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headed home. carol is already flying out over the atlantic and i'll be following behind her in a couple hours. my last post from budapest. i have plenty more posts coming about my time here once I get home and get settled.
loved having all of you here with me.
just going to shrink bucky down to regular cat size and put him back in my head. will let him back out to wander LA once home.
xo
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If you come to Budapest you'll read about all the regular tourist stuff to do, but you might want something a little further afield. Something not in most of the big guide books.
Somewhere out in the Buda Hills say...out in Zugliget. You can catch the #291 bus from Széll Kálmán tér (formerly Moszkva tér). Take it all the way to the end and look for signs for the Libegő (chair lift) ascending János hill - tallest in Budapest!
The bus rambles through the hills bumping you along in a most pleasant way until you feel like you're far out of the city. Only you're not. Not exactly.
Don't expect any long-winded safety instructions. Nope. You stand on 2 yellow circles and before you can say "maybe this isn't a good idea" the chair lift comes speeding towards your arse and just like that...
you're in the air.
Sister was instructed not to move, laugh, shake the chair, put arms out, or breathe. She ignored me and immediately started fooling around. I was...well the truth is, I was a little bit terrified. And the ride lasted 15 minutes. And we had a round trip ticket so that's 30 minutes. And the way back was super steep and the ground was a long way down.
I got her back good yesterday by dashing on the tram and leaving her behind. ha ha Okay it was an accident and she caught up with me at our usual tram stop. But still.. ha ha.
Eventually I relaxed enough to enjoy the lush green woods and take a few pictures. Mostly we traveled through the woods, but there were a few cool houses close to the bottom of the hill.
Sister continued with her hijinx.
Afterwards we rambled back down the hill on the #291
Stopping for lunch of course. More fizzy lemonades. Mango lemon for me and kiwi lemon for Sister.
mmmmmmmmmm
Sister's fast asleep now. Her flight leaves first in the morning and she will rise before dawn to head to the airport. I think I'll go stick a tic tac in her mouth.
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You come to Budapest. You go to Ecseri Flea Market in the XIX district of Budapest - Kispest. Take the M3 metro, exit at Hatar Ut., leave the metro and walk upstairs to catch the busses. Several will take you where you need to go. We caught the 294E and exited at Naszod.
By this time you have left the city centre of Budapest far behind, but you're still inside Budapest. In other words your 7-day transportation pass will still work out here. There are interesting red-roofed houses with gardens. Go up the stairs and cross the highway bridge. You'll see the signs.
High five yourselves. You've ignored the warnings about pickpockets, the incredibly long length of the trip, and all the crap you'll be surrounded with. All lies. All written by sissies. This is a FABULOUS treasure trove full of quirky characters and nice people. One of the largest in Eastern Europe. If you go on a hot day in late summer you may find the nice lady with the giant water mister apparatus who will come over unbidden and soak your shirt. Think of it as a wet t-shirt contest Hungarian style. You'll enjoy it. Don't wear your pink & black Hello Kitty bra with your white shirt. But if you forget and do, it's okay. You'll fit in fine.
You'll probably do a better job of haggling than we did. But even if you're no expert, you'll still pay less than their initial offer. As the saying about Ecseri goes:
"How much of a discount would you give from half your price?"
We made a bee line for the embroidered linens & fabric table. Each of us got a tablecloth. I may have picked up a half dozen smaller pieces. I can't remember. This seasoned Ecseri shopper & his wife have been coming here for the last 15 years.
We have not.
I tried to maintain some degree of aplomb as I sifted through the bright baubles and soviet trinkets.
It was an absolute embarrassment of riches.
I was filled with wild delicious excitement.
I thought these babydolls were so so sweet.
We left the way we came. The shopping bag we'd brought loaded down with our loot. Climbed back on the bus and headed for home.
Did I mention that Ecseri is free to attend? It is!
