Creative Reuse

You might want to bookmark this just for the color palette. If it doesn't work for you as a building, perhaps you'd like it in a purse. Or as food.

I like it as a building. If you want to have a look, it's at the corner of Valley Street and DeLacey Avenue, a block or two south of Old Town Pasadena.

I love this kind of architecture. The shape of that facade says "old west frontier" to me. Except the old west is wearing a new outfit, and I just adore that handbag.

Cool Relief

We're having hot weather (not unusual) and actual humidity (rare for soCal). It's not what I'd call oppressive, but it's been tough on Boz. Mostly he's bored. A trip around the block is all he can handle in the heat, yet he's restless. He wants action, baby.

So on Wednesday, before the ground got too hot for tender paws, we took Boz to the Lower Arroyo to enjoy the shade and (yes!) the stream that trickles from north to south among the reeds. He got as muddy and stinky as a dog can get without immersing himself. The picture shows you how far under Boz will go. He doesn't swim. He likes to walk about and cool his belly. He loves to dip his muzzle and bite the water.

From parking lot to bridge and back was all he needed. He slept for the remainder of the day, and he was fine all day yesterday, too, until evening when he became restless again.

Last night it rained, a light rain borne of overwrought humidity and a stressful sky that just had to shake itself out. It didn't pour, but it refreshed the humans almost as much as a trickling stream does a dog.

Bright and Beautiful

Something simple is what I want for today. But not too quiet.

I know it's a rose but I don't know what kind. Do you?

I've been working hard. Too much time at the computer! I need to go stare at a real flower for a while. Smell things. Eat something fun. Hear noise.

Thanks for all your encouraging words on Belinda's Birthday! I'm working on a business plan for the publication of Camelot & Vine and I'll let you in on it as I figure it out. I want to do a European book tour. I will be delighted, however, with a tour of the San Gabriel Valley.

Flood them With Comments

photo taken 1/23/10

Coupla meetings you might like to go to: they're called "EIR scoping meetings." I believe that means the city is getting its chance to scope out whether or not the people want development at Hahamongna Watershed Park.

I know, I know. We've already told them over and over again that athletic fields belong somewhere else. But we have to tell them again.

There will be two meetings (you're welcome to attend both):

Thursday, July 12th 6:30 pm
Saturday, July 14th, 10am
Salvation Army Fellowship Hall, 960 East Walnut, Pasadena, 91106 (enter parking lot from Mentor, south of Walnut)

The idea is for citizens to come and hear about the plans for Hahamongna and to let their feelings be known. This time it's especially important because our comments will be made part of the public record. Apparently that's not always the case.

If you'd like to read up:
The city's initial study for the "multi-benefit multi-use" project;
A report by Hugh Bowles that questions the validity of Pasadena's grant application for the project (very interesting);
the EIR Toolkit from SaveHahamongna.org.

If you can't attend the meetings there is a 45-day public comment period. I'll provide the mailing address as soon as I can.

If you'd like to know why I don't think we should build an athletic field in a watershed during a drought, let me know and I'll go into detail. But I think most folks can figure this one out.

Belinda's Birthday

I am going boldly forward into the self-publishing world! So boldly, in fact, that I'm following in Margaret Finnegan's footsteps. It's like when you walk behind someone in deep snow and place your feet in the footprints they made. Bold! Forging behind!

One of these days I swear I'll come up with ideas of my own, but right now I'm thanking Margaret for the courage, and for this sentence: "Just start with a short story." So I've started with Belinda's Birthday on Smashwords. I first published the story on Paula Johnson's The Rose City Sisters (now at its fancy new WordPress location). Belinda's Birthday was a runner-up for story of the year on that site in 2009. Perhaps you've already guessed the winner.

Finnegan's a damned marketing genius. How can I compete with that? I can't. She makes cake with cocoa frosting. I make lentils. We do what we can with what we have.

I hope you'll download Belinda's Birthday for FREE, and maybe even give me a 900-star review. (Or whatever. I don't think  Smashwords will let you give me 900 stars, but I'll take as many as they'll allow.)

This is the first step, of course, to publishing my novel, Camelot & Vine. Camelot, here we come!

Zen Monday: #204

Nobody likes Mondays, but I hope a little Zen will brighten yours.

It's the day when you tell us what the photo's about, so please leave your comments.

Picture Picture

I'm reading an excellent book by Ann Patchett called State of Wonder in which a doctor from Minnesota takes a trip (for which she is unprepared) to the deepest Amazon. Patchett makes the jungle real in her writing. I wonder how she researched that. I mean, did she look it up online? Read books? See a movie? Or did she actually go there?

I might be able to research Patchett and find out, but for the moment I'd like to ponder the question.

In one scene an anaconda nearly kills a boy. I don't know a thing about anacondas and it would have seemed real enough to me if the danger had come from either constriction or the snake's bite. But let's say you know about snakes. Would it bother you if the author got it wrong? Or would you just think, "It's fiction, she's allowed to make it up"?

John and I discuss questions like this when we talk about writing. When we talk about photography, we don't. We just take our pictures from our different angles, and we're fine with that.