Thursday, November 09, 2006
happy flowers
Isn't this a group of happy looking flowers? They sure look 'happy' to me....I've been poring over a lot of my floral pictures...having such a good time looking at all the lucious beautiful images....in some ways they are almost like food....I look at this picture above and it looks good enough to eat to me.....yum!
Now this beauty above looks like it could be Orange Sherbet in the shape of a rose....I mean....we are talking yum yum, don't you think? Roses are so lush and beautiful, no matter what color they are....I'm just crazy about roses and always have been. Dear Larry Parks, Betty G.'s husband had the most beautiful rose garden, with the most gorgeous variety of roses in it....he was a sensational gardener, by the way, as well as being a fantastic friend....One year I bet I took 500 pictures of roses...all of them slides. One day when I have the proper equiptment to download these truly special pictures you will get to see some of them. Meanwhile, here is another special lovely flower.....
This flower above is so soft looking and delicate. I don't know what it is but it sure is pretty....! I love the way the pink fades into cream....gorgeous!
And here is another very very happy flower....this is one blossom from an Orchid that blooomed for the second time, a year after I got it...
My Lordy that is beautiful and lush, lush, lush....Nature continually astounds me....I'm planning on putting together a calender to give as a gift to many people this year at "Holiday" time....and this image above will be part of that group of pictures....Here is another beauty....more lushness. This was part of an arrangement that had so many beautiful goodies in it...I had a wondereful time taking pictures of it....
It looks better bigger, so do click on it to get the full impact....these are just a small sampling of so very many beautiful flowers that I was able to capture with my little digital camera...And here below is one more of these flower pictures from this lush arrangement....
I will post more, very very soon...For now...I hope you all have a lovely Thursday and Friday.....
More To Come.....
| posted by OldLady Of The Hills at 1:42:00 AM
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
truman capote
Many moons ago...like maybe 38 years (give or take a few months here and there), my father and his fourth and last wife, Olga, had a little house in La Quinta, Ca. a desert area that is near Palm Springs. La Quinta had been a kind of retreat for many many people who loved the desert but wanted to be outside of Palm Springs, in a quieter more secluded atmosphere....See, there is Palm Springs, then Cathedral City, then Palm Desert and then, La Quinta....as the crow flies.Back in 1962...before they were married, Daddy Joe and Olga had come to Los Angeles to visit and then went down to La Quinta where they stayed at the only Hotel that was there at that time...the La Quinta Hotel...a famous and very beautiful one-story hotel built I believe in the 1920's....They loved the area. After they were married they decided somewhere along the way that they would find a little house to buy, and then they would spend the winter months there...Connecticut and New York being too cold for DJ.
But, that first time that they traveled to La Quinta they told other guests---people that they met at the hotel---that Olga was his daughter (don't ask)...Daddy was a very old fashioned man and didn't feel comfortable about meeting people while traveling with a woman who was not his wife, so it was easier to say she was his daughter. (In fact he married his third wife for that very reason….he was traveling to France and was going to meet some “important people”…that was really funny because practically every ‘important’ man that he might meet in Franc had a mistress and wouldn’t have thought anything about it….) So, they had rented one of the 2 Bedroom cottages that the La Quinta Hotel had available to carry out this father-daughter deception....
I'm not going to go into this part of the story right now...maybe at another time....except to say that they gave up the "daughter" deception when suddenly one of his "real" daughters, me, refused to go along with this scenerio because I lived here in L.A. and I really did not want to attempt to carry on that lie with people who I would undoubtedly most likely might see again.....this problem was therefore resolved.
So eventually, some years later, they found a brand new little house that was near the La Quinta Hotel, and DJ bought it and the two lots on either side of it to insure privacy and to insure that nobody could build too close, because he did not want any neighbors that might be noisy….This particular area was very very new at the time and in fact there weren’t that many houses that had been built yet….(Now, of course, all these years later I am assuming it is completely filled up….I doubt there would be any lots to buy.)
It really was a wonderful little house….two bedrooms, a large living-room-kitchen-dining area all in one sort of, a lovely small pool, and that was it....and it was surrounded by the beauty of the gorgeous montains that one sees everywhere in the desert. A perfect desert getaway house…easy to take care of and easy to close up and leave when they were ready to go back east after the winter months were over….Daddy used the second bedroom as an office and that is where guests like myself would stay when visiting overnight or for the weekend or longer.They always had a very active social life wherever they went….Daddy being an interesting man and interested in many many things, too…So, often they would have made ‘dates’ with people and I was included in whatever these 'dates' were during those times when I would drive down to spend a few days with them.
