Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851
Today is the day I "cast off" and can walk again. Strange not being able to walk, not being able to go to the market & pick out my own food, go to the movies, visit the museum. Now that we live in a social media world I can keep up with friends there, but what about the ones that don't "do" social? There's text. Hate that for gabbing. Still love the phone. I want to HEAR your voice, is that all right????!!!
In many ways I have had a fabulous 4 weeks. How often does one stay home for 4 weeks? I'm grateful for:
Ina Garten & her BAREFOOT CONTESSA Food Network show which I looked forward to every day at 1 p.m. http://www.barefootcontessa.com and she has a new book out!
The beauty of ASHLEY WOODSON BAILEY'S website http://www.ashleywoodsonbailey.com/contact/
TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES, http://www.tcm.com my favorite cable channel, whose April festival, Mickey Rooney tribute, MGM celebration with a mass of 4 hour pictures, and John Wayne star of the month marathon has delighted and thrilled me more than I can say.
My favorite authors: Hemingway, Saul Bellow, Alice Munro, Edith Wharton, Willa Cather and a mass of others who have kept me company, as well as that rear window effect into the building across the street; the couple who has dinner at the same time each evening, the newbies in a place with no furniture, just a tv, the photographers studio and the strobe lights going off in the middle of the night and the view onto the twinkling lights of the terrace next door, and beyond to the Griffith Observatory and the Hollywood Hills, and the soundtrack of Los Angeles traffic and the bells tolling from the Catholic Church each hour, and not least of all The El Royale presiding over the neighborhood and it's letters in green neon lighting up each evening. I'm grateful.
But mostly I am grateful for my friends - you all know who you are - who have come bearing food, rugs, flowers, books, good cheer, who have FACEBOOKED and TWEETED and LINKED - ME IN, and emailed, especially my distant friends - who emailed and messaged and linked me and called and PINNED, thank you.
I can't wait to walk again.
Walk to my car, to get my hair done, buy new shoes,
eat out, meet people at the museum, visit my favorite Los Angeles interior stores,
Nickey Kehoe http://www.nickeykehoe.com
Galerie Half http://www.galeriehalf.com/galerie_half/enter.html
Garde https://www.gardeshop.com
Crate & Barrel http://www.crateandbarrel.com
I can't wait to walk from the bathroom to the kitchen, from the kitchen to the bedroom, from the bedroom to the taxi to the airport to walk along the gardens and coastal paths of the United Kingdom.
Today is Poem in your Pocket day, America's poetic celebration. Here's a favorite.
SEA POPPIES
by H. D.
Amber husk
fluted with gold,
fruit on the sand
marked with a rich grain,
treasure
spilled near the shrub-pines
to bleach on the boulders:
your stalk has caught root
among wet pebbles
and drift flung by the sea
and grated shells
and split conch-shells.
Beautiful, wide-spread,
fire upon leaf,
what meadow yields
so fragrant a leaf
as your bright leaf?
