Silver Moon

Coming back from LC's last night after a mighty fine dinner and a little rockin' to the Friday Night Live dance band, I took River Road and came across the one lane summer bridge with the full moon high in the sky. I had to go back and stop at the side of the road in the No Parking zone (with flashers on!) and get out to try to capture the silver light on the water using my little camera.

These were the best ones I could pull out of the darkness.

Hope you are doin' some spoonin' by the light of this silvery moon!

x0

N2

Baby Therapy

"Suck, little babe, oh suck again!
It cools my blood; it cools my brain
...
Oh! press me with thy little hand;
It loosens something at my chest;
About that tight and deadly band
I feel thy little fingers prest."

William Wordsworth

A quick trip to see the Dear Daughter and the Corn Tiger this week. Got to receive him fresh out of his shower and "do his morning things", i.e. rub him up with some lotion, accompanied by baby smiles and cooing, and get him dressed. The DD pointed out that I put him in a Nana matching outfit, but it was just chance. In my defense, those pants were on the changing table. But we do look in tune, non?

Just three months old (already?!) and I think he's starting to teethe.

Some vigorous chomping going on with those tiny gums.

"This has a certain well-aged flavor."

"Yes! Rub more. Right there."

"Hey! Give that back. I'm not done yet."

Real salve for the heart and soul, this holding and being chewed upon.

Little drooly baby kisses.

x0

N2

Feelin' Blue

Some time ago (can it be fifteen years already?!) I opened a little place in this Burg of ours called The Blue Rose Cafe. It was in a converted CA bungalow, one of the first coffee houses here in town and designed to be comfortable for all ages. We served coffee, really good black and herbal teas with herbs picked from our garden, italian sodas, grilled focaccia sandwiches, salads with my coveted herbal salad dressing, soups, desserts and beer and wine.

It had a "living room" area off the main room, board games to play, books and magazines to read and a back yard with tables where you could eat outside in good weather. We featured local bands on Friday and Saturday nights, mostly jazz and blues, and special events from time to time like Flamenco Sunday, a Belly Dancing night and a Mardi Gras party. My "kids" both worked there, as well as many of their friends.

Sounds idyllic, doesn't it? Well, it certainly had many of those moments. We opened it with such joy and hope. But it was ahead of its time for this town and two other similar businesses opened in that same year. The town just wasn't ready to support all of them. And that winter, three months after we opened, was very stormy and there was flooding in the center of town for the first time in some 20 years which filled the cafe's back yard and under the house with water.

I was capitalizing the business and supporting my family by myself and, after a year and a half, I had to go back to my regular day job to make more money. It just got too hard to work in the city and then come back and fill in and/or do clean up at the cafe week in and week out.

Some people came along who wanted to put a full blown restaurant in the place, so I leased it out to them. They lasted a couple of years, then passed their lease on to another home grown restaurant here in town that needed a bigger space, the Ravenous Cafe. They are still there, after 10+ years, and doing just fine.

The Blue Rose sign was made by a local craftsman, Neon Bob. I did the lettering in my handwriting and Bob copied it in fluorescent light. We hung it on the front of the building and used to turn it on at night before we even opened for business. People would walk down to that end of town just to look at its glorious blue glow.

When we closed the cafe, I had Bob build a box to hold the sign in which to mount it on the back of my house. We turn it on for special gatherings and we had one such get together this last weekend when my Son and Dear Daughter in Law got back from their two months of sabbatical wanderings on the other side of the world.

It made us feel kinda blue, in a good way.

Chloe and Lulu

Dancing in the Dark

Big Blue Kisses!

x0

N2

Bookin' with the Grand Boy

I did get to see the Grand Boy last week and here's the proof:

It was a quick trip, down and back in a day, but the Boy, the Daughter and I had some relaxation time together around the flat. I got to hold that boy and walk him and give him what he needed and soothe him to sleep. There is something so heart healing about being able to make just the moves needed to get another to let go of their pent up tension and just fall out of their body for a bit, relax completely.

Even better to go on holding them while they sleep...
But the Daughter has just started putting him in his cradle for sleeping (finally making use of those hand made baby bumpers =o), so I put him down for a nap...a couple of times...

Only to have him pop back awake and want to play some more... And who could resist, right?!

It looked like a long nap was not in the cards, so we decided to walk down to our favorite local, independent book store, Green Apple Books, on Clement Street here in San Francisco.

Green Apple has been in the same location since before the Daughter was born. I remember being introduced to it in 1971 by girlfriends who lived in an apartment just a couple of doors down from the bookstore. Green Apple has a great selection of old and new books and my friend Cindy had just bought all of her Christmas presents for kid friends there -- old Yellow, Blue and Pink Fairy Books for the girls and Hardy Boys mysteries for the boys. I went in to check it out and I have been going back ever since.

The store has wonderful nooks and crannies on three levels and, over time, they have added space and annexed two store fronts a couple of doors down. They recently moved their children's book section, my long term favorite area of the store, up to the mezzanine and spread it out a bit.

The Daughter, the Boy and I spent a good hour and a half reading through old and new books. Well, the Boy actually really got to sleeping when he was in the BabyBjörn carrier, within the first block from home, and he slept and slept, soothed by the sound of the pages of children's books turning at the store.




There are chairs and stools scattered about in the stacks so that, when you get into reading a book you find, you can sit down and enjoy for awhile. Just as we were getting ready to buy a couple of books and leave, the Boy woke up and wanted a snack. Easily accomodated by his mom on one of those handy chairs with reading material nearby.

Back at home we even got in some Dad time.

It was a good visit but, as ever, not quite long enough.

Until next time.

x0

N2