my curiosity about a cypress tree led me to the fortuitous discovery of a woman who lived in this cottage (i am staying in) for 50 years until she died at the age of 99!
she planted a cypress sapling in 1963 and it towers over the bluff in the back yard. you can just see its branches stretching out over the roof. i too was born in 1963.
mae. that was her name. she also laid the bricks on the patio out back by herself.
further detective work led me to an old newspaper article in which SHE was interviewed at the age of 96, about these bluffs. i knew this cottage was special. i've had plenty of inquiries about it and i plan to share that info with those of you who asked as soon as i get home.
should a person have a notion to take a warm shower outside they could. if they wanted.
i myself stayed outside all day long today, moving from chair to chaise to chair to table. also the umbrella blew over a hedge into the neighbor's yard, 4 crows tried to drive another bird out of the tree, i saw 3 men in a little boat with a surfboard trailing along behind it, 2 sailboats, the crystal clear outline of san miguel island (which i've never seen before!), several pods of frisky dolphins, 2 men with flashlights underwater in the black ocean below the bluff, and just now the biggest deep orange/red crescent moon i've ever seen sinking into the ocean. wow. i saw all that. today. tonight.
every detective and student of the world needs a good pair of binoculars. how else would i have seen the flashlight men swimming underwater with flippers. flippers!
dear sharron & joyce visited on monday and we watched the sunset and the stars flicker on one by one. i showed joyce the orion nebula through my binocs and she gasped. and then i showed them my fireball report HERE. we also got busy in our sketchbooks with this and that.
joyce took a picture of all of our shoes.
i finished another book i haven't mentioned before and am re-reading Gift From the Sea which I found in my bedroom.
what is it about the sound of the waves?
i think i will mix up a palette of grays and add one to my ocean color chart.
happy thanksgiving tomorrow american friends! i'm thankful for the sights, sounds, and smells of the sea and friends to share it with. for sketchbooks and paint. binoculars, memories of my mama, sisters, cats, books, soft beds, fireballs, red moonlight on the water, and little cottages perched above the ocean. and a few thousand other things.
Me too, please! Add me to your list of those wanting info re renting this cottage. It looks like the perfect beach cottage for as long a stay as possible.
Your pics and thoughts are memorable. Thank you.
Love blue candles.
I love the fence! Is the cottage for sale?? Lovely pics as usual. Life is good down there–enjoy every minute of it. Carrie
If you’re sharing, I want to know. I think I need to stay there sometime in the next couple of years.
Please, please add me to the list of those who need to know where this cottage is and how one can book a stay. I lived in L.A. for a few years at one time and I didn’t do anything like this!! What heaven and I’m so happy for you to spend a Thanksgiving in this way.
I love your birds and the branches they are perched on! 🙂
I have so enjoyed reading your posts and would appreciate if you would also send me the info. About it’s location/rental.
Thank you, Mary Ann, for posting all that you post. I am so envious and would love to one day travel to this cottage. From what you write, it seems as though it is the perfect place for artistas. Please include me in the info about this place. Thanks, so much! Virginia
PS – Happy Thanksgiving weekend.
Loving the views from afar Mary Ann and the wonderful stories that you set to word so we can all enjoy right along with you. Thankful you are out there keeping us up to date on all the stuff that matters most. 😉
I can see why one would stay there for 50 years. Where else could be so perfect?
I see you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
xxoo
I always love coming here. You are so sweet about sharing your adventures xx
Happy Thanksgiving. This trip is exquisite. I love your posts as you travel the world, but this trip, by the ocean is by far my favorite. The colors and I can imagine the smells all call to me. Have a wonderful rest of your vacation.
