A Lovely Stroll In The Neighborhood

With the weather being a wee bit hot right now, it is easier to take a walk either early in the morning or towards evening, when it cools down a bit. Strolling through the quarter one sees lots of other people who enjoy the light evening breeze and the very special light just before sundown.

These two young gentlemen decided to sit outside on their lawn and ask anybody passing by to pose for a photo. Which we did. Then we took a snap of them and asked for permission to put them up on the blog. Which they gave.

Then we started chatting about wine and finally we wandered off again.

Typical for Los Angeles? I don’t know. But certainly for our neighborhood.

Cheers!

Early Evening Stroll

Weather-wise we have nothing to complain about, it’s basically one perfect summer’s day after the other. Especially wonderful are the mornings (for running) and the evenings (for walking).

One stroll to recommend leads past the Prospect Studios,

very much a part of “Old Hollywood” – old in the sense of “where it all began” – and then up Talmadge (yes, yes, named in honor of Norma):

On evenings and in surroundings like this, everybody wants to live in Los Angeles.

The Secrets Of Europe

Nobody knows whether it was a (mild) earthquake or a cat – one morning our favorite teapot was broken. We found a replacement, carried it home, made some tea in it and discovered that it was one of those pots: Beautiful to look at in its round and sturdy teapot-ness and dripping at the spout. Not good!

On the other hand, we were planning to go on a trip to Germany anyway and I knew that in Germany I would find something called a “Tropfenfänger” or drip-catcher in plain English. Available in any store over there, I told the other half of the household, no problem at all. It’s just one of those little secrets of Europe only the natives know about, I said.

So the Tropfenfänger went on the list of things to bring back home, right besides Rouladennadeln (for keeping beef-olives in shape during cooking) and 80 x 80 cm pillowcases (the largest pillowcases in the USA measure 62 x 62 cm) and other essentials and off we went: Los Angeles, Paris, Hannover, no problem. Getting the stuff on the shopping list too was a breeze… with one exception: Tropfenfänger seemed to have ended up on the list of “extinct creatures”.

Like the Dodo. Oh dear. Doomed to a life with a dripping teapot?

No, the story does have a happy ending: I told my story of woe at the family table and everybody was just as astonished as I was that something we all remembered from our youth had simply disappeared. Until my sister-in-law stood up and left the room, to reappear a short while later with three of the elusive thingies still in their original packaging. She vaguely remembered that they ended up on a storage shelf after clearing out some kitchen… anyway, who cares? I triumphantly carried them home and believe me – that was the end of any dripping from the teapot.

Care to take a look at this magnificent piece of German efficiency?

Not the latest in sleek design, but VERY effective.