Reflections

Views like this one, is my most favorite scenery. I have always loved when the sky is cloudy and then the sun peaks through creating light and shadow on the ocean. Here the breaks are in several places creating the effect of ripples continuing on out to sea. Other times there is this one glow on a spot far out to sea. It makes me want to jump in a boat and row, sail, kayak out to the light. In chase of the light I go. Drawn to it as the light beacons to me.. Come forth, come forth. My best friend's mom used to say that to her such views on either land or sea was God's way of peaking through shining his light and love to earth. And perhaps that is why I desire to go to the light so I can look up, smile, and say, "Hello, God. It is I sending love to you in return."

And so spent a blissful Memorial day on my favorite peninsula--Palo Verdes. It is the only "country" part of the entire city and I do not feel that I am in the city as the peninsula to the south hides the city. I am so fortunate it is only a 35-40 minute drive through stop and go lights (no freeways in this part of the city).

It was more of a quiet day for reflection and ponder the newest changes in my life thus far as wayfarer living in Los Angeles. It has truly taken time to adjust to the changes from Tempe. Not so much as the place but the people I have left behind. My fond, fun, laughing, dearest friends and roommates (one has moved back to Hawai'i). Sometimes I feel sad that the physical distances are so far apart but I do know that we continue to share in spirit, soul, and dream. And that is precious.

And in the present moment when I sat on the ledge over looking the Pacific (don't worry Mom, I was not dangling my feet and legs over the edge), everything seemed to come into focus. I am content by the ocean. Happy, connected. And it is here I wish to stay. Not so much as LA itself but close by the sea. And marvel the beauty of the ruggedness of cliff, mountain, hill tumbling down to meet the tides ever moving in rhythm, sharing in the rhythm of life.

Beachcomber's Meanderings

And thus was the image I started my day with past Saturday doing a beach hike down to Redondo Beach (several miles... exact mileage unknown but it is a hour and half one way from El Segundo Beach park to Redondo Beach Harbor at a steady pace). The beach was lined with surfers that morning.Just imagine what it will be like in a few weeks, come July summer time. I will not be able to see the sand as people tell me. So better enjoy it now with less crowds. It was a good day for a walk. Sunny but hazy with the smog visible on the horizon.Beach front on the land side. Everything is built up to the sands of the beaches. And a lone surfboard awaits a ride on the wave. :) I am still in the Manhattan Beach area.
There is wildlife to be seen. The Pelicans were out as well cruising the waves with the surfers. Actually, I think that would be neat out in the ocean with the pelicans gliding by hovering over the waves.

And what?! I arrive to Hermosa Beach, kind of a funky, hippy style kind of place to see a huge scene for volleyball. The Pro Championships were already full swing. I seem to be developing this knack of late of arriving to destinations full of some kind of event and championships... I am recalling the time I went to scout Long Beach and ill-timed it right when the huge National auto racing was occurring right in the city!). At least the volleyball tournament was relatively lower key. However, I like Hermosa Beach (at least what I have seen of it).

For the day I had some destinations already planned. Including an earlier bead shop in El Segundo. Hermosa Beach was the stop for the famous "The Spot." All vegetarian food selection. Very healthy, good looking meals. So Rachel, we have at least one very good place to go to eat if you come to visit. You or anyone for that matter who is food conscious of healthy eating will not be disappointed. I had a delicious dish of Santa Fe Enchiladas (organic corn tortilla with lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, tempeh, salsa and red sauce with pinto beans and whole grain brown rice). Very good. I also checked out the beer/wine menu since it said organic... and yes, I found what I was looking for -- organic Fish tale ale! Go Oly!!! Of course I did not order alcholic beverages. But to my extreme delight saw that they offered Kombucha for part of the beverage selection. Loved that (and by the way, my destination for Redondo Beach... whole foods to buy Kombucha). The restaurant is very nice. Use the same menu for both lunch and dinner.
And so off I go filled with good food to Redondo Beach ... Whole Foods. There is a big harbor here and wharf. I have not actually been to the heart of Redondo Beach just yet. Save for another outing.

So was a good full day of walking and enjoying the beach and ocean front.

Story time

A story today that I read. I thought it was very good. And will share it with you.