And it was always very interesting for me, especially interesting if they had a connection to show business or the art world…It might be a party or a gathering at some place, like The Palm Springs Museum, or perhaps a small dinner party at someone's home or a luncheon.It was one of those times that I was there for a few days that Daddy & Olga had been invited to lunch at Truman Capote’s home in Palm Springs. I was excited about that because of course I admired him tremendously as a writer. I had read the book ”In Cold Blood”, and had seen the film of course, too....and I thought that the book was a masterpiece of writing.
I was not alone in that thinking by any means...this book took the literary world by storm and Capote made the cover of Time Magazine among others....You have to remember that at the time Capote wrote this book, no one had really ever written a book quite like it…that now seems very hard to believe because that type of book has been written hundreds of times since….but at the time he was the first and it was ‘new’ and it was stunning, and the quality of the writing was just superb, in every respect.I had also loved “Breakfast At Tiffany’s, which was 180 degrees away from
“In Cold Blood”….and also, I had loved the film of “Breakfast At Tiffany’s”, though Capote wasn’t that happy with it from what I had always read, But for audiences, it was a wonderful wonderful film---another treasured performance by Audrey Hepburn. So, this was a thrill for me to be included in this ‘lunch at Truman’s’….His desert retreat was in Palm Springs and though I don’t remember much about the house except it was lovely and comfortable and almost had a tropical feel like Florida because of the foliage surrounding it, particularly as you entered----there was, as I recall, a kind of outer front door that led to this walkway which then led to the actual front door of the house itself and that was the ‘tropical’ part. When we arrived, Capote’s House Man answered that outside door and we could hear music playing as we entered….it was the song “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head”, by Burt Bacharach….and as we passed the windows of the house in this tropical walkway there was Capote dancing and singing to this music that filled the house….This is an image I will probably never forget…he seemed so happy and enjoying himself as he danced around….unaware, it seemed, that people had arrived. We were the first to arrive, a family trait this being ‘on time’….(If you were invited for 12 o’clock, you arrived at 12 o’clock!) There was no such thing as being 'fashionably late' in my family....we were always early-to-on-time, and that is still the case with all of us to this day.I don’t remember a great deal about that lunch except that his then great great friend Slim Keith
was there and I believe there were a few other people too, but there were only eight or ten of us all together, as I recall. Capote was at the head of the table at one end, (I was seated next to him to his right) and he had put my father at the other end of the table, with Slim Keith to his right.…I remember thinking at the time about all the different people my father had met throughout his life, and wondered had there ever before been anyone in his life quite like Truman Capote. I don’t think so….But Daddy Joe seemed glad to be there and though I don’t think they saw each other much socially except for Palm Springs, DJ seemed very interested in Capote and seemed engaged by all the other people who were there as well.
In retrospect one cannot help wondering about all that happened in Truman Capote’s life as the years went on….The many people that he not only offended but in some cases, completely devastated when that first excerpt from “Answered Prayers” appeared in Esquire Magazine in 1975.
This was a book he had been writing and working on for years and years….the first book after “In Cold Blood”. In fact, the only book after “In Cold Blood” and the further fact is that this book was never finished, so therefor, it was never published.
The excerpts that appeared in Esquire pretty much rocked the New York Social World and all of the many people Capote had been close to like Slim Keith, felt completely betrayed and pretty much stabbed-in-the-back and all of those friendships ended very very badly. Capote was pretty much barred from any and all of those people’s lives and because of that his life became a very different one from the period of 'The Black and White Ball'. Others much closer to this situation have written in depth about this and there has been an incredible amount of speculation by just about every important literary person of that time as to why he would have written such an obvious and horrible indictment of people who were supposedly his dear friends. And this speculation ran to questions which included things like these: Was the writing of these chapters which were published the most self-destructive act ever ever??? Was Capote trying to prove how truly unworthy a person he really was…..Etc., Etc.....
And of course, I have no treal idea and anything I might say wouldn’t even have any validity at all. I do know that many of us saw Truman Capote's decline happen before our eyes on television, We watched as he deteriorated into a drunken and drug filled life appearing on different late night talk shows….often appearing as if he was in a kind of stupor….this was very sad to see….this very brilliant man who for whatever reason destroyed all the close caring relationships of his life in New York and then ultimately never finished this book. Some people have said that there never was 'a whole book'. But his great friend Joanne Carson believes the complete manuscript does exist and that it is in a Safe Deposit box somewhere. She believes this because she found a key that had no identifying marks on it to tell what bank it might belong to and surmised that Truman's manuscipt must be in that Safe Deposit Box. Certainly parts of it did exist, and those parts were the ones published in Esquire. But nothing else of that book ever appeared in print.I am very anxious to see this new film about Truman Capote….the one with Toby Jones and Sandra Bullock called “Infamous”.
