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Dispatch from LA

MARY ANN MOSS

my friend quercas agrifolia

hello out there.  words to accompany the smoke signals i’m sending out into the evening sky to wherever you are.

i have been tromping through gardens, walking on beaches, sitting outside, writing, reading, thinking.  peering through my binoculars at the night sky.  all the usual ordinary things.   after a dozen years this old blog is a broken record.  but I AM still HERE – keeping it.  my ship’s log grows thick.  the pages are full of things i find along the way.   lucky me to still have a group of nice people who pop in occasionally to see what’s new.  thanks for being here.  your eyes and ears and voices are appreciated.

i am alive and filled with the splendor of spring.  the heavy winter rains percolated down through the los angeles landscape and created superblooms.  the air is scented with orange blossom, jasmine, victorian box.  the hillsides are masses of gold.  dottie came to see me last weekend and we drove to santa babs through santa paula.  the mountain ranges are green.  purple lupines and wildflowers galore open along the highway.    the world is so pretty right now.  it does take the breath away.

lately i’m loving to porch sit in the company of my friends quercas agrifolia, otherwise known as coast live oak.  my journal and i out at dusk.  listening to the birds and squirrels and leaves rustling.  everything settling down for the night.

i do hope you are GOOD.  send me some return smoke signals.  let me know that you’re okay out there in the big wide world.

on my bookshelf

if you’re searching for something that’s unputdownable and somewhat unpredicatable, the river, will satisfy your craving.   i am a peter heller fan and still think of his book, the dogstars, with longing whenever i’m having a hard time finding something to read.  if only it were always so easy to find something GOOD.

the overstory is a series of little stories about trees.  i’m on chapter 4, but so far my favorite was chapter 1 about the american chestnut.  lovely.  lyrical.  with a streak of darkness throughout that i’m hoping will lessen as i continue.  nevertheless richard powers is a masterful writer.  go here for a listen.

an excerpt:

First there was nothing. Then there was everything.

Then, in a park above a western city after dusk, the air is raining messages. A woman sits on the ground, leaning against a pine. Its bark presses hard against her back, as hard as life. Its needles scent the air and a force hums in the heart of the wood. Her ears tune down to the lowest frequencies. The tree is saying

things, in words before words.

It says: Sun and water are questions endlessly worth answering.

It says: A good answer must be reinvented many times, from scratch.

It says: Every piece of earth needs a new way to grip it. There are more ways to branch than any cedar pencil will ever find. A thing can travel everywhere, just by holding still.

The woman does exactly that. Signals rain down around her like seeds.

Talk runs far afield tonight. The bends in the alders speak of long-ago disasters. Spikes of pale chinquapin flowers shake down their pollen; soon they will turn into spiny fruits. Poplars repeat the wind’s gossip. Persimmons and walnuts set out their bribes and rowans their blood-red clusters. Ancient oaks wave prophecies of future weather. The several hundred kinds of hawthorn laugh at the single name they’re forced to share. Laurels insist that even death is nothing to lose sleep over.

Something in the air’s scent commands the woman: Close your eyes and think of willow. The weeping you see will be wrong. Picture an acacia thorn. Nothing in your thought will be sharp enough. What hovers right above you? What floats over your head right now—now?

Trees even farther away join in: All the ways you imagine us—bewitched mangroves up on stilts, a nutmeg’s inverted spade, gnarled baja elephant trunks, the straight-up missile of a sal—are always amputations. Your kind never sees us whole. You miss the half of it, and more. There’s always as much belowground as above.

That’s the trouble with people, their root problem. Life runs alongside them, unseen. Right here, right next. Creating the soil. Cycling water. Trading in nutrients. Making weather. Building atmosphere. Feeding and curing and sheltering more kinds of creatures than people know how to count.

A chorus of living wood sings to the woman: If your mind were only a slightly greener thing, we’d drown you in meaning.

The pine she leans against says: Listen. There’s something you need to hear.

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Comments

  2. Mary Ann, I have read your blog for years. It’s not a broken record, this record of your life. I like reading about what you are doing, your travels, your interactions with your students, whatever you want to share. I live in the high desert of Idaho and find it interesting to hear what it’s like for you in Los Angeles. Never doubt that what you talk about is not of interest to those of us who follow your blog. Thank you for taking the time and to show me pieces of your world.

