Property for Sale in London!

One of my favorite blogs Susk and Banoo with an umlaut, features a delightful young woman and her husband.  I have blogged about them in the past.  When I first started peering into their lives, they were reno-ing the sweetest little quirky row house in London.  They're now selling it.  The picture above is one of their professional photos for marketing purposes.  I just love her taste.  And personality. 

The umlaut is over the U, not part of the title.

Speaking of which, I ran across this photo in the MLS today while I was diligently WORKING, something I do between chatting with The Dot, reading favorite blogs and planning trips to ITALY!  Do you think a man might live in this house?  This is the state of the real estate market these days.  So many of the listings are short sales.  The sellers have very little interest in actually selling and are mostly motivated by the desire to get the banks off their backs.  It makes for very interesting browsing.  This particular listing also featured a kitchen sink full of dishes.  Which I suppose is better than a bathroom sink full of dishes.  But less interesting.

Here's a marketing tip:  don't take a picture of the toilet.  I've mentioned this before.  But seriously, put the lid down if you do.  And the seat. 

Dotty's Apartment

Well she's gone and done it.  She found an apartment in San Francisco and the move is imminent.  I prefer not to think about it as "she's moving out" as much as "I'm getting a second home in San Francisco."

For those of you who don't know, San Francisco is a lovely city in Northern California.  The two photos above give you an idea of what it looks like when you're driving there from the East Bay on a cloudy day.

And the photo above will give you an idea of what it looks like to be inside a 1895 Victorian that your daughter will soon be calling Home.  Which is a less original name than Wellington if you ask me.  She'll have to work on that.

Those picture were taken on Wednesday when The Hub, The Dot and I went to measure spaces in order to plan the move.  And we met The Roommate who is a very sweet young woman.

Yesterday my friend and I hopped on BART and stalked the apartment in question.  First we met The Dot at her place of business and took her for a bite of sandwich.  After seeing her safely back to her office, we took off on foot towards the new apartment.  It's actually walkable, but took about 40 minutes.  It was worth it because look what we saw in one of the many gardens:

Guess what it is.  Go ahead.  You'll never guess.  I didn't.  Luckily my friend is a master gardener and knew right away that the plant above is a Poinsettia!!  I can't even keep mine alive over the holidays, and look at this ancient specimen!  It's all gnarly and woody and positively thriving!  It must like fog.

While we were stalking the apartment, we spent 30 minutes or so on the front steps.  Some of us had to lift the mail flap to see if we could actually see into the apartment.  We could!  So we snapped this picture of the hallway.  The door at the back is the roommate's bedroom.

And here is what it looks like when you peer into the side window into The Dot's room.  This is her desk alcove.  If you look up into the corner you can see this sort of gargoyle.  It's a face molded into the trim.  I need to do a little research and find out what these probably depicted.  The medallion on the ceiling has little cherub faces, I think.  But these faces, according to my wonderful Master Gardener friend, look like Sir Francis Drake.  The Dot concurs.  So for now, that's what we're going with. 

Cool?

This is what The Dot will see when she looks out her window.  The house to the left is probably about the same age as The Dot's, 1895.  The apartment building to the right was probably mid 1970s.  Functional but not beautiful.  Her actual neighborhood is really sweet with lots of trees and interesting eateries.  My favorite so far is a coffee house called Bean There.  But I"m just getting started, so I'll keep you posted as I become more ensconced in the local goings-on.

It is my second home now, after all.

Benicia Scenes (More Blip Rejects)

This boat is no longer functional.  But it's very interesting.  Home to many a barnacle.

Figgy's toes are wonderfully gnarly.

This is the cleanest cat we've ever owned.  Our first cat.  But still.  Clean.

A blustery day down by the water.

Some of you who read both of my blogs may recognize some of these.  But this one deserved another look.  It's a huge barge zipping along the strait at the end of 1st Street.

Sweetest little piglet trying to hide in a clump of vegetation.  That's her.  She's brown and white.  With fur.

Wellington!

That darn cat again.  She spends most of the day cleaning or snoozing.  It was a very warm day and she got awfully sleepy on the front steps.

Fresh cut lawn and a view of the topiary.

The Lady Banks is blooming!  It's been covered in buds for a week or so, and today they burst open!  Last year the show was disappointing.  This little rose is normally very impressive.  I'll keep you posted.