From what I have read and heard it sounds like a not quite as cold evaluation of this very talented man as the previous film “Capote” was….it covers some slightly different material including some of the ‘swans’ he was so close to, like Slim Keith. That is what he called these women….
I try to remember more about that day at lunch and visualize the relationship as I saw it that afternoon between Capote and Slim Keith….truthfully I have no distinct memory of that except I know it was a good relationship…..warm and caring and obvious that they really really liked each other a lot. I think if it been anything else I would have remembered that. But I remember very clearly the particular rendition of “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head” that he was playing and dancing to as we arrived that day because it was THE Popular one of the day….And every time I hear that song to this day, the picture of Truman Capote dancing and singing around his home…seemingly very happy and content with his life and his lot at that time….comes to my mind….I see him in his colorful Hawaiian shirt, and wearing some kind of tropical loking casual summer hat. And I remember that that day, he was happy.
That’s what I remember all these years later.
More To Come.....
| posted by OldLady Of The Hills at 1:05:00 AM
Sunday, November 05, 2006
more views
Here are some more views taken at different times from the deck of my home...looking East---at Downtown Los Angeles....This one above was taken on one of those clear crisp days where you can see everything....of course, there is always that look on the horizon as in the picture above, at least it doesn't look as treacherous as it sometimes does...,
Above, another shot on a different day with more pollution across the horizon and some beautiful cloud formations as well....And as you look up, the sky is blue and clear....
And a rather dramatic sky with those clouds that fortell a big storm is coming our way....and still, the overtones of pollution hang there on the horizon....And then, below....more "Drama" and more Pollution....and a rather mixed message where the possible rain is concerned....
And then here below, this picture was taken after the last big fires that took quite a few days to get under control and you can see the evidence of the smoke on the horizon...and this is what we were all breathing----and I know, because I can see it over there...and everyone over there can see the same stuff hanging in the air over where I am, too....
And another truly amazingly dramatic picture---still looking east towards downtown...
I truly love where I live so very much and one of the biggest reasons is the view that I have, looking East, and South, and West witnessing nature doing it's 'thing' in the middle of this amazing city....as I said in the last post...it is never ever boring....And returning to looking West from my deck....I took this picture tonight as the sun was beginning it's beautiful setting....once again, a sky that reminds you of how tiny you really are in comparison to a sunset....
This is so simple and beautiful and yet so complex in the second by second changes that occur as you continue to look at it and blink your eyes.....
More To Come......
| posted by OldLady Of The Hills at 1:02:00 AM
Friday, November 03, 2006
1 year anniversary
I just realized that I have an Anniversary coming up. Yes, my one year of blogging will fall on November 3rd...Well, shut my mouth, that's TODAY! Hard to believe that a whole year has gone by since I began this blogging journey on "Here In The Hills"....Well, in actuality, for one month before, I had another blog called "The Hills Are Alive"...and that was like my bloggy shakedown cruise which got truncated when the hard drive on my computere crashed and died a horrible ugly could-not-be-recusitated-death. So, I then got a new computer and when I tried to go on to my dashboard I realized that I couldn't remember how to get onto the damned bloody thingy....thus....The beginning of "Here In The Hills"....
In honor of that start-up...or I should say re-start up, I am putting up my very first post on this blog....
Well, my second really....because my very first post was the announcement that my computer had died and the fear expressed that no one would be able to find me...it was short and sweet and to the point, but not particularly typical of anything I had written on my blog previously...so, this was the second post...And I hadn't quite conquered how to put pictures anywhere but on top, yet, as you will see when it starts down below! And isn't it amazing that one of the pictures I put on there, as you are about to see---is from that same Sunset series that I just posted in the post previous to this one....Things did improve, 'picture-wise' as I discovered the secret of moving pictures around and putting them where I want them---like I just did with that "computer horrors" picture just above and over to the left.....
But for now...here is the beginning of "Here In The Hills", one year ago, today---sort of....
