walking in the douglas family preserve at sundown is a deep true pleasure. there are intoxicating sights and scents. the oak woodland canopy is fairytale-esque.
i made time to have coffee talk with my 2 of my very favorite women at the lucky llama in carpinteria. sharron & joyce are such treasures. i make this note here under the 3 photos i took at the santa barbara botanic garden because sharron gave me a free pass she happened to have in her car. so i went.
it’s a peaceful place filled with blooms and paths and the best stone benches of any place i’ve been in recent memory. i only made one rather shabby sketch of the meadow. you will see it either here or in my next post.
i am staying in montecito at an irresistible little studio above an old carriage house. it has real dormer windows and window boxes and potted geraniums, a soft green lawn, and orange trees and roses. best of all it is perched above the montecito creek that winds it’s way beneath the balcony and all the way to the ocean – which is an easy walk away.
there are tall sycamores with mottled metallic trunks that shimmer in the sunlight. and canopies of large green leaves that bring shade in the later afternoon.
there is a chorus of frogs that sing at night of which i am v v v fond.
today sharron popped over for a visit with a basket of treats. these wild roses from the ranch and a several boughs of loquats. i seem not to have taken photos of the drawings i made of the roses and fruit. tomorrow morning i will sit out on the balcony, where this minute i am typing out this dispatch to you, and i will paint them into my sketchbook.
sharron tells me the flowers below are wild radish and the petals are edible and peppery!
that’s all i know right now.
no. i know one more thing! i am in possession of elizabeth jane howards autobiography SLIPSTREAM, that i have been wanting to read.
also the amtrak surfline rolls by often and i love trains and how romantic they are and the sounds they make and i especially love seeing the windows in the upper decks lit up all golden and glowy and i love knowing there are people inside those windows looking out at the gathering dusk at the landscape unfolding in front of them and thinking of things that make them melancholy, wistful, hopeful, excited, happy, afraid. maybe one of them will throw out a note that will give me a clue or tell me directly. hello out there pilgrims.
run-on sentences. i won’t ever quit you!
goodnight. i have a frog concert to attend and books to read and thoughts to think. the end.
Such beauty! Love all the pix, but especially love all the little seating nooks. And my favorite pic is that magical solo cloud over the sea and the sea of pink flowers. Looks like a surrealist painting. Love it.
Your photos and your words are sheer poetry. They transport me to a v.v. good place. Thank you Ms. Moss!
Always enjoy your posts from Carp and the surrounding area. You inspire me to reach out beyond Carp, but somehow, I get that far and am so content, I just stay there. I’m doing a regular visit for a week every two months and absolutely love it. Stay in various places. Next month my hideaway will be in an avocado grove. New place for me.
i like your new visiting schedule! i believe i looked at the avocado listing before if it’s the one i’m thinking of…may not be. do keep me posted as to how you like it! i have found my future home here in montecito. by that i mean my future rental for solo ventures. tis my favorite of all the places i’ve stayed from the mesa to mission canyon to san roque to east and westside and all points in between. montecito charms with with its hedgerows and cottages and gardens.. i have yet to stay in carp (except at joyce’s) but there are so many lovely places there too. isn’t it nice that we can be nomads and skip here and there? but eventually my heart is set on my trailer park in santa babs!
Yes, I do love being able to be a nomad, at my own leisure and in my own way. The avocado grove little house is, I think, my go-to place now. I’ve booked it for July, and will most likely do so for Sept. The little house has two perfect tables for painting and weaving, one inside, the other out. The living room and kitchen are open, with big french doors and windows facing the zen-like garden which while tranquil, also is open to walk abouts. Plenty to paint, and great for bird watching. Towhees were building a nest, a Tanager with its bright red head came to snack on the pineapple guava, hummers, some I couldn’t see well enough to id. Easy parking, comfy bed, wonderful natural light in the daytime, but next time I’ll bring my Ott light for the evenings. Down side? Not much for walking paths, although I didn’t explore much due to weather, and it’s not right in town, which I usually want. However, it’s a retreat, and downtown Carp is maybe 5 mins. I like being right on the beach, but that also brings people, and this being tucked away, yet the beach right there, is really nice. Stop by for a look-see if you want when I’m up there in July or Sept.
love your posts. thank you! i am noticing my breath and heart rate immediately slow down when looking at your pictures. 😊 just like when I go outside!
i am glad some of what i see and feel in my nature retreats can be captured and transmitted. xo
GORGEOUS pix! You had me at CA oaks ~ TFS!
Keep those run on sentences moving through our days…xox
I believe I spied an Emma Bridgewater mug among the photos…which prompted me to ask if you know the work of her husband Matthew Rice? If not, look here for his books: https://www.amazon.com/Matthew-Rice/e/B001K8LPDM
He does beautiful architectural drawings/paintings! So inspiring!
i know not, but now i shall! thank you missus rhonda roebuck
Good night and sleep well in paradise!How beautiful it is
I want to be where you are
Is that your gouache palette I spy?! Thanks for sharing your little piece of heaven 🙂
yes christina and i just took a pic of it to update everyone with my latest configuration of my paints…
Mary Ann–Thanks so much for sharing your adventures. You are so thoughtful!
I was having trouble sleeping, trying to figure out how to save the world was keeping me up. I happened upon your post and it was the perfect elixir to calm my frazzled mind. Thank you once again friend. Take me with you..xo
sometime soon dear melinda you will leave your dwelling and family on the east coast and runaway to spend a week with me here out west in the land of california.
WOW! The light is so stunning, and the hills full of wildflowers, and beautiful logs and stone benches. Everything is just so inviting. Frogs. I have a pond and at night their croaking is so loud it literally hurts my ears, but I never get tired of it. Trains. I once rode Amtrak back to the Dakotas. On the way I met several characters and spent the entire trip in the car with food and drinks just talking to the characters and playing games. I don’t think I slept a wink. One was a young man running away from home. I hope he is happy today.
I am just so smitten with your paintings. They are utterly charming. Will you take pics of your room? Mary Ann, what is your favorite flower? And why? Can you pick just one? Inquiring minds…
My daughter texted me awhile ago and said she just got back from Brandi Carlile’s house. Her husband knows Brandi and they went over to help them plan food for a get together at her house for a video. JEALOUS!!! I love Brandi’s music! Maybe I shall meet her one day? She lives in the area.
So glad to have this postcard. My travel buddy Alice and I are in Tbilisi, Georgia! We try to go to some exotic locale at Easter and boy, did we find one here. More on my blog later. Just to say that Elizabeth Jane Howard is one of my favorite writers and should be so much better known. Have you read the Cazelet Chronicles? My pick for some of the top novels of the 20th century, no kidding.
i am still crying over the end of the cazelets. i want to know how polly and clarie and neville and syd and rachel and rupert are. and i do wish miss milliment had met with a kinder gentler end. i DID so love her.
I can feel your joy all the way here in the OC.
Photography, drawing, everything just perfect.
Enjoy Mss. Moss! ;o)
jacki did you take a class from pam sometime this year…? i remember her telling me how nice you were and how she enjoyed your presence in the class!
Oh Mary Ann ~ what a delicious treat to have your name in my in-box two days in a row! I so love your ramblings and paintings and random thoughts. You just make me smile, plain and simple. Thanks.
I love it all, MAM! 😄❤️
so amazing!! i live in calgary ab everything is brown oh!! or white haha you are so very lucky to live so close to the ocean
marlene i do do do feel lucky to live near this beloved coast.