from the other side

Dear friends,
After a brief hiatus--and significant thought--I have decided to blog once again.

So, to begin here is a brief update:
1. I am back in Santa Barbara, working for a small, local company
2. I started back at city college yesterday in French 103. I will start a drawing class on Saturday.
3. I am living with Laura and we have occupied ourselves with a number of home and garden improvement projects these past two months: I've since learnt how to re-caulk a bathtub, how to set gopher traps, and all about fungi that attack peppers and tomatoes.
4. I've decided to stop supporting the large-scale dairy industry (it's not as ridiculous as it sounds... I don't think). It is actually a bit of an adventure because it means learning to use many more goat products and soy-based products. And it feels good to know that I am 'voting with my dollar' every time I decide what to buy and what not to buy.

So that is that.

Something to read and ponder and maybe become disappointed about: Drilling off the coast of Santa Barbara

Something a bit serendipitous, I think: today at the farmer's market I bought a bunch of dime-sized white flowers with great green stems. The lady whom I bought them from used a bit of newspaper to gather the great green stems in preparation for the journey home. When I arrived back at the Portola Place and unwrapped my flowers, I gleefully discovered that the florist had wrapped them in the crossword puzzle page of the LA times. As I cut the stems and placed the blooms in jars and vases around the house, I concluded with confidence that today fate was on my side. I spent the second half of the evening working on the puzzle.

And... Henna! A friend from India offered to do my henna and so of course I said yes! The first photo is a bit awkward, but I think it shows the lovely designs quite well. The second is henna + mushrooms that were growing in the damp shade of the chamomile plant.