I lost myself today, mid-pour, in a stream of tea.
Halfway between spout and cup, the sun
caught hold of that golden brew.
And, for a breath or two,
nothing moved.
There was no me.
There was only tea.
Then my fingers trembled
and the world came back into focus.
…
The screech of the hummingbirds. The twitter of the goldfinches and sparrows. And the warmth of the sun-drenched stepping stones. It’s just all too much to resist on a sunny winter Southern California day, if you’re a cat.
Bisou, Freyja, Uma and Emerson, with those fluffy coats and a fair…
The screeching and dive-bombing go on all day long. “Big Red,” the dominant male Allen’s Hummingbird spends most of his time darting back and forth from his perch in the nearby orange tree to the feeder and back again to the tree, where he can keep an eye on the…
When I see that navel, fully bathed in the glow of the sun, yet shrouded in the depths of darkness, pregnant in the sky,
I can’t help but wonder about the smooth expanse of flesh, so close, and yet uncratered by the fists of time.
The other cheek. Another profile.
…
We’ve been absolutely parched this fall, in Southern California, up until the last few weeks, that is. When I first moved to Orange County, thirty-one years ago, winters were always punctuated by pounding rainstorms. I used to have a squeege-type broom that I would use to push water away from…
As some of you might have read last week, Bisou has discovered a new passion for earth-themed TV shows. In particular, he really enjoyed Will Smith’s “Welcome to Earth” series.
Well, it turns out that he also loves the Apple TV screen saver.
Like dragons’ claws, they clutch the soil,
scraping their way past flattened granite,
pushing into the pale light seeping through the eucalyptus
and pines and into my kitchen window. Forced into being
in a time that was never their own.
Ancient tendons, pointed ribs of green,
fluorescent pencil nibs curving into…
During the lockdown phase of the pandemic, we were spending so much time in our backyard, and (in the summer months) in the pool, that we decided to splurge on installing colored lighting for the pool and jacuzzi. It cycles through phases like “romance” and “Caribbean” and “sunset.”
I love…
If I told you that the above photo and the one below are the exact same photo, shot on my iPhone 13 Pro Max, would you believe me?
I’ve been playing around with longer exposures during the “blue hour” with my Nikon z7II lately, but I had no idea until…
While playing around with my new Nikon 100–400 mm lens (it was my Christmas present) the other day, I spotted this little goldfinch in the tree. He was just so cute and chatty that I couldn’t help but snap a few shots of him.
