Self loved, loved, loved the Pinschower Inn in Cloverdale, CA, which she visited for the first time last December. It had the most beautiful garden.
Posting for Travel with Intent’s Silent Sunday.
Tag: California
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The photinia in self’s backyard is covered with reddish new growth. The olive tree just behind it is getting huge! It’s so tall it dwarfs the house. She did not plant this tree: it started growing there about a decade ago. Encouraged, she bought an olive tree for the front yard, thinking it would help block her living room window from the relentless summer sun. That one, however, while taller, has hardly any leaves. Best laid plans . . . (sigh)
Posting for Cee Neuner’s Flower of the Day.
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Still reading Con/Artist, Tony Tetro’s entertaining memoir of his life as an art forger.
Here he describes an early attempt to set up his own “art factory.” (NOTE: San Bernardino County must be an interesting place!)
- I checked out a Chagall book from the library and set about studying subjects I could do in a limited black-and-white palette. I searched the phone book for a printer nearby who could help me figure out all the technical details. Almost randomly, I picked one in a rough, seedy part of Pomona. When I rang the bell, the printer appeared holding the half-open door in one hand and a baseball bat in the other. Despite the suspicious welcome, Ray Galpin and his brother Barry were the best blessing I ever had. They were expert printers from a previous era when master pressmen were talented artists who mixed their colors by hand and skillfully manipulated the complicated and mechanical processes needed to create first-rate art.
When self read the last phrase, about Tetro’s commitment to creating “first-rate art,” she couldn’t help smirking. The irony, oh the irony!
There’s no denying his level of commitment. Every paragraph has this subtext: If Michelangelo can stay on his back, painting the ceiling of the Sistine chapel, for so many years, Tetro too can devote hours and hours to his “art” — in fact, he even carries on painting while in jail (He was in minimum security, obv). He’s just your typical starving artist, except that he isn’t starving. He drives a Ferrari. If real artists had 1/20 of the guy’s commitment, they’d be churning out a book a year, or a painting a month, just sayin’.
One thing about Tetro, he drops names with such abandon. Self wonders what the consequences are for his accomplices, such as the brothers mentioned above. Did they get hauled in for investigation, and were they cleared? Wouldn’t exposing their illegal activities bring them more unwanted scrutiny?
Stay tuned.
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We have had weather, here in northern California. First: two days of blustery, high wind (knocked down ALL the pots on the porch, even the huge ones with small orange and loquat trees). Then, all last night, rain.
This morning, though. This morning. Look! After that wind storm, I’m surprised there were any blossoms left on the tree.
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Posting for Thursday Doors, hosted by No Facilities.
Welcome to Thursday Doors! This is a weekly challenge for people who love doors and architecture to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos, drawings, or other images or stories from around the world. If you’d like to join us, simply create your own Thursday Doors post each (or any) week and then share a link to your post in the comments below, anytime between 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time). If you like, you can add our badge to your post.
Doors to The Penn Club, on London’s Bedford Place, which sadly closed its doors forever in 2021. It was self’s little nest, only a stone’s throw from the British Museum.
Doors to the Corners of the Mouth, organic grocery in Mendocino Village. They sell all sorts of goodies from Boont Berry Farm: cheese, salads, carrot cake.
Last: HOME SWEET HOME! Picture of self’s front door.
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Thanks to Wind Kisses for hosting this week and for coming up with the awesome prompt, MESSAGES!
Here are a few “message” pictures from self’s archives, all places in California:
- sign inside a restaurant in Mission San Miguel Arcangel, California Central Coast
- sign in the lobby of the San Jose Convention Center during Adam Savage’s SilCon 2022
- Fro-yo cup, downtown San Luis Obispo
- Sign commemorating the original Facebook Headquarters, Emerson Street, downtown Palo Alto
- Traffic sign, Kasten corner of Main Street, Mendocino Village
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For the second year in a row, self spent Christmas in Mendocino. She loves being in the tiny, picturesque village clinging to the headlands off US-1. Her favorite doors/haunts (L to R): Mendocino Chocolate Company on Main (the main store is in Fort Bragg); Corners of the Mouth organic grocery (in a re-purposed church, on Ukiah); a vintage store in downtown Fort Bragg; and the Garden Bakery, in an alley next to the Great Put-On clothing boutique on Albion.
Posting for No Facilities’ Thursday Doors.
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Self’s hometown Fourth of July Parade was in-person this year, for the first time in three years. Though crowds were sparse, it really felt like a moment.
Posting for Brashear’s Mid-Week Monochrome Challenge.
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Well, here it is: self’s annual Halloween appreciation post! She walked north along Hillview, to Whipple Avenue, then turned east to Hudson Street. The neighbors do go all out. Some of these are positively inspired!
Posting for Jez’s Fan of . . . Challenge.
Kanlaon 