Nature Nurture's
Today I need to go back to the earth and look at all the nature that is around me and be reminded of how these things of nature, nurture me....and hopefully, nurture you, too... I cannot remembe the name of this plant, I'm sorry to say....These arms are about as big and round as a big fat cigar....and the intricate design of each of these arms just knocks me out...nature---in all it's beauty and geometry, too---creates things that are truly astounding....but, here is another look from a slightly different angle...same plant....a different day, too....more sun...so we see more of the exactness of that glorious pattern....this pattern that repeats and repeats hundreds of times in each little arm....BEAUTIFUL!
I have a couple of these plants and they are all related...they all came from one plant...and that one plant is in the ground...This one, in the photo, is in a pot because an arm or two got broken off and so we planted it in a pot just to let it root. But it looked so very pretty in that particular place that I decided to just leave it there and let it do it's thing....And it's thing is to grow and multiply! And it has been doing that very successfully for a couple of years now...so, unless something happens to the sister plant that is in the ground, we'll just leave this beauty in the pot exactly where it is right now. It sure is happy there and that's important for a plant, cause if they are happy, they are beautiful and they then nurture you!
Another wonderful plant is this beautiful succulent (Echevaria, I believe)....the color alone nurtures me every time I see it.....the shape, too. I don't even know how to describe this color---
and I'm a painter and in order to mix these colors, you would have to use about 8 or 10 different colors, mixed very very carefully, and even then...this would be near to impossible to do...Oh, I know it can be done perhaps, by a De Vinci or a Rembrandt....masters of color, they were, but God's Garden....well.....almost impossible to duplicate. And that shape....my my my....so very perfect yet not, if you see what I mean. This plant is in a pot, too, out on my deck, which faces the city...but I have a few in the ground, as well....they are sturdy plants even though they have a delicacy to them....they look very delicate to me, anyway, and I think it's the softness of each leaf which gives one the feeling of delicacy....thick, but soft...I'm in love here!And this is one of my very very favorite plants....I probably have 50 of them in various sizes, all over the garden. Many are 'volunteers'.
This plant is called a Senecio....(It has a second name because there are many types of Senecio's....and I use to know it, but I've forgotten it....sorry about that...) This Senecio grows like a weed....the little puffs of flower seeds fly off with a very slight wind and land on the ground and wherever they land, they root and grow. That's why I have so very many of these plants...and we've pulled up more than I can count over time when they were very very small cause in a day or so from that moment of pulling up, there could be ten or fifteen more little volunteers!
These next photo's give you a closer look at the bark of the Senecio....bark is really not the right word, and truthfully
I don't know what the correct word is...but given that, look at the pattern on this....and it is so smooth. There are no little 'stickers' on a Senecio...nothing to hurt you in any way...Beautiful Beautiful Lush plant. And to the side there, by the way, is 'George' with the "buttons" that will be growing and that I am watching? And in fact there has been a little bit of growth since the first photo which was on that last "walking" post, as I recall...I love the leaves on a Senicio....very long thin soft leaves....clean in a way, just like the stalk or bark. Smooth and clean, and BEAUTIFUL, Oh my....this plant nurtures me soooo very much and has since I planted the very first one's 20 years ago. I never tire of looking at them and they make me feel incredibly good every time I do look at them because they are like works of art; so very sculptural; such a lovely soft color, too! This plant feeds my soul.
Here's another special plant....strange and beautiful and, believe it or not, I believe, another type of Senecio! (Who would believe....?) Here are two photographs of this small plant that grows low to the ground. It is almost white in color because it creates this powdery stuff on each of it's thick juicy looking leaves to protect it from the sun, all the while, needing the sun...And you can see that on one of those leaves the powder got washed off and so you are able to see that underneath that powdery white stuff is a green leaf.
These plants will do well in the ground if they are in the proper somewhat protected area where 'the elements' like heavy wind don't get at them. This next photo is a closer look at these very beautiful leaves. They are soft soft soft and it's the powder that gives them that soft look.And again, you can see the light olive green of these leaves where the rain has washed that magical powder off....Isn't that amazing?
Once again, this nurtures me.
I saw this wonderful plaque many many years ago, in a friends garden in Sarasota, Florida....I was having a show of my Paintings there in a lovely Gallery which I think is gone now, called The Foster Harmon Gallery. Foster had been there in Sarasota for years and years and years. My friend Barbara had moved to Sarasota from Chicago after her dear dear husband, who had been my voice teacher in New York, had died. Barbara is originally from England and a Proper Garden was always very very imporant to her wherever she lived here in the states. She had this plaque in that sweet garden of hers and I saw it and knew I had to have one for my garden...And, luckily, we were able to find one right there in Sarasota...and here it is, a bit beaten by the elements, but still wonderful and so very very true.
I apologize for turning on the 'Comment Moderator' and the 'Registered Member' thing, but I've had a number of nasty mean spirited Anonymous Comments which I don't need and in fact, which nobody needs....So, if this very angry person wants to leave a comment, they will have to come out of the woodwork and not hide behind "Anonymous", anymore.
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JUDY & SAMMY & MEOf any given afternoon or evening, I surf around all these special movie channels I pay extra for with the digital cable box, and cannot find anything to watch. I’ve either seen the movies before and never care to see them again, (with a few exceptions) or I didn't want to see the movies in the first place and these are all shown all the time, over and over and over....ad nauseam, good and bad, included...! Then I go to Turner Classic Movies and I can almost count on finding something I’d really like to see again. These old films really are better to my way of thinking.
As a kid, I went to the movies all the time. I have always said, the movies saved my life, though MGM basically ruined my life, too, you know? I believed all the romance and ‘happy endings’ in those MGM films, because I needed to, (there were no happy endings in our house)… I could lose myself in those movies.
I could forget about all the bad things that were happening to our family and I could dream of all those wonderful romantic things that were happening to Lana, happening to me, and that helped me to survive. I was in love with Lana Turner and I wanted to be Lana Turner, too. (go figure!) I kept scrapbooks on many MGM Movie Stars....(don’t ask...it seems like a really strange thing to me now, too!) I was such a baby in so many ways back in those years; and in fact I was the baby of my family, and as I’m sure many of you know who are the baby's of your family's—that position never changes, no matter how old you get.
On the first day of Drama School in New York City, I met a beautiful young man from Alabama, named Sammy.
It was the beginning of a life long most loving and trusted friendship which ended only because he died much too young—we were truly soul mates in every sense of that phrase. The only thing we weren’t was ‘lovers’, though I feel if that had been in the cards we would have been….we skirted around that in conversations and decided it would ruin our friendship which we both felt was very important---too important to each of us to ruin it just for a ‘role in the hay’, as Mrs. Chisholm said, in “Petrified Forest”... So we always decided to maintain our friendship just as it was---and, he was, back then, sometimes gay, (eventually, pretty much all gay, if there really is such a thing---lots of debate about that one) and I didn’t really know what I was….that feeling of being ‘in love’ with Lana when I was 11, had confused me, even though I had been in love with Hugh, at 9....oy…and I certainly found out later, but during those first years, I was like a Nun who has taken a vow of celibacy.
One of the many things we shared was a passion for movies.
He was just as much of a movie junky as I was, so we had a great time going to films together and both of us felt the same way about ‘heads’ in front of us at the movies. So, we didn’t care how many times we had to move our seats in order to avoid having anyone sitting in front of us---sometimes if the theatre was really crowded we would end up in the first row with our necks craning, but most of the time we just ended up sitting closer to the screen than anyone else, which we both loved—that connection to the movie screen—each film being shown, just for us. And we never talked during a film, ever, ever. It wasn’t something we even needed to discuss; it was just what we did from the first time we went to a film together.
When Judy Garland's “A Star Is Born” was going to open in New York City, we had to go see it the very first day it played. We both loved her and had both seen her at ‘The Palace’—a life changing experience, for me----I had seen a lot of wonderful performers even though I was very young because as I said in a previous blog, going to the theatre was something my family had always done on a regular basis as long as I could remember. But, I had no concept that the young woman in all those MGM musicals when seen ‘live’ was going to be so magnificently electric....that she would be such a powerful performer. But she was, because she reached into her guts and tapped into her own emotions and artistry, touching the audience in a way that I had never seen before. It was an awesome thing to behold and to feel, too. I saw her three times at The Palace.
Thrilling, beyond words. I’d also never seen an audience respond this way to a performer. It wasn’t like Sinatra or later "The Beatles" and fans screaming through all of the songs so you never understood anything they said....No, Garland's audiences were worshiping at ‘Her Alter’, riveted to her every move and gesture and being swept away with the emotion she projected and in turn the emotions she made you feel….the screaming of Bravo would erupt at the ‘finish’, you know? It was much later when her die hard fans, (and I include myself), knew every note of every arrangement that people would scream at the first notes of the first 4 bars played by the orchestra---knowing what gem was about to be sung...but that's where the screaming stopped....or whooping at a crescendo reached during a song that they knew was coming…(think: “Rock A Bye My Baby”…YES! Or “Swanee”, just as she was changing keys to a higher register and slowing down the tempo---screams of recognition—almost orgasmic in nature…)then....quiet as we would let the performance sweep over us, savoring every moment of the artistry....She was something else.
So, Sammy and I met up on that very first day at The Roxy Theatre where “A Star Is Born” was opening, and sat through this masterpiece of a film, twice. And when we finally felt we had to go home…we truly hated to leave and swore we would come back. But as it turned out that was the first and last day anyone ever saw the uncut, unbutchered version of this fantastic film. It was pulled out of the few first run theatres across the country where it was playing and a shorter version was in order because of the money that was being lost with this longer version----(what a travesty)---and now, all these many years later with the magic of digital restoration, the original version can be seen, but not in it’s original state of course. With the use of photographs and ‘voice-over’s’, much has been put back---whatever musical numbers that still existed...were found and were lovingly put back---but, much was lost forever…..and so it will never be what it originally was....A true masterpiece of a ‘movie musical’. I remember that both Sammy and I were bowled over by the kind of performance that was captured on film of Judy Garland’s singing---it had the most ‘live’ feel to it of any musical film she had ever made up till that time. (Rent from Netflix: “I Could Go On Singing”; it’s the last film Garland ever made and her musical performances in that movie are superb, though the film itself is not the best of her career---but yet again, her acting is astounding--) And in “Star”, her acting is superb, too---truly riveting and heartbreaking.