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super quick post of some of the loot we brought back from the ecseri flea market!
i had to get some a small animal menagerie to keep baby buck company. carol brought him with her when she came. my cookie!
more tomorrow, but in the meantime... go HERE to read more about our flea market adventure!
good night from budapest. thanks for all the comments. we read them aloud to each other in dramatic voices. v.v. fun!
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yesterday evening we went back to the baths.
anyone who says disneyland is the happiest place on earth hasn't been to the Széchenyi baths on a warm evening in budapest.
heaven
the atmosphere is charged with history. and pleasure.
we sampled all the pools. and found them to be good. sigh.
our headquarters have become v.v. messy!
today we're off to a flea market on the outskirts of town which promises to be full of adventure and intrigue. more later!
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it's me mary ann. right where you left me.
iced coffee in a shaded courtyard. yes please.
continuing to absorb the tastes of budapest. now with my SISTER to share it all with.
she's going to do a post on the baths soon. we went yesterday to escape the soaring summer temperatures. 100% refreshing cool splashing effervescent cultural experience.
trying to capture some of the city's lovely residents, quirky characters, and proud citizens.
i love their bold fashion sense.
this pretty young woman was heat wave ready.
back home on the balcony sister and i plopped our sweet plates over our journals.
earlier we explored hidden pockets of green. there are so many ways to lose oneself here.
a shady park.
beauty salon.
hidden apartment building courtyards. someone left the gate open.
we entered into another world.
of overgrown vines and ramshackle garden. a cobbled path. quiet.
hello, sleepy paradise.
i'm a girl reporter who's gotten woefully behind. but since it's 100 degrees here today we're taking an air conditioned interlude this afternoon in the apartment. getting caught up on journaling, blogging, napping, reading, whistle practice.
my first hungarian cat. he's a big black & white like my buck. my buck... i have conjured him up here big and tall. the 100 foot cat. following me through the streets. there's his ear over the top of that distant building! look a swoosh of his tail! he drinks from the danube. naps on the parliament lawn on his back. legs in the air. good boy. good cookie.
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when i travel i become a complete night owl. for example right now it's nearly 1 am and i'm wide away having just finished working in my travel journal. in the light of the early evening i sat out on the balcony and wrote everything i could remember about my day.
about attending the hungarian festival of folk art up on castle hill.
about wandering the cobbled paths snaking over the castle grounds. booth after booth of master craftspeople from craft unions, craft schools, and guilds all over the carpathian basin.
hungary of course, but also special guests from lithuania, latvia, and estonia. oh eastern europe where have you been all my life?
the festival towered over the banks of the blue danube. i kept going over to the palace walls and gazing off into the distance. at the water and bridges. at the city sprawled over the hills.
i kept wanting to slap someone or myself and say, "can you believe this?! isn't it awesome?" because you know, really really...it WAS.
every crafty second of it.
there were lace makers, embroiders, woodworkers, felters. so so many craftspeople. and there were workshops where they eagerly taught their skills to anyone who was interested in learning and trying.
i felt my journey to budapest deepening
growing richer.
this sweet man patiently showed me how to use the 2 handmade whistles i bought from him. i'm going to be sort of annoying to be around for awhile LA friends. just sayin'
i really want you to come to budapest. it's so magnificent. some of you need no encouragement, but some of you might be nervous or timid. it's YOU i want to encourage. i will send you a special badge of courage to sew onto your shirt.
don't be afraid of getting lost, or not knowing the language. it's okay to be lost. someone will set you back on the right track. someone else will hear you struggle with words and will jump in to help. you will feel brave, wonderous, alive.
you might be rescued.
today a stout white-haired hungarian woman put a lightening-fast steel grip on my upper arm and yanked me back from the tram tracks! I had absent-mindedly started to cross with a tram 20 feet away. i must have been thinking about cream cakes.
there was strudel. every kind you can imagine and some you can't.
dough rolled onto hot irons and turned over the coals. then taken out and rolled in cinnamon & sugar and other things.
and beer. lots of beer. i want!
and of course i was ravenous and needed a big half circle of sausage and scoop of mustard to go with. each succulent bite better than the last. i stood up at a tall table to eat.
i kept roaming. bought some great gifts and a few things for myself. the prices were unbelievable and the quality impeccable.
found this drawstring bag the perfect size for my travel journal. those are my whistles on top.
i meandered down the hill. jumped on a bus that magically landed me at the exact right bridge to catch the tramline home. and this time i didn't stray onto the tracks. my sister arrives in the morning! i'm leaving the apartment extra early to walk to get hot fresh strudel that comes highly recommended. will have coffee & strudel all set up on the balcony table when carol arrives!
