Happy Spring and Super Bloom

I'm on my way shortly to San Francisco and Marin 

for my birthday weekend with my sister! 

She and I share the same birthday week

where for that one week, we are the same age. 

She has one day left! 

Hoping to get some photos 

of some of California's Super Bloom

going on now after their crazy winter of rain. 

So I'll have to return soon to share the promised pics 

of the interior of Notre Dame at Christmas. 

Until then, just wanted to say 

Happy Spring!

(And right at this moment,

the sun is out for maybe the 3rd time this year.

Hope you're getting some wherever you are.)

(Photo Copyright: Kirsten Steen)

(Marin 2009)

Pt. Reyes Station

At the bottom of the hill from where I'm staying is Pt. Reyes Station, a quaint-yet-hip tourist town with plenty going on paricularly on sunny weekends when it fills with San Francisco's weekend warriors, bikers and upwardly mobile looking for something simpler.

When "partner" walked into town the other day to let me finish my word count, we decided to meet in front of the old character tree near the Palace Market at a particular time but a few minutes before appointed time, I got a call. "Change of plans. A singing minstrel has taken over the tree so we'll have to meet down the block."

Toby's, a local all-in-one hosts an art gallery, fresh produce stand and gift shop as well as yoga and meditation classes and even a Saturday night Barn Dance!

The Cowgirl Creamery in the old Creamery building (what was once an old barn) features locally-made organic artisan cheeses and gourmet foods as well as organic produce. Besides their original location in Pt. Reyes Station, they maintain a shop at the Ferry Plaza in San Francisco as well as a second store in Washington, D.C.

Can't wait to check out the local bookstore and bakery!

Photographs copyright: Kirsten Steen

Marin Wildflowers

Hiking through Marin's Drake Estuary takes me back to my teenage years; the sights, smells and sounds of a childhood long gone yet still alive in the warm breezes tickling my memories. My mother's favorite weekend pasttime was to drive from our San Francisco residence to Marin's many wildlands. Sunday was "Family Day" and somewhere in Marin was where you could find us nearly every single weekend.

When I return here, I remember where I got my love for all things of nature's blues and greens. My favorite colors are pine forest and mint field greens against indigo oceans and baby blue and midnight skies. Marin is all about these colors in every direction.