When I get a chance to go to the beach it’s Zuma nearby. Sometimes I’ll stop at my favorite lunch spot Malibu Seafood on PCH, great fresh seafood. And then continue down PCH and right before you get to the Zuma parking lot there is a small street to the left ( keep forgetting the name of the street just know by sight )where the surfers usually park is where I try to find parking. During the week it not very crowded which I love. I bring my beach chair, which I attach a small umbrella to and just sit there for hours mesmerized by the waves, ocean air and the warm sand beneath my feet. I have taken a cue from you and started bringing my water colors with me to paint…….Ah what joy! But I have fallen in love with your latest ocean cottage perhaps you could send me the info?
Happy Thanksgiving!
That cottage truly is perfection, inside and out. Lovely story about the lady who lived her charmed life there. Love those birds! Of all the things I am thankful for today, I count knowing you, Mary Ann, among them. Hope/know you are enjoying your Thanksgiving by the sea.
Oh my! I love the sea, dh and I have a sailboat and plan to live aboard now that I am retired. We are on the Atlantic coast though … it will do I’m sure! Would love to know more of this cottage though. ~chris
So beautiful! What a sweet cottage and the woman behind it’s landscape. I’m hoping she lived a happy, joyful life there.
I suggested reading Gift from the Sea by Ann Morrow Lindbergh…a lovely, poetic book, and you’ve got it there with you!
Telepathy, I think.
My son was born in La Jolla, CA in 1963, one of the jewels of the southern ca. coast.
The think about waves is that it’s the voice of earth & sky. It comforts us. Pacific means Peace/Peaceful, and so it is. When we look at the sea we are in tune with earth’s vibration, the eternal source of life. I like to think of it as a glimpse of heaven.
I live within earshot of the sea although there are a couple of houses between me and the dunes . . . arriving home, the air makes me relax immediately. For me there is nothing more healing that a walk along the beach so I can understand your love affair with the cottage.
And blues fading into greys are seriously underrated.
I am smitten with those blue swatches of colour and the seashells in the outdoor shower. It all looks heavenly! I too am grateful for you (even though we celebrated Thanksgiving weeks ago up here above the 49th parallel) and your dispatches from wonderful places about wonderful things!
Happy Sea-Giving, you sweet girl. The birdies I love. The cottage, I am smitten. All is good
What a beautiful place to spend a holiday! I would love to know where this is also if you would share.
I second Cynthia’s comment about being thankful for your blog and Carol’s blog. So many places to bring you down on the internet; it is nice to have places that are uplifting and positive.
Julie
I’m pretty sure this will sound sappy but I’ll say it, anyway….I cried when I saw your bird paintings. So pretty! Your post today feels like a little Thanksgiving present. So glad I found you.
You are just having so much fun! Good for you!! That cottage is lovely. I too would love to hear about how to rent it when you get back. Thank you for sharing this joy of yours with us!
I think that cottage is yours. It’s meant to be. I’d love to stay someplace like that, but don’t tell me. That cottage is yours.
I think info on the cabin/hut/seaside watchpost might have to be a public post…lovely. I think that the guys in flippers with flashlights in the dark might have been abalone gathering, which is what my dad did there in 1963. Now alas I am far from the sea gridlocked out of the mountains this thanksgiving day in Colorado. I am thankful for you and your art and your blogs. I will be signing up for Sketchbookery as soon as my PayPal account is refreshed.
Happy Thanksgiving Day. With Love.
Happy Thanksgiving to you, my dear MAM.
XO
PS I’d love to know about your little seaside hideaway, when you have a moment upon your return…..
Your gorgeous, delightful posts are inciting NEEDS in my soul! When my sisters come to visit from Nebraska in March, I would love to secret them away to a cottage by the sea. If you wouldn’t mind, I would love to know about the rental or at least how you search for such magical places.
Thank you for sharing your blissful ocean hideaway…
I am grateful for your artfull sharing
Have a perfect thanksgiving…
Love, heart palpitations, breathless!
Oh how I envy your heavenly perch, Mary Ann. Longtime lurker who just wanted you to know that Carol and your blogs are 2 of the things I am so grateful for this Thanksgiving. Thank you both for sharing the beauty in your lives. Cynthia
ps I would love info about the rental too. Heaven, thy name is Pacific Ocean.