Home sweet home. If the camera pointed the other direction, you’d be looking at our house.

It was such a lovely morning here in Glen Ridge, NJ … until we heard from our next door neighbor about the flood that was just houses away from our house on Coldwater Canyon Avenue in Studio City, CA. See video. A water main broke, blowing a hole in the street big enough to accommodate a couple of fire trucks and sending a flood of water into houses, picking up cars and causing damage (to some pretty high end restaurants and shops) in the neighborhood. Just about four houses down from our house.  So while we’re on our trip, we’re missing news crews and helicopters, hundreds of firefighters, our street being closed off for a while causing a major traffic mess. And yet, I almost wish I’d been there to see it.

Oddly enough, in 1993, before we moved there, a major main broke higher up on the street causing a similar flood.  People had to be evacuated by the Red Cross – including including the residents of our house and neighbors. Eventually the water department had to replace all the lawns and other water damage.  A coincidence? I doubt it. The pipe was laid in 1914.

Life in L.A. : droughts, fire, flood.

Who says Los Angeles doesn’t have seasons?
In addition to four seasons (earthquake, mud, fire, flood), we also have spider season.

I love to see the huge, elaborate webs they spin at this time of year.

I hate where they spin them. There’s one every morning across the opening in the hedge which I must break to go out and get the paper. It doesn’t hurt the spider – there’s a new web in the same spot the following morning. (And consistently, year after year.) They love to build around our patio and the one above is just outside my office – happily, I could walk around that one.

The worst part is when you accidentally walk through one without seeing it and the whole thing ends up in your hair. Icky!

But … those webs are definitely works of art.

Charlotte lives!

You’ve got to love summer! Even though I have more work to do than ever, summer just naturally feels more laid-back and fun than any time of the year – even here in Southern California where it’s kinda summer all year long. I guess I’ve never gotten over summer vacations. (And we’ll find out what Humphrey does on his summer vacation in SUMMER ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY -aka HOLIDAYS ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY in the UK) next February. Still, I have a lot on my plate.

Maybe I’ll chuck it all and create a work of art … like this clever installation I just saw at LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art). Frank and I couldn’t resist walking through this colorful maze with all the other little kids. Look familiar? It’s plastic kitchen stuff. So if you have a closet full of Tupperware collecting dust, you, too, could create a colorful curtain. I have to say, everybody there was smiling.

We were actually at the museum to see their ticketed exhibition called “Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture Around the Bay of Naples.” The Romans in the 1st Century B.C. – that’s a long time ago yet they were very modern. I would gladly wear any of the jewelry and feel completely 21st century. A lovely exhibit but quite a far cry from plastic kitchen wear … and yet it’s all pleasing to the eye.

Now back to work … or not. After all, it’s summer!

Living in southern California, we get a lot of interesting visitors throughout the year. Our most recent guest was a charming guy named Flat Stanley. Stanley was sent to us from cousin Katherine Wilbraham of Connecticut. It was fun for Humphrey to meet another character from a book.

I was very privileged to have such a famous visitor. I’ve always loved Flat Stanley and know that through the years, many classrooms have mailed their own Flat Stanleys around the country.  Here in L.A. he visited Disney Hall, downtown, Venice Beach and the Santa Monica Pier. But maybe his greatest adventure was right here, in my own back yard office!

I was a little surprised, though, because when I wasn’t looking, Stanley took a peek at my manuscript for the book that comes out in February.

I guess he just couldn’t help himself!

My husband Frank will be delivering Stanley back home this weekend when he is on the east coast.

I do hope he comes to visit again!

It was a big bump – or a thump – that woke me up this week at 1:30 in the morning.  It didn’t wake Frank up but I did – I was frightened for some reason, though I’m not a panicky person. I was sure something heavy had fallen in the house. Maybe the house even shook a little, though I knew it wasn’t an earthquake. I spent a while checking rooms and closets and the garage but nothing had fallen. Frank suggested I had dreamed it but I knew I hadn’t. I didn’t ever get back to sleep.

The next morning, the mystery was solved when we saw hundreds of tiny green apricots in our yard. And there was our next door neighbor Mary, so recently widowed. In the night, their huge apricot tree had toppled over and landed on her car. It didn’t do too much damage to the car because it caught on our fence. She hadn’t heard it because it’s really closer to our bedroom than hers.

By noon, everything was carted away. But we still miss the towering tree and so do the birds.

It was an unsettling day for us all but at least I knew I didn’t imagine that great big bump in the night.