All by myself

After summer travels - some exciting, some mundane - I've returned to Los Angeles. Following our last excursion, [The Man I Love] took a detour to visit nearby family, but since I have exhausted my vacation bank, I have to come back to work.

So I'm here on my own for a week. No husband. No kid (he's in England). No dogs (yet). I'm back at work, but somehow, when you've only yourself to answer to, the day seems less structured. I can eat what I want, whenever I want. I can go where a whim takes me. I can watch whatever I want on TV. I can wake up in the middle of the night and turn on the light to read in bed.

I really should make the most of this, shouldn't I? So I need your suggestions. What would you do, if you were on your own?

Some people!

We took one of the most organized people I know out for drinks one night, to wish her farewell as she went to take a job in another city.

She was late arriving at the bar, of course, because she was finishing up one last email. As she sat down, she took her Blackberry out of her pocket, and put it down on the table.

She had a post-it note stuck on it, with a telephone number. Some people never change.

Barbecue Pig sighting!

This barbecue pig is in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, at Crook's Corner Cafe & Bar. OK, it's not a cow, but this is Carolina-style barbecue.

Pink Saturday - Mi corazon

Pink Saturday - Beverly, at the blog "How Sweet the Sound" hosts Pink Saturday. Let the color pink inspire you!

This is a piece of Mexican folk-art - tinware shaped like a flaming heart. My son gave it to me on Mother's Day a little while back, and it hangs in my dressing area. It's nice to see it each day.

We are traveling this weekend, visiting North Carolina for my nieces's wedding. I wonder if there will be any pink dresses at the wedding?

Thieving varmints!

Sadly, the troubles in the fishpond are not over yet. The happy dozen goldfish we released last weekend swam prettily among the lilies....but by Tuesday, I couldn't spot more than a handful of fish. Were they hiding? Shy?

Wednesday morning, I noticed the waterlily had been messed up and there were some torn leaves. And no fish in sight. Were they hiding? Or was something wrong?

Although I know that raccoons can prey on goldfish, we have never had troubles in the pond with raccoons before. Our previous fish thrived for 3 years without being eaten. There seemed to be enough hiding places for them among the stones and plant pots. But back then, we had dogs, which may have kept raccoons away.

Were raccoons eating our fish?

I had to find out whether it my speculations were true, so before nightfall, I grabbed a tin of talcum powder from the bathroom and sprinkled it along the wooden edging of the pond.

This morning - Yep, raccoons. Bastards!

Probably a couple of them. Unless there are some very smart survivors hiding, they've eaten all the goldfish. I think - I hope - the small drab mosquito fish have eluded them.

I'm traveling this weekend, and can't deal with it till I get back. I think I need to sink some blocks or other things that work as hiding places for the fish. I've also read about submerging gratings about 1" beneath the water's surface.

Have any of you dealt with thieving varmint raccoons successfully? Got any ideas I can try before I buy some more goldfish?

POND UPDATE: I came home and when I looked at the pond I spotted four fish still alive! Three goldfish and one dark one. So I gathered some rocks and some fragments of stone tiles from the basement, and built a kind of labyrinthine structure for them. Maybe that will help protect them while I'm out of town.

Thematic Photographic - Lines

Every week Carmi at Written, Inc. poses a theme for photographic inspiration. This week's theme is LINES.

Here, in the courtyard of the Palais-Royal in Paris, trees are grown in straight lines, and pruned to heighten the impression of a long alley receding into the distance.

This technique is known as "pleaching" where the young trees are shaped by training and pruning to form a thick flat wall of foliage. In some cases the branches of adjacent trees are scarred and bound together, joining them in a solid mass of foliage.

In Europe, it's common to see this technique used with trees from the genus Tilia, also called Lime trees or Linden trees. I think these trees at the Jardin de Palais-Royal are Lime Trees.

Obligatory Eiffel Tower post

The Eiffel Tower as seen from the gardens at the Musee Quai Branly, on a hot summer day. The museum was designed with the idea that it was sited in the shadow of the most famous monument in Paris. The tower is visible from the gardens that surround the museum.

The administrative building of the museum is the home of its own work of art - can you guess what it is by looking at the photo? No secrets here - all will be revealed in a future post!

We walked on past the museum, to the base of the great tower - it was magnificent, soaring....and yet the crowds at the base were vast and, with the lines and the souvenir stands - for me - off-putting.

Can I just admire it from here, in the park? They say that the best time to visit the Tour Eiffel is at night. [The Man I Love] and I had other plans for our evenings, but....next time that's what I'll do.

Because - there will be a next time for me to go to Paris. For sure.

Fishpond update

So despite my best efforts last fall, our pond has not been able to sustain healthy fish all winter and spring, and well into this summer. Last week we finally got someone to help us clean up our fishpond and install a filter to keep the water healthy enough for fish. He repotted the plants and added some mosquito fish, to keep our garden pest-free.

Yesterday we went out and brought home some goldfish, and put them in the pond.

It's been a day and they're still alive. They're shy, hiding under the lilypads and beneath the rocks by the fountain, but they're there - see, beneath the flower?

And I think the mosquito fish are having babies.

I think it's going to turn out fine.

Pink Saturday - under the Pink Tent

Pink Saturday - Beverly, at the blog "How Sweet the Sound" hosts Pink Saturday. Let the color pink inspire you!


Ladies and Gentlemen, this Pink Saturday we invite you into the big Pink Tent at the Cabaret Sauvage in Paris's Parc de la Villette.


Gather round and wait for the show to start.


Bring your dancing shoes, the dance floor is waiting, and it will be a rocking night.

Are you ready?

The house lights dim and the stage lights come up. Let the show begin - Click HERE or Scroll Down to enter Cabaret Sauvage.