That scene in her dressing room when she talks about her husband’s alcoholism and then proceeds to go out and sing, again, “Lose That Long Face”, which had been cut...(Give Me A Break!!! OY OY OY)…..Well, Garland was robbed that year at the Academy Awards…..and James Mason was robbed too…His thoroughly stunning performance didn’t even get a nomination!
THAT...I will never ever understand...his was a deeply layered and sensitive performance of a tortured man who's life and career are pretty much over, struggling to hang on to one last beautiful moment or two...
The last time I saw Judy Garland perform, was at the Hollywood Bowl…..There were times in-between, but, The Bowl was particularly memorable for various reasons, not the least of which was the fact that Sammy and I were sitting waaaay up in ‘The Peanut Gallery’....And it was memorable also because it was the same concert that she had sung at Carnegie Hall...that landmark concert that was recorded 'live'...some months before this concert. So it was pretty special. It was drizzling as it sometimes does in California and Miss Garland was late coming on, but she did come on—I think she was waiting for the rain to stop and when the audience began applauding almost as ‘one’ the show began.
What was remarkable about this performance was that even though Sammy and I were very far away from her, she owned that place and transcended that space which is huge, and it felt like she was singing just to us…as if this was a personal performance---just for the two of us. How she managed that, I’ll never know because any other performer would have at best—looked like a little ant up there. I cannot explain this—but she looked like she was 30 feet away, at most. No big TV screens on either side of the stage as they have now….just her 'there', looking big! Amazing! I’ve seen quite a few performers there at the Bowl, and very few can actually transcend that space. Very very few—I think that is why they have those screens now.But this woman—this Judy Garland---was a true ‘force of nature’. No one like her before or since that I have had the privilege to see "Live & In Person"....to witness and be moved by….yes, there have been lots of very great performers, but no one quite like Garland…Thank God for the magic of film, and recordings, and Video Tape. And I will be grateful for all of my life to have been lucky enough to see her not once or twice, but many times....to be transported by a performer of this caliber stays with you forever, and inspires you forever, too....
In the interest of honesty, this piece was posted on my other blog, without photographs...and only about two people actually saw this...now that I know how to put the photographs on and having edited this just a bit...I wanted to re-post it, so I did! Hope you enjoyed it...
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This is a succulant that is no bigger than a slightly thick pencil...look at the piping...(Nature is simply amazing)....and you can see where clothing designers get their ideas...and check out those teeny tiny flowers, too....
I'm not a Photo Friday Regular but I haven't had time to do a nice long post, so...I hope you enjoy this....
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TIX!So...we are on a two hour break here...and I'm checking on stuff...and going to begin getting my interim post ready...(which, as it happens, is this..)
Ticketing is going well...and it's just the wonderful Shawn & me today...which, as it turns out is better than if there were more people than us...My concentration is not as distracted by people talking, etc...so very many mistakes can happen...wrong tickets clipped to the wrong order form...
forgeting to write down the Ticket Info on the ticket form and also on the Master Sheets and most important, making sure we mark off the seats as assigned on the BIG Master Map of the theatre Orchestra & Balcony...This is such a 'personal' event...so very many of the people have been coming for all of the 22 years we have been doing this...and, we all care about trying to take care of individual people's needs, you know?...Making sure they get to sit where they want, if possible...so it takes time to do this right, and hopefully both Shawn & myself didn't make a sh**load of mistakes! We have to check everything and then double check everything...Shawn and I are not stuffing envelopes today...the 'guys' will do that on Friday & Saturday...we are seating all the packages for each performance and then have been doing all of my people for each performance...(Shawn had to go off to an appointment for a business thing so that's why I'm sneaking off to blogland--he will be back any moment...)
Later: So, Shawn returned and was pretty exhausted from his 'meeting'...(he is soooo busy with this Event---he is our Event Co-Ordinator--plus, meeting on another Event he is working on for the Make A Wish Foundation....a terrific organization, as many of you know, I'm sure...)...so he just stretched out on the floor for a moment or two before we went back to work...
Later, yet again: It turns out we DID have more help than just us! Hooray...Another person just appeared out of nowhere to help us! It was such a wonderful thing to have such a perfectionist helping us....Oh my, what a great help he was....I don't know what we would have done without this extra set of hands....well, not hands exactly....as you can see....such an amazing person, isn't he? Who knew?
And he was such an incredibly BIG BIG help...leafing through the ticket forms with his efficient paw-ways...straightening out a number of mistakes that Shawn and I had made...and then...he actually attempted to take the marker and correct a few things on the Master Map...What a special kitty Mr. Sweetie is...
We couldn't have continued on without him...Bless his sweet dear dear heart...My little honey of a help-mate!
And then, there was this, too....Oh, My...this helped so that we could continue on and finish up for today...not a great photo I'm afraid, (too much sugar to see straight, I think), but I hope you can tell what this is anyway...it's pretty self explanitory, you know....Ohhhhhhh my Lordy, the sugar rush....
And, 
in case you can't read it...these are called: "Outrageous No Nuts Brownies"! Perfect, isn't it! Going to relax for a bit now....
....More to come, as always....
**Extra**-Go to this link: http://www.sonnyradio.com/chrisbliss.htm
This is Masterful....utterly and completely Masterful!!!
I've never seen anything like this, ever before...in my life!
Enjoy....
By the way, Sweetie has his own blog now...Why not go over and take a peek...he loves visitors...and comments, too....he purrs when visited.....
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MORE WALKINGWhen we left off, I think the last thing I showed you was Michael Jeter's house. This is was at the top of my hill, where three streets converge and my street goes on down to the far left...and straight ahead is another short steeet that goes down hill and ends in a cul-de-sac...and then the third street is a flat street, (Thank God) and it too, is a cul de sac but has some interesting houses on it and some amazing views, too...and the fact that it is flat is a great blessing after just about crawling up my steep street...so, that's where I continued my walk...
This is looking east, between two houses and seeing some of what they see from inside their house...that layer of gunk that looks like it is just atop the mountains in the distance is some of the disgusting air that we breath here in Los Angeles, and this was a pretty good day...It's pretty shocking to look out from my windows at times and see not a layer of tan-brown gunk, but a layer of brown-black gunk. Scary really.
If you remember from the previous walking post, I had turned around about 2/3 of the way up my street--looked up, and saw this guy painting the house up there?
Well the particular house he was working on as he stood in that corner, was this one. It's an amazing Art-Deco home...very very big and it covers such a large amount of land for a hillside that you can see it from three different angles...I only have two angles in these two walking posts, (the one I just mentioned and this one)...but I will try to take the third angle on another walk...at a later time...(I would have done it for this post but I have not been able to go out and walk due to weather and other things...) It's hard to see the whole house, but the section that would be behind that big tree which is almost impossible to see, is part of what I was looking at from my street...
As I strolled along, I came to another place where one can see yet another view between houses...(continueing looking towards the east)...and if I am not mistaken, that tiny little white building at the top of the mountain in the distance is The Griffith Park Observatory...rather famous because it was included quite prominantly in the James Dean film, "Rebel Without A Cause"...You can't see the dome in this particular photo, but if you remember that film, a lot of action took place around the outside of the Observatory as well as inside, and when they were outside, you could see the very beautiful dome quite well. And right behind the mountain you can just barely see a bigger mountain in the background...but you can truly only see these kinds of things on a clear CLEAR day...which this day wasn't; it most likely would be considered a semi-clear day. And, given that, you actually can see quite a bit anyway...
As I was wandering along, I looked down and saw this little guy...he was really a baby person...
and I think because it was so very very warm that day, he was wandering around, too...only he usually wouldn't be found on the sidewalk, but in the dirt of people's gardens...I have hundreds of them down in my garden...I love these little guys...they are so prehistoric looking, aren't they? Hard to tell in this photo but I have some earlier pictures I have scanned in on my computer of a lot of the lizards in my garden...I will post those sometime soon....
As I continued on my way, I came to one of the older homes in this area...built around 1927-28, which I have heard had quite a checkered history..
.I don't know that all that I have heard is true, but it certainly makes for very interesting conversations among the neighbors. They say, (whoever thay are), that this was at one time a very high class Hollywood Brothel...lots of movie stars supposedly frequented this establishment during the late '20's and early '30's which was the time when it was supposedly 'in vogue'...later, a well known Movie Gossip Columnist owned this home until her death...and there have been many other owner's since that time...a major renovation took place about 15 years ago and I don't have a clue as to who lives here at the present time...but it is a huge house with a central staircase that goes down about four flights and a four car garage (Cars were a lot smaller when this house was built), two of which you can just about see...these hillside homes are simply amazing, aren't they?The Spanish style house we just saw is at the end of that street---the cul de sac part....where there are actually only two houses that hug this 'end'...I cannot get a picture of the other house because...guess what....there is a big wall around it and all you can see is 'wall'. Oh, I did take a picture of that wall, but it was so boring I decided not to include it...
So I began walking back towards where I had come from, and saw this Palm Tree and because it is so very typical of so very many Palms that you see here in Los Angeles, I decided to take a picture of it, with it's very lush top and it's unkempt--no doubt Rat Infested beard! It is my understanding that the 'The Palm Tree' was never an indiginous tree to California and that ALL of the many types of palms that you find here were all imported from elsewhere...Pretty amazing when you think that all throughout L.A. the Palm, in all it's many types and all it's beauty, is everywhere! (I even have three types of Palms down in my garden; The King Palm, The Queen Palm and the so called Date Palm, that gives no dates!)
As I kept walking back towards Michael Jeter's house, I saw this man (who wasn't there when I passed by earlier), painting the trim on a garage....I said hello to him and would have taken a photograph of him but I didn't want to make him uncomfortable...
so I asked him if he lived there and he said no...and then there was this barking over to the right and I looked over and saw this very scary looking dog...and the guy painting must have seen my fear and said..."Oh don't pay any attention to his barking, he is the the sweetest dog you'll ever want to meet..." So, I said 'hello' to this doggie and he just kept looking at me in this way that I couldn't possibly explain in words if I wanted to...but I actually caught this look with my camera, as you can see...I don't know what kind of dog he is, but I'm sure someone out there in blogland does know...and it looks like they've done something to his ears, or perhaps that's just how they grow...It's strange because he has this combination look of scary, sweet, and pained, all rolled into one...I mean, that's how he looked to me...and in all honesty his barking really did scare me when I first looked over at him...I've never seen a dog before that looks quite the way this little fella does...I'm glad he is so nice cause if he weren't, oh boy....After getting back to where my street would be starting downhill again, I saw this bed of succulants....well, I should say of this one succulant...Beautiful color, I thought..and I'm pretty sure the color is partly because of the sun's rays...I thought it was so very very unusual and so very beautiful, too, that I took a photo of the whole bed and then a close-up of this gorgeous succulant...And here they are...
