We’ve been hanging out in Southern California while waiting to move into our Arizona house. Here’s a view of palm trees in lovely La Jolla, where we’ve been staying while visiting with our son, who lives in San Diego.
Monochrome this time. . .
I still love this sunflower!
Giant
This sunflower is gigantic! I have visited it three times where it grows in the Benicia Community Garden. None of my photos have managed to convey its size, so I am contenting myself with showing details- no macro lens needed here!
Textured with Kim Klassen’s 1301 texture for Texture Tuesday.
Sunset in Benicia
Although we aren’t leaving Benicia quite yet, we went down to the water last night to say good-bye to sunset over the Carquinez Bridge. Although we are looking forward to new views and experiences, we will miss seeing the water every day.
Fondue Fantasy
We made the drive to Rocklin last night to finally visit Famous Mo’s at night. My friend and college roommate Carol, along with her friend, Jesse, own Famous Mo’s Coffeehouse and Theater, which is a coffee and lunch place in the daytime and a theater showcasing musical acts several nights a week. Last night we had a great time listening to “yacht rock”- the soft rock and funky sounds of the seventies sung by Fondue Fantasy, who style themselves as a bunch of over-privileged, too cool for school, Harvard guys with names like Chadsworth and Winston (and, mysteriously, Kanye. . .). They were witty and entertaining, and the music was great!
I kind of wished I was HER- but not really- I would have DIED!
They brought down the house with Rosanna! Here they are leading us in the chorus.
Meet you all the way– Rosanna- yeah!
In Between
We moved out!
We went from this. . .
to this. . .
to this.
I don’t think I have ever worked so hard physically as I have the last few months- and especially the last week. We either gave away, sold, or packed twenty-six years of accumulated possessions from my parents, us, and our children. I mentioned on Facebook a week or so ago that I dreamed I was running a marathon (if you know me, you know this would be a nightmare!). Well, last night I dreamed I was gliding around on a Segway!
There is a HUGE sense of relief at having completed this arduous task. Our backs are unstiffening, and our joints are no longer screaming as we make our last good-byes.
And so now we are in between houses and living in hotels. There is a bit of a feeling that I should be packing or cleaning something, but it’s OK. And we are looking forward to the next part of the adventure- MOVING IN!
Back in First Grade
This is just an iPhone photo, and I didn’t even take it- but it’s not just a photo. This is a photo of me with Anne, Barbara and Kathryn, who have been my teaching partners, BFFs and family for a good part of my life in Benicia. We’ve not only experienced all the daily ups and downs of teaching together, but we’ve also had some great fun, supported each other through some tough times, and laughed and cried together more times than we can count.
Bye, girls! I’ll miss you! Remember- there are guest rooms!
Don’t worry. . .
As I was putting this little stone (a gift from Tra!) into my purse to make sure it goes with me to Arizona, I kept hearing “Don’t worry, be happy” playing in my head. Good words to remember as we make this huge change in our lives!
We are mostly packed.
We (assisted by some nice young men) have packed 137 boxes so far- and there are at least 50 which were professionally packed (mostly china). We’ve lived in this house for over 26 years and have accumulated a lot of STUFF (listen to George Carlin’s STUFF routine on YouTube!) over the years. I cannot imagine ever doing this again; our bodies are aching at the end of each day.
We are taking the afternoon off to say good-bye to some of our friends (sniff, sniff. . .). Then we start packing our suitcases.
But where is my phone? I hope I haven’t packed it. . . (seriously!)
Saying good-bye
Although it seems to us that we have been getting ready to move forever (especially to me- the declutterer), our friends are commenting that it is happening all too fast. Now that we are getting packed up and starting to say good-bye, time is speeding up for us too. We will be closing escrow in less than two weeks- and will be out of our house in a little over a week. We have said good-bye to many, many possessions, and now we are starting to say good-bye to friends.
Last night we attended a fantastic party at the magnificent Sappho’s home with many of our friends from Unity of Walnut Creek. We were surprised and overwhelmed when we were gifted with gorgeous hand-blown margarita glasses brimming with beautiful notes of love, good wishes, and promises to visit (all written on cactus decorated paper). Thank you, Sappho and Unity- we will miss you so much!
How can we leave all the beautiful friendships we have made over the last forty plus years in the Bay Area??? I keep telling myself that we are at a stage in our lives when we are free to travel and that we will be meeting up with friends at various beautiful vacation spots over the years. And we hope to have lots of visitors to our new home in Arizona! Hear that, everyone???
Sunset in Arizona
The sunset was beautiful as we went out to get into our car last week when we were on our trip to Arizona. I went back inside to grab my camera and got this quick shot of the pines by our friends’ house.
Image enhanced with Jessica Drossin’s Mumbai texture
Green Jewel
We are moving out of our house in 2-3 weeks and into the new at the end of August. Despite the presence of creatures like the one below found on my friend, Debbie’s window screen, we are getting so excited about moving to Arizona!
Back in Arizona
We bought a house!!!! It’s just what we were looking for- smaller, one level, low maintenance, and beautiful! We will finally exhale when all is finalized with the sale of our home in California- but it looks like we will be living in Arizona by the end of August! This will be a HUGE change for us- especially leaving all our friends. We expect lots of visitors!
Today’s photo was taken in the backyard of our ever-hospitable friends, the Thomases, who live in a gorgeous home in the pines of Prescott. We’re hoping they won’t be sick of us by the time we move here!
Among the Vines
I went over to my friend, Kathryn’s yesterday to help her learn some photography basics so she can move beyond AUTO on her Nikon D60. We had fun shooting with different settings, and I especially enjoyed photographing her backyard vineyard. Kathryn is a quick learner, so I am looking forward to seeing some of her photos.
I added a couple of Jessica Drossin’s textures to this image, which give it some warmer tones and a nice vignette.
Beyond Beyond- Day 23
I’ve gotten behind in my Beyond Beyond lessons. 😦
In Lesson 23, Kim showed us a desaturated flower edit and gave us her “recipe” as a preset as well as a step-by-step version in Photoshop and Lightroom. The steps involved desaturating the image, giving it a matte edit and haze, adding some subtle split toning and a texture. I tried these steps in a couple flower photos I’ve done recently, but wasn’t satisfied with my backgrounds. I finally went back to some of the orchid photos I took at Tra’s house and found an image where I could apply the techniques successfully. I also added just a bit of a white vignette to lighten the background.
15 Seconds of Fame
Today I am having a brief moment of “fame”, thanks to WordPress, the site that hosts my blog . My jellyfish photo from a few weeks ago was published in an article about serialized posts, such as Texture Tuesday! The WordPress editor, Ben, didn’t write about Texture Tuesday itself, but included my photo as a demonstration of how to bring readers to your blog by having regular features that would draw in more visitors. The article appears in the daily WordPress blog, which I confess I had never read before (I’m going to start reading it RIGHT NOW!).
Now, back to photography- here is Jackson, our constant companion in Prescott. He is the very goofy, playful and extroverted kitty belonging to Debbie and Dale, our wonderful hosts in Prescott, where we house-hunted.
melinda anderson photography 