“She glances at the photo, and the pilot light of memory flickers in her eyes.”
~
Frank Deford

Monday, April 30, 2012

Spring is here - time for garden tours


Spring is here and the weather is beautiful.  April and May are always full of home and garden tours.  Last weekend I went with my friend Miriam to the Pasadena Showcase House, where a charity takes over an amazing mansion and has designers and landscape architects completely redo the house interior and gardens.  Unfortunately, they didn't allow any photography so I don't have any pictures to share, but it was incredibly beautiful and full of inspiring ideas; if you live in SoCal, try to see it during its 6 week run.

Yesterday I went to *two* tours in Pasadena - the Bungalow Heaven Historical Home Tour and the Garden Conservancy's Pasadena garden tour.  Bungalow Heaven is full of Arts & Crafts style homes from the early 1900's.  I only went to half the homes on the tour (the lines were way too long), but just walking around the district and seeing all the charming homes is fun in itself.

The private gardens on the Conservancy's tour are much larger and very professionally designed.  They ranged from formal Italianate to English cottage to bamboo tropical jungle.  Lots of good ideas, especially when I win the lottery...

Next week I'm volunteering at the Conservancy's Los Angeles garden tour, so I'll have some more garden pics to share.  Enjoy!


Bungalow Heaven Home Tour
Handcrafted lantern


Luncheon area caterer


Friendly pony


Backyard chickens


Garden Conservancy tour
Rose reflection


Under a loggia


Giant columbine


Wisteria on an Arts & Crafts fence


Camelia still-life


Globe art


Busy bodies


Afternoon nap


You've got what??

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Volunteers' tour

I do some volunteer work for the Los Angeles Conservancy, an organization dedicated to preserving historical buildings.  In appreciation of their volunteers, they organized a tour of the Ebell building, home of the Ebell women's service club and the Wilshire Ebell Theatre (built in 1927).  It was designed by Sumner Hunt, who was also the architect for the Bradbury Building.  I love the architecture of that time period and this is a lovely example.  They have lectures and recitals and a Monday luncheon, which are all open to the public.  Check out some of my impressions on the tour below.


You can see this sign from Wilshire Blvd


Stenciled ceiling beams


The Los Angeles Doctor's Symphony Orchestra in rehearsal


Victorian style chandelier


Part of their historic clothing collection


Our tour guide, president of the Ebell Club


In the archives - do you remember Kodachrome?


Moorish stylings of a church next door


Colorful bouquet


The courtyard with the veteran's war memorial fountain


Illumination



Inside the theatre

Monday, April 16, 2012

Montreal

I went to Montreal to spend Passover with my sister and her family.  I always take lots of photos.  Here is a mix of sights and people.  I hope you enjoy them.


Lights of Montreal


Reflections


Lovely nieces :)


Downtown jumble


Musee des Beaux-Arts


Napoleon Bonaparte


So cute!  So funny!



Storm on the horizon


Strike??!?


Night time neon


Mimuna!


Sunglass weather - finally

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Photo class


I took a class on taking head shots (this is Hollywood after all!).  I wanted to learn some tips on taking portraits in general.  The teacher was Kawai Matthews, a celebrity photographer.  It was fun to play and learn about different lighting techniques, plus posing and wardrobe.  Here are a few photos from class.