This is the State flag and nothing more than that really. I thought at first that it might be a gesture of independence, but it’s not. It was raised on a couple of houses in the district we are staying. It’s described as follows: “Historic Bear Flag raised at Sonoma on June 14, 1846, by a group of American settlers in revolt against Mexican rule. The flag was designed by William Todd on a piece of new unbleached cotton. The star imitated the lone star of Texas. … The word, “California Republic” was placed beneath the star and bear.” Still … Continue reading Californian Republic

A stroll away from where we are staying is an area with some pretty fancy houses, and I took a stroll that way just yesterday with the intention of finding my own favourites. Not many people do stroll around these parts. Most of these are the sort of places that have gardeners and automatic watering. Whilst in Larchmont village, a bit of a misnomer really as it’s just a short area of a very long road that has some very pleasant shops and coffee places there, I was accosted by the other side of this society. As with everyone over … Continue reading LA Houses and the menu please.

My second job title when I first started working was : Typographer. I was hardly qualified in many respects and ‘winged it’ to get the position which was in a large advertising agency. In those days we did a character count and produced type mark ups for the typesetters to follow. I had no idea what I was doing until Norman came to the rescue. He’d been there for years and knew all the ins and outs. He could also see that I had no idea what I was doing. I learnt pretty quickly, thanks to Norman A visit to … Continue reading Completely unjustified!

As an aside from my Californian sojourn we are able to view the World Cup from here. I did this drawing for the last one, or it could even have been for the one before. No need to stray away from the telly here with “Piranha Ready Chewed Food” I can tell it’s an older piece of work as it’s in colour! As for myself, I’m being taken to a baseball match here tomorrow evening, I’m told it’s like rounders on speed. I’ll let you know.   Continue reading World Cup telly

We’ve been to LACMA. That is the shorthand for Los Angeles County Museum of Art. I like art galleries, great places to watch people as well as the exhibits, so this was well worth the trip. There’s loads to see and plenty of space to see it in. Without going into detail here are some of my faves from the day. All of these taken on my daughter’s iPhone lent to me for the day, as my own seems to have melted. We are hoping to return to take a little more of it in soon. One of the great … Continue reading An art scene seen.

I’m challenging myself to give you a description without a particularly relevant image, this image is of a small house in Carpenteria, and is meant as decoration to this piece rather than having any particular relevance as the blog is about an image I have in my head, not in digital format. We went to Carpenteria’s Museum, in this small town on the coast just below Santa Barbara. It’s worth a visit. As we entered the place, a long single storey building which was dark as we walked in. A delightful elderly lady welcomed us in and asked if we’d … Continue reading Picture this.

It’s a fine balance staying with family. You like to be helpful but essentially you are getting in the way of a routine they have in place. So we thought before we came here to California: “Give them a break!” We booked to go North in a hire car to Santa Barbara and to stay slightly inland at Ojai. For the uninitiated that’s pronounced  Oh Hi! I’d also planned a trip to the coast to have a guided bird watch trip with Jenny, both the accommodation and the outing were booked through Air bandb and both very much lived up … Continue reading Give them a break.

It’s the name of a Vet Practice and it can only be in California, or at least the USA. They like these names for businesses, perhaps they have something in common with South Yorkshire where the locals there seem to like business names that are intended to make one chuckle, or not! Judging by the look of the place it was doing ok. We were on our way to a Vegan Restaurant for a spot of brunch, a bit of a treat for me on Father’s Day, on top of the jar of marmalade bought from Larchmont Farmer’s Market. Marmalade … Continue reading The Barking Lot

There’s probably a very good explanation for it but the streets of Los Angeles seem to have dozens of old power lines. Or may be they’re new. Walking past this area the other day I could not help notice, with the ultra modern new skyscraper in the background. There were also people having a lesson in “how not to walk”.   Continue reading Why so many overhead wires?

There were no mobile phones, or cell phones as they call them round these parts. We were met then by Derek, a friend who’s ambition was to live in the States and be a hot shot lawyer, who could have blamed him then, it was the 80’s and he was from Nottinghamshire. His girlfriend Carol was a Californian who wanted, and did achieve, a quiet life in the UK, turning her back on California. Like us, at the time, or a little before in his case as he’d already settled over there, we had been living in the same house … Continue reading The last time we came here…

Travelling long haul is exactly that, a long haul. I’m not convinced of the glamour. We took to the skies by the so called trendy Virgin Atlantic to Los Angeles to visit family who’ve gone there for a while. It was, I suspect just like any other airline, the planes are the same, and the seats not a lot different unless you pay a King’s ransom to fly anything other than “Economy”. We thought we’d gone one cheaper still by flying “Economy Light” until I discovered that the light meant that you could not take any clothes with you to … Continue reading The unutterable glamour of flying.