[Wildcat Beach, morning, July 2008.]
Pls. forgive my absence; I have been Away, and it was marvelous.
Last summer for my vacation I went to Greece — to sweet, sweet Spetses, with its lovely sloping hills and dry and dusty streets, a Mediterranean Ocean like bathwater, time spent with some of my very favorite people on the [...]

[Cobbler, before the oven, July 2008.]
Well, that was an inauspicious 4th. I baked brownies, zipped up my jacket tight against the chilly breeze, wished for a sun that never made an appearance, and took them to a party where I ate: grilled veggie burgers, cupcakes, and quesadillas (not necessarily in that order). I [...]

[Cherries, June 2008.]
I must confess it’s mostly the little things that make up my quiet happinesses: a week of sun, waking up every day except Monday to warmth and light and summer; my near-daily americano, an indulgence at $2/per, with organic milk and sugar; a perfect peach, cut in long juicy slices for my breakfast; [...]

There are a few California writers I especially wish I’d been able to meet. John Steinbeck probably tops my small list; one summer, when when we — my brother and I — drove back from a camping trip in the Yosemite back country, we passed through all the little small towns along that dusty road, [...]

[The table tonight, April 2008.]
I had such good intentions — really, I did. But then Friday was lost to a cooking frenzy, and Saturday disappeared in a blur of sleeping late, cleaning the house, going for a blowy run, and then an afternoon out and a windy walk home, so that by the time [...]