  3. Your post are far from a broken record… they’re filled with the life of a person living on their own terms filled with interesting things. Your observations and view of the world around us is inspiring. Few “stop and smell the roses” and you do that so very well. The ability to look and really see the beauty in the natural world around us is a gift and you share that with us with beautiful writing. Please…. NEVER stop!!!

  5. Hidi-ho Mary Ann – I’m 5 years into reading your blog and still loving every post – from the school room antics to the garden walks, the sketchbooks and travel escapes. Thank you for sharing a window into your life. You make average, every day living a joyful and interesting experience. I love your beautiful photos and most of all, I love your witty writing style. I do hope you continue to spin us tales of Wyatt, Momma Moss, sister, LA living and those little rascally school children! In my little patch of CA – the superbloom has covered the hills of San Clemente in a bright yellow wash and the cool ocean breeze continues to find its way up the canyon and through my living room windows. The bougainvillea that bathe the area are preparing to cycle into an explosion of magentas, oranges, reds, purples and pinks. Hummingbirds, morning doves, crows and hawks continue their daily battle for territory in the backyard. Coyote howls fill the evening air. The door is always open if ever you find your way south, I have a quaint backyard patio with a peek of the ocean and a large table ready for watercolors and sketchbooks, sandwiches and lemonade! ~Dawnri 😉

  6. Your photos never cease to delight me! I don’t often comment but I always look forward to a posting from you!!

  7. I’ve been following your blog for many years and I love it. I love your photos and your comments about things. Please keep going these dispatches are important to me even if I seldom respond. Just wanted you to know.

  8. What a pretty post. Spring is starting to become visible here in New York. I’ve just started a new blog after not blogging for some time. It’s nice to see people still doing it.

    • dana i just visited your oh so nice new blog and added it my blog roll… so old school i know! i will be visiting you often. do keep it up. i like to think there are many of us who prefer the blogosphere to other forms of social media. it’s my fav because i like the sloooooowness of it. IG moves too fast for me and i sometimes find it overwhelming to process so much when i visit. i tried to leave a comment but failed in my efforts.

  9. Oh thank goodness I was beginning to worry about you… Where is Mary Ann? Is she well? Is she happy? Is she painting? Happy to see all is well with you. Thankful to see a post from you as they always help me remember to slow down and notice the details. To appreciate the creativity and outrageous beauty of nature. The forms in the architecture. Delights passed by by others. We are dreaming of travel later this year to which I will be bringing the vision you taught me to use. I appreciate the moments so much more because of you.

  10. I love your painting of the rosebud! Spring is bustin’ out all over here in Pa., too–and it’s about time. Temps in the 70s yesterday and today. Tomorrow, back down to 50. I’m not complaining, tho.

    Planning a trip to London! It was a kind of spur-of-the-moment thing.

  11. A beautiful morning to you, on the west coast, from me on the east coast. I love how the internet binds us together no matter where we live out our lives. In this diverse age, it its a blessing to have talented writers-photographers-painters-travelers to keep us straight, searching for answers, asking for peace, searching ways to help others. You are the epitome of this and more. You help me/us to focus on those things that are positive, true, uplifting with a dose of humor. At times it perhaps is overwhelming, knowing how much we all wait for your posts, relish in them and strike out to do better ourselves. Just know each precious post is loved, enjoyed and inspiring to so many people.
    I would love to have the ability to be more consistent (for me on an irregular basis). May we all inspire one another. May we love all people.
    Smiles: Sharon

    • what a dear and good thing to read this windy los angeles evening as the branches outside my window wave in my windows and against the walls. xo

  12. Hi again! Whenever I see a new posting from you in my inbox, I get a little frisson of excitement, and save it to read for last. It’s always a treat to see everything you bring to our attention, whether it is photos of a beautiful garden , a serene beach or one of your paintings. I love them all! I think I speak for all of your followers when I say ” thanks, and keep them coming!”
    I was lucky to be able to take a road trip earlier this month from Oregon to Palm Springs area and it was thrilling to see Southern California so green and full of blooms! The colors were spectacular, and I will never forget the superbloom. Into every life a little ( or a lot) of rain must fall, but sometimes that rain brings the fresh green of spring.