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I accidentally stumbled upon these Italian cakes which I mistakenly thought were Hungarian. But I didn't realize it until I got back to the apartment. Here I was trying to provide you with a descriptive post on Hungarian desserts. Drat. Well I guess I'll just have to take one for the team won't I?
Mimosa Csokis
Sacher
Dolce della Casa Hero
Need some coffee to go with? Here in Budapest it's served with a glass of mineral water. I have yet to find any spring water or drinking water in bottles that is not either carbonated or "still" mineral water. I keep getting surprised when I take a drink. It's not unpleasant, I'm just not used to it. At the apartment I drink tap water.
I went to an old school fancy schmancy coffee house the other day, Gerbaud on Vörösmarty tér, and accidentally ended up with 3 beverages. The hazards of communicating through sign language. By the way, in case I haven't mentioned it, translated menus in English are available. Most of the servers know at least a little English. Probably just in the city centre though. Useful information for when you embark on your own maiden voyage to Budapest.
Oh. And... uh... You will be embarking. I'm going to have to insist.
I've noticed everyone drinking these delightfully fruity fizzy drinks. The one on the left is fresh orange lemonade. Very tart, not extremely sweet, and quite refreshing. On the right is a fantastic hot latte.
Creamed curd cheese, crisp delish pickles, citrus, a strudel-like breakfast roll. What you don't see is the ham & cheese omelet to the right. I held my head proudly and pretended that it didn't look like I was eating a breakfast for 4 with drinks for 3. This particular breakfast was preceded by a 2 tram 1 bus go forward-take-3-steps-back sequence. In other words, I worked up a healthy appetite.
And on another day...strawberry ginger soda with crushed fruit & citrus. Which accompanied this:
My favorite meal so far in Budapest: pork medallions with plum sauce and buttered mashed potatoes. I die. From IF Cafe on Ráday utca. The menu said "duck breast". Maybe they were out and substituted pork instead. Maybe this isn't pork. If it looks good I don't ask questions, I just eat!
Of course this goulash with homemade potato noodles from Menza on Liszt Ferenc tér was also quite fabulous:
Notice the homemade elderflower soda in the glass in the background! The waiter kindly advised me to select the cucumber salad with my goulash. I nodded YES very vigorously.
The sweet cucumbers sour cream salad was perfect with the savory beefy goulash stew. and you can't see it, but there were also thick slices of bread to dip in the goulash gravy. sigh.
And this is what I'm using to pay for everything. Click then click again for microscopic detail. These are getting blown up on my scanner at home, printed, and inserted into my travel journal!
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today i stepped out of the apartment in mid-afternoon. a gust of wind met me on the sidewalk wrapping my skin in the perfect temperature. i stayed close to home because i read that some of the public transportation wouldn't be running due to the big holiday.
i love this square where the apartment is located. i spun a dial and it landed me here. on this street. in this neighborhood. by this church. it pleases me to no end when i get lucky with the big wheel.
come closer. for me the beauty in everything lies in the details. so many of the buildings in budapest look like the work of a pastry chef with a pastry bag of pale icing and dozens of decorating tips that squeeze out ribbons and leaves and floral motifs.
and when the eye needs a place to rest there is the gingerbread tile and brickwork.
here is my building. last night i did my duty and placed the flag in its pole without incident.
i wonder what the entrance looked like 75 or 100 years ago. i am convinced it could not have been more beautiful that it is right now.
late at night when i stand on the balcony and peer through the leafy shadows on the street below i think i can here a horse clicking its way down the street.
