To Santa Barbara

An eventful day, yesterday. Our new assistant, Emily arrived in good time to say hello to George, who will be in her charge for the next three days, while we are in Santa Barbara. We left the pair of them on good terms, and drove up through relatively easy traffic, first to Ojai, where our friend Peter Sims lives now with his wife, Yvonne. Peter is a faithful member of our artists' group, and we were impressed, as we completed the one and a half hour drive, that he manages to make it nearly every month down to Los Angeles to join us. The couple live in a small but pleasantly spacious-feeling house just outside of Ojai, with an expansive property that includes not only Yvonne's studio and a salt-water swimming pool, but also a boules court, a citrus orchard, and a beautiful garden that is still a work-in-progress.

Yvonne works in mosaic, using fragments of glass and ceramic objects that she collects, seemingly in bulk, from local junk shops. This studio shot will give you some idea...

Her work is both large-scale...

... here a gazebo beside the swimming pool, and a detail...

... showing the fine quality of the work; and small...

... like this whimsical, free-standing sculptural object. Yvonne manages, enchantingly, to transform kitsch into art, re-contextualizing what once was utilitarian or cheesy decorative stuff into surprising and elegant arrangements. The garden is slowly turning into a single aesthetic environment, something akin to Simon Rodia's Watts Towers in Los Angeles or Grandma Prisbey's Bottle Village. Perhaps, one day, this too will be a pilgrimage destination!

Lunch with Peter and Yvonne at a pleasant restaurant in Ojai, then back on the road to Santa Barbara. Peter directed us on a back road from Ojai to Carpinteria, avoiding the busy 101 that leads along the coast. This back road took us around the spectacular Lake Casitas and through miles avocado orchards lining the inland hillsides--a beautiful drive in a California landscape that we entirely new to us. A special treat.

Once in Santa Barbara, we found our hotel--the Inn by the Harbor, which I have to say truthfully us neither an inn nor by the harbor, but which provides us nonetheless with perfectly adequate accommodation for our three-night stay. After unpacking, we decided on a long-ish walk up State Street to the Japanese restaurant, Arigato Sushi, where we had arranged to meet our friend Seyburn and a small gathering of her friends for dinner.

A memorable evening. Excellent food and conversation, a nice bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from Seyburn's family vineyard (Buttonwood. Check it out!) a good deal of merriment, and a chance to make new friends. What could be better?