morning walk, but with sea lions
We're coming to you live from San Diego. Here for a wedding and just got to explore La Jolla Cove.
My wife and I both agree we need to bring the kids here.
The place is alive with Sea Lions, Cormorants, and Pelicans gathered all across the hillside. And they are loud! The birds and sea lions constantly battle over territory. Lions bark, birds squawk, waves crash in, and wind rustles through everything that pokes up from the ground. It's all very alive.
Wildflowers and lush ground cover the landscape, creeping up around the perimeter of some very nice homes. This is also clearly a scuba hotspot—divers everywhere unload gear from their pickups.
I went for a sunrise walk this morning and took it all in. It was perfect coastal spring weather. Unspeakable beauty meets the man who doesn't deserve it. But I will accept, thank you, God.
Something I love about California is its landscaping, which is truly exceptional. The succulents, flowers, jade bushes, and aloe don't just surround homes—they envelope them.
It's three-dimensional in a way that you don't get to in too many other places in the US, except maybe the coastal South.
It's the enclosure/nestling effect I'm always after in everything we do.
I have a theory that one of the reasons simple, low modern homes became so popular here was that they complement the landscape well and provide a smooth surface against which it can stand out.
The plants rise to meet the home, which lowers and widens itself to blend with the landscape. A perfect cooperation with nature.
As a sucker for a good home gym, I spotted one with a Peloton facing this incredible ocean view. Can't decide if that's the greatest thing in the world or totally insane when a walking trail is 10 feet from your property line.
My goal will always be to immerse myself in nature. I've always pictured living in a courtyard compound surrounded by an ecosystem that will eventually envelop the little oasis I've carved out. It's the Martha Stewart / Turkey Hill dream.
Anyways, that's it, wishing you all a Happy Easter!
a few things I saw this week
I don't think I'd go as far as doing this in a home, but hospitality absolutely. Really fun. It's interesting enough just in its' shape, would love to see this in a more subtle material.
Also, the studio workshop of Ginori 1735, a Florence-based fine ceramics maker.
This gives me so many ideas...fireplaces, cased openings, commercial exteriors, poolhouses, built in headboards, wainscoting. Come on.