someone coming to collect me!
i wonder if i should bring the flag...
oh the excitement and perils of time travel!
but anyway back to my square. a building on one corner has a lovely onion dome...
and thickly iced panels under the windows. sigh.
i basked in the light & air & beauty of my stroll through the neighborhood today. absorbing everything i saw and heard. old men walking dogs, women pushing strollers, talking couples on benches, a grandfather and his little grandaughter skipping ahead down the street singing.
seriously.
are you kidding me?!
now i understand the romanian woman in a kansas city department store who said about budapest:
prepare to be amazed.
i'm more than amazed. i'm in love.
i missed the 10,000 slice mega birthday cake. a recipe selected carefully each year by the national guild of hungarian confectioners.
but i didn't miss the fireworks tonight over the danube.
well, not the danube per se. but a grove of trees next to the danube.
and i did manage to find in my wanderings today my very own hungarian confectioner. thus my very own cream cake.
and all that my friends, is a true story!
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i like the way slow travel feels. waking up whenever. reading, studying maps, rifling through some travel books. shuffling around. wandering over to the windows. good morning budapest.
i make a cup of frothy milky espresso to drink while i read. so lucky to have one of these in the apartment!
by late morning i have usually left the apartment in search of some small adventure in which to lose myself, a vague idea of where i'm going. on this vacation the gentleman i'm renting the apartment from has provided a booklet with some suggestions that are about my speed. no lines to stand in.
i have been charged with hanging the budapest flag tomorrow at dawn. the flag pole for the building is on this balcony. i am taking my assignment seriously. tomorrow is hungary's biggest national holiday (st. stephen's day) marking the founding of the kingdom of hungary. it also marks the end of summer. st. stephen was hungary's first king. there will be throngs of celebrating hungarians all over the city and massive fireworks over the danube at nightfall. st. stephens mummified holy right hand covered in jewels will be paraded through the streets. right on! there will be air shows over the danube. i will try to catch the fireworks and hopefully will not be swept away by the crowd.
the ceramic stove in the corner is an old heating element.
i arrive back at the apartment in the mid-afternoon for a cold shower and a nap. then more reading, travel journaling, blogging, balcony sitting, hungarian wine tasting. perhaps a snack!
i leave the apartment again after dark in search of grub. i feel perfectly safe walking around. if i see anyone approaching wearing loafers with white socks i cross to the other side of the street. this following a tip received long ago from a greek friend.
late at night i watch a little hungarian news. such a puzzling and fascinating language! i know not one single word, much to the chagrin of the lady working in the pharmacy today. with equal parts charades and a rough sketch i was able to secure some lactose intolerant tablets and bandaids.
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i have endeavored to ride as many forms of public transportation as possible here in budapest.
i began yesterday. without the benefit of this handy map.
not one to let small details like this obstruct my plans, i used my tried and true hop-on-hop-off method. this generally works well.
better if your logic & reasoning skills are in alignment with the system as a whole.
best if you speak the language, or can use context clues to scrabble your way through.
and if all of the above fail, it is at least nice if the marked metro stops correspond with the actual posted stops on the actual train.
naturally, at the end of the day when i really felt i needed to get home quickly and collapse.
naturally that is when my metro stop disappeared.
this is the public library. grand inside and out. with reading rooms you need a special card to enter.
i've been studying the locals. people here seem to take inordinate pleasure in reading. on benches, at restaurants, walking with a book in hand.
there are many green squares with shaded benches. i stopped at many and looked about. budapest is a city of trees.
for lunch i went to don leone's as recommended in the vast menu of apartment information. i ordered the goulash soup with homemade noodles, a few small hunks of meat, root vegetables. i dunked my bread in the hot soup and got to work. everything was delish including the potato croquettes. fortunately, i didn't get a single drop on my white blouse.
i lapped up my bowl of red soup. occasionally pausing to glance out at the square.
there is a dizzying combination of architectural styles throughout the city. ornamental doorways with detailed lacy ironwork. faded evidence of grander times. it's all here.
the tall ceilings of overlapping leafy boughs make it easy to avoid walking in the hot sun.
i stopped at nandori csukraszda (pastry shop) on my trek home. put the nespresso machine in the apartment to work and settled in for a first rate sugar coma.
it didn't disappoint.
