson. She and I are bonded at the heart, big time. Even though it wasn't planned this way, for her first baby to be born on my birthday just feels like a huge gift. I'm very excited and thrilled for them and can't wait to see my new grand-niece and shower her with love!

Today we will probably go up to Telluride, after some hiking around Ouray. I return to Santa Cruz on Saturday. It has been a total joy to travel so extensively around the country and be with so many dear friends along the way. I'm flying!!

Pittsburgh, hmmmmmm.........

After four days in Pittsburgh, there is much (and little) to report. Of great interest here is the topography of the city. It sits on a wedge between the Allegheny and Monongehela Rivers, and these join to make the Ohio River, which runs off west to join (?) the Mississippi. Pittsburgh wears dozens of bridges like jewels in a spiky tiara. Some parts of the city are quite flat, while in other areas steep, rocky ridges run right throught the town, and whole sections of the residential areas are built along these precipitous hillsides, scattered up and down in places where some mountain goats might have a second thought about setting out for a walk! Don't be fooled by what appear to be grids on this map - the streets wind and twist and torque about in ways that no street should ever have to go. Driving here is torturous at best, and if we did not have our portable GPS system, we would probably be in Cleveland by now, having given up altogether on finding anything. In addition, this is a city of vast contrasts. Its history is of steel manufacturing, great steel mills down near the rivers, with the steel workers climbing back up those hills at the end of a long working day. Now the steel mills are long gone, but the old buildings remain. The big names here are Carnegie, Mellon, and the city boasts a fine array of huge, gorgeous old buildings, opera houses, ballets, museums, skyscrapers, and even a "Cathedral of Learning" (below, visible from our hotel room). We've seen at least 4 universities here: Carnegie-Mellon, Univ. of Pittsburgh, Chapman College, and Duquesne Univ. Perhaps there are more. There are mansions and grand avenues, and then just as quickly there are whole sections of the city that seem to be boarded up, falling down, and just downright grim. From our hotel, we have been able to walk 1/4 hour in almost any direction and find nothing to eat. Commercial ventures such as restaurants are located someplace else. We are so lucky that we have a car here. Others are not so fortunate. An older Italian couple staying here have no car, and are staying on for several more days - their frustration about having to forage for food is verging on the desperate!

We've seen a lot of art, both at the wonderful Fiber Arts International show in which Daniella is participating, and then throughout the city at other venues. Today we went to the Andy Warhohl Museum, and then a place called the Mattress Factory, which does huge installation pieces only. Interesting. (installation above by Deborah Aschheim).

A few vignets of local color. I pushed the hotel elevator button a few days ago and it slid open to reveal an entire packed car full of adolescent boys in bathing suits, heading down to the hotel pool. Turns out there is a wrestling convention sharing the hotel with us so there is all sorts of young boy energy writhing by.

At a gallery yesterday, two young women sat discussing how to order a commission piece from a gallery artist. The women had a huge wad of cash which they were flipping through. The gallery owner phoned the artist while they sat there. The conversation was "yes, these clients would like to commission you for a special piece. It's for a retirement gift. The man is white and very bald, and they want to have his face made in clay. Do you think you can do that for them?? I have his photo right here and I can fax it over for you to look at." Of course I was eavesdropping, but I was also feeling great gratitude that my fellow workers, when I retired, did not come up with a similar idea of a gift for me!

Our plan is to fly out of here tomorrow, me to Denver and Daniella home. But a huge Nor'Easter storm is bearing down on the East Coast, and rain, snow, and wind are forecast for tomorrow. (Today we only got the rain and icy cold). Pray that we get out of here, and don't end up spending the night at Pittsburgh airport instead! Ciao!!

Feeling the Love ....

Washington DC. What can be said that hasn’t already been written a million times? Grandiose and magnificent buildings, great museums, huge public spaces, wonderful public transportation, enough to make any American proud to be an American (a feeling I’ve been missing for the last 6 years). Honestly, I felt that feeling several times over the last several days and it was as surprising as running into an old lover unexpectedly - tinged with pleasure, slightly embarrassing, but rooted deeply and securely in my heart of hearts. I love our country, I love Washington, and this visit only deepened that relationship. Of course we flipped the bird surreptitiously in our pockets as we walked past the White House (Homeland Security is always watching), but otherwise I felt the joy of loving my country again. Amazing! Travel can help with that too. We stayed in the Georgetown University Conference Center, which was a fabulous choice of places. We walked miles, and ate great food, and were stunned by art and architecture and the vibrant electricity of the city.

Last night we were royally entertained by old friends from 20 years ago at UCSC, a lovely family who cooked us a yummy Persian meal. It was great to renew that friendship after so many years. Hamid was always one of my favorite students. In all the years I worked at the university he had a special place in my heart, and that hasn’t changed!