And then, I started down my street...a lot easier than going up, I can tell you...(lol). As I was coming down, I realized that while walking up the hill, I had taken photographs of that little hill...that was the one that had the chain link fence around it, remember? And now, 
I was looking at the other side of that hill, where years and years ago they built this little road (well, it no doubt will be 'The Driveway' to the house they have yet to build) which takes you up to the top and then....nothing. They never did anything! Then, some more years and years went by and there were problems with druggie people going up there and doing God knows what...so then they built a wall around it....And as I believe I said in that last Walking Post, there is something going on up there now, but it is not clear what, yet...As you can see, from this vantage point, they have a great view of the mountain across the way...(the same mountain again, that I see) plus they have a beautiful view of the city from up there as well...and this street is situated in such a way that it looks like it was getting dark...well, that's because it was getting dark right there, that is! Okay. So now you remember that house up in the cul de sac that I didn't want to show because all you could see was this boring wall around it? Well, here it is from the other side...from my street, looking up...only now you can see the house and see how big it is! Then I took a closer look with my trusty zoom lens...Again, these hills are Amazing!
Pay no attention to the monstrosity in the forground...this is a horrendously horrible house that was built badly, has little cells that they call 'bedrooms' and the maids quarters...I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. It is the teeniest cell of all, and worst of all--this cell has no windows--not even one! Concentrate on the house above, if you can....
One more photo.
Back at my garden...In the front is this plant that we call George...too hard to explain, but...he is a very beautiful plant that gets the most amazing fruit...Here are the beginnings of the flowers that will turn into fruit...these little furry buttons will--believe it or not---turn into the most amazing flowers and fruit you could possibly ever see!....I will keep taking photographs to chronicle the growth of these amazing little button creatures...(I have an earlier picture but the growth would be barely perceptible...so I consider this, the first of the hopefully, many more to come as we watch these buttons grow and develop....)
As always....More to come... **Just a little note about today and tomorrow...I will be working on the seating/ticket stuff for S.T.A.G.E., so I may not be surfing about everyone's blogs...except at odd hours...but I'll be back...off to Zzzzzzland now, but do keep a light in the window....**
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MORE AWARDS....After going on quite a bit about the Best Of Blogs Awards on Annie's blog....it turns out that I have been nominated for the 'Share The Love Award' in the catagory of "Most Meetable, In Real Life". (These Awards were created by Heather at One Woman's World). There are so many irony's here....not the least of which is that I have no idea who nominated me...and I do thank you, whomever you are....!
I think this is a swell catagory, and that's an irony too, because when I started blogging I was trying to be anonymous...that didn't last very long at all, cause you really can't continually write about things that have happened in your life and make up names for so very many many people....at least, I couldn't....cause the truth of my life is whatever it is....let the chips fall...you know the rest...
But to go back in time a bit---Mamcita got really upset with me for the things I said on that particular BoB Award post of Annie's, but after a very good dialogue exchanged in emails, I think she understands where I am coming from and I certainly understand where she is coming from, too...But I do want to say I would not have known, nor would she, if I had not written her an email after she left this distressing-to-me comment on my blog....But see, I really felt that it was important to find out why she was so upset with me and to try and see if we could open up a dialogue to get past this...cause it made me feel bad that a fellow blogger was upset with me and in my view, had misjudged me...and so I couldn't just let it go without trying to communicate further....And I believe we did get past this particular upset. And that's a very positive outcome when basically we were 180 degrees apart to begin with...sort of....And I certainly hope that what I feel about Awards will not be upsetting to Heather....cause I think she is trying to do a good thing here with these awards in this month of Valentine's day...a month of love, as she so rightly stated.
So having said all that....I will continue and say that
though I am very very flattered to be nominated, I can't say that being nominated in the 'Share The Love Awards' changes what I basically feel about Awards in general...And what I feel about them is based on personal experience and being completely disallusioned about the voting processes of many Awards, some of which I've been involved with...and knowing and feeling that the very nature of Awards brings in a competitiveness weather you want it to or not, or weather you want to admit it or not...I also I think it stirs up lots of feelings that I sure don't enjoy feeling.....Like shaky feelings of self-worth if you don't win, hurt feelings, etc...none of which I want to be a part of my blogging experience...and, truthfully, I have been distressed with all these many many blog award things and felt like I couldn't wait till all that was over, please...enough already!! And then I became aware of these 'Share The Love Awards', and purely by accident found out I had been nominated.
And I do believe that One Woman's World's Heather is coming from a real place of love and care and from what I can gather the voting will be completely 'write-in' from other bloggers, if I am not mistaken...
Heather's idea of honoring women bloggers is a really really lovely one and I do think this is a really sweet sincere and loving idea. But it is still, a competition.
You know, going back in time a bit again, when I first read somewhere that there were these BoB Awards, (The first time I became aware that there were any sort of blog-type Awards at all!)...my heart kind of sank because I personally hated to see a "competition" occuring in the blog world as I understood it, (in my naivete, that is)....There are sooooo very many Awards out in the World-World....I thought at that moment...'Oh no, not the blog world, too....'
Is there no place in the entire world where this disease of competition, and "winning" doesn't exist? We are right in the middle of the Biggest Competition of ALL, The Olympics! The Olympics...where WINNING THE GOLD is everything! Where a Silver and/or Bronze Medal is like loosing!!! I mean, to me...if the Silver & Bronze (Oh Yeah, that's really lousy, isn't it...) is like loosing...well....this is sick. And there is even some kind of Blog Olympics now, too....Oy!
You know, I go to a great many blogs as you all do too...and each one is unique because each one is coming out of the heart & mind of that particular person...and that's so wonderful! Each and every one of these blogs that I go to touches me in some way---speaks to me, if you will, because each one is offering the uniqeness of the person who is creating it. How do you 'judge' that? How do you judge each of these blogs? How do you decide which one is 'The Best', when they are all so different from one another? You can't. And it is my belief, you shouldn't have to, so I probably won't because it then becomes some kind of popularity contest...you vote for your friends--you can't help it--it's human nature. You know even putting people on your blogroll, or not putting people on your blogroll is a statement of some sort, too...
Since October when I started my blog, I have not had a blogroll because I couldn't figure out how to do it...and truthfully, I still really don't know how...without the wonderful Craziequeen, I wouldn't have a blogroll at all...And frankly, I wanted one more to to make it easier for me to move around the blog world...(And BTW...it's not done yet cause I can only add a few every few days cause I make so many mistakes...but God knows, it will be easier for me to use my own blogroll to surf around to all the different blogs I visit than to go into 'my favorites' where I cannot find anything now cause there is too much there...and, not in any kind of order, either...anyway...my blogroll is still a work in progress....) And frankly, I wasn't that aware of weather my name was on someone's blogroll or not...till...TILL now.....
Yeah, now that I have my own blogroll...and when I see, perchance, that I'm not on a particular someones blogroll that I visit all the time and who visits me...I have this little feeling of hurt...OY! Who needs that? It's like not winning a prize, people....believe me!
The truth is...it doesn't take away from any of the enjoyment I get when visiting whomever...blogroll or no blogroll....it's about meeting people and enjoying an exchange of ideas and feelings; it's about being touched by people...about getting to know people....It's why All Things Michele is so pure and wonderful...she of the truly kind and generous heart and the deeply sweet nature...who's sense of humor is always in tact and yet who is incredibly sensitive to all who visit her pages being truly in touch with the needs of her visitors...this is a miricle and this is 'the best' because it is everything blogging really is about, to me...
And, another little irony regarding the Share The Love Awards....Annie, who has very strong feelings about the BoB's was nominated in the Best Design Catagory in these 'Love Awards'....I have always loved the way her blog looks...and it turns out she designed it herself...! 
And now, here she is nominated and if you visit her blog, you'll see she is kind of happy about it and why not? I just don't want her to be hurt if she doesn't win...cause in truth, weather she wins or not, her design is absolutely lovely to my way of thinking and what I feel about it is not going to change if she wins or not! I am not going to use the word 'lose' because if I do it gives the whole thing much more weight than necessary...and in my view, she won the very first time I visited her blog and I went...'Wow, that is a really beautiful page!' Cause that was my honest---in the moment---response to what I saw. That's really all that matters....or should, don't you think?
I certainly hope that what I feel about Awards doesn't offend anyone and I hope Heather knows that I respect her and think what she's trying to do is truly terrific! Bless you Heather....
I guess, the bottom line is, I don't want anyone to be hurt or feel left out or feel 'not good enough', or whatever because of any Awards....and I sure don't want to feel any of those things either...been there, done that in the non blog world.
What do you feel about Awards?
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S.T.A.G.E.2nd
Installment
Since the last time that I wrote about The S.T.A.G.E. Benefit, we are now less than one week away from doing our "seating" for the Producer's, Co-Chair's, and The S.T.A.G.E. Committee's blocks of seats....Each year those of us connected to any of the above, try to sell as many tickets as possible giving preferred seating to any and all people ordering these tickets in all the price ranges($35., $65., $110., $165,; $220...) So, I have been on the phone, a lot, reminding people of our deadlines and taking ticket orders and Ad Journal Orders as well as Memorials for the journal, too.... (Memorials are $10. a name, incidentally...) And I urge any of you who live in the Los Angeles area to avail yourself of the most amazing theatre experience you will ever have. Trust me!
On Tuesday (February 21st), I will be getting all my order forms 'in order', by the Performance Days and the Ticket prices, etc. This is so when we get to the actual seating the next day, (Wednesday) all of the preliminary sorting will have been done and any last minute orders on Tuesday can just be placed where they belong in the already sorted piles.
