Happy Mother’s Day

These photos are from my favorite plant, the Matilija Poppy. It grows like a weed, and hardly needs any water, just a lot of sun. Perfect for southern California. I would never have been able to grow this beautiful plant and all the plants in our gorgeous front yard, without the help, advice, and inspiration […]

My Perfect Birthday

My husband took this photo of me last week on my birthday. We went on one of my favorite hikes and it was an absolutely gorgeous day. The air was clear, the hills were green from all the rain this winter, and there were flowers everywhere. These yellow flowers are coreopsis, and we were lucky […]

March Birthdays

I’ve successfully navigated another Birthday Season on The Compact. March is Birthday Heavy in my world. A lot of friends and acquaintances were born in March, and my husband, my brother, and my father all have birthdays within a week of one another. And those are birthdays that require acknowledgement. It was no problem to […]

The power of words

With the tragedy in Haiti, along with so much other bad news these days, it would be easy to let this day slip away without marking the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day holiday. But I think it’s more appropriate than ever to honor the man who gave his life in the service of others. Many […]

Kids love Compact-y Gifts

That’s my adorable 7-year-old niece, modeling the hat we gave her, and her new cat from Santa. When I started on The Compact, I was most nervous about what I would do for gifts. I was sure I could go without new stuff, but didn’t want to be ungenerous with friends and family. Well, I […]

‘Twas the Night Before Christmas

This is my neighbor’s gorgeous, non-traditional Christmas tree. He created it out of salvaged branches from an orange tree in his yard, spray-painted white, so it’s green and non-consumer as well. The beautiful ornaments have been collected over decades, many of them antiques from France, some almost 100 years old. He usually puts up a […]