The Sea Ranch

Monday, March 8th, 2010

My muses have been at work this morning as I walk with Justine, my anthropologist protagonist of my fictional trilogy, through the centre of Florence. We have just sought out the Caravaggio painting of the Sacrifice of Isaac and now emerge into the sunlight of Piazza della Signoria, remembering the witnessing of Lucy Honeychurch (A Room With a View) of a grisly murder in that very place.

My husband and I are in a small hotel in Chico, California, visiting two grandchildren and are soon leaving to visit friends Annie and Seym in Medford–and another granddaughter at the University of Oregon.

Yet imagination and the internet create a fascinating playground wherever I am. All at my fingertips–and the tip of my mind. Cyberspace extends the mind into whatever realm I choose…from the Uffizi to Dante’s house to the tombs of the Etruscans in Cerveteri. This morning I wanted to visit Caravaggio’s room 43 at the Uffizi. And did.

It is this reality that makes our home on The Sea Ranch, California (see photos below), the perfect haven in which to think and write. When we moved into our redwood forest near the coast five years ago, it was with the promise to indulge our senses in the environment, the vibrant and progressive community, and the written word.

On the next posts I’ll send a couple of new compositions on shifting perspectives and Women’s Ways of Leading and an update on grandson Dylan alone in Death Valley.

Click on any of the images below to see larger versions.

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