Lovingkindness

A tiny cosmos flower opened its petals this Christmas morning, next to the brussels sprouts, spinach and emerging red kale. With it's return to the garden I feel a sense of renewal and well being. Spanish priests grew cosmos in their mission gardens in Mexico. The evenly placed petals led them to christen the flower "Cosmos" the Greek word for harmony or ordered universe.


May I be peaceful, happy and light, in body and in spirit.
May you be peaceful, happy and light, in body and in spirit.
May all beings everywhere be peaceful, happy and light, in body and in spirit.

Painting Begins

On the Eve of Christmas Eve...painting begins.

Bike Cargo

For those of you wondering, how does a family of two do all their grocery shopping without using a car? The answer is: a very resourceful husband! I like the way he threaded his bike lock through the TP for secure side-loading. And notice how the lock winds it's way around the blue corn chips (top bag) to protect the more delicate cargo. Not a chip was broken.


When I was in Vietnam last year, I saw impressive loads being carried by bike, like this one at the Hanoi farmer's market. The shot I missed (we were always zipping by in a cab) was the guy selling goldfish, dozens of goldfish in individual water filled plastic bags, suspended from poles on either side of his bike. Just your basic roadside retail store.


My visit to Vietnam ended in lovely and peaceful Hoi An where French influence shines through.

Clear View

The bars are coming off the windows. Between those iron bars and the nearly 100-year-old screens, it's a wonder we had any view of the canyon at all! Next week we'll be power washing the front and beginning to paint...




The light is streaming in. Already, it feels positively expansive.

Orange Love

The tangerines are happy in our garden this morning. We're juicing a lot of Valencia oranges too. Everything is thriving, now that the rains have moved through and the sun is back to give them life.

And the excellent little "Juic It" workhorse carries on...

When I was living in the Pacific Northwest, working full time in Telecommunications, leading sustainability discussion groups, and beginning the life of a creative freelancer... I wanted to find a business name that would fit whatever direction I might stretch into. I like to write. I enjoy working with my voice. I'm thoroughly fascinated by the art of letterpress and hand-bound books. I like to work with beads and wire. At the time, I was into arranging flowers from the garden and even did a semi-commercial Mother's Day floral operation one year.

I took my inspiration from a pottery business called Butter Bean. Something with a wonderful scent and great graphic possibilities would be a nice naming direction, I thought to myself. I considered Vanilla Bean, Pomegranate, Persimmon... all lovely and calling up rich images from the natural world. I settled on Sweet Orange Productions back in 1998, with not an orange tree in sight!

Maybe it was a premonition, maybe it was an intention forming, maybe it was California calling me home, but I could not have fully imagined that I would now be living in Southern California, blissfully married and growing citrus in my own garden at the edge of a canyon, behind our 1915 Craftsman Bungalow. Home Sweet Orange.

Vegan Pantry - Spork

I subscribe to VegNews magazine and love the positive energy being generated there. Even though there are a lot of packaged products on those stylish pages, I've also found some of my new favorite recipes and always look forward to reading Dan Piraro's take on the world. This video from Spork Foods (click here) is the cutest, created by two young sisters on veganizing your kitchen pantry.

Soon, I'll have the skills to actually paste a video into this blog, but for today...a link will do!

I baked banana nut muffins and more of these delicious chocolate shortbread cookies this morning!

Enjoy the weekend!

it's all art

I've been thinking lately about the importance of art and how many pathways there are for authentic personal expression.

Something from Buddhadharma's winter issue, attributed to Dogen and expanded through commentary, says this:

"We should reflect on our one-sided way of seeing and investigate ways of expanding our vision and experience of the world around us. [...] A good portion of Western art produced over the last thousand years is overtly religious in content. It expresses the artist's sense of the divine. It is, in fact, possible to say that all serious art is, in some sense, an attempt to articulate the ineffable. Taking this further, we can say that everything we do is part of that artistic expression. Liturgy is artistic expression. Oryoki [Japanese Zen ceremony], the formal taking of a meal, is artistic expression."

My friend Sharon often says that dancing, healing arts, and creative arts are all part of the same flow. I have to agree. When we live mindfully and with intention, everything we do can be an expression of our divine nature.