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flew and flew and flew. through mountains of cloud where i saw faces. frozen expressions. changing land below first organized farm land. circles and perfect squares, rectangles.
to a new continent where the land is like a crazy quilt with curves. embroidered with shades of blue, grey, green, gold. tiny houses below made of stone and slate roofs. verdant summer lands.
all the way here to my new outdoor resting space. so much flying left me stunned. i sat and stared at all the big-leafed trees. it is quiet in my neighborhood in the 9th district. no tourists in the other apartments.
i drank milk from a carton and enjoyed a plate of cookies left out for me. santa has arrived in budapest. thanks for the welcome!
lots of windows letting in balmy mild air.
the apartment is gleaming white & pale blue walls. lovelier than anticipated.
i napped then grabbed the map and went for money. no euros here. the currency is FORINTS. 50,000 = 264 buckeroos.
my apartment is down the street on right at the corner. churchyard on left. peaceful. haven't heard any english yet. i am perfectly cocooned in a foreign world.
in a daze. walking around and around. looking up. turning in circles in the middle of the street.
hello new world. i've just been born. it's good to be here.
fruit so fresh you can smell the sweetness as you pass by. i will return tomorrow for peaches, melons, berries.
i saw copper streetlights!
an old bookstore beckoned. i carried my provisions home.
back home to the balcony. and gothic night sky full of portent and drama.
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i'm still here. so is buck. i have printed out his photos and put them in a few locations throughout moss cottage. i am bombarding myself with sweet images of him. helping to replace the ugliness i saw on the day he died. i talk about him, i think about him, i look at him, i pick up his puffs of fur off the floors and press them to my cheek. breath in.
his ashes will be here when i return from budapest and i will dig them into the soil and start a catmint patch on top. he made many trips to the catmint pot everyday. rubbing his head all over, eating & crushing the leaves. now the rest of the cat posse will have a proper patch to roll in.
just today i labeled my paris earth & water samples
it seems like wyatt misses his brave leader, but i'm not a person who attributes human characteristics to animals. not in my pragmatic nature. so i don't know for sure. but he is looking around actively. something has changed. and wyatt earp's longtime companion has vanished. POOF.
it really was remarkable how buck allowed wyatt to pal around with him. he strongly disliked the missus and chased her constantly. i think she is pleased to be allowed inside without having to hide.
i had begun my travel journal the day before buck died. he slept on the cover. i had to keep picking him up and moving him off of it. somehow i managed to sew my signatures in nearly one-handed. picture a bear binding a book. that's me.
i'm looking forward to my journey to hungary tomorrow morning. away i'll go flying out over a couple of continents, a mighty ocean, and several seas. in my window seat. looking down at the world below.
life goes on. things are lost. new things are found.
more than anything i love the world.
don't have enough thank yous to wrap around all of you. but i am blowing kisses of gratitude for your support. i can feel it. no energy to answer all the comments, but i register each one in my mind. read them over. sometimes unexpected laughter erupts. a light & lovely tonic to wash out the dark corners.
see you in a couple of days. i'll be blogging from budapest. my eyes 2 cameras that record what they see and transmit back.
girl reporter on assignment.