The people who buy the "packages" ($15,000. $10,000, $5,000, $2,700, and so on....plus a few more lower priced packages)....ALL get seated before the single ticket buyers....
the theory being that if someone spends $15,000 they deserve to be seated before someone who buys a pair of tickets in that same price range, per ticket...if you get my drift. And these larger amounts are considered "Sponser Packages" as I'm sure many of you are familiar with if you've ever worked on a Charity Event, or ever been to one of these kinds of events....
So....there is a lot of preparation involved with the actual 'seating' of people, which makes everything run smoother, you know?
I'm happy to say I've had a very productive couple of days, by the way, since beginning my 'reminder' calls...$5,835 as of tonight (and those are ticket orders and Ad orders directly given to me by phone here at home...I'm not counting everything coming in from 'my people' that would be going directly to the S.T.A.G.E. ticket phone lines)...and this day is now over!
I would hope that what I'm doing with all these phone calls, faxes and emails, could generate this kind of result, every day, right up until the actual event on March 10th, 11th, and 12th...cause we would be in great shape financially, if that would be the case....Unfortunatly that is not how it works...DRAT IT! (lol). But I'm pleased to say I have also been able to secure, once again this year, the fabulous Orso Restaurant here in Los Angeles donating food for the entire cast for the Sunday performance...(100 people!!!) And we are talking about a really fantastic HOT Dinner....(no cold cuts and cheese here)...with their unbelievable scrumptious bread and their special Olive Oil with Garlc....Ohhhhh my mouth is watering just thinking about it....! And Orso's donates all of this food to S.T.A.G.E. Yes, Donates It! And the food is quite spectacular: Grilled Chicken And Vegetable's....Yuuuummmmm!
There are quite a few restaurants that are incredibly generous to us...so that we are able to serve dinner to the cast on Dress Rehearsal night, (Thursday, Mach 9th) and the Friday & Saturday performances, as well...Some of these restaurants have been so loyal to us like Mark's Restaurant. Year after year they come up with unique and fabulous food.....Vermont Restaurant...has been very very generous, too, ever since they opened about 6 years ago...and then, we have a very generous benefactor...a family that has been so extremely generous to S.T.A.G.E. over the years, that it is almost overwhelming...they have their 'private chef'...(I know, isn't that something??) cook a fabulous dinner for the Dress Rehearsal night, for again, 100 people. I am not at liberty to say their name but suffice it to say, their generous hearts have not ever failed us for these many years with money for the charitys and food for the cast...and everything they do and give to S.T.A.G.E. is so deeply deeply appreciated--in all honesty, words fail me.
So, we are coming down to 'The Home Stretch' and things will get crazier as we get closer and closer to that weekend...I will keep trying to post about this super event and I do wish each and everyone of you could come and see this truly inspired evening. There is nothing else like it for an exciting, moving & funny evening in 'The Theare', and for such a much needed cause, too. If you do want to come please do email me: myrtillo1984@yahoo.com, or if you wish to make a contribution...and please know that no amount that you might be able to spare would be too small...
Detailing these photo's: First, The Fabulously talented Actress/Singer--Loretta Devine...a regular STAGE Performer when she is available, last year being her 8th STAGE Performance; Then the beautiful Actress/Singer Linda Purl, also a regular, when she is available--last year was her 13th appearance with STAGE...both these women always bring the house down, as they say... And next we have Robert Osborne, of Turner Classic Movies fame....Bob is one of the most learned men around when it comes to films and his passion for the movies is very very true and real and this last year when we honored composers Harry Warren and Marvin Hamlisch, Bob brought along a lot of fantastic film clips to go along with the 'live ' performances--a very special and different kind of thing for STAGE to do, and all thanks to the Great Bob Osborne....the last photo in this post is "Forty-Second Street" and this photo was shot at a Rehearsal...so no one had their Glittery costumes on....
And last but not least, by any means, is a photo of Petula Clark, who was in the 18th Annual STAGE Honoring Johnny Mercer, and Rod McKuen, who has partipated in STAGE 10 times...he is a most beloved performer...
Till next time...
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WALKING,AGAIN
So I was a-walkin' again, and this time, I went UP the hill! (Although this picture is not 'up' my hill...it's a closer view of some of the homes one passes by when you walk and look across one of the canyons, up here....) And up the hill here--let me tell you--is steep....! Oh My! (Lions And Tigers And Bears, Oh My!)...And because I went up to the top of my street and then turned onto another street that is flat--once you get there, that is--and that also happens to be a cul-de-sac...I took a lot more pictures of many things and of many houses and some other different foliage....And the thing that is so amazing about doing this is: I used to do this walk, and more...all the time before I began having some Health Issues....and I know I noticed a lot of what I am seeing now, but not as much and having my camera with me I sometimes take pictures of things that I just like 'seeing'....
I know a lot of these things were there too, when I walked back then, (like this empty can just thrown along the sidewalk by some unthinking non-caring-polluting-disgusting person....) but a lot weren't, because a number of the houses at the top of the hill are now owned by different people and major renovations have been done on a number of these houses...which included changing all sorts of things, including landscaping, of course....and carrying the camera, as I have said before...just sort of makes me see things I might not have noticed before or just took for granted before because I was walking every day and that's what happens when you do something like this every day--day in and day out--, you know? And I've got to say, I'm having a very very good time doing this. I guess, again, because I have the camera around my neck, I can't help thinking about the fact that some of things would be great to share with other people....and so, here we are, once again.....
Here for instance is a section of my street as we start the incline after we go around a curve or two....one thing that has astonded me is how very many high walls there are surrounding many of these homes...like this is a home that never had a wall around it and, in fact, was pretty much falling apart before the 'new' owners did major renovations and then--because the lady of the house now--an Academy Award winning film star--needs a certain privacy,
this wall was built making it impossible to even see any part of this house at all including the roof, which used to be visible from the street along with the whole house, too...
The lady that had lived in this house died in the house, and because she was very elderly, the house had fallen into great disrepair--thus the 'new' owners did major renovations...Looking the other way going down the hill, there are some interesting things growing in the front bed...
if any of you know what these things are, do let me know, as you did before in that last post about walking...cause I haven't got a clue...like that grey-green looking plant...what do you think that is? And that wonderful amazing looking flower...do tell me, if you know...
Just around the next curve from that last home, on the same side of the street as the last place, we have a rather new home...it's maybe
twelve years old(?)--but it was built by a superb builder-guy who tried to stay with the old look of the spanish style of architecture that is the 'signiture' of this area...and another wall was built around this very large home. The steepness of this hill can be seen in the next photo, sort of--this "steepness" photo was taken on the far side of this home looking through a metal gate at the mountain across the way and down into the canyon below which has the main road--Outpost Drive, going though it and up the entire hill to the top where Outpost ends and meets Mulholland Drive.
You can see the top of a home that is on the west side of Outpost Drive if you look carefully...well, I can see it because I know it's there...and on the left of the photo you can see part of a deck that belongs to this house...And I'm sorry that this is not one of my better pictures but it will have to do till I can get a better rendering of this view...I love that this mountain is right here and if you recall, you can see it from my view, too, but of course, this is a totally different feeling because it is in the canyon and in fact, when they advertise these houses anytime they are 'For Sale', they say.."Beautiful Canyon View"....well, it certainly is that. And I think this house has some "city view" as well even if it is only when looking to the left when you face the mountains and what there is to see of the city...if anyone has difficulty with heights, these hills are not the place for you to live...I'm very glad to say, I don't have any 'height issues'....Thank God!
I included this picture because it shows the other side of the street across from the house that is in the picture above here, that we just saw. This small hill has some kind of activity going on, as you can see from the bags of sand and that fence...which did not use to be there...this is a recent development and I'm not sure exactly what is taking place up top, but it wouldn't surprise me if someone is finally building a home up there...unfortunately you can't see the top because it isn't viewable when you look up, all you see is this.
So...you see what I mean? You can't really see what is happening up there on the top of this little hill...except, it looks like there is a fence up there, too...I know if I would run into any of my neighbors who walk their dogs, THEY would know exactly what's taking place up there...(LOL) In fact, I think I will call my next door neighbor, the great great Lighting Director, RB because he knows everything that is happening up here before it happens!
He is a terrific man and one of the most talented Lighting Designers around.
Moving further up the hill, one sees more homes and more of the windingness in the road and more of the steepness too of course...in fact from this point on...when trying to walk up this bloody hill... is the toughest part of the hill...it is truly daunting...When I got to a certain point, I had to stop...so I did stop and then I turned around and looked up...There is a very 'Art Moderne' type house on the top of the hill which you can see from this vantage point...so I took this photo trying to show, again, how the homes are built all over the place on this hill, and you can see them from many vantage points, like this...
When I took a really good look...I could see that there was someone working on the house up there...a little figure that appeared to be doing something, but I couldn't tell what from where I was standing in the street so far below....So, with my trusty Camera, I went into Zoom Mode and was amazed at what I saw....
I snapped away and was lucky enough to get this next picture...(I LOVE this camera of mine!)...Check this out! There, working away, was a guy painting something or other that I couldn't see exactly on this huge house! 
It's kind of funny, cause he looks like he's been a very bad boy and has been told to stand in the corner!
(Parenthetically...I have no idea how this whole thing is going to post, cause I did not put this photograph here, knowingly. The mystery's of HTML and Blogger continue to make me scratch my head and wonder...'What's It All About, Alfie?'...back to my journey up the hill....)
I will end Part 1 of this Walking Post with what I saw when I reached the crest of the hill, at the top of my street.....What you see is this home. You may remember if you are a regular visitor here at Here In The Hills that I mentioned the late very dear actor Michael Jeter being a neighbor...well, this was his home until he died of an AIDS related illness...And as you may or may not recall, I mentioned that he had done the S.T.A.G.E. Benefit a number of years ago and was utterly brilliant...his death was a terrible loss to all who knew and loved him, and to all of his very devoted fans, too....And by the way, he was an avid animal lover and in particular, a dog person...
Watch for part 2 of this particular walk...more homes, more plants, and some surprises, too...coming soon at a theatre near you...well, you know what I mean...
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VALENTINE'SDAY
I was thinking about Valentine's Day and what a sweet and loving day it can be, but also, how for some people and for some times in ones life it can be filled with a feeling of 'Heartbreak'....if you have lost a loved one, or broken up with a loved one...Valentine's Day can be a very painful day.
