… I thought I saw the tree smiling back at me.

M&M have arrived, providing us with a reason to celebrate and the main ingredient for the feast: grass-fed beef from the Hearst Ranch in central California. Laurie Sue will join us, so we’re preparing a leisurely dinner for five, with lots of delicious food and lots of time for meandering conversation. Last night, Val and […]

Long Beach leads California in water conservation. In October, I wrote about our town’s efforts to deal with deep cuts in its water supply and our own plans to do our part. This month, great news on both fronts! The Grunion Gazette reports that Long Beach won the Green California Leadership Award for Water Management […]

The vine is going to town! And …

Ajax is getting into his daily summer sunbath routine.

I know I said the curation of the recent portrait exhibit at the Long Beach Museum of Art fell flat, but the paintings themselves left an impression on me. I found myself thinking a lot about the high level of technical performance required to create the hyper-real portraits in the the show. So when — […]

We have found the first sign that the vine has restarted its annual journey! The first growth of the vine means happy Spring! Here’s to the grapes of Fall, 2008.

To see another picture of the vine, click

My test/procedure at the audiologist went well and I am cleared to resume my normal activities tomorrow, including driving. It’s funny how news like that can make everything beautiful. The California sky was California blue. The sunlight caught in my Parisian perfume bottle, made a light show in my cozy bedroom. Val took photographs. The […]

I recently started using a new knife — an old knife I used to use all the time, one I learned to cook with.

For a long time now we’ve had a nice set of kitchen knives. We use them all constantly, and I’m pretty adept. But they’re not the kind of knives I started with.

is the first superstitious tradition of 2008. On New Year’s day, New Orleanians eat black-eyed peas (for luck) and cabbage (to bring money). So I made the peas and Laurie made corned beef and cabbage and a nice corn bread. Here is a phone pix of my plate with an Abita Beer. So at […]

Many faithful readers will know that Val and I share a bottle of Veuve Clicquot every Friday night. Of course, the wine is good, but it is the sparkling moment it creates — a moment in every busy week to toast our lovely and lucky partnership in life — that has kept the tradition going […]

First a word about safety: You should never leave your holiday tree lights on when you are sleeping or not home. You should not use lights on a dry tree. My house has never burned down because I used these “lanterns” on my holiday tree, but that is no guarantee that your house won’t burn […]

Time to fire up the Digital Yule Log! The Solstice tree is ablaze with light once again. Here are some pictures of our tree. Soon to come: a slideshow on making your own Yule lanterns.

What?! Disbelievers like piney goodness too! So of course we have our holiday tree. We celebrate the turning of the year at Winter Solstice — hooray, this year’s darkest day is behind us and it’s time for fresh starts! And although we are not pagans, we borrow from worldwide solstice traditions and decorate our tree […]

Social networking comes to the Hermitage. Michelle ran into old Freedom compatriot Ethan via linkedin and pointed him to The Night Note and a few e-mails later he and his wife Amy are coming to luncheon tomorrow. We haven’t seen Ethan in eight years. Crazy!

Here’s a little menu preview:
Herb-Roasted Olives
Eggplant Bruschetta
Dates with Parmigiano-Reggiano
Sliced Persimmons
A cup […]

The days are so short now, you can turn on your holiday lights at 5 p.m.! It’s Solstice time, the year is long in the tooth, the new year is coming. Hooray. Here is our beautiful and big Solstice wreath — made from our own vine! What a warm reminder that the days will grow […]

Thanks to Laurie’s exceptional shopping skills, I already got one. It is very nice.

.. cutting back the grape vine. Here is a before picture.

For the rest of you readers, this should not be construed as an indication that I have too much time on my hands. Just because I have a migraine hangover and I am hermetically sealed inside my house hiding from soot and waiting for the tree-trimming guys, that doesn’t mean I can’t accomplish something […]