SundayImagine my poor dogs flying home to Australia in these little boxes, and then, when the nightmare journey does end, having to spend weeks in quarantine.
I worry particularly about Nipper, who is very much My Dog. He sits as near to me as possible wherever I am, usually touching my feet, or leaning up against my legs. Follows me up and down stairs. Waits outside the loo for me. Sleeps at the foot of my bed. He will pine in quarantine, so I hope he at least gets to bunk up with Yoshi.
I've been put in touch with a guy in LA who will help organise their trip home. The quarantine regulations are very complicated, so I feel better to have someone who knows the ropes helping me get them home.
:: Just got back from a wonderful chatty Sunday session-style arvo at the Bondi. There were quite a few of us — the drinks and nibbles were our prize for being the top table at last year's season of quiz nights. Sounds a bit weird, I know, to have won the series when we own the place, but I assure you it was all above board!
There was lots of talk about the new Baz whatsisname movie, Australia, which opens here the night before Thanksgiving. A few weeks ago, David and I saw a short trailer for the movie and were a bit worried about it. But on Friday night, we went to see Happy Go Lucky (really really wonderful English film) at the local cinema and there was a longer trailer for Australia, and I must say it looked a lot better. So we'll see.
:: How's your Christmas shopping? These are pics of FAO Schwarz, the fabulous, enormous, magical toyshop in New York on Fifth Avenue, right next door to the big glass-cube Apple store.There are whole wings dedicated to animals, books, Lego, and Playmobil and Barbie. Then there's a huge Harry Potter section — including these 'life-size' (or what you imagine life size to be) dragons.The one in the window was half -price — a snip at $2300. The unicorn, which was, frankly, a little grubby about the hoof, was a mere $800.
:: It's been hot and sunny ever since we got back from New York. There have been terrible fires in Los Angeles, with flames whipped up by fierce 96 mph Santa Ana winds — about 800 homes lost. Ghastly.
:: We bought tickets home to Perth this morning. So I feel I have a date to work to, and can now structure the time I have left and organise the things I have to do to get home. Also, this weekend, we booked a return trip to Santa Fe for when Dace is with us — fantastic! We'll be in Santa Fe for New Year's, which is bound to be spectacular.
:: Lily has had a second opinion on her foot, and will now not need surgery — thank heavens. She has a better cast, which has already made a difference to how she gets about, and has been told that the reason her ankles give out on her so frequently is that she has short, tight hamstrings and calf muscles, which she needs to stretch, strengthen and lengthen by exercise. Then she'll stop stressing her ankles by no longer walking on the sides of her feet.

Time out
Just had to take a few minutes out of cleaning the house (yeeuch — please note the elegant apron) to brag about my latest succes d'aiguille. Much more important than frigging about with the Swiffer duster.
This is my Clapotis, which I have finally finished after an entire year. I started it in April last year and knitted about eleven inches, then put it away. But when I had to rush back to Australia the second time, I packed it to take with me, thinking it would provide the brainless, rhythmic knitting therapy I might well need.
And it did. There were plenty of occasions when Mum and I sat at Dad's bedside while he drifted off into an uncomfortable, rattly sleep, and I'd knit on and on and on. I extended the length of it, partly because I couldn't bear to finish it, and partly because I wanted it to be longer than it looks on the pattern — which you can find here.
In the end, because it's so stretchy from being knit on the bias, it's turned out to be over seven feet long - room for plenty of turns around one's once swan-like neck.I cast off while I was still in Perth, and then Mum started unravelling all the dropped stitches for me, which took far, far longer than you'd imagine! Then I packed it up again, still unfinished, to take on our holiday last week. I eventually sewed in all the ends (from switching from one ball of yarn to another) and finished the last of the unravelling when I was in Washington the weekend before last, and wore it on a chilly, sunny day — it was gloriously soft and warm.
I made it out of Debbie Bliss alpaca silk dk (80% baby alpaca, 20% silk), which is extremely soft and luxurious, and it took about ten balls — maybe twelve. Fortunately, I'd bought the yarn online from WEBS where it had been discounted to something ridiculous like $3 a ball, so the whole thing was not too extravagant an exercise.
:: So these, above and below, are the chunky socks I knitted for my brother, mostly in Albany, sitting beside him in his house as he recovered from his horrible hernia operation. I also knitted a few inches here in San Diego between my trips back to Oz.They are for Garry to wear in winter with his beloved Blundies. Garry's a social worker/counsellor who travels all over the Great Southern district of Western Australia meeting his 'clients' and helping them out.
The socks are a bit big for me, but you get the picture. It's lovely soft Cleckheaton wool I bought in Australia, and just a standard old common or garden sock pattern.