But, on the other hand if you have a love in your life that fills your heart with happiness....it certainly can be a Great Great Day filled with sweets, cards, gifts, hugs, and lots of love!
I want to talk about when I was 9 years old and had fallen in love. Yes, fallen in love in the deepest way and with the cutest boy in the world, Hugh McT. Hugh had black hair and black flashing eyes too, and was about the handsomest boy I had ever seen....and we were in Fourth grade together in Miss Clavette's class at The Kensington School, in Great Neck, N.Y.....
I don't remember now how we came to 'fall in love', but we did. And we would spend a lot of time together at my house....We used to sit next to one another,
very very close together, on the back stairs at my house and we would 'neck'. I kid you not. We were like two little kissing bugs....and it felt so very good to both of us, we just couldn't get enough of this kissing and hugging. In retrospect I know that Hugh was my very first important 'love'...and at the time, it felt like a very deep love to me...My grandmother, (my mother's mother..) who lived with us there in Great Neck, had a big 70th Birthday party in January of that year....(soon after New Year's)....the party was on January 11th, to be exact. And I remember quite a bit about that party because in less than a week, I became very very ill--an illness, by the way, that has come back to haunt me now, all these many many years later...but that's another story--I mention this only because
everything in my life changed with that illness, particularly because they couldn't figure out what was really wrong with me. A lot of people were getting sick at the time....a flu-like bronchial type thing...but I was the only one who didn't get better...I just kept getting worse and worse and our family doctor seemed at a loss...and after about three weeks time I ended up in the hospital, and not a moment too soon, as it turned out. And after quite a few days they finally began to figure out what was wrong with me...and it turned out to be four major things that were wrong and I had to be operated on...a very serious operation because of these extremely serious four illnesses, combined...I was in the hospital for three weeks...frightened beyond words...scared I was going to die....watching my mother be terribly frightened too, as she stood by the window of my hospital room in Mt. Sinai Hospital there in New York City...trying to hide her tears from me...but I saw them anyway and I became even more frightened....
and frightened and hurt by having ten inch needles stuck into my back as they 'aspirated' my back looking for the fluid that had accumulated in my lung area and had encapsulated there---fighting time because if this fluid got into my blood stream, well...it would be all over for me....(these needles hurt so much that I became terribly frightened of any needle that I saw for a long time after that)....and then, the very second they found what they were looking for pinpointing exactly where they had to go, I was whisked up to the operating room and given that horrible lethal-smelling frightening stuff called 'ether'....which put me in a strange state in which I had dreams of scary smiling nurses looming over me...and actually woke up on the table...(Yes, I woke up on the operating table...help me, Oh God!)...before they were done!Recovery was slow and painful and I was terribly weak, having been ill for over a month before the operation and then my body being assaulted by this ghastly but life-saving operation.
So...in the midst of all this with me getting clingier and clingier to my mother--fear having become a great part of my waking and sleeping hours---in the midst of all this, came a lovely Red Heart-Shaped Box Of Chocolate Candy. Yes, the wonderful boyfriend that was almost forgotten during this horrendously tense frightening time, had sent me a Beautiful Valentine. My first Box Of Heart Shaped Chocolates, ever....(And almost the last one, too, I might add...!)
Do you have any idea how much this meant to me? Did anyone know and understand what this truly meant in that moment? Did sweet young Hugh have a clue to how meaningfull this gift was to me---the poor little sickly-almost-died-girl-who's life was still in the balance....Oh, how my heart soared...Oh, all the I love I felt coming my way from my dear dear boyfriend...How did he even know I was in a hospital..?
I didn't know, and almost didn't care, cause all I knew was He remembered me on this very special romantic day.....it was like 'a movie'. Like a great great romantic MGM movie...and I was the female star and Hugh was the male star. Scarlet and Rhett...right here in Mt. Sinai Hospital. (I have said before that MGM ruined my life....see what I mean?)
My recovery was slow but, recover I did. We went to Florida within weeks of my being released from the hospital and only when I no longer needed to have dressings changed anymore because I had healed--from the inside where they had put the drain--and now, the body would do the rest, or not, so the doctors told my parents.
My parents decided on Florida because they had a house there and it would be warm there and I think they felt it would be more conducive to healing, though the doctors had said it really didn't matter where I was--if I was going to truly recover it would happen no matter what city or climate I was in....
We were gone till late April--Early May....so I had not seen Hugh for over four months and so, when I did go back to school I discovered that everything was different. Everything....Hugh had 'moved on'...It hurt terribly. It truly pained me in a way I hadn't understood before. It confused me, too. The Box of Chocolates had beeen so very important to me I couldn't understand how Hugh could have possibly forgotten our very special love for one another in such a short time....how he could have forgotten all our kissing and hugging on the back stairs---I could not understand any of this change that had taken place. My first real romantic heartbreak had happened and it wasn't over some differences between us or a fight of any kind...it was 'out of sight, out of mind' for him....and for me, it was a deep heartbreak on top of the deep deep body assault that had befallen me and which marked me in very many ways both physically and emotionally from that day on, to this...
But, Hugh had given me my very first 'real' Valentine's Day and it had all the meaning and emotion it was supposed to have and I have to say, it was probably the BEST Valentine's Day I have ever had, ever ever!
**You may have noticed that I have the beginnings of a blogroll now, thanks to the wonderful Craziequeen....but the mistakes you see are mine and hopefully they will be corrected, in short order...again, with the help of the kind and generous CQ....Keep a light burning in the window**
***Update, My Darlings: Finally, Finally...every link now works on this blogrolly thingy, as of 8:23pm. (February 13th, 2006) Los Angeles time...I had made some very stupid mistakes and NOW, they are ALL fixed....so, when I add some more, I'm going to try...Operative word...TRY, to watch my dislexisness more carefully. But, I am thrilled beyond words that I now have something over there on the side....Many people tried to help me...Aginoth, who tried so very hard...janelovestarzan who tried, too....and I thank them both for 'trying', beyond the call of duty...But, ultimately it was the fantastic, fabulous most wonderful Craziequeen, that broke-the-code of the problem, (and there was a major problem) and fixed it...how she knows how to do this--I will never never know...and I want to thank her with all of my heart for knowing. Hooray for Craziequeen! So....enjoy my blogrolly thingy....I know I will, more than I can say.***
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NATURE,PHENOMENAL!
There is this magnificent plant in my garden, upstairs in the front that is a Webercereus Johnsonii, it was quite large when I first got it about 16 or so years ago, but now it is just that much more magnificent...having grown many many new arms as time has gone on, plus it also has grown 'up' as well. This is a very unusual plant because it was developed by a man named Johnson, (thus the Johnsonii part of it's name), and he had a fantastic collection of Cactus type plants all of which were bought by that Nursery out in Pasadena that I have mentioned in a previous post, Meleenee--now known as California Cactus, after Mr. Johnson died....the point being that there are not very many of these plants in existance and so it is a very very precious one for me and would be considered a prime 'Speciman Plant' by anyone who knows about these things.
So, you remember that we had that horrific rain storm the first day or two after New Year's when that beautiful Euphorbia Amak Verigated got uprooted and fell on my roof and I lost it
....well, these two cuttings from the Webercereus Johnsonii have been sitting on the very full 'cutting table' for a whole month! Yes, these two pieces got bent and broken by the further heavy-duty winds that we had here in the first two weeks of January...and at the time, there were probably 15 or so potential flowers that were going to bloom.
So, here's the phenomenal part: They have all bloomed! Every one of them. And it happens that these flowers only bloom at night and at that, they are only wide open for one night! That's right. One night. You miss it and you've missed it!
So, because the arms are very very tall on this plant I have never been able to get a really great photograph of any of the flowers, except from underneath. So, these photo's are pretty amazing! This was taken during the day...early in the day, I might add, when they were still just slightly open...and I was thrilled to get this because I have never been able to get this angle, and though it is not the full beauty of the flower, I was thrilled to get this, let me tell you...especially lucky to get as close as I did and to be able to see the many varied subtle colors in these flowers...also I love that you can see that the ribs of this arm are a beautiful light turquoisey blue. I kept hoping I would get one of these flowers late at night...you see they are wide open at midnight...just like other flowers are wide open at noon, you know?
Well, they're "noon" is "midnight"....but I kept missing 'the right night'....till....TILL....last night....(February 9th)....and there it was...wide wide open....and I got both these shots which absolutely thrilled me...These flowers are so delicate and have such subtle pale beautiful color to them...and look at the side of that flower--the webbing, or whatever one would call it--phenomenal!
Phenomenal because the cuttings have been sitting there for an entire month! A whole 30 days. Not in the ground. No water. No sunlight. No nothing, except their own incredible resources...Then, this morning, (February 10th) the flower had completelly closed up as is it's way...never to open again. You can see it right there in the center of the photograph below...completely closed up with just that little stamin visible. And it will eventually dry up and just fall off of the plant....I find this absolutely fantastic. Talk about life going on....And, we will be planting these two cuttings in pots tomorrow so that they can and will have a further life, eventually, in the ground. Like I said, Nature--Phenomenal!
**As you can see....I FINALLY have the beginnings of a Blogroll!!!!!! HOORAY! YIPPEE!!! And ALL thanks to Craziequeen who discovered one of the reasons I've had such a problem...there was no Links Thingy in this Template...(WHY, Blogger, Why????) So, she Created One!!!! CREATED ONE!!! A Genius, I do believe...
So...if you don't see your blog there yet it is because I am s-l-o-w-l-y adding each one manually so it will take a bit of time....but, I will get them all on there, I promise...
THREE CHEERS FOR CQ!!!! Hip Hip Hooray, Hip Hip Hooray, Hip Hip Hooray!**
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MY NEIGHBOR-
HOOD
So, I have a few more photo's of things in the neighborhood...These are things I saw when I took my walks, last week....(no walks yet this week cause my back is not too good...). But, these were some other things that I 'snapped'....Here for instance is a close up of my next door neighbors tile inset, at his front gate. I had a not-so-close-shot in the WALKING Post...but I thought you should see it in more detail, cause it's really quite beautiful, I think...
Along the way I saw a Lemon Tree, well, more like a Lemon Bush at this point, but it is definitely yeilding fruit already as you can see....it has some Lemons on it that are just beginning to turn yellow.
