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April 30, 2013

My cement problem

As the guys tackle the inside of my latest renovation project, I'm wrestling with the outside. Exhibit A: the weedy, seedy side yard, dominated by an enormous concrete slab in its death throes. (And cleverly accessorized with a toilet, a ficus, and a Weber.) (I know, it's a gift.)

Since removing (to say nothing of replacing, even with something less expensive, like flagstone) the concrete would bust the budget, it was time to get creative. And here, with some scrubbing, measuring, taping and staining, the old slab got a new look.

Before:

junky



cracked


After:

finished


The color will calm down after a few weeks of sun and footsteps, and with patio furniture and a few outdoor rugs (that will be the after, with pix tk) the faux tile will look, if not completely convincing, at least somewhat persuasive.

A little slide show of the process is right here.

April 29, 2013

Soft focus Monday

Foggy today:

beach


And a little cold.

palms


Low tide means kelp rides higher:

kelp


And a Tiny Labrador waits for the ball.

maisie

April 28, 2013

Table for one

egret takes a break

A lazy Sunday morning for this egret at the lake, taking in the view from his table-top perch.

April 27, 2013

Signs of Saturday: For Sale

For Sale

A lovely swath of oak-studded rolling hills for sale.

Who thinks this is a good idea?

April 26, 2013

Take me with you

Hello?

puppy window


Hello!

oh please oh woof oh take me with you

April 25, 2013

Oh the blue of it

blue

Blue sea + blue sky = Oooooh. (And ahhhhh.)

April 24, 2013

Down the garden path

In the mountains we found this flower, tiny and tinder-dry:

spikey


And a few minutes away, drunk on garden water, irises.

iris

April 23, 2013

Among the oaks

spring green

There's a gravitational field around these oaks, hundreds of years old, their vast canopies made of thousands of tiny, spiny leaves.

Sound moves differently here. So does time. It's all lower, slower. Cooler, too. A minute ago, a century ago, it's all the same under the oaks, under these oaks.

April 22, 2013

Don't panic

Because the photos of the "during" phase of this newest remodel seem to have some of you in a dither, let's revisit the before, the holes in the sub-floor:

holey crap


The freaky brown paneling:


master


The toilet in the bedroom:

subfloor and toilet


And now look, just two weeks later -- recessed lighting? Check. Floors all fixed and ready for hardwood? Check. Walls mudded and primed and ready for paint? Check.

Night and day? Check.

seeing daylight

April 21, 2013

Sight for sore eyes

Because right now it's all about this:

during the during



And this:

during



And, lord help us, this:

oy


Let us look back, just one short week ago, and remember the transformation of this:

study before



Into this.

IMG_0026


The rest of the before-and-after slide show (click on a photo, then click through the series) is here.

April 20, 2013

Signs of Saturday: Sea Ray

If you remember the abandoned car belonging to DianaLA, then you might be interested to know it has now been joined by this ramshackle boat.

IMG_0006


A Sea Ray:

sea ray



And the view from where they sit? Well, you be the judge:


view from there

April 19, 2013

Coastal

Let's take a walk on the sand, shall we? (And let's admit right now, these are just snapshots, not photographs.)

Lavender on the beach path:

lavender


The creek as it meets the sea:

creek meets the pacific



Where some bachelor ducks took flight the moment they saw us.

flying



A sailor was sleeping:

sailing


A wave was breaking:

breaking


And the beach, as it has for a thousand years, was waiting.

surging

April 18, 2013

Ducklings!

Walking at the lake the other day when splash!...a pair of ducks launched from the shore into the water, followed by thirteen more splashes, tiny ones, (splishes?) as the brand new family went for it's first outing.

afloat

The ducklings, bobbing like manic bathtub toys, promptly spread out in thirteen different directions.


duck family



Counting them was challenge enough -- getting them all into a single frame proved impossible.

ducklings



Makes the whole remodel thing seem easy by comparison.


flotilla

April 17, 2013

That was fast

It's all about sex in the spring, whether it's birds or plants or mammals. Here on a Malibu bluff is a yucca, barely blooming on April 1:

IMG_0002


...and barely two weeks later, ready for prom.

IMG_0037

April 16, 2013

Dry dock

For years I've been driving past this former ranch high up in the hills:

back at the ranch


...where a little boat:

where's noah?

little boat


...sails a grassy sea:

dry dock

April 15, 2013

Why?