COYOTE’S
Driving home from “Dr. Torture” (aka: The Back Doctor) last Saturday night—I was coming down the hill from Mulholland Drive, down Outpost Drive and then on to my street---It was somewhere around 8pm. And there in the street, as I rounded one of the familiar curves, were two Coyote’s—one was just crossing the road in front of me as my headlights caught him—using one of the ‘crossovers’ that the deer have used for many many years—and the other one was about to cross following his buddy/mate, when the headlights of my car--plus the sound of my car scared him back up the hill behind the late Michael Jeter’s house
Here in the Hollywood Hills where I live, at 8:05pm on a Saturday night—with Hollywood Blvd. just down the hill—here were these two coyote’s.
It never ceases to amaze me that I can live so very close to “civilization”; that Grauman’s Chinese—(excuse me, Mann’s Chinese Theatre, which is my neighborhood movie theatre) and yet—I see coyote’s and deer up here and always have, all the years I have lived up here.
Unfortunately these streets now have an incredible amount of traffic, for residential streets, I mean—someone is always renovating their home or rebuilding—or new homes are being built on the very few lots that are available at this point---(this area is extremely overbuilt now --and those houses that are being built, are being erected on the most impossible inclines you could possibly imagine)—and all this building brings workmen and their cars and trucks; huge dumpsters parked for months at a time on streets that are very curvy and windy and not exactly wide---making driving up here pretty daunting.
It is so very busy all week long from early morning till after dark that one forgets that this use to be a very quiet and generally sleepy neighborhood---and one has to be even more careful when driving all the blind curves up here with so many cars and trucks parked on the streets.
I actually had begun to think that all this activity and hustle and bustle and crowdedness had sent the coyotes and the deer further up into the hills—or that maybe, even---that most of them had died out with no place to roam.
It really did my heart and soul good to see these two healthy looking coyotes that night—and the day before, Friday,—the two plumbers that had come to my home to snake out the kitchen sink which had backed-up…(it’s been quite a week of problems here in the hills what with computer crashes and pipes breaking and kitchen sinks backing up--)…they saw two beautiful deer on the street, almost in front of my house…a hopeful sign, too, I would say.
As I continued on my way down my street towards my house that night—I thought: ‘It really is fall now, here in the hills of Hollywood, now that the coyotes and the deer are here’, and I was reminded of why I wanted to live up here in the first place. Nature is right outside my front door. Wild animals still do frequent my neighborhood even though Hollywood & Highland and The Kodak Theatre and The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel are almost a stones throw away.
It's a small thing maybe, but it really made me happy!
So....there it is....A year ago, I was writing about the cayote's that one sees up here on the hill. And because I am so deeply excessive, here below is a BIG HUGE Anniversary cake....please, help yourself and help me "celebrate"....because part of the great joy of blogging has been and still is, all the wonderful special people that I have met all over the world who enrich my life and share so very much with me, each and every day...365 glorious days, and still counting....!
In many ways, dear blog buddies, this blogging stuff has saved my life....being pretty much confined as I am...it has kept me connected to the world and people and my creativity in ways that I could not possibly have imagined when I began this internet journey....I thank you all for the love and encouragement and great good humor you have all shown me....I am deeply grateful to each and everyone of you and I send you big hugs and big big thanks on this special one year anniversary day.....More Will Definitely Be Coming Soon....To This Blog Near You.....
| posted by OldLady Of The Hills at 1:22:00 AM
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
sunset views
I have been sorting and filing my pictures saved to the computer...tryimg to be more organized so that certain things are easier to access....I probably have 500 or more 'veiw' photographs taken from the deck of my house at various times of the year and covering lots of weather changes...the above and the following are a few of these pictures that I particularly like....
This one above was a particularly vibrant sunset...same approximate location as the first picture on top, but a totally different sky. This is facing west---with the Pacific ocean beyond---and those buildings that are barely visible are part of Century City....named because that land was part of the 20th Century Fox back-lot that was sold off when hard times began happening in the film industry....
And this one above----a fiery looking sunset, almost as if the sky itself was on fire---but in fact, nothing was on fire...this was just another incredible wonderful happening that makes each sunset of each day, special and amazing....People have said to me..."Oh you must be bored with your view at this point....". The answer to that? Never. You never get tired or bored or blase about what you can see each day, because as long as I have lived here, no two days have ever been alike....and the combination of nature and polution or just nature ny itself, often makes for astounding pictures...as you can see from this next photograph below....
And last---for today---- but not least, here below is real "drama" in the sky....
There will be more to come and soon, I promise....| posted by OldLady Of The Hills at 1:19:00 AM
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