I will be watching them and I will take some more photo's when they are riper or closer to being ready to pick...and incidentally it's right by the sidewalk on the side of these neighbors house...the gentleman who lives here was one of the Producer/Director's of the television show "MASH", among other shows...a lovely man who has lived up here almost as long as I have...I'm not sure what this is; it looks like a very small condom, but...well, it has been a long time since I've seen one, so it could be almost anything, except it seemed like it was 'soft', as appossed to...well, I won't go on with this explaination, except to say that it was in the gutter
and I just happened to see it because you have to look down when you walk up here in the street or even on the sidewalks because you could trip over all sorts of things and fall and hurt yourself....and how do I know this?....Cause I have 'been there/done that' and fallen, pretty good!Any ideas what this could be other than the above mentioned condom?
Here's a rather wonderful Courtyard of the home two doors down from me. This place was built around 1927 in the Spanish Style which was a must at that time.
In fact all the homes built up here in those first years of the developing of this hill all had to be built in the 'spanish style'. It's why there are so very many prized homes from that period that have been preserved and or restored by the newer owner's, which I have always thought was a wonderful thing...I mean, that these new owner's have such respect for the beauty of these homes that instead of tearing them down, which is almost a disease here in Los Angeles, they are interested in preserving whatever history this area has...and BTW this particular home goes down 4 story's and of course from the street level you cannot tell how big this house really is, at all...This next photo is kind of interesting because I was trying to capture the steepness of these hills...and in this case, looking through the railings of my other next door neighbor's home and getting in closer so you can see Outpost Drive which is at the bottom of the canyon below us....I have a somewhat similar view except you can't really get the feeling of the steepness the way you can in this photo.
I am fascinated by the different flowers that different people have growing outside their homes, in planters and in beds of one kind or another. 
The variation of things is so very interesting because it reflects such individual taste, you know? A couple of doors up from me..(That's how we talk about 'positions' here...if the homes are up hill from you or down hill from you...) there is another home with a big wall and out in front of the wall is a small bed for flowers and the people who live here now have Calla Lily's in that bed...and very very beautiful they are, too!
Right next door to this house with the big wall and the Calla Lily's is another house who's entry way is right next to the street and they have a large planter that is just to the left of the front door...a kind of square shaped bed...and they have a very interesting combination of flowers in this planter...all rather lush and very colorful, including Pointsetta's,
as you can see from this photo. I honestly am not sure what the other flowers are...possibly some of you will know what they are...I just know they are quite beautiful and I like the fact that there is an informal quality about the way they are put together in this planter--as if the seeds were just thrown in and let go to grow however they wanted and the combination of all these flowers together really looks great, doesn't it? 
And then, I got a close-up of that odd but beautiful flower on the "Old Man" Cactus, in my own front yard....you may remember...this is the flower that I call 'The Penis Flower'...Well, it's such an unusual looking flower and I wouldn't know how else to describe it! The thing is, the variation of what people like in the way of flowers and plants to surround their particular homes is truly amazing and is so incredibly varied...The expression of one's individuality through flora and fauna....I LOVE IT!
More to come as we go along here...
**And an update on the 'Visual Pollution' painting....
I got a photo of the scoffolding as this painting is growing, from one day to another..and so late on Wednesday the second photo shows the further progress...much more than before, but still not completely done...
As you can see, this painting is going to cover the entire building before they are finished....well, I should say, the entire north side of the building....the side that faces the hills and the side that thousands of people can see every day as they look out their windows at the beautiful view of the city...This painting is what will catch their eye! I was amazed that I hadn't noticed it before, and then I realized, I hadn't seen it before because it wasn't there! Oy.**
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VISUAL POLLUTIONI know I am going to sound like an old fuddy duddy, and I probably have become one in certain aspects of my life...but, Los Angeles is just getting too big. The traffic is too horrible and there are definitely too many people moving here to the land of sunshine and not enough people leaving to go back to a more rural way of life by moving north to Oregon, Washington State, or Canada.
I've seen so very many changes from my house here in the hills. I've watched, without knowing I was doing that, as the landscape has changed over the years....I've seen a tremendous growth spurt in the 80's....an almost scary growth spurt, I might add....at one point there were about 20 new Apartment Buildings in one stage or another of construction dotted all about the city of Hollywood, as seen from my deck. I've seen what I call "Visual Pollution" crop up on the sides of Big Buildings...the first time I saw this I couldn't believe my eyes! There on the side of the old Bekins Storage Building on Highland Avenue was some sort of advertising! Advertising on a huge building??? Yes. And now that is an every day occurrence here in this city that pretends it isn't a city when it so clearly is just that! (Do you have that in your city, too?)
The Photo at the very top is looking down into Hollywood and everything south of that. Then, I went in closer so you could see this awful "visual pollution" that I spoke of. In this case it's advertising the iPod which I don't have and which I'm not sure I will ever have...especially since I don't know what it does, but I do know that it seems like just about everyone has one or wants one. And given how ugly I think it is to look out my window and see the entire side of a building devoted to 'advertising' an iPod and there-by mucking up my beautiful view...I doubt that an iPod will be gracing my hands anytime soon. And since I don't know what it does anyway, I can't be missing something that is a mystery to me, can I? Then again, maybe if I find out that I really do need an iPod I'll get one...and try not to think about that awful 'visual' that hurts every time I see it. Very shaky convictions here, wouldn't you say? (lol) (By the way, that building in the foreground is the famous Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel...)
And here is another not-yet-finished piece of advertising on yet another building in Hollywood designed for passers-by to be distracted by while driving, and also for all the thousands of people who live up in these many miles of hills to ponder---what is the world coming to--...this time, on the side of the TV Guide Building...(when it's finished, I'll take another photograph of it so that we will all know just exactly what it is they are trying to sell us with this painting on the side of this huge building...)
Whatever it is, I hope it's not something I will worry about if I don't 'own' it.....(lol)
Do you have an iPod, and if so....would you tell me what it does, please?
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"THE RED SHOES""....TIME RUSHES BY....
......LOVE RUSHES BY....
......LIFE, RUSHES BY......."
"The Red Shoes": One of the GREATEST films ever made...
One of the GREATEST films ever made, about Ballet....
THIS is a piece of 'art'. Truly, as if it were a Rembrandt, or a Michaelangelo, or a Calder.....This film, is GREAT GREAT "ART".
If you do not know it...RUN, do not walk, to the nearest rental place...Oh, you better call them first....this is not a new film..it is old, old, old, well 1948 was the release date...and yet 'new' in every way one would want a new movie to be 'new'.....
I've probably seen this film at least 20 times...actually, more like 30 times.
It is never 'old hat'...never 'been there, done that'.....NEVER! And believe it or not, each time I see this film, I see something I haven't seen before...or, if I have seen it, it seems completely fresh and 'new' to me. How many films can you say that about?It is as fresh and surprising and authentic as the first time I ever saw it, almost fifty years ago. It is as current as human feelings are, and is so beautifully filmed that it puts to shame most of the films around today.
It is about passion. It is about obsession. It is about love...the love of creating. It is about creating 'art' and in this case the creating of a ballet and a ballet star, as well.
If you do not like ballet at all...then move on right now, unless...unless you have a passion for creating, ...weather it be a ballet or a symphony or a play or a song or a poem or anything that holds you in the grip of this incredible process.And if you love ballet, then you have probably seen "The Red Shoes" more than once. But, if you have not then you are in for a magical treat and very very moving magical treat at that...nothing like it before or since...nothing!
I recently saw this film again, and was so moved once again by everything about it, that I just had to share my enthusiasm with you...
So....I urge you with every fiber of my being to rent this film...(Netflix has it....I checked) or, if you are flush, this film might be one you would like to own...The Criterion Collection is the definitive DVD....
I began writing about this film a few weeks ago, and had no idea that it's beautiful star Moira Shearer, was about to die. 
She passed away a few days ago, at the age of 80. She was a Great Great Ballet star and one of the stars of this film, along with Marius Goring and the beyond memorable Anton Walbrook...(who's line "....The Red Shoes will not be danced tonight...." stays with anyone who has seen this beautiful film...this line stays etched into one's brain, forever)....she played the leading role of the young woman who becomes a very successful Ballet Star. She was very well known in the ballet world for her special talents as a dancer, particularly with the Royal Ballet of England, originally called the Sadler Wells Ballet before changing it's name in 1956. She made a number of wonderful films and appeared in quite a few stage plays, as well. But most audiences today never had the opportunity to see her dance on the stage and know her only from this film "The Red Shoes".
Moira Shearer had this very beautiful red hair and a lumious presence both on the stage and in film and her acting and dancing were impeccable. So even after almost 60 years "The Red Shoes" has a magic to it that one rarely see's in films today, and certainly, 
this Materpiece by the great C0-Directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, who's body of work would make a whole blog essay in itself....(Miss Shearer appeared in another film of there's as well, "Tales Of Hoffman"...) will live on for another 60 years if not 600, and beyond that...,
I know I recommend a lot of films, and it is because in my opinion I really think they are superb, and of course my opinion is very subjective and comes from what moves me and touches my heart or tickles my funny bone or means something special to me. So with that in mind, this film, in my book gets 8 stars...yes....8! 
A love story that goes beyond the love of two people for one another...a love story that transcends into the love of creating 'art' with music and dance and illusion.
As I said, it's Beautiful in every way, and is a true work of Art.
Do go visit "The Dog's Breakfast"...Panthergirl is doing a wonderful thing, and you can help jujst by going and commenting...and you'll see some darling photographs, too....
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JUDY & SAMMY & ME
I surf around all these special movie channels I pay extra for with the digital cable box, (I’m very very disgusted with Adelphia!), and cannot find anything to watch. I’ve either seen the movies before and never care to see them again, or I didn't want to see the movies in the first place and all these films are shown all the time, too. I don’t understand why they repeat the same films over and over and over, ad nauseum? And such crappy ones, at that! Then I go to Turner Classic Movies and I can almost count on finding something I’d really like to see again.
These old films really are better to my way of thinking. As a kid, I went to the movies all the time. I have always said, the movies saved my life, though MGM basically ruined my life, too, you know? I believed all the romance and ‘happy endings’ in those MGM films, because I needed to, (there were no happy endings in our house)… I could lose myself in those movies. I could forget about all the bad things that were happening to our family, and I could dream of all those wonderful romantic things happening to Lana, happening to me and that helped me to survive.