THE LEGEND OF THE IRISH HARP

One misty day, a young woman with black hair and the bluest of eyes was walking along the beach. She was idly collecting pretty pebbles and shells. The mists moved in and out from the water as she strolled, softly singing romantic songs to herself. She thought of her handsome husband as she sang.
She had just walked up to a patch of reeds when she heard music sweeter than anything she had ever heard in her life. She pushed past the reeds and there found the skeleton of a whale. The sweet music she was hearing was coming from the skeleton.
As she came along the side of the whale, she discovered that the music was caused by the wind singing ever so sweetly through the bones of the whale. The music was hypnotizing, and before the girl knew it she slumped to the ground and was lulled to sleep.
Her husband came home from his work in the fields expecting to find his young wife in their cozy kitchen brewing him a pot of tea. They enjoyed sharing a quiet cup of tea together at this time of day and telling each other the events of the day.
Time passed and his wife didn't appear, so the man went out to search for her. He started along the beach, because he knew she enjoyed walking there. She must have had such a pleasing walk that she had forgotten how late it was.
He saw her prints in the sand leading out toward the bay and followed them. He heard some unearthly music as he came near a patch of reeds. On the other side of the reeds, he found his dear wife peacefully sleeping besides the skeleton of a whale. He too saw that the enchanting music came from the wind on the whale bones.
The husband gently woke his wife up and together they reveled in the music. When the wind stopped blowing, the music stopped, but not before the husband had observed the principle behind the music.
Back at home he secretly made a harp to imitate those sounds they had heard. When it was finished, he presented it to his wife with a flourish and a love song he sang and played for her. And that is how the first Irish harp came to be.


Is not this so sweet? All I can imagine is the sound of the wind blowing through the whale bones. What music! When I had read the story the first time I was at work and Junnel started talking to me. I did not hear him even when he was about two feet away calling my name repeatedly. I was so mesmerized by the story, all I could envision were the calls and voices of whales in my head. I pluck the strings of my own harp to see if I can picture whale voices through the vibrating strings. And perhaps I should bring the harp to the ocean to see if I can call the whales in! But I have heard the wind go through the harp causing vibrations of the strings. It is a beautiful sound and a bit unearthly.

**Source of story: Livo, Norma J. 1996. Troubadour's Storybag: Musical Folktales of the World. Fulcrum Publishing: Golden, Colorado.

Project for Readers

I thought of a project idea about LA. I was thinking on this during my latest excursion Saturday. Will not post the adventures just yet as it is late and I have my internet up and running again after all weekend.

This project will include the ideas from you!
What are the images, ideas, words that come to mind when you hear LA, Los Angeles, California?

Now disregard all of the previous posts of LA and think of what LA is to you. Like before I got here and was telling you I was coming here.

I will write up on this but before that want to hear from the viewers or readers.

Garden Life

On many afternoons, I work in the garden we have at the house I am living in. It stays in good shape and I actually do not have to do as much gardening as one would think for such a small garden. This picture above is in the back corner. I actually purposely have not done any upkeep in this part as it is all palm or bamboo around this fountain statue. It has definitely grown a bit wild and the plants need to be repotted but then again, this is actually not my garden. It is my landlord's. When he returns, I will ask him about how he envisions the garden. A sample of the flowers grown in the garden. There are a lot of yellow daisies, which I do not like actually. For a garden that is. I do not know why but the flower/plant does not appeal to me. There are also geraniums too. Again not too partial to this plant but the colors are perfect and the ones that climb enhances the colors of the area too. I am amazed how well the roses grow around here. They are so brilliant in colors and smells! Everyone seems to grow roses around here. As one can see there is a lot of green in the garden. The plants seem to thrive as well. Some are still in pots (such as the daisies).
But the main treasure of the garden is the lizards. This is in a pond (below the fountain statue). One thing I had originally planned on was to clean the pond out. But after several weeks I noticed that a lizard was residing here and my plans were continually postponed for the cleaning.

Here is the view of the entire pond. Besides the aesthetic qualities with fallen leaves decomposing and rocks, there are the blue rocks in the bottom, some trash on one side and that black tarp plastic thing in the pond. Also there are mosquito larvae, which brings to mind west nile virus.
If one looks closely, there are lizard(s) in the black plastic tarp. This is their home!! So my cleaning is totally put aside because of my little garden friends. I think there is a baby in the tarp as well. I was seeing a tiny little tail. Very cute. They do not mind me. Probably have gotten used to me and I do not do anything to provoke them but just to sit back and admire them. I think they got a pretty good home actually.

Every day when I arrive home from work, I visit the lizards if only for a minute or so to see what they are up to.

Hollywood!!