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from the very bottom of my heavy heart i thank you for your loving comments & emails. they are helping to heal me. i only wish everyone was as lucky as i to receive such an outpouring of CARE.
from the very kind dr. leslie at highland park animal hospital, to the sweet & funny dr. and his assistant who cared for me at urgent care, to the lovely dr. gregorian (not my regular dr.) i saw today for a follow-up thumb check. wow. these are people who went above and beyond. dr. gregorian who rescues dogs and is an animal lover literally erased my fear of buck's last moments of life. she took my (good) hand, moved in close, looked me in the eye, and explained exactly what happens to an animal during such trauma. she was so tender and dear. i will book all future appointments with her!
and i'll never forget all of you good people who have rallied around me right here. the loving support from my neighbors, family, friends, and this awesome blog community.
thank you for letting me babble about buck and show more photos. it's what i need to do right now.
baby buck
he preferred to have me personally open the door rather then enter through the cat door.
he hated every cat that ever had the displeasure of living with him. he was a very jealous boy. wyatt is the only one who forced buck to love him. they were best friends. buck would even let wyatt lick him. lick him!
also, wyatt was the only cat ever to defy buck moss!
i could almost never get a picture of him outside because he would dash over and nose the camera out of the way.
must be pet. must be pet now. pick me up!
he would jump up on the desk over and over and over. the most demanding cat i'd ever had!
the second i got home he would come inside, or wake up and follow me everywhere.
in the morning he would sit staring at me. willing me to wake up. usually batting my face with his paws.
i am a love machine! and you are the object of my affection!
one march 9 years ago buck moss went missing for 40 days. i put up signs all over echo park. every freeway exit/entrance. i finally gave up. he was gone. then one day i pulled into the drive and the neighbors greeted me with the news that buck had fallen down their flue. straight down the chimney and into their fireplace! the vets couldn't believe he was still alive. not just alive, but aside from losing half his body weight, in not too shabby shape.
oh there was lots and lots of love and rejoicing that may. i kept him in for a couple of weeks, but buck was an explorer. he could not be contained indoors. he was nuetered but lived like a tomcat. a gentleman tom of course!
brawling and carousing with the best of them.
always the victor.
he would literally chase dogs out of the moss cottage property. once he launched a full frontal attack on a wandering BIG dog before i could stop him. got him good too! the dog ran off crying.
fearless to the very end.
i constantly told him he was the king of the cats, the most important one, the one i loved the most.
when my sister would visit she would say, "don't say that!"
but i couldn't help it.
i just couldn't help it.
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my dearest sweetest buck moss
official name buckshot le fonque
named after branford marsalis' jazz ensemble project
born on the 4th of july 1995
i called him cookie or bucky or budsy plus about 10 others
crazy names we come up with for the ones we love
he died today.
killed by 2 pitbulls on the loose in the neighborhood.
i was the unfortunate witness.
carried him in the house. where he died a few minutes later in my arms.
he bit me out of fear when i picked him up after the attack
my thumb
got me pretty good.
i'm all medicated and bandaged. on the mend.
sadly, my friend buck moss has left the building.
headed off to parts unknown
i'll miss him
i try not to think about the last 5 minutes of his life
those awful images seared into my brain.
animals doing what animals do. following their instincts. not their faults, but their ignorant owners.
instead i'm remembering my sweet bucky boy.
bestest cat in the universe
staunch defender of moss cottage.
a little video i made earlier this summer.
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while in kansas city my sister took me to the filling station coffee garage.
good grub here! how does an apple muffin with a dollop of maple icing and crumbled bacon on top sound?
yeah. that's what i thought.
if i lived in this union hill hood i would bring my book & camera and set up shop at one of the tables. my journal. an inky pen. a warm river of coffee. i'd be a regular.
i'd ride my bike over.
or my steed.
either one.
i love old neighborhoods that have an urban feel.
it reminded me a little of angelino heights, here in the city of angels....which i've always loved. tree-lined streets with a backdrop of downtown. my kind of happy.
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rich. enchanting. simple. traveling. life.
wouldn't have known about these if not for lisa the magnificent. thanks lisa! i just had to share. especially since i'll be on my own moving, learning, and eating adventure in less than a week. good-bye summer. hello budapest.
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I sat out on the back patio late the other night with my laptop. I categorized most of my travel posts and put them in specific categories: PARIS, AMALFI COAST, ISTANBUL, LISBON, MERIDA, SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE. All the international places I've been since I started blogging! They should be quick & easy to find now in my sidebar and you won't have to sift through the entire travel category.