The turtles are having outings in the Arbor Walk lately.  Pica, the female, spends most of her time eating and relaxing (she is named after an eating disorder).  Angrite runs around angrily knocking over pots.  They're a good pair.  Today Angrite spent about 30 frantic seconds on his back after falling off a five inch cliff.  He managed to turn over all by himself. 

Here is the Fish-Riddel house on West K.  If I was a little braver I would have had a really good pic.  The gate was open, with the walk leading right to the front door which was also open.  Their dog was laying on the lawn.  But I'm a chicken so this will have to do.

I just really liked this chimney on this old house on the corner of West K and West 2nd. 

This is a fence in the alley behind our house.  That's the sun shining through the notch.  We've had a lot of it lately at Wellington.

A Day in Benicia (Blip Rejects)

These are all the photos I didn't use on my Blip photo blog.  All photos were taken February 26, 2012 in and around Wellington in Benicia.

The top photo is the sedum The Hub planted along the top of the Century Stone wall in front.  It looks like three different plants when it's fully in bloom.

Above is one of the cacti in my kitchen window.  It's developing buds.  It's so cute when it blossoms.  I bought it the week we moved into Wellington.  It generally only blooms along the base, then forms babies.

These three palm trees grow outside the mobile home park near the water.  They're very well tended.  Pretend like you're in Hawaii.

Another view of the boats down at the harbor.

A young lady down by the harbor. The sculpture is a whimsical one of Jack London.  He used to hang around Benicia quite a bit. 

Some people out of focus, looking at the water.

Two kids playing near the wall while a boat goes past.

An interesting house on a pier.  Don't know the story behind this, but I like how it looks.  That's the city of Martinez across the water.

Looking up into a willow tree.

One of the boats at the harbor.  It was pretty far away, so this isn't a very good picture.  But I liked this boat.

Link to my photo blog.
You can see which photo I chose, not included in this blog, by clicking on February 26 on the calendar.

Garden Update and Blue Ivy

This is the peach tree.  It's completely in bloom and it's only February 11th.  That's California for you.  Last year it bloomed at the same time, according to The Blog.  And we got peaches (we were expecting nectarines), so it's okay.  They weren't exactly edible, but the tree was just a baby.  I have high hopes for edible fruit this year. 

The viburnum along the back wall is starting to bloom.    It's beautiful.

The arbutus marina (or strawberry tree) is blooming.  It has dangly "strawberries" on it, too.

This is the hibiscus that rooted all on its own when I had it inside in a vase.  So we shoved it in the ground!  It's just a baby.

The jade, which has been in a pot for about twelve years, is blooming for the first time.  I originally plucked a teeny piece of the jade in (shhh) Disneyland outside Sleeping Beauty's castle.  I kept it in a paper cup until we got home, put it in the ground and now it's three to four feet round and BLOOMING!

This is just a spider that was building a web.  He helps keep down the gnat population.

Here's Sybil.  She's a multi-fruit tree we got for FREE at Lowe's.  Look at all the buds!  I can't remember the three fruits on here, but I think there's a plum and maybe a nectarine.  Luckily it's labeled, but I'm too lazy to look right now.

Look how gorgeous the sky was yesterday evening.

This is the hardenbergia that is blooming along the back wall with the viburnum.

The weeping Japanese maple along the arbor walk is just setting its leaf buds.

As promised, I have included some pictures of our wonderful cat, Blue Ivy.  Her name used to be Hugo.  But recent events have motivated us to change her name to Blue Ivy.  Read about those events here.

We've also named our new olive tree Blue Ivy.  And we're encouraging the Little Boy to change the name of his little blue car to Blue Ivy.

Stay tuned for more garden updates and more pictures of Blue Ivy.

Real Esate Diversion: San Francisco Contemporary

The Dot is looking in earnest for a new place in San Francisco.  This isn't it.  And not because it's $3 million.  It's two and a half miles from work!  But isn't it cool?

This is the rooftop deck (it doesn't have a yard.)  Below is the little observatory so you can still see the incredible views during inclement weather.  Inclement weather is generally imminent when you live in the City by the Bay.  So this should come in handy.

This house is so open and bright, it just gives me a great feeling.

 

Love this kitchen with the industrial details.

A view over the rooftops towards the Golden Gate.

Here is the front with port hole and steel garage door.  So cool.  You can just glimpse a bit of the pink apartment building to the left.  I'd still take it.  But it's not quite right for The Dot.