Here it is! Due to small picture size and the ah so condition of air (perhaps some due to the recent fires in Griffth Park), the main theme did not come out so well. But there it is: HOLLYWOOD. The famous sign. I was thinking, "Wow, I have lived to see this sign live in person!" A symbol that everyone seems to attribute to LA themes. For some reason, since this is Griffth Park or at least part of the 3000 some acres of the park, I was picturing a different sort of terrain....it is more "desert" than I had imagined it to be. I was picturing green grass, bigger trees, more foliage. Not so. And perhaps why there are fires going on and why citizens probably should be concerned about such terrain risky for fire hazards.

As part of my metro adventure, I realized I needed to get out and explore at least one scene along the metro route I took. I got off at Hollywood and Highland. The photo above is what I immediately see but of course is a small snapshot of what the rest of the scene looks like. My immediate feelings were being overwhelmed and whoa! Being down in the subway I did not realize what I had been passing under. The place was glittering with lights, tall, big buildings, people, and cars. Remember what Dorothy said in the Wizard of OZ when she opened the door: "Toto, I don't think we are in Kansas anymore." Well, here I was thinking as I stumbled out of the Metro, "Well, I am definitely not in Hawthorne anymore." So very, very different from the scenes of the South Bay area.
Another scene just to the right of the metro underground entrance/exit. One thing about LA is the gap between the "haves and the haves not." I thought I was seeing a good portion of it in Hawthorne and the South Bay but not so. Here is where the haves and have nots live side by side. Beside the mass of tourists (the first time I really have seen a mass of tourists in LA), the homeless frequent the streets just as much. People selling candy from their wheelchairs, folks asking endless requests for handouts, a few playing guitars with cans for handouts, and one even had their shopping cart full of their material possessions, a blanket covering a side and the individual sleeping under it. And then there are the folks (besides the tourists who all seem to walk around dazed, taking pictures) who live there. The style of clothing something else. LA unique. I did not see any movie stars per se. But who knows perhaps I passed a so called famous star but was unrecognizable to me because they are not famous in my eyes. Like who is Mike Myers? Beats me but apparently he is a big name.
As I start to get my bearings a bit and explore this busy scene, things come into focus more and I start "seeing" what I am to see. Shops line the streets. And the shops? Whew! I must have seen about 20 some tattoo places (and no, I did not get a tattoo), cafes, bars, one night club that features the apparently famous strippers of Hollywood (believe me this was the real macoy but fortunately the girls were not actually outside, but their pictures were plastered on the big advertisement just above "come here to have a good time" message), shoe shops (oh so shoes of every kind but did not serve any practical use except for looks), wig shops with neon colors of pink, yellow, red, blue, etc. (I really should have taken a picture of these), clothing, several vintage thrift shops which I did browse...clothes way back to the 40's era. Pretty cool. And so on and so on. Mostly a lot of tourist trap places. Many theaters and tourist buses galore. I learned that day that the movie stars live in Beverly Hills. I was not actually aware they congregated in one particular area.

And so what everyone has been waiting to see....

Ah, look Chewy approaches. This theater (Grauman's Chinese Theatre) has the stars' hands and footprints on display. Hopefully the stars did not actually cut off these parts for the display but I did not go in. Tourist trap, big price to pay and who really cares about seeing images of hands and feet. Sorry Tom Hanks.

But wait! Is it? No, it could not be but it is.

Am I seeing Johnny Depp? And some of the other colorful characters? Interesting, interesting. No actually there were two Johnny Depp characters walking around. This guy here was the better one. The other one was sort of a jerk grabbing girls and making some scenes with them.

And so here they are. Some of the stars. Unfortunately the first one did not come out too well. But it is Ingrid Bergman. Dear Ingrid. My namesake. And of course dear Mister Rogers. I was delighted to come across him. What a guy! And thanks to him, I do not eat donuts. But of course there are so many stars...many I do not even have any idea of their achievements. No Tom Hanks though. Do not know if he is actually there or I just did not come across his star.

And so this is Hollywood. One of the biggest scenes in Los Angeles. Quite the place really and kind of amazing that such a place does actually exists. It did some how feel that it was borderline reality and borderline something else... out of this world, unreal, fake. The media really do glamorize the movie stars in America. So many people come for fame and fortune to this area. And like it is: either you strike big or you strike out. Just ask those folks looking for an extra dollar.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

Happy Mother's day to you, Mom. :) I hope you are enjoying your day to the fullest.

If you dare say aghh to the picture. I will say I only have one picture of you on my picture file. And who can beat having a picture from the glorious celebration of Rabbie Burn's birthday with Guiness (Fishtale Ale) and Haggis (pork sausages roled in a delicious homemade roll from scratch)!

I love you, Mom. A love that will never grow old or weary. But a love that is steadfast and enduring through all time