Today we drove by back roads across Pennsylvania (my favorite way to travel – I avoid freeways). Somehow everything struck me as funny. The first thing was a pit stop at a very rural McDonalds where an older woman sat smoking in a booth. Her white hair was coiled in rolls across her forehead, row upon row, like little sausages. Beneath that, she wore rosy pink eye shadow, lots of it, under her deeply penciled, steeply arched eyebrows – think St. Louis arch in deep brown. Their shape bore no relationship to her head or her eyes, but were a construction purely of her own desire. Face was powdered a chalky white. Back of her hair looked as if she had run out of white coloring – it was a mix of many colors, not a pretty sight. She was as close to a Diane Arbus photograph as I’ve ever seen in the flesh. I longed to photograph her myself, but couldn’t think of a polite way to ask. We moved on.

Next were a series of places we passed: “Johnny’s Motel – Private Showers and Free TV” (as opposed to group showers??); ‘’Exotic Dancers Here Every Friday’’ (next to a falling-down building out in the woods, surrounded by abandoned and crumbling cabins; “Shy Beaver Boat Center”; “Snake Springs” (a town where goats were grazing freely along the roadside). “Clearance Sale on Display Homes” next to a row of dismal trailers rotting haphazardly along the roadside; “For Rent – Tower for Release” (on a peeling-paint billboard, topped by something that looked like angel wings); Hoke-E-Geez (a business of unknown content). Roadside sign: “For Sale: Fresh Fur Pelts, Home-Grown Beef, Ginseng”. We were mystified by the sheer number of houses that had a huge metal five-pointed star on the front of the house (perhaps 2-3 feet in diameter). A little internet research seems to point to them being Amish symbols for good luck and health. They were everywhere.We saw beautiful stone houses and log cabins from the 1700’s. We rode along lovely rivers, through forested meadows, trying to imagine what this countryside would look like in summer when the leaves were on the trees. We saw birds nests in all the bare branches, and a couple of times spotted eagles soaring way above the Allegheny mountains.Tonight we are in Pittsburgh, an elegant town by all accounts. Here they have opera, ballet, symphony, theater, art, and rivers of steel. We will be here until Monday and will explore it all!

One for the Road

When I travel I always look forward to some good reading time. I set out on this trip with Wallace Stegner, a favorite writer, and a second (big) book Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts. I thought those would last me for the length of this trip. I finished the Stegner right away, but haven’t even started the other one. I got side-tracked in Augusta, or maybe blind-sided is a better description. Our friends there handed me an absolutely stunning memoir, All Over But the Shoutin’ by Rick Bragg. I read the first few pages with my heart pounding in excitement. Since then, that’s all I’ve wanted to read. It has been the perfect thing to read in the South. I can’t put it down. I’m already grieving that it will be finished soon and I’ll have to move on….

I’ve read and loved a lot of southern writers – Lee Smith, Faulkner, Erskine Caldwell, Harper Lee, Maya Angelou, Pat Conroy, and many other great ones. This book of Bragg’s is so beautifully written, so elegiac, and his stories just burn into my memory. He writes in great tradition, yet his work is unique and tells his life with such truth and humor and dignity. I’m completely absorbed in it these days, dreaming it by night and day-dreaming it by day. I think he has written more. I need to read all of his books. If you’re looking for something fabulous, read this book!

Road Trip, Part 2

This morning finds us in Washington, DC, on a chilly morning when "snow flurries" are among the forecast possibilities! Since we packed for Florida and a warm southern spring visit, we have been freezing our butts off for the last few days of bone-chilling temperatures. Yesterday, in Charlottesville, we sought out the local Goodwill store to stock up on turtle-necks and sweaters. I'm not sure that will be enough, but it is a definite improvement in our lot!

Since my last post, we've been having a fine time! We spent an afternoon and overnight at Peckerwood Plantation, a gorgeous spot owned by our friends and their relatives. The photo at the top shows the lake with all the flowers blooming around it, and the little fishing dock where the bass and bream are just popping out of the water. We experienced more great southern hospitality (all along the way), and slept like babies in the silence of the deep woods around the lake. It was hard to leave, but we had to get on the road and head north.The next day we visited my cousins, John and DJ, in Salisbury, NC. This was another gorgeous small town, and we got the royal treatment, and the benefit of DJ's phenomenal cooking including a fabulous Easter dinner, with baked ham and coconut cake, and all the trimmings! Here the dogwoods and azeleas were blooming full-out as well, just lovely everywhere. Yesterday we were in Charlottesville, Va. for a specially planned lunch date at a new restaurant there, Orzo. Our friend Ken Wooten recently opened this new place, located in a wonderful "food-oriented" complex of businesses, somewhat like a mini-Ferry building for those of you familiar with San Francisco's most mouth-watering spot. Anyway, the lunch did not disappoint us. Every bite was fabulous, so if you're ever in this part of the world, be sure to put Orzo on your agenda!

Now we're off to explore DC. We'll hope it warms up, but we're going anyway!