  13. So great to see up close and personal pictures of the plants that have benefited by all the rain you’ve received this year. Lovely! And your painting of the hibiscus bud is delightful. Spring is arriving in the Pacific Northwest as well, after a long and cold winter. I think the birds are pretty happy about it, too. Thank you for the book recommendations. I have one for you – Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough. It’s the story of Baroque artist, Artemisia Gentileshi, who did NOT have an easy life but wow could she paint. Keep your smoke signals coming, please.

  14. I am so happy to see this new post! I new that Santa Barbara sky and felt the little bit of roiling happy SB brings. The light is particularly lovely. The little painting of the unraveling blossom is gorgeous. Ah. Mary Ann Moss refreshment. I’m looking for a new rose for my yard and Distant Drum is now a front runner. But what is that row of rose cuttings? Did you find it or create it? They are just yummy. I’m enticed by the book recommendations. Jumping into Little Fires…myself.
    Pen in hand. Paints nearby. Always grateful for your dispatches. Joy to you!

    • queen victoria! hello! those roses are set out on weekends for ROSE TALKS at the huntington gardens where i walk in the early morn alone. i get there early before it opens and make good use of my membership pass. that rose in particular is fragrant and sublimely beautiful. the color is just fantastic.

  15. I’m here, still checking in most days to see what you’ve ‘writ’ or not writ. And yes, I read the comments. Aren’t we your tribe? I understand about the blog. I’ve written for 10 years and now it seems almost unnecessary to me. I post my digital layouts but not much else usually. The photos on those layouts tell the story of my days, weeks etc. Today my dh is having a biopsy. It may be just a benign mass or it may be eshopagul cancer. Some men, this man, are such bad patients, without patience or a lot of ‘just deal with it’ that I see in so many women. I am being taken to a new place of being willing to be willing to be more compassionate and caring. By nature I am an analyzer not a sympathizer. Life gives us opportunities to grow. Fortunately I have a lot of strong women in my camp who listen, judge when it’s necessary and push me to keep learning to be…

    I miss hearing about your kids. Godwilling next month I’ll be back volunteering at my local elem school. I mostly do copying and reshelving books but next time in I may get a chance to learn to …laminate! LOL

    • oh maureen i will be thinking about you and your husband. hoping for a good outcome. once you summon your inner nurse i feel you can whip anyone into shape. we have only 38 days of school. i will talk about my BOYS soon. all 20 of them. only have 10 little quiet girls.

  16. Always love hearing from you Mary Ann. Still winter here in Montreal, we thought it was getting warmer but no – the snow has decided to descend upon us again today. I want to sit in my garden with my flowers, my book and my dog Bones. looks like it will be another month or so here.

    • cathy that book you are showing in your recent blog post has a gorgeous binding… in love!

      have always wanted to visit montreal and quebec

  17. I am here! Always. So happy you are having a lush spring. Thinking of you with much love.

  18. Thanks for the beautiful and inspirational tour!!! Also for book recommendations. I was able to download Peter Heller’s Dog Stars from the library and I am waiting list for The River.

  19. Smoke signal returned. I turned up a new flower bed yesterday. Will now spend too much money filling it but I don’t care. Great to receive your smoke signal.

    • janice your latest post about lemons and lovers was ever so good! reminds me of a week i spent in praiano a dozen years ago… (minus the lover)

  20. I was wondering and wondering… now where is Mary Ann?? Has she perhaps bought a caravan and become a gypsy or has she moved house… to that trailer park she was looking at… or perhaps she is sitting on her porch. dreaming. sketching. journaling. playing with her cats. listening and observing. Sadly quite dark smoke signals from my little patio today. My partner died and the son is throwing me out of my home that I have spent the last 15 years renovating and making beautiful. It’s a shocking story of power and betrayal of trust. Perhaps I must write it all down. But here I am sharing it with you because you have shared so much with me.

  21. I not only read your post, I read all the comments too. Because it’s late and I’m getting tired…I want to say “ditto” to the commenter above, Karen Goetze…she summed up my thoughts perfectly. Also want to share, I just finished reading Educated by Tara Westover, a memoir, it was very good. Now I’m starting Jodi Picoulet’s Small Little Things. I think it’s also going to be a good read. I’m in Salinas, Ca and going to down to San Luis Obispo this weekend (2 hours south). It’ll be nice to see all the green hills along 101. I’m taking my daugher to the open house at Cal Poly State University. I’m hoping that we can get in a hike somewhere too. I’d love to see some of the pretty wildflowers. Sending positive smoke signals right back atcha :)!

