LA Story

1. Driving the 101 while listening to Real Estate is dangerously beautiful.
2. The street I often park on when I visit Alcove. Stunning, always.
3. Sunset seen from the Griffith Observatory.
4. The floor is more interesting at Intelligentsia than the people. 
5. Public transportation does exist in Los Angeles.

Portrait Of A Big Sur Woman

“She had a passion for the outdoors, roaming the unsettled hills behind Berkeley and Oakland, finding peace and solace from the hectic life among her brawling sisters. To live her own life was her greatest ambition.
…
Grace Elizabeth Biddle Roberts was a forty year old spinster when she first reached Big Sur. Born November 11, 1871, the fourth child of a spunky Irish immigrant and her mining engineer husband, Grace grew up in a family of five sisters and two brothers. The father’s early death forced their mother to take in boarders in their large house close to the new campus of University of California. The girls did the chambermaid work and imbibed the heady intellectual atmosphere, drawing their friendships from academic circles.
…
Esther recalls excursions with Grace to the swimming hole or down Sycamore Canyon to visit the Pfeiffer homestead as fascinating and illuminating adventures, for the woman was intensely alive and curious, and her enthusiasm was contagious. She was a vigorous walker, thinking nothing of donning her green corduroy divided skirt for an early morning walk across the flats of the Hill ranch to the lighthouse and back to the lodge before breakfast.”

~Excerpt from Big Sur Women by Judith Goodman

*Photo by Andrea on HWY 1

To: Springtime

A flow'r which once

In Paradise, fast by the Tree of Life

Began to bloom

(John Milton, Paradise Lost: Book III 353-355)

Color Coded

Myth

Listen to a great new release by Beach House and fall in love.

(Photo = San Francisco)

Pieces Torn Off

 

The National Parks by Tilden--

Freeman Tilden, not to get confused with Charles Lee Tilden--

Bought at Open on a chameleon summer's day.

Then fined $49 for daydreaming,

I smiled anyway.

The Not So Typical, Typical Farmer

This may sound extremely idealistic, though it is a common look at farming life in North Coast California. North, referring to north of the San Francisco Bay Area. 

"In many respects, she most conforms to the organic imaginary. She is a particularly urbane back-to-the-lander, who purchased the once-cheap rolling pasture on which her farm sits for its beauty and seclusion as well as for its ample space to support her organic gardening interests. She is active in the organic movement and has a well-articulated vision, saying, for example, 'it is dangerous not to know where your food comes from.' In addition, her very small farm--say, two acres--comes closest to the agroecological ideal. She is able to integrate many design elements, borrowed from her extensive readings of organic philosophy and technique. Since her farm was carved out of a space that had not previously been brought into agricultural production, she is situated where beneficial habitat is ample. In addition, she has plenty of water to grow winter cover crops, plant only one cash crop per year, being limited by heavy winter rainfall and a colder climate, and is too far away from primary farming regions to source expensive fertility inputs. The farm's microscopic size also allows a very labor-intensive approach.

In addition, she does all of her own marketing, catering primarily to upscale restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her preexisting ties to the gourmet food community enabled her to start a commercial operation, growing to the specifications of chefs. In return, she receives extraordinarily high prices for her herbs and heirloom tomatoes, allowing her to supplement her part-time professional job. She hires her friends and neighbors to preform harvest labor, and she pays an unusual wage, although the work lasts only a few weeks at best. In that way, her farm is not exactly an alternative institution. "

*This excerpt is taken from Agrarian Dreams: The Paradox of Organic Farming in California by Julie Guthman.

When Winter Light Turns To Spring

Holly Cromer's pastel photographs are a good introduction to Spring. Source: Free People.

Southwest Agriculture

What remains in agricultural production in the Southwest area is for the most part the last vestiges of the southern California citrus belt that arose in the 1880s. Developed by the Southern Pacific Railroad and promoted through its booster magazine,Sunset, much of this land was originally sold to in-migrating professionals and merchants, who went into orange growing as a business. Since World War II, most of the orange groves have been razed, with housing and shopping centers taking their place, although some groves remain on residential real estate.

In the 1970s, new groves of citrus and avocado were planted on the often-steep hills of north San Diego County to take advantage of some of the tax incentives offered through California’s Williamson Act. Most of these “farms” are located in areas such as Escondido, Fallbrook, and Pauma Valley, more or less rural areas within commuting distance of urban jobs. Most of the land here was purchased explicitly for residential real estate or as an investment, with the aim of subdividing it in the future. Current zoning restrictions, including two-to four-acre lot minimums, keep groves standing and minimally acting as “landscaping.” Irrigation water, however, is extremely expensive in this region, so that many such orchards are neglected. In addition, two major buyer’s cooperatives dominate the market for conventional produce: Sunkist, the brand name of what was originally founded as the California Fruit Growers’ Exchange, which buys citrus fruits, and Calavo, which buys avocados.

*Excerpt from Agrarian Dreams: The Paradox of Organic Farming in California by Julie Guthman