I'm also bound and determined to take pics of my Paris travel journal and put them all on Flickr today. I can't start my Budapest travel journal until the Paris trip has been filed properly in my crowded mental cabinet!
How about a quick tour of the Budapest apartment? Come on, let me show you around...
Part of my reason for choosing this apartment is the charming and informative owner. All of the great reviews didn't hurt either.
"Prepare to be amazed." Those are the exact words a Romanian saleslady in a Kansas department store told my sister & I just a few days ago about Budapest. Preparations are under way!
Look! A nice big table to accomodate my travel journal supplies!
The writing below is from the apartment ad.
The apartment sits across from one of the city's most lovely churches, on a wooded square and churchyard in the Cafe district of central Budapest. It has a large balcony that runs its length and overlooks the park. In spring, summer, and fall the Raday utca side of the square is the scene of a variety of street fairs and arts festivals, close enough to be just outside your door, but far enough away not to be bothersome.
The neighborhood is remarkable, it is at the edge of the center of town. But the surrounding street life is the most intriguing aspect of the neighborhood: an artists’, designers’, and bohemians’ haven. The Frank Zappa Café is a block away, as is one of the city’s best Blues cafés. There’s a design showcase a couple of blocks north with a great atrium café, and the Hungarian architects’ society is just around the corner, with an inexpensive and lovely outdoor restaurant. A modern full-service neighborhood market (open 365 days a year) sits at the end of the block.
You enter the apartment walking through a foyer past the bedroom with en suite bath, past the wc, with washer/dryer/utility room, into the spacious and stately living room -- 26' x 18' with its long far wall and high ceilings opening onto a 25' balcony that overlooks the verdant historic churchyard. All you hear are the birds, all you see is the slightly tattered park behind the church.
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my friend susan has lovely gardens.
i'm especially fond of the one on her rooftop.
it's concealed from the street below by a thicket of flowering vines and a sweet lilac colored wall.
the beauty lies in the details.
fallen petals glow under drops of light.
disordered splendor
susan has an eye for details
i always have to walk around undisturbed for awhile before I actually go in for a proper hello.
she likes to read out on her balcony in the evenings. tucked in behind a lush veil of olive trees.
sometime i'll take you on a tour of the inside of her house.
but for right now i'm stealing away to my own back patio to sink into my newest summer read.
mmmmmmm good!
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old fans & typewriters
someone getting ready for bed
porch swings
cloud piles
reflections
mama moss eating sheridan's custard. i got some on my seatbelt too.
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this morning i arrived back west. back to california. i've been in the great plains!
visiting mama & sister moss
it was well over 100 degrees all 5 days of my visit. except today. which is when i left and flew home. at the crack of dawn.
when we weren't traipsing around the steamy streets i sat in the cool a/c and read and read and read and read. one of my favorite summer reads so far. based on real women fossil hunters from jane austen's time. riveting. it was officially unputdownable.
then to round up my azheimer/memory loss trilogy i read this. excellent.
when i wasn't reading we drove through cool neighborhoods in kansas city.
in kansas there are lots of houses with screened in porches. i really wanted to knock on doors and ask if i could sit and read on their screened porch. but then i would have had to ask to be fanned at the same time. and spoon fed crushed ice. and had an icebath drawn for my red hot feet.
you can see where this is going.
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the summer is breezing by. officially we're in like the middle. aren't we?
okay. the end of the middle.
i am going to press the pause button. your seat cushion can be used as a flotation device. just in case pushing the button causes disruption in your world. i'll push it at night. you know...to minimize the chances of your being at work. i'm not that inconsiderate! usually.
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i found this bottle of st. germain in santa barbara.
a friend's garden. no relation between the two except the colors are so nice together.
elderflower liqueur + club soda + a tall glass of ice + a lemon wedge.
when i read about it recently i knew i would like it. thirst quenching & very light. {plus i love the story of how it's made.}
imagine a drink the perfect flavor of summer garden. this is it.
more st. germain recipes HERE.
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