I was in love with Lana Turner and I wanted to be Lana Turner, too...(go figure!) I kept scrapbooks of many of the MGM Stars....I was a baby in so many ways back in those years, and in fact I was the baby of my family, and as I’m sure many of you know who are in the 'baby of your family—that position never changes, no matter how old you get.
On the first day of Drama School in New York City, (in the International Building at Rockefeller Center) I met a beautiful young man from Alabama, named Sammy. It was the beginning of a life long friendship, which ended only because he died much too young—we were truly soul mates in every sense of that phrase.
The only thing we weren’t was ‘lovers’, though I feel if that had been in the cards we would have been….we skirted around that in conversations and decided it would ruin our friendship which we both felt was very important---too important to each of us to ruin it just for a ‘role in the hay’, as Mrs. Chisholm said, in “Petrified Forest” we always decided to maintain our friendship just as it was---and, he was sometimes gay, (eventually, pretty much all gay, if there really is such a thing---lots of debate about that one) and I didn’t really know what I was….(that feeling of being ‘in love’ with Lana when I was 11, had confused me…I certainly found out later, but during those first years, I was like a Nun who has taken a vow of celibacy.)
Sammy was at The Sea Cliff Summer Theatre that first summer, too, which made it that much more wonderful for me, and I think for him, too. One of the many things we shared was a passion for movies. He was just as much of a movie junky as I was, so we had a great time going to films together and both of us felt the same way about ‘heads’ in front of us at the movies. So, we didn’t care how many times we had to move our seats in order to avoid having anyone sitting in front of us---sometimes if the theatre was really crowded we would end up in the first row with our necks craning, but most of the time we just ended up sitting closer to the screen than anyone else, which we both loved—that connection to the movie screen—each film being shown, just for us. And we never talked during a film, ever, ever. It wasn’t something we even needed to discuss---it was just what we did from the first time we went to a film together.
When the Judy Garland's “A Star Is Born” was going to open in New York City, we had to go see it the very first day it played.
We both loved her and had both seen her at ‘The Palace’—a life changing experience, for me----I had seen a lot of wonderful performers even though I was very young because as I said in a previous blog, going to the theatre was something my family had always done on a regular basis, as long as I could remember. But, I had no concept that the young woman in all those MGM musicals when seen ‘live’ was going to be so magnificently electric or such a powerful performer.
But she was....cause she reached into her guts and tapped into her own emotions and artistry, touching the audience in a way that I had never seen before. It was an awesome thing to behold and to feel, too. I saw her three times at The Palace. Thrilling, beyond words. I’d also never seen an audience respond this way to a performer. It wasn’t like Sinatra and fans screaming through all of his songs, or later...The Beatles....Garland's audiences were worshiping at ‘Her Alter’, riveted to her every move and gesture---to her every word and note--- and being swept away with the emotion she projected and in turn the emotions she made you feel….the screaming of Bravo would erupt at the ‘finish’, you know? It was much later when her die hard fans, (I include myself), knew every note of every arrangement that people would scream at the first notes of the first 4 bars of a particular song being played by the orchestra---knowing what gem was about to be sung. Or screaming and whooping at a crescendo reached during a song that they knew was coming…(think: “Rock A Bye My Baby”…YES! Or “Swanee”, just as she was changing keys to a higher register and slowing down the tempo---screams of recognition—almost orgasmic in nature…). She was something else.
So, Sammy and I met up on that very first day at The Roxy Theatre where “A Star Is Born” was opening, and sat through this masterpiece of a film, twice! And when we finally felt we should go home…we hated to leave and swore we would come back. But as it turned out that was the first and last day anyone ever saw the uncut, unbutchered version of this fantastic film. It was pulled out of the few first run-theatres that it was playing in all the major city's and a shorter "cut"version was substitued because of the money that was being lost with this longer version...(that would not happen today--what a travesty that was...a true travesty...)and now, all these many years later with the magic of digital restoration, the original version can be seen, but not in it’s original state, at all. With the use of photographs and ‘voice-over’s’, much has been put back---whatever still existing musical numbers were found were lovingly put back---but much was lost forever…..and so it will never be, what it originally was---a true masterpiece of a ‘movie musical’.
I remember that both Sammy and I were bowled over by the kind of performance that was captured on film of Judy Garland’s singing---it had the most ‘live’ feel to it of any musical film she had ever made up till that time. (Rent from Netflix: “I Could Go On Singing”; it’s the last film Garland ever made and her musical performances in that movie are superb, though the film itself is not the best of her career---yet, again, her acting is astounding--) And in “Star”, her acting is superb, too---truly riveting and heartbreaking.
That scene in her dressing room when she talks about her husband’s alcoholism and then proceeds to go out and sing, again, “Lose That Long Face”, which had been cut...(Give Me A Break!!! OY OY OY)…..Well, Garland was robbed that year at the Academy Awards…..and James Mason was robbed too…His thoroughly stunning performance didn’t even get a nomination!
The last time I saw Judy Garland perform, was at the Hollywood Bowl…..There were times in-between, but, The Bowl was particularly memorable for various reasons, not the least of which was the fact that Sammy and I were sitting waaaay up in ‘The Peanut Gallery’; it was drizzling as it sometimes does in California; and Miss Garland was late coming on, but she did come on—I think she was waiting for the rain to stop, but when the audience began applauding almost as ‘one’, the show began.
What was remarkable about this performance was that even though Sammy and I were very far away from her, she owned that place and transcended that space which is huge, and it felt like she was singing just to us…as if this was a personal performance---just for the two of us. How she managed that, I’ll never know, because any other performer would have at best—looked like a little ant up there---I cannot explain this—but she looked like she was 30 feet away, at most. No big TV screens on either side of the stage as they have now….just her looking big! Amazing! I’ve seen quite a few performers there at the Bowl, and very few can actually transcend that space...very very few. I think that must be why they have those screens now. But this woman—this Judy Garland---was a true ‘force of nature’. No performer like her before or since that I have had the privilege to witness and be moved by….yes, there have been lots of very great performers, but no one quite like Garland…Thank God for the magic of film, and recordings, and Video Tape. But, to have seen this dynamo "Live & In Person" many many times at the height of her powers...is a memory that I will keep with me, always and always...
In the interest of honesty, this piece was on my old blog when I didn't know how to post photo's and when just about two people actually got to read this...I have edited it and of course, added the photographs, too, which I had always wished I could do...and now I can and did....
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S.T.A.G.E.I will be posting about the S.T.A.G.E. Event, (Southland Theatre Artists Goodwill Event) from time to time, as this is the AIDS/HIV Benefit that I have been Co-Chairing, along with my dear friend Betty Garrett, for the past 19 years...This year is our 20th...! (This Ribbon Pin, is our logo...The Musical note, the signiture of the kind of Event that we do..)
Every one of us connected to this Benefit wishes there was no need to do this Event anymore, but, the need is very very much still there and so we press on as do all those stalwart performers who each and every year give so generously of their time, talent and heart, to this always stunning event.
And by the way, none of the performing talent ever gets one thin dime for their participation...which I understand from some other people that some performers involved with other Events may get some remuneration. Well, I just want to assure you that this is not true for the STAGE Event and never has been, I'm happy to say.(This Full Cast photo is the Finale of "SONDHEIM III" The 12th Annual S.T.A.G.E. Benefit)
Here is the address of an announcement which tells you more about the Where, What, Who, and When, (including our primary beneficiary AIDS Project Los Angeles)....of this years event, as of today.
http://www.broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=7178
Anyone in the Los Angeles area that is interested in coming to this always FANTASTIC evening....please leave a comment and your email...or, if you are not comfortable with that, email me. (myrtillo1984@yahoo.com).
Our show, each year, honors different Broadway composers who's body of work is superlative and has stood the test of time, and who we consider to have contributed to musical theatre history in a huge and lasting way, like...Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, (I, II, & II), Jule Styne, George Gershwin, Rodgers & Hart & Hammerstein, Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen, Cole Porter, Lerner, Loewe And Lane, Andrew Lloyd Webber, etc., etc., etc...This year's Honoree's are Comden & Green two great lyricists from the Golden Age Of The Broadway Musical and further....(see postcard below)...
This 'live' stage show is the BEST BARGAIN in town! We actually have a $35 ticket!!! You cannot even go to a Broadway show for that little money! And yes, of course these seats are in the balcony, but...they are GOOD. I've sat all over this theatre and there really aren't any bad seats, and the few seats that are bad--because of an obstructed view (I think there are maybe 10 all together)---we don't sell!
And you'll see if you have gone to that link above, that there is a $65. ticket and then $110., $160., and our top price of $220 per seat. I honestly do not know of any other Benefit that has as reasonable tickets as S.T.A.G.E.
We do three shows! Yes, 3-Count Them-3! Friday night, 8pm, Saturday Night, 8pm, and Sunday Afternoon, 3pm. The dates are March 10th, March 11th, and March 12th, this year. We also have a Beautiful Ad Journal where people can take a Half-Page Ad for only $150.! Plus, we have a Memorial Page where you can remember anyone you have lost, weather to AIDS or any other horrendously painful circumstance, for $10. a name.
Over the years there have been so very many WONDERFUL people who have participated in S.T.A.G.E., like the three Cassidy brothers who sang together the year we did Sondheim III, at which they sang "You Could Drive A Person Crazy" from 'Company'...which is traditionally done by three young women....and these three Cassidy's---Patrick, David & Shaun, were just amazing!!! To see them performing together on the same stage was pretty spectacular and truly special. Their number brought the house down, as they say.
That same year, the incredibly talented and very dear late Michael Jeter did our show, too, and performed the song "Everbody Ought To Have A Maid" from 'A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum'.
He was brilliant! And he was hilarious! This man was so very very talented, and is so very missed by all who knew him and all who worked with him, as well as his legion of fans....Here is another painful example and a heartbreaking reminder of a major talent being lost to future generations because of this dreaded disease---HIV/AIDS. Just as a side note, Micheal was a neighbor of mine, living on my street, up the hill from me. In person, he was a very very shy man...an unassuming man...but someone who's talent on the stage was stunning. He won a Tony Award, and came to Hollywood and besides doing many 'guest spots' on television and I don't even remember how many movies, was a 'regular on "Evening Shade", the sitcom with Burt Reynolds, Marilu Henner and the wonderfully brilliantly talented late Ossie Davis.