:: Both Dad and Garry are on the mend now. In fact, I had a very excited call from Dad this morning to tell me that he had managed to walk 36 metres in the parallel bars at the hospital rehab unit. Such a great achievement!

:: Here are a couple of gratuitous pictures of my very spoiled little dog, Yoshi, who's very happy to have me back, especially my nice, warm bed!

Dog of love
Nipper, our eleven-year-old blue heeler-cross, is usually not allowed on the settees. But he's known James and Dev since he was a pup, and, well, sometimes he's overcome with affection and he just forgets the rules.
:: Will's in Los Angeles with two friends, Trevor and Paul, for an Eagles of Death Metal concert (all ages) at the famous Roxy. The boys are staying in a suite at the Hyatt on Sunset Boulevard, where, as Will very excitedly phoned to tell us an hour or so ago, the band is staying.
David says the Hyatt on Sunset has long been a rock-and-roll pub, once known as 'The Riot on Sunset', and many rooms still bear the scars ...
Will said they had already bumped into Jesse Hughes, the lead singer (whom Trevor knows and has played with), and they've all been invited to the afters party. Will is over the moon because his hero, Dave Grohl, from The Foo Fighters (originally in Nirvana), often hangs out at the Roxy, and is best mates with Jesse H. Fingers crossed!
This is all a Very Big Deal for our lad from Perth, and David and I are happy that he's not too cool to phone us and share the excitement.
It'll be back to real non-celeb life tomorrow morning when we pick Will up at the hotel to take him with us to Big Bear.

:: Off to the snow tomorrow, so I'll be off the air for a while. See you very soon, with lots of gorgeous pics, I hope.
In the meantime ... H A P P Y N E W Y E A R! I'll tell you my NY Resolutions when I'm back.

Chuffed ...
... to see my old pencil box (above) being used by Will, who has discovered drawing in a big way since he enrolled in extra-curricular classes at his school, run by the local community college. Combining that with his daily digital imaging course and his normal art classes at school, he's starting to think that maybe art school is an option he needs to explore.

:: Classes at my art school begin Monday week - I have yet to choose a lecturer, but I'm so excited at the thought of starting again. It's just an adult-ed sort of course, but all the teachers I've had there have been excellent, and take it very seriously.

:: I just read about a French woman being hauled over the coals for kissing a $2 million-plus painting on exhibition, and leaving an indelible lipstick smear that restorers and conservators cannot budge, even after applying 30 different chemicals! Doesn't help that the painting was an almost all-white canvas by Cy Twombly (who I always thought was English, but it turns out he's from the US).
The silly woman thought the artist would appreciate her expression of love for his work - and well he may, but the owner is furious and threatening to sue for the full worth of the painting plus repairs.

:: Two puppies:
Whenever I sit down in the evening, I get the full treatment: Yoshi jumps on to my lap, climbs up and puts a paw either side of my neck and leans against my face. It's a real cuddle. Here, he's delivering a similar hug to Will, who was lying on the floor, for some reason, when Yoshi walked all over him.

Bones ...

That's Will's nickname in certain quarters, and this (above) is his amazing piece of digital 'painting', which is my desktop wallpaper at the moment. Clever, huh?

:: We've just had the Memorial Day long weekend - except that Dave worked for almost all of it. He was at the office and the Bondi all day Saturday and all day Monday, and then got a migraine. Guess who needs a holiday?
I, meanwhile, started to make the Perfect Bag Mk II (Maggie knows where Mk I has gone!). It still needs its handles ...

... and while it doesn't exactly look its best posed on the daggy ironing board, it will actually be a purler. I'm loving it. Can't wait to get it finished and on my shoulder!

:: Okay Vegemites - I need you to send some vibes this way. Today, Dave and I re-visited the amazing house we'd found in University Heights. Which has been reduced by $100,000 since we first saw it. We meandered through it, imagining where the furniture would go - you know how you do when you look at an empty house - and David, normally the most prosaic of men, was even talking about putting in an infinity-edge pool to take full advantage of the canyon view.
We discovered two rooms on the lower ground floor that we hadn't even realised were there. And all the four bedrooms had built-in cupboards; two of them had balconies. All the floors, upstairs and down, were solid oak. While we were out the back, an eagle soared over the canyon, which is so deep that the eagle was at eye-level with us ... Gorgeous.
Anyway, while we were wandering, someone else got busy and put in an offer for it. Contingent upon selling their house. So, as I was saying, send some vibes this way ...
(Then, when I got home, I dropped a bottle of tomato sauce, and shortly after, a plate. The day has gone downhill rather!)

:: Change of subject. This (below) is the Marriott hotel near the convention centre, downtown. It's h-u-g-e, as you can see from this shot of the lobby. Must be the biggest Marriott lobby in the whole of the southern hemisphere (don't hear that too often in these here parts).

