Waiting for Autumn to Arrive

Autumn is my absolute favorite season. It conjures up so many lovely images: crisp golden leaves, tweed blazers and leather boots, pumpkins and hay rides, the smell of sharpened pencils. Even though I'm not currently in school, I cannot help but equate fall with that beginning-of-the-year feeling where I'm starting a clean slate and anything is possible. All this and more gets me in the mood for this wonderful season.

Only trouble is, at the moment southern California is experiencing a long and lazy Indian summer with hot days that just won't quit, and I'm feeling less than inspired. I long for the day when I can luxuriate under a warm, woolly blanket with a good book (perhaps a good ghost story or something gothic by Daphne du Maurier) while dark storm clouds parade across a lead-gray sky and rain lashes against the windows. There's nothing like a little gloomy weather to get one's creative juices flowing! It's your move, Autumn.

Tickled Pink

This morning I decided to treat myself to a cheerful bouquet of pink dahlias (so named after 18th-century Swedish botanist Anders Dahl). Flowers always brighten my day and these vivid pinkies are no exception. They look absolutely gorgeous and quite happy that I took them home with me. If you look closely, you can see them smiling.

The Getty Center and Getty Villa

I love visiting museums. Whenever I travel to a new city, it's one of the first things I scramble to see; I think so much can be discovered about a city through its art and architecture that I feel it's a good place to start. I particularly love the Museu Picasso in Barcelona and when I lived in London, I paid frequent visits to the National Portrait Gallery. Living in Los Angeles, I have my share of cool museums to check out, and I've had the good fortune of visiting both the Getty Villa in Malibu and the Getty Center in Brentwood in recent months. Both offer stunning works of art and consistently feature interesting exhibits--the Getty Center's Bernini exhibit is just exquisite.

Equally impressive as the artwork are the grounds of both museums. The Villa's classic proportions, as seen in the photos directly above and below, are something out of a Henry James novel.


Meanwhile, the Getty Center's modern white architecture provides a wonderfully dramatic backdrop against the Western art that lives within its walls (as seen below).

The Setting Sun

On Sunday the boyfriend and I took a few final moments to watch the sun setting over the Pacific. I can't think of a more perfect way to conclude the weekend.

Cooking Class 101

To say I am a neophyte in the kitchen would be a vast understatement. I've never been particularly adept nor interested in cooking; my kitchen skills don't extend beyond throwing together salads and sandwiches. All of that is about to change ( or at least, I hope so!) because I have just taken my first of what will surely be many cooking classes. Tonight's class focused on essential knife skills--basic, but very useful information. But the best part of all was eating the fruit of our culinary labors. Yum! *

*This photo is actually from a barbecue I attended about a month ago in which I had practiced some of my (practically non-existent at the time) knife skills. Don't those potatoes look amazing? I cut those bad boys!