a week of sea views and listening to the surfliner train choo choo down the coast. i like to look through the windows at night and see the passengers sitting in their amber lit rows as they pass on the tracks below. the hwy is down there too so there is a constant hum, but the cottage is so darling and the views are so magnificent i don't care. also it's v.v. affordable and i'll share the link when i get home.
my sketchbook is spread out on the table. there are piles of books in every room. binoculars in the bathroom. a tiny porch perch from where the moon shines down on the water at night. today i found a special beach with rocks and cliffs and an entire other world.. i walked on it. alone!
reading about bloomsbury and ed rickett's letters and los angeles in the 30's. i'm writing. sketching. dipping my brush in gouache. drinking coffee. listening. there is golden kelp on the beaches. and loons!
OMG! your photos are beautiful! I can almost smell the salt air, I can almost hear the sound of the waves coming and going! wet sand beneath my feet ……I love it! And I want to be there!
‘how beautiful it is to do nothing, and rest afterwards..’, very true that. xo
I was so drawn to the photos that I missed the new banner. Is this old Westwood?
Oh my goodness! I want to go there now! I also would like to internalize the embroidery that reads, “How beautiful it is to do nothing and then rest afterwards.” Love that message!!
I am now selling up and running away to the beach!!
beautiful images.. I too live on the beach… and omg.. I hv that same embroidered framed piece on one of my shelves!
Great minds I guess… hv a blessed time!
I soooo want to be there so I’m there in spirit and your awesome photos make it possible…..I think I see sea foam creeping under my front door, that is how good your photos are!!!!!!!!!
I now have a serious case of and sea envy.
Beautiful. I think I might recognize it, and it’s a place I’ve been wondering about for a retreat. Even found a vr. Just south of Carp? Your photos make me ache, yes, absolutely ache, to be there. Thanks!
Gorgeous photos, Mary Ann! Its relaxing just looking at the world through your eyes. Thanks!
Mary Ann, Have you seen the movie Ask the Dust, with Salma Hayek and Colin Farrell? Given your interests of late (era, etc.), I think you’d love it … I can’t remember fer shur, but I think it’s based on a true story. fewkin’ awesome flick.
I thought turning 18 would magically transform my life that becoming an adult my brain and body together would ascend to a plane previously unattainable by my adolescent self. I have been wrong before, and with great probability will be again, but this wrong is most confusing mixed in with a great deal of fear. This is my long and confusing way of saying this blog of yours is my drug of choice, without you I would not want to get out of bed. Thank you….
a lot!
This is rental cottage again? Not staying w art retreat friends? Absolutely thirst quenching
Heavenly! Plus, I learned something new about loons! 🙂
Ok Mary Ann, how did you get that first foamy sea picture? Did you lay down on the wet sand? Drop your camera to your ankles?
Just curious, as it’s a beautiful picture! Also – gotta love that needlework quote… I need lessons in that!
I can smell the salt air and fall asleep to the sounds of the surf. Great pictures!
hi carina,
those northern loons like to head this way in the winter. they are able to adapt to the salt water of the ocean in winter because of their salt glands which gets rid of all that excess salt on the fish and in the water. i enjoy watching them bob around and dive under to fish. fabulous birds!!
I can feel how soothing it is in your writing. Soak it in and wear it in your heart for a year or more! Thanks for your travels and showing us that edge of America’s landscape! When you wrote about avocados in Carpinteria….I googled it and found a beautiful single lane road to travel with the little “yellow man” (street view) on the google map!! It was amazing! I could turn in a 360 circle and see the views from the hills on the road….Gobenor Road…was it? Anyway, then I went to Zimbabwe where my daughter was a missionary and studied the small village landscape from a bird’s eye view that would actually make a beautiful print on fabric…. then I went to Spain where I lived as a child and found the old flour mill where I played…I could only see it from above but felt like I could reach inside my computer and touch it! It stirred so many emotions and precious memories I had there as a child…a safe place….need to write about it’s glorious days. Your journaling and travels have opened a new world for me to recollect from my past…sitting in my chair!!
Loons? Really? Wow, to my mind loons are creatures of the upper Midwest, northern Wisconsin, Minnesota and those environs. Their song reminds me of cottages on the lake.
Looks and sounds like a little piece of heaven on earth. Love the shots of the ocean…I really miss it.
These are some beautiful photos. Wow!
You are SUCH an inspiration to me. I have made travel journals for several of the recent trips I’ve taken – to Haiti, Florida, Spain, Georgia, and NYC, to name a few. I think of you as I spread out my stuff on seatback tables in airplanes and on trains, on desks, tables, and beds in hotel rooms and bedrooms everywhere I go.
Thanks for being you, funny, wise, creative, colorful, and generous with us, your groupies and readers.
Enjoy the rest of your week away. Good for you!!!
Looks wonderful. And, guess what…I am going to Paris on Sunday, for a whole week. And, I really am going to see a little tiny bit of Amsterdam on our flight home. We have an 18 hour layover there. On a Sunday evening. Any suggestions? We’ll be staying at a hotel at the airport, but will take a cab into the city so that we can see a little bit of it. Best part at night?
Weren’t you smart to pick a week with a full moon?! It looks like the perfect spot to “do nothing and then rest afterwards”, enjoy!
Oh this looks like a find! Secret beaches, pillows, and the hoot of the train. There’s something so wistful and generally romantic about the whistle of a train and the passengers off to somewhere in the night. Perfecto!
Beautiful glimpses into your relaxing week. I need these lessons from you on how to enjoy life.
I have something important to tell you. I was at Weem’s Artfest this weekend and bought two (prints) luminescent watercolor paintings of up-close cactus flowers. I was talking to the adorable artist about how she paints so cleanly in black around her subjects. She uses acrylic paint to do that! Of course she DOES! Mixing paint types is not against the rules. Here’s her name in case you want to google up some beauty when you get home.
pennyartworks.com
Have a great time. When I see your pictures I gulp in deep breaths of sweet sea air.
Gorgeous silver surf in the top photo! I could stare at any one of these pics and that alone would make for a calming meditation. And the beautiful photo of the foamy tide (just beneath the pic of the sofa) has confirmed for me what surely must have first prompted humans to make lace. I really needed this beauty today! So glad you posted these, Mary Ann!