    • i have such fond memories of my first time in salinas and trying to find the john steinbeck house in the dark. going up on the porch looking in the windows. how thrilled i am to know someone from salinas reads my blog. xo
      thanks for the book mentions. i’m always looking!
      and.. how i love driving along the 101 up there…

  22. I’m here… going through some spring showers and such. My big news is the duck nesting in our front yards…12 ~ count ’em!!! ~ eggs she is covering! they are due to hatch at the beginning of May ~

  23. I just received your smoke signals with a grateful heart here In London. I’ve missed them. I was in Brick Lane on Sunday and found a viola flourishing in the crack of a curb. It’s green and royal purple set off mightily by the grey of the paving it had forced its way through. So, yes, I was confronted with glorious nature even in this uber urban setting. Not having been in London in 52 years (oh, how old that makes me feel!) I had forgotten how many trees there are. And birdsong. I heard a crow the other early morning and immediately felt a connection between this place and my home place, just by the one scratchy caw. Window boxes overflowing with spring flowers, parks and greens with swathes of shockingly school bus yellow daffodils and cherry blossoms drifted across sidewalks where just moments ago autumn leaves were scattered remind me that spring has Arrived! In London. And I am here to see it!
    And your smoke signal smelling of Southern California after a good long soaking rain found me here.
    I have missed you.
    XO

    • michele you travel the world and i always love hearing about your adventures. i must go to facebook tonight and hope for some pics of said loveliness…mmmmm

      just one scratchy caw. yes. that’s all it takes.
      truly madly deeply xo

  24. glad to see you post … i have been missing you.
    what a wonderful spring in the desert .
    i have never seen a bloom like this spring.
    Joshua Tree was breath taking .
    i could use a maryanne class or trip…

  25. Thank you so much MAM for your beautiful and always interesting and cozy blog posts! You say broken record, I say mantra on how to live a good life of observation, drawing and painting, travel and sisterhood. Honestly you are a port in a storm so please don’t stop. I can’t wait to dig into The Overstory. I also must tell you we are planning three weeks in Italy in Oct. ( Rome, Venice and Ravenna- my husband is taking a mosaic class and I will wander and sketch and paint and visit Bologna to see the Morandi House and museum) and your Venice blog posts are completely inspirational and informative. Have you been to Rome? Just curious on your take. Many thanks for all you do, see, record and report. Like the people of Hooville, I am here to tell you that your “we are here” is heard by this chimp. Xo

    • i have been to rome and i DID indeed like it very much. was only there a few days, but thought a longer visit might be in order. your upcoming travels in the fall sound divine. have always wanted to see bologna.

  26. Thank you for the lovely pictures, and the update! I’m glad you are enjoying every moment of Spring — this one has been amazing.

  27. Thanks for the gorgeous pics and book recommendations. Spring is finally arriving here in Santa Fe and the aroma is heady – was stopped in my tracks today by the scent of a patch of violets hiding under a bush. On books – did you ever read Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard? It forever illuminated my view of nature and directed the course of my life to this place.

    • my bookshelves runneth over. i just know i have PILGRIM…somewhere in there. must READ. i always meant to! love this line:
      ” It forever illuminated my view of nature and directed the course of my life to this place.”

      mmmmmmm

  28. What would I do without the dispatches? Yours is the only blog I really follow anymore, because it is so dependable and warm and homey. It is like settling down first thing upon waking with a cup of hot coffee, with the morning sun streaming in your face. In a world where things change so quickly, it is a so nice to have a place to just dwell, and sit a spell. There really is no one like you, Mary Ann. You take ordinary things and make them sublime. You see beauty everywhere and capture it and then share it, whether it is from photographs, or your unique art. Do you think we are bored with you? AU CONTRAIRE!!! It is NOT so!! Are you bored with yourself? However could you be? How could you ever be? Bored. With yourself. You are amazing! I had begun missing your posts days ago. Wondering what was happening, and knowing you would tell us. When you were ready.

