Licorice the cat

Or so we call her. An extremely sociable cat with a raucous squawky little reminder of a meow ("hello, I am still here, I notice you have ceased petting me for some reason"). A joy to have as a neighbor and friend.

Heaven/sometimes in black and white

My girlfriend, resting her tired leg on a cold windy day by the sea.

I was finally able to get some film developed, for the first time since lockdown started. Few other things could have raised my spirits as much as receiving the email containing my scans did.

I have been getting back into taking pictures since receiving two unassuming (but cherished) cameras in the past year, and as with writing poetry, the more I do it, the better I do. There were some golden snaps among the photos I just got back...and I missed that feeling of really liking something I had made.

Point & shoot photo album: May

On a dreamy overcast day.


Props to the neighbors.


Teeny rock-hard tomatoes!


The many book boxes around here have taken on new significance while libraries are closed for all but digital loans.


The start of a scavenger hunt. "This is the chalk walk. Smell the roses to your right. Then walk 1 block north." The roses did smell magnificent.


I am a long-time fan of lamb's ear, but this spring noticed its flowers for the first time.


I have an urge to namaste to this mural lady when I pass her.


The neighborhood peacock in his tree. I tell you, I did not really believe a bird of his size and shape could climb a tree, but I saw him do it.


Socially distanced picnic with my mother and girlfriend ended in an ice cream truck purchase.


Strawberries and yogurt, first strawberries of the year now that they are tasty and grown in-country.


Stationed at the kitchen table for my work day, books at the ready for my breaks.


Plant nurseries were permitted to open in May. My girlfriend persuaded me to come along and we got some outdoor babies (including a lamb's ear!).


Favorite shadows and tree tops and snippets of sun.


So Haagen-Dazs makes vegan ice cream bars, and it's a very nice time to be alive as a vegan.


Yes, this same enchanting tree.


Favorite shadows and snippets of sunlight, continued.


A neighbor put out free tomato plants! I took this one home, and she's growing so quickly.


Dear bougainvillea.


This plant reminds me of a dinosaur version of a Christmas cactus. The flower is wider than my hand is long.


A weekend morning project - turning a dried bouquet into a wall hanging.




My girlfriend has such good ideas.


Sampling a new apple variety for work. I really liked this one.


This photo reminds me why I like the residential urban parts of the Bay Area so much. A particular homey feeling in the sky, trees, cement.


A present-day photo, of course, but this construction site near my home was the site of a fire last summer that catapulted me from my sleep and from my house for the night. I called my downstairs neighbor, very very quickly packed a backpack with a few things from my emergency bag and a few things I would need for work the next day, and decamped with my bicycle, that bag, and my roommates a short distance behind me.

I spent the night at my girlfriend's, but was so aggressively awake from the adrenaline that we went for a midnight walk to watch the firefighters finish putting out the fire. I never want to see flames that big from our windows again, but now I know what items I choose to rescue from my house in that usually-hypothetical scenario! (Most interesting thing to report: I had an unexpected absolute lack of interest in all sentimental items during those adrenaline-fueled moments. They truly did not matter to me.)


On a more peaceful note, the closest I've been able to get to Bruce the peacock.


Such sunset clouds this day.


Twinkle lights and the aforementioned flower project.


Vegan stickers!


Eating cherries at twilight.

Books read in May 2020

1. Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life, by Thich Nhat Hanh (1992)

Lovely and wise. I felt so grounded during my reading of it. One of my favorites of his.

2. The Hundred Secret Senses, by Amy Tan (1996)

Took me a while to get into. I forgot how dark Amy Tan's work is at times. It is her classic mix of Chinese-American mother/daughter/wife/husband conflict in the present, and almost mythical Chinese tragedy in the past. Haunting at times. What happened right before the end made me so sad and a little mad.

3. Jamaica Inn, by Daphne du Maurier (1936)

Yes! I remembered liking the author's most famous work, Rebecca, and this was another treat of the similarly atmospheric, neo-Gothic variety. Delicious spookiness and suspense without being a scary novel. I didn't think much of the romance but otherwise thought the protagonist was excellent, a true heroine. Brave, sturdy, and stubborn - and well-written enough that she didn't feel annoyingly so.

4. The Book of Waves: Form and Beauty on the Ocean, by Drew Kampion (1998)

Mesmerizing photos (and all from film cameras, of course) - oddly mannish quasi-rhapsodic writing. I learned a bit from the "science explanation" sections, which was what I really bought the book for, but not all of that was readily clear to me. The cross-section illustrations in those sections, of wave patterns at various beaches, were very pleasing though.

5. Car Pool, by Karin Kallmaker (1993)

Fun, fast, fluffy lesbian romance. Bonus fun points for the detailed Bay Area references from a local author.