To the question of why posts are going up later and later -- the answer is this:

oy

April 14, 2013

The drive home

the drive home from Home Depot

Because no matter how many times I've done this, and no matter how many lists I make, there's always one more thing I need for the part of the remodel that's happening right now.

So join me, won't you, on another Big Box adventure, driving home this time, again through coastal California in its (mostly) raw form.

Pretend you've got the window open and aong with the brine of the sea, there's sage and campfire smoke and (this one's purely in your imagination) sun-warmed skin touched with Coppertone.

April 13, 2013

Signs of Saturday: NWSE

wind vane

Our neighbor's wind vane, a one-legged egret who faces into whichever breeze happens to be blowing. (And I just noticed -- a little sparrow on the E, taking a break.)

April 12, 2013

The road to Home Depot

yes this is the drive to my local home depot

Yes, you could take the 101 north and get there faster, or take the 101 south and get to one that's closer, or you could take PCH north of Malibu, and have yet another drive to a Big Box store be the highlight of your day.

April 11, 2013

Spring fever?

wanna play?


Let's play!

April 10, 2013

Sea steps

wooden sea steps

Isn't the LA light today amazing? At the beach it skids through mist, through wind-whipped waves, and a briney scent, a summer scent, rises.

April 9, 2013

Before and during

When a picture is worth a thousand words.

before


(And represents more than a few 3 a.m. panic attacks.)

before

before


ahem


The beginning of the after -- aka hurryhurryhurryupPLEASEhurry "during".

during



April 8, 2013

The grass is greener

bluffs park

If your first thought upon seeing this swath of land on a bluff above the Pacific is "Hey! Let's turn it into a bunch of ball parks!" then a few on the local City Council want to hear from you. And if the idea of turning the sole remaining undeveloped bit of coastal open space in the city into yet another human habitat seems, well, criminal, then you've also got company.

Lots of news stories from both sides of the equation (hyper-local papers only, no LA Times or national outlets yet) are here.

It's quite the brouhaha, with a proposed land swap between the city of Malibu and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (Malibu's Charmlee Park in exchange for the SMMC's Bluffs Park) and, in the process of cutting that deal, the city being accused of violating the Brown Act.

This thing isn't going away anytime soon.

April 7, 2013

The surf(ing) here this weekend

So, we've had a bit of a swell this weekend:

windy


Which means the boards were out:

happy


And the dolphins:

dolphins

And pelicans:

pelicans


And your faithful photog:

splish


splash



kelp-and-surf-in-malibu-vdt.jpg


Sigh.

the headlands

point dume

crumbly

April 6, 2013

Signs of Saturday: Shy paparazzo

My friend (and brilliant author) Antoine Wilson (seriously, when is someone going to wake up and option Panorama City, Robert Downey Jr??) has the funny Tumblr, The Slow Paparazzo. Here, by contrast, we see The Shy Paparazzo.

Enough of a fan of Friday Night Lights and Breaking Bad to know the name on a NM to LAX flight:


J Plemons


And way too reserved for anything but a blurry, long-lens shot of Landry (wwrd) Clark's back.


Jesse Plemons in LAX


hello, Landry...


Make that The Really Shy Paparazzo.

April 5, 2013

Let's look at flowers

Because it's grey today -- flowers.

Pink:

pink



And more pink:

pink!

Purple (and not exactly in focus):

purple


A little mix, purple and orange, focused and not:

mix


And white.

white

April 4, 2013

Swing time *

Dear customers of Petals in New Mexico:

You'll have to wait just a teensy little bit longer for your (beautiful and creative) flower deliveries.

Sincerely,

The Management

maggie swings

* UPDATE: The swings are gone.

April 3, 2013

Free fall

If you're a pelican watcher, you know this moment, a tiny shift of wings that signals the stall, the change from forward flight:

pelican

...to free fall:

pelican drops

...and, thanks to air sacs beneath his skin, bounce-back and recovery.

(AND, if his aim was true, fresh fish for breakfast.)

pelican afloat

April 2, 2013

Just a little ADD

If I show you this:

materials

And this:

half a roof


And this:

roofers



...I bet you nod and say, "Of course," (or, alternatively, go pale and question a certain blogger's sanity) (which, quite honestly, is what more than a few of the sub-contractors I got bids from did) (but that's another blog post entirely) that there hasn't been quite as much of this:

pelican afloat

April 1, 2013

The view from there this morning

monday morning lake

Clouds. Mist. Occasional sun.

I've just used up my word limit for the day. Sorr

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