buddha and berries

If we didn't already have our holiday card ... This was the best thing at Sunset Nurseries today, where we went with a very specific set of queries [our hill has been mangled this week by the city digging up a sewer pipe and "busting" it and laying a new one - not our sewer, but a main city one that runs through our property].  So the hill needs stabilizing, and they are prepared to lay jute, and plant - well, grass seed.  This doesn't seem very ecologically responsible to us, so we've been investigating alternatives that might work to bind the soil in place, like various native sedges.  But the man serving us not only was unhelpful (apart from trying to sell us a few pots of coarse grass that would cover about a 50th of the area), but started into a rant against The City, The Government - as in the sense of the Deep State.  So we walked away from his nasty right wing mean and ill-tempered views, and we won't be back.  That Buddha may be weeping tears at the company it keeps.

this year, last year

Last year, my holiday/Christmas card was of a bobbly felt wreath on a bright green door in Cambridge - which made for a good, cheerful design - a great deal more cheerful than I was actually feeling at the time.  I liked the wreath so much that I hunted one down for us this year: I have to admit, though, that it doesn't look quite so effective against the wood ...

fight on! (election edition)

This photo was taken twenty minutes before we repaired to my office, and heard (with a gentle sound of our jaws dropping) the results of the Exit Poll for the UK elections.  As I type this I'm listening to the Today Programme, hearing about the collapse of the Red Wall in the northeast (and elsewhere).  Thank goodness for a visit, today, of a very dear friend from England, so we could listen to the results together, and, more than that, trade points of reference from Elections We Remembered over the last 60 years ... there's nothing like knowing the names of constituencies; at knowing what it signifies that the Beast of Bolsover lost the seat he's held for 49 years; at hearing the familiar formulation of the Returning Officer reading out the results in each constituency.  The USC motto of Fight On! sounds a little hollow, right now ... (but what else can one do?).

festive donuts

I want you to know that not only did I not eat one of these - I wasn't remotely tempted by them.  That may not be strictly true - when a colleague sustained herself with one, I realized that not only was I in the company of strange decorative reindeer, but that they were stuffed with cream paste.  I may have missed out on something there.  Thanks once again to our extraordinary office staff, these appeared at the final Works in Progress seminar of the semester: since one of the papers was all about containers and frames, stuffed donuts sitting in a box seems like a pretty good starting point for further elaboration.

seasonal confusion

walking towards another Holiday Party - this time the Dornsife Holiday Party - I really don't think that the overwhelming impression should be of autumn leaves: this seems about two months out of sync.  Yes, I know: Los Angeles.  It was an extraordinary, magical golden evening (the sky, not the party)

the Art History Holiday Party, 2019 edition

Doesn't every department rent the Grammy Museum for their holiday party?  If not, why not?  So many toys to play with!  (I wish I had a photo of me on the "silent" drum kit).  Somehow (perhaps because there was a lot of space) these pictures don't make it look as much fun as it was - but it was a terrific venue, courtesy of our office staff, who cooked up the idea.

Los Feliz sunset

After a wet and stormy day, we were in exactly the right place at the right time this evening for this stunning golden sunset.