David and I were there last week for lunch, as guests of Lisa, one of our mates at the Union Bank of California. It was a fundraiser for an organisation Lisa supports which funds, builds, runs and maintains homes for senior cits.

:: The sun's been out - well, every now and then:

That was supposed to be an arty shot to show you that the May Grey's weakening: we had a little blue sky in between the clouds!
And even the dogs enjoyed being outdoors:

They ran and ran in our little bit of grassy parkland down in the bottom of the canyon, and then, all tuckered out, were very happy to be chauffeured back home.

Getting warmer ...

:: Spring begins officially here on March 21 and the weather is just perfect. It was about 32 (C) yesterday, and today it's a beautiful 28. Yummy. Every day the sun gets a little higher and reaches more of the pool. With its dark surfaces, it starts to warm up very quickly - so every day I stick a toe in to check whether it's ready for a plunge! (Not quite - but it sure feels good.)

:: I like setting things against the pool, so here's a bowl of avocados and passionfruit that were a gift from a wonderful couple we met yesterday, Kevin and Betsy. Kevin is a former Quairading lad, and Betsy his San Diego-born wife.

They live in a beautiful region to the south-east, in the hills at Ramona, where they have started an Australian plant nursery and wholesale business. Dave and I went to check it out with a view to getting them to provide wildflowers and plants for the Bondi.
This (below) is a view of their property. They have about 5 hectares, with about a third of it under cultivation and the rest being prepared. Kevin has even built himself a corrugated iron shed-cum-shelter-cum-shop, just for a laugh.
It was really beaut to see all their hakea, banksia, kunzea, dryandra (sp?), eucalypts, grevillea and so on in the Californian sunshine, looking very healthy and happy. Kevin says his only problem with growing them is the gophers, which take a fancy to tender young plants just like rabbits do back home. Otherwise, they take off really well.
There are also avocados on the property, which he sells to Mexican restaurants, and a passionfruit vine - yay! Passionfruit are pricey here - about $3 each.

:: Which reminds me - how's the price of bananas in Perth now? Here they are 2 lbs (about a kilo) for $1.

:: This banksia is a bit frostbitten on the very top from a really cold night recently:


On the beach ...

:: On Saturday, Dave and I walked on the beach at Del Mar (about 3 km from where we live) with the dogs. You can walk on the sand with the dogs on leads until you get to the very end (where you can see the sandy cliff), where there is a very popular and well-used dog beach.
There was pretty good surf on Saturday - this is the break where Will used to have school surfing lessons three mornings a week.

:: This (below) is a view of part of Del Mar looking east, from the beach. It's just gorgeous, but very expensive. San Diego and Los Angeles have the most expensive real estate on the planet.


:: The homes right on the beach are the most expensive of all. Last year, Jenny Craig - of the weight-loss fortune - bought the three houses on the very left of this picture for a cool $25 million.
Will heard that the white one on the extreme left - you can just see part of it - was at one time owned by Brad and Angelina!

:: Lily's coming home next Sunday, for her spring break. So I'm sorting and cleaning and getting ready!

Oy, oy, oy ...

:: Look how brilliantly Australian plants do here! This huge wattle bush is down in the canyon where I walk the dogs, just at the end of our street. The place is full of birds and I have no idea what any of them are yet, apart from the hummingbirds.
Things rustle in the undergrowth here just like they do back home - only here you have to watch out for rattlesnakes. And after dark, coyotes will venture through the canyons and into ordinary quiet suburban streets just like ours. It's odd living where there are predators.
And among all the other Australian native plants that are thriving here - eucalypts (Americans don't know the term gum trees, and seem to have little awareness of gumnuts), tea tree, roo paws, bottlebrush - are these ...

... and they are almost everywhere. They are put to great use on steep banks along the freeways and just as a sort of universal groundcover. You see way more of them here than I ever saw at home.

:: And while I'm talking of walking the dogs, here they are ...


... Nipper squinting in the sun this morning, and ...

... Yoshi (coyote-bait as we call him) trotting along on the sandy path.

:: Well, I do know from the odd comment and emails that a few of you are reading this! I was wondering ...

:: On my bedside table: Next to all the vitamin pills ('Hers Over 50'), fish oil tabs, glucosamine tabs, Caltrate pills (to help stave off incipient osteoporosis), tissues and hand cream is The Memory Keeper's Daughter, which I bought to read on the plane home from Chicago. The writing is spellbindingly good. It was number one on the NY Times bestseller fiction list, I saw today.
And my new Oldie arrived today - so that'll keep my weekend happy.

:: Dave's just got in from work - so I'm off to fry a steak or two. See ya!