    • Oops! Forgot to say that I am very excited to be participating in The Sketchbook Project 2019. Is anyone else doing it, or done it in the past? I plan to rebind the book with watercolor paper so that I can do watercolor and/or gouache. Here is the website that tells all about it. https://www.brooklynartlibrary.com

  29. So happy all is well with you. Photos are just fabulous! Keep the smoke signals coming.

  30. Those oranges! I can smell the blossoms from here!
    I loved Overstory. I described it to a friend as a history of tree activism, but also a tree love story. And I can’t wait to find that Peter Heller; I loved Dog Stars (cried my eyes out).
    I’m reading Florida by Lauren Groff. Fates & Furies was not my fAve, but this collection of short stories is luminous, and her writing is unbelievable. I miss your art.
    Cortney in SF

  31. Aren’t the green hills along 101 lovely right now? So glad you got up to SB… I’m a big Peter Heller fan too, and Powers’ The Overstory was my favorite book of last year..,we need to have a book chat…Right now Roger Deakins’ nonfiction Wildwood is my escape of choice …xox

  32. Listen! There is something you need to hear…I love looking through your lens! Reading your strings of words! Sharing s little bit of your life among your friends…I am on Texas, seeing new things, hearing cardinals sing and reading new signs…life is on going. Glad you are a part of it…smoke signal over💜 Leau

  33. I so look forward to receiving your posts! I live so close to the Huntington but haven’t been in years. I’ll have to go soon, I’m sure it’s beautiful after our rainy winter. Thanks for continuing to inspire me with my art and our LA surroundings!

  34. I love every word, every photo and especially the journaling/painting. Are you still using mostly gouache? I love your lifestyle too, and the beauty in your corner of the world. Much fuel for smoke signals. I’ll wait to distill it all down into shorter & sweeter. Love ya, Mary Ann.

  36. Are you kidding? I’m always popping in to see if you left us a post, even though I don’t often leave a comment. Please keep us in your lovely world. It’s important to so many of us – the art, the travel, the photography, book reviews. Need I go on? The world needs you, girl.

  37. I always enjoy your posts, Mary Ann Moss! Thanks for sharing glimpses of your world.

  38. Hi, honey! Sending virtual smoke signals from the Q! They have to be virtual, you see, because we’re already under fire warning here. Record high tomorrow with wind. We broke ground on our house finally. Am reading the 3rd book of Maisie Dobbs series. Took the house car out last week to the Bisti Badlands. One dog was puking, the other one had waterbutt so we came home early. Am working with busloads of asylum seekers being released from border kennels with nothing but the clothes on their backs, sometimes shoes and a plastic bag containing papers allowing them to travel. It’s important humanitarian work both exhausting and exhilarating. Harvey (3 y.o.) thinks the word is “deoverant” because he sees a V on the Dove brand. Robin (15 mo) is tentatively taking steps while alternately saying “no” and “roomba”. Let’s see…what else…had to make a ‘mergency trip to Charlotte for mom (89 y.o.), hospitalized and then rehabbed. One month door to door, poor girl, but she’s home and presumably swilling wine and eating macadamia nuts as we speak. Love your blog, your take on life. Hope you choose to keep it up. Fans, you know.

  39. So good to hear from you and delighted to see your colorful world. The natural world is just waking up here in Michigan. Backyard birds are so much friskier.
    I was in Venice a few weeks ago and opened my window to hear the water and boats in the canal. You came to mind and I wonder if you got my message of gratitude for your joyful Venice postings.

  40. Beautiful flowers (I have a Distant Drums rose, love it), beautiful photos, always love your journal pages, and have made a note-to-self about the book titles! Happy spring! The midwest spring is wacky here in KC, as always. Will be near 80 for a few days, then another hard freeze. Plants have to be tough to survive here! The magnolias have managed to not get frostbitten this year, which is a lovely change. 🙂

  41. Any of your wonderful new classes in the works? They are all awesome and so inspiring.

  42. Love your pics of CA flowers and trees. Eastern TN is beginning to come alive also. Purply pink Red Bud trees, the dogwoods opening their clouds og white , the iris buds plumping up, the azaleas bursting into color. We are still having lots of rain but we had about a week of sunny days Today it rained all day and poured rain this evening. Even with all the rain your smoke signal came through

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