get to your library...

Do you realize public libraries are threatened with severe cuts? At least in California, which has an enormous budget deficit, library funding might be greatly cut--and with that comes a double whammy since federal matching funds would be lost as well. Think of everything you can get at a public library: free books, loads of newspapers and magazines to peruse, free loans of DVDs, ebook downloads, free computer time, computer tutoring, storytimes for tots, afterschool programs for school-age kids, author events, early-morning yoga classes and the list goes on. Libraries typically open early (sometimes at the crack of dawn for those yoga classes) and close as late as any big mall store (sometimes at 11 p.m. if it's during finals week, providing a safe quiet place for students to cram). Workhorses, public libraries are that!

Workers at our library passed around the recent story of an English community, facing a shutdown of their local library, enlisted their patrons to check out every single item in their library to show the budget slashers they'd better not mess with the library.

So I hope you will visit your local library this week and partake of what it has to offer. If you need a specific mission, look for this book, "At Home in Turkey" by Solvi Dos Santos. It is full of gorgeous pictures of city homes as well as retreats and palaces on the mythic waters that surround Turkey. Very interesting is to view and read about the study and library of Orhan Pamuk, Nobel Prize winning author, with their view onto the Borphorus.

The rich details of Ottoman empire architecture and furnishings are on full display in this beautiful book.

a new bakery opens!

In a tiny old cottage on a residential street, Ponsford's Place www.ponsfordsplace.com seems like the kind of neighborhood bakery where our mothers and grandmothers bought their daily bread. Whole grain breads are made of specially milled flours (today the bread choices were rye and millet; challah was due out of the oven soon). The still-warm pastry filled with ricotta was fantastic as was the perfect little dome of a spicy dried fruit and oatmeal cookie. You can see the gorgeous looking jars of preserves (haven't tried them yet). And the proprietor will sell his flour, how great is that?!

The bakery isn't open every day as the owner does other things too like teach at a culinary school. You know the bakery is open when the Bread Man sculpture, of course made out of bread, is standing out on the sidewalk. Today it was raining so he held an umbrella and wore a poncho.

I want everyone to know about this gem of a bakery!

shopping craigslist

We found this chair on craigslist. It cost $20, is in new condition and even has a little cushion. Still to find is something to set the printer on other than the recycled particle board cube, a stand for the tv, and a slipcover for the sofa.

We prowled the Alemany Flea Market in SF on Sunday and came home with a pretty wristwatch and a Cole Haan carryall bag. There's not much big stuff there, but lots of jewelry, tools, clothes and bric a brac. I thought the prices were good--the lady was asking $15 for the watch but took $10 "since you like it so much." Panorama Bakery was selling delicious big delicious cookies and a taco truck was there too.

signs of Spring

It's flowering plum from our tree out by the street. The first thing to bloom each year, it was the warm weather over the weekend that caused the pink, fragrant blooms to pop. I just had to cut some branches to bring inside.

screen door rehab

The rips and holes in this screen door finally got to me (it is much more derelict than this picture shows). So I removed it from its track and have pulled off some of the screening and the gasket-like cording to take to the hardware store so I select the right replacement materials. The whole thing is oxidized and grimy with ancient dirt and bugs and cobwebs...will this turn out to be a big or small weekend project?