Let me just say here and now that I feel so very very strongly about bringing "awareness" to the cause of HIV/AIDS, that I continue to Co-Chair this event even though I can no longer be there, "In Person", at the event itself because of health issues. But, I still send out my letters to over 400 people about tickets (which I've already done)....and I can make phone calls to potential doners, etc...and I can write my blog...AND, hopefully, in this way, make a small difference.
And know this, my very dear Blogesphere Friends....HIV/AIDS can and will touch your life, if it hasn't done so already....I know that it has touched so very many of you out there who may read this and so many of you out there who may never read this, too....
And I'm so very sorry, that it has...Oh Lordy...How my heart breaks for you, and all of us who have lost so very many dear dear loved ones...
Everyone.....Please support your local HIV/AIDS Organizations....
The life they help could be someone you know and love with all your heart....
More to come about S.T.A.G.E. as we go along here....
Just a few words about my oldest sister Robin, who died one year ago on February 4th, 2005. It doesn't seem possible that she is gone, and it seems even more surreal that it has been a whole entire year since she died. I will be posting about her in the near future, I hope....I am just not able to do that yet, but that doesn't mean she is not in my thoughts each and every day...I'm still not able to completely fathom this loss, and I probably never will be able to....But I didn't want this day to go by without saying to her, 'We all miss you so very much, dear dear Robin....and it doesn't seem to get any easier....I so wish I would hear the phone ring, and that I would pick it up and say Hello, and that what I would hear on the other end would be your sweet voice saying to me 'Hi Nay.....it's Robin'.....
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WALKING....So, I took a walk today. I realize that may not be a momentous thing for a lot of people, but, for me, due to health issues...it was only the second time that I've been out walking right up here in my neighborhood, in a very very long time. The first time was yesterday...
So, today I took my camera along with me, thinking, it's been such a long time since I've walked here, why not really look at everything around me and take some pictures of what I see, as I walk....So that's what I did. And it was fun.
Coming out of my Patio I walked down my street going to the right of my house and past the neighbors right next door....
I stopped when I saw this large tile freeze which is set into the wall (one on either side of their entry) that is right at the sidewalk level, which is really the door that is part of the walls which surround their house as a further protection from sales people and the like, (BLUES!!)...Did I say in that very very l-o-n-g sentence that one of these tile panels is on either side of this gate...? Yeah, I think I did.
I continued on, going past this place to the next house where I saw another tile decoration...
this was actually done by one of the people who live in this house...it is very 'artful' and as you can see, extremly colorful...there are quite a few of them--each one different from the other--set into the red brick walk which starts right where the sidewalk ends and goes up to their very HIGH wall, so that it is flush with that wall...this particular house is an old Spanish Style home, one of the older ones on my street.Walking on past the next house I saw this young woman walking two dogs (very first photograph--up top, too)....and took this photo, having had to turn around facing
where I had just come from, to catch it....Notice how broken up the concrete of the street is here...I hadn't really been aware of how truly bad this street was, even though I see it almost every day, till I really looked at these pictures once they were downloaded into my computer. I must say, that I find state of the street rather shocking. I moved on, having now crossed my street and gone onto a different street that has a small incline. It amazes me that I use to walk this route all the time and probably never noticed all the things I was looking at today. And I was thinking about all this and the fact that so often we don't see the things that are right in front of our eyes until there is a reason to be looking more closely like when carrying a camera
and there, in her Postal truck was my wonderful Postwoman Cheryl. I stopped to talk to her and asked her if she would mind if I took her picture, and she kindly said she didn't mind at all...So here is Cheryl who is the nicest Postperson it's ever been my pleasure to know. During this year when my health has been so precarious, Cheryl has shown me more kindness than anyone could possibly expect from their Postperson. And she has helped me with so very many little things that we all take for granted until we are unable to do them ourselves. And the best thing about her is she is happy in her work so therefor she usually has a smile for you, which I appreciate, more than I can say.
After running into Cheryl, I continued to wend my way up the street thinking, 'Gee, I've seen a woman walking her two dogs and Cheryl' and I was feeling like it's really kind of good to be out here taking this walk.
And then I came to another house with lots of tile! Amazing! Till I started really looking, I hadn't thought about or remembered that there were so very many homes up here that made use of all these fantastic tiles available here in Southern California. And, I had not given a great deal of thought to the fact that there are so very many houses up here that have walls around them right at the sidewalk level...(some of these many walls were built after previous owner's sold these homes to other people who felt the need for privacy or just wanted to have something to discourage thieves and robbers, I guess)...The house with this door and tile, didn't use to have a wall around it...It's certainly pretty enough I guess, but you have no sense of what is actually behind this wall because it is so very very high. And I can't even remember what this house looked like before the advent of this wall.
So I contiued walking, thinking about all these things that I never ever think about and don't you know I came to something that could have really caused me a huge problem, if I hadn't been watching where I was going.
More broken concrete everywhere...and roots had caused this particular probem...the roots of a Carob Tree. (Isn't that an attractive Garbage Can? And that piece of hose is deeply attractive too, isn't it) The Carob Tree is all over this whole neighborhood and in fact, all over this hill, on every street. (I had three of them in front of my home until I had them cut down so I could create my Cactus Garden out front...And hopefully, I didn't just chop down these trees without thought of what I was doing...) Looking at this mess of a sidewalk, and considering the broken concrete I had seen in the street, earlier, I thought to myself; 'This neighborhood is falling apart'!
I stood there right by that Carob Tree with it's overgrown roots that had busted up the sidewalk so badly that it was more than dangerous...it was, in fact, potentially lethel....
and I looked up and marveled at what I saw...marveled at what I have seen 5000 times and just never really 'looked' at what I was looking at, you know....and this is what one see's from where I was standing. You can really get a sense of these hills and how homes have been built on the edge of nowhere and how BIG they are, too...some of them going down the hill 4 and 5 story's. And wondered what incredible mind had the forsight and smarts to figure out how to build in these hills and in fact, in any hills like this. And by the way, I truly do wish it had been a bit earlier in the day because the light would have been quite different and really better for photographing this particular view...At that point I turned around and started back the other way just so I would not get too tired and decided if I was able to I would walk past my house when going back and start up the hill the other way just a bit...
And, I did just that, and discovered this lovely pile of rubble...which came down during those last rains we had at the beginning of January...this happens all the time up here, and has been happening for as long as I can remember, since moving up here, 168 years ago. These hills are decompossing granite and so, consequently every time it rains, more of this material comes down and as you can see, just lays there in the street like this...and again, I'm so used to seeing this kind of thing that I guess I usually don't even notice it, but having the camera with me today I saw things from a different point of view. It is kind of terrible to see all these things that say to me that the city and our tax dollars are not working for anybody living up here on this hill....wherever you turn, there are terrible dangerous traps where anyone might get hurt. 
Here's another view and now you can see that there is even more rubble and refuse lying about in our streets. Am I the only one that see's this? Possibly. Cause the only reason I'm seeing today is that I have my camera with me. Maybe I should copy this whole post and send it to every member of The Outpost Homeowner's Association...Maybe that might open up their eyes to the problems up here on our streets and then perhaps they could get our city Councilman to do something about it! You think?I'm not holding my breath!
And, say, aren't these Garbage Cans attractive? You see, tomorrow, Friday, is trash day up here
so all the cans have to be put out on Thursday or very very early on Friday morning, like around 5am. So most people put them out the day before. You would think that all these cans came from an apartment building wouldn't you? But no. They are from one (1) home! That's right. One single family dwelling! The Green Cans are for Garden refuse. The Black Cans are for wet and dry plain old house garbage. And the Blue Cans are for recycalable items. I don't know what this one family of 3 or possibly 4 people are doing, but they sure must have a whole lot of something going on to be able to fill all these cans each and every week! They do have a very very big piece of land here, but...BUT...to fill six Green Cans with Garden Garbage??? It's not The Huntington, you know? No, I don't know!
I've got to put something here that's clean and pretty to finish this post because
I cannot bear leaving you with the lasting image of those tacky full Garbage Cans. So here...HERE is the front bed of my home. Neat. Clean. And so very pretty. Whew! I can go back into my Rose Colored World now.And isn't it ironic that I started out showing all these beautiful tiles and then this whole thing deteriorated into piles of broken cement and garbage? OY!
There's more, but I'll save it till the next time....
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SOME PHOTO'S...
I thought I might post a few interesting photo's of plants from my garden, and maybe a few flowers, too...
"Golden Barrel"
"Golden Barrel" is the common name for this plant. These can get pretty big. And they are a Beautiful plant that usually has bright yellow flowers, but not at this time of year.
The "Kalanchoe" is an incredible plant with these very 'felt-like' leaves...they truly feel like felt cloth when you touch them...and they have a thickness that gives you a feeling of real substance. This is a very sturdy plant, generally speaking, and to my eyes, quite unusual and quite beautiful.
This one is really a 'baby' volunteer off of the mother plant....and is planted in the bed of my Patio and I can look out and see it all the time...at some point I will post a photograph of the mother plant because it is way above the roof line now...another one that was pretty small when I planted it.....
This is a tiny flower that grows on a very very small plant in a cluster and has the common name of 'Hens & Chicks'. I'm not sure why except that there are so very many of these little beautiful heads in the cluster--it's like they are a bunch of chicks, I guess...
At some point I will show some more photographs of plants and flowers, but for now....I'll just say that this is just a tiny example of the many and varied plants in the Cactus and Succulant world that reinforces my feeling about how sculputural these wonderful plants are....there are so very many
Agave species for instance, and it is certainly thought of as a kind of common plant...but this one....this Agave Parryi Huachucensis is so very perfect in it's symmetry and color....and so very pleasing to the eye, it kind of has the look of an artichoke. It's such an amazing plant, it sends out these shoots underground and suddenly you will see a little baby agave growing 10 or 15 feet away and it is off of this original plant....I've been told that these shoots from the agave are so tenacious that they can grow under the street and come up on the other side and I wouldn't doubt it at all! In fact I need to check and see if one has grown across the street yet.More To Come...
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