Guinness and Amy in the Morning Sun

Amy and Gus have a nice little porch on the front of their house, and it has been outfitted for sitting.  It is a wonderful place to sit and read, or to have coffee in the morning.  It is one of Amy's favorite places.  And their cats enjoy the porch as well.  I came outside one morning with my cup of coffee and found Amy and Guiness enjoying the sun, so I joined them!

The Eames Studio

 

About six months ago I watched a documentary on PBS about the designers Charles and Ray Eames.  They were husband and wife American designers who made significant historical contributions to the development of modern architecture and furniture. Among their most well-known designs is the Eames Lounge Chair. They also worked in the fields of industrial and graphic design, exhibition design, fine art and film. I was stunned to learn that their studio, which was in operation for more than forty years, is on Washington Boulevard, in Venice, California!  So I went hunting for it this trip, and found it.  Unfortunately, when I visited it several times, there were cars parked in front.  I liked the light on the building at this time of day, so I had to live with the cars in the photograph.  The building was a garage before it was a studio, and it was recently for sale, and it was purchased by someone.

California Redux

 

I have so many photographs from California that I haven't been able to post, that I have decided to do a "California Week" (you know, like "Shark Week") so that you will get to see more interesting photographs than just the northeast on cold, gray, and rainy days.  In addition to singing, Sarah is an accomplished violinist, and guitar player!  Here she is sitting in the living room and practicing on her guitar.  I was just using my computer, and so I reached over and got my toy camera and took a few photographs.  And I listened to the lovely guitar music, of course.

Lucy Under the Tree

This is Lucy who is Sarah's cat, and she is a phantom cat!  There is also another cat, Oliver, and he is missing one front leg.  Oliver makes himself seen and will come over and allow us to pet him, but Lucy is mostly an apparition!  After spending four days or so in the house, Lucy could be seen peeking around a corner at us, and then would disappear.  By the last day, she would sit on the arm of the couch, with a wary look on her face.  At one point she spent some time in the living room, but only under the Christmas tree, peering out at the world.

Heading Home

We headed home this morning after an amazing week in Los Angeles.  I kept my eye out the window as we headed into Utah and Colorado.  On the way out west, you probably remember my photograph of Monument Valley and the red color of the landscape.  Only 15 minutes or so east of that location, I photographed these mountains today.  I think it is in the vicinity of Telluride, Colorado, but I can't be sure.  It is just a rugged, stunning landscape, especially to an Easterner.  Please click on this image to see more details in the photograph.

Star Wars!

We saw Star Wars today!  We had a theater party and nine of us went to the theater to see it.  Here, almost all the theaters accept reservations, so we knew that we could get in.  I haven's seen a Star Wars episode since the very first one back in 1977.  It was a great movie, but one that we would not have bothered to see, if it were not for the girls wanting us to go.  So at least now, we are temporarily very hip and up to date with our cultural literacy.  The last photo is everyone discussing the movie right after the movie was over.

Christmas Caroling

We went out for a walk, and to walk the dog.  We ended up on Abbot Kinney which is the fancy main street in Venice.  Right after the walk started out, Liz and Sarah and Amy began singing Christmas carols, in three-part harmony as they walked along!  What was really neat was that a few people in their yards would call out words of encouragement.  When we got to Abbot Kinney, they decided to stop and sing a couple of carols while standing in place on the sidewalk.  What was interesting was the reaction of the passersby.  Everyone kind of pretended that there was no singing going on and walked by with their eyes averted.  But Liz and Sarah and Amy were having such a good time that they didn't let it bother them.