Go Figure ...

Last Fall we took a self-guided ArTrails Open Studios tour through Bennett Ridge, a rustic, upscale community, full of artists young and old. (http://sonomaarts.com/artrails/) We walked around the studios of jewelers, painters, wooden bowl sculpture-ers ... enjoying all kinds of great (okay, some not so great) artistic expressions.


In one of the studios they had a sign-up sheet for Figure Drawing sessions that were to start up in the winter. We signed up and had our first session this January.

OMG!!! It was a BLAST!!! There were about 15 of us, in a cold garage/studio on a hilltop. (Can you hear "Dueling Banjos" in the background?) No. No banjos, but Miles Davis, Putamayo African-Spanish beat, you know, fantastic eclectic music and the most wonderful live model ever. Startling really.

When we first walked in (we took a wrong turn and arrived a little late), people were already set up and sketching away. The model was boldly standing there like a giant Gaston Lachaise statue — full figured, naked and eminently drawable.

We set up our pads and pencils (next to the pot bellied stove for sure!) and lost ourselves for three hours in the pure joy of putting marks on paper.

The model talked to us at the break (after throwing on a bright purple robe) and told us she was a dancer and had been art modeling for over 15 years. I immediately fell in love with a romantic daydream of how she might live ... an African-American Gypsy Queen whirling through life with gold disk earrings and a mass of tiny braided dreads piled high on her head. I didn't really want to know too much about her, or I might burst my bubble and find out she actually made a living as a myopic billing clerk for an airplane parts company. (No offense to airplane parts billing clerks ... I was one when I was 17. But that's another story.)

Anyway ... here ... peek over our shoulders and have a look at the fun we had ...

Holly Daze

So a little while before Christmas, Rudy and Samantha asked Ted to take some portrait shots of them with Rudy's two sisters, Felicia and Tiffany. They wanted to give the portraits to Rudy's folks for Christmas, so we all trundled over to a little neighborhood park and Ted created his photo magic.

Felicia, Tiffany, "Lil' C" (baby Curtis), Samantha, Nayla Rose and Rudy.

Rudy, Nayla and Samantha. OMG these people are just toooo adorable!

Rudy used Hello Kitty bandaids to cover a bruise on the back of his head caused by an unintentional whack with a frying pan.
Oh sorry ... just kidding ... he nicked his head while shaving it smooth for the photos.

Nayla, Aunty Pinky and "Lil' C".

Taaa Daaaaaa! Our Christmas dinner ...

Ham with gravy, purple cauliflower (looking a little uncomfortably like human brain, but tasty nonetheless), mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese ... and since we've been on a Macrobiotic kick lately, it was all made out of TOFU. Really! Can you believe it?

NOT!!!

This year we made seven different kinds of holiday cookies along with my Great Grandmother's English Toffee (recipe's gotta be over 100 years old). Not a bit of butter used here ... (heh heh.)

Happy New Year Everyone!

LA Favorites

If you've been following this blog, then you know how we've just been "devouring" up Northern California — our proximity to family, and all the wonders and beauty of living in a cleaner, more natural environment. We're really enjoying it up here.

Still, when asked if we miss L.A., the answer is, yes, of course we do ... but not all of L.A. We don't miss the traffic, smog, population density, and low ratio of plants to concrete. We do dearly miss our friends, the Southern California beach scene, the melange of ethnic cultures and some of our favorite haunts. Santa Rosa and L.A. are like having two BFFs who you love for different reasons.


Surfas in Culver City is high on our list of must-visits when we're in L.A. It's a restaurant supply and gourmet food market, and if Alice In Wonderland were a foodie, she'd be grinning here like a Cheshire Cat for sure! Check out their adjoining café too. It's very high on the "yum" meter. http://cafesurfas.com/


Then there's the Fairfax Farmers Market. (http://www.farmersmarketla.com/)
Sigh. I've been going there since the late '50s (before I was born of course), so the nostalgia factor is huge. It's changed some over the years, but not a whole lot — still full of tourists, movie people (close to Hollywood and we still see director Paul Mazursky holding court over by the donut shop), elderly Jewish folks (Fairfax district), and every kind of person in between. The lovely thing about it is, you can nurse a great cup of coffee all day long if you want to, be fascinated by the human zoo all around you, and there are no waiters to come by and ask you to leave. Love it, love it.

Eating at Lotteria with BFF Gae. She was the Production Designer on Denzel's new movie "The Book Of Eli". (Yeh, we're braggin' for her.) GO SEE IT.

The French Market on Abbott Kinney in Venice (http://www.frenchmarket-cafe.com/) is tucked away in a cozy corner next to a new age-y day spa (or is it an exercise place? Whatever). We love the Frenchness of it all. The counter people all speak heavily accented English so I want to keep them talking as long as possible, just for the pure romance of it all.
"Can you tell me what your quiche is today?"
"Oh, you have Nutella? What is that?"
"Can you tell me how you make such great coffee?"
They just roll their eyes, answer politely, and we get a great big dose of "We-Think-We're-In-Paris!" (Yes, I really can be that annoying, but I think you already knew that.)

Rainbow Circle

If a persimmon was a movie star, then Penelope Cruz, right?

Autumn in Northern California is a roar of color and, most spectacularly, persimmons play a starring role. Persimmon trees lose all of their leaves in the fall, surprising us with bare branches loaded with fruit, looking like a Tim Burton needle-less Christmas tree with flaming orange ornaments. (In Tim's case, probably literally on fire ...)

There are many different kinds of persimmons, but the ones we've tried are Fuyu (photo). Persimmons can be tricky because if you eat some varieties too soon, they can alum-pucker your tongue in no time and lead you to believe you hate persimmons. But you'd be mistaken. When ripe, Fuyus have a melon-like aromatic sweetness that's a lovely unexpected flavor in all kinds of dishes. At Thanksgiving, we sliced 'em up and threw them in a Waldorf Salad and everyone "gobbled" 'em up (yeh, I went there). If you're at all interested in finding out Persimmon varieties and how to pick good ripe ones, go to: http://www.seedtosupper.com/persimmons.html#Firm-ripe

And speaking of Fall color ... well so far this Winter is vying for Best In Show. You know last year we moved on a street called Rainbow Circle? Well that street name has become very literal this week. Hard rain and hail have slammed us like a series of sucker-punches, and in between blows, the sun will poke through splashing full arcs of the color spectrum from one side of the hills to another. Here's the view from our back yard ... talk about luscious ... don't you just want to run outside with a straw and slurp them up!? Hmmmmmmm, wonder what a rainbow tastes like ....