I thought today I’d just share a bit more of what’s going on with us this week …Jan—our daughter-in-law’s mom, and Olivia’s other grandma, and someone who has become such a dear friend to us—is now going to be, we hope, splitting her time between here and Ohio. Which we absolutely love because she is a joy to have around. I swear the guesthouse gets cleaner every day she spends in it. She is flying back to Ohio today so I think we’re getting some brunch before she has to head out. Hopefully at one particular local place where I can show her some beautiful specimens of Norfolk Island Pines, a tree species which she has fallen in love with. So I think that is happening.Tina and I have been very impressed with the sourdough starter we’ve been nurturing. We named her Doughnut. I don’t know why people get so attached to their sourdough starters that they name them, but they do, and we are no exception. So I think today might also be bread baking day. She is made entirely of ancient einkorn flour, so for her first heavy lift we’re going to see what kind of rustic artisan loaf she’ll turn out for us. Bare minimum, she’s going to fill the house with an amazing aroma.Beyond that I’m not sure we have any plans other than to see where the day will take us. Hopefully it will take us outside. The weather has been just outstanding and I just loving being out in it. Thank you El Niño. The wine and conversation with the fam around the fire pit last night was perfect. We couldn’t decide between pizza and bbq, so on Olivia’s suggestion we ordered both, which was perfection. From the mouths of babes.Yesterday was stunning. So we hopped in the Jeep and were out driving around on PCH. Point Dune and Zuma were both busy. The surf at county line was outstanding. We grabbed lunch at Neptune’s Net and after much careful investigation found the Barbie Dreamhouse. Which, if you haven’t heard about it, is a real oceanfront house in Malibu whose owners have renovated in hot pink to emulate Malibu Barbie’s Dreamhouse. And where you can now spend a night through AirBnB. Which we will not be doing because Ken kinda freaks me out. But the Barbie movie opens in just a couple of weeks now and we will definitely be seeing it.This morning was anything but quiet as I sat in the mist by the fire pit. Birdsong coming from everywhere. Not quiet, but soothing. Since I couldn’t see any of them I pulled up the Cornell Bird Lab app on my phone, which has a feature where it uses your phone’s microphone to listen in real time and can identify birds based on voice recognition—nature technology is awesome by the way. And in a brief ten minutes of listening it identified thirteen different species responsible for this morning’s concert. By the way, as a proud nature lover I don’t know how I got this far into my life without knowing this but, I just learned this week that no bird on planet earth can produce a blue color pigment. So blue jays and blue birds and any bird that has has any blue on it … they appear blue because of how the structure of their feathers bend light to emit the blue end of the light spectrum. Is that not amazing? I love it.So, yeah, in one sense not a deep philosophical week for me. No single issue I’ve been brooding on. I feel like my mind and spirit have just been resting lately. Taking a moment. Catching up from what has been a couple of pretty intense years. I know there’s still a lot going on out there in our world. When is there not? But I just haven’t been wanting to engage most of it. I’ve been most content with sunlight and breezes and birdsong and family and super simple things like baking bread and learning more about birds.Maybe that’s what summer should feel like. Perhaps that’s more philosophical than I give it credit for. It certainly feels deep and meaningful. Just more feelings and less words. Anyway, summer is here and I hope you’re indulging in everything it has to offer too. And if you haven’t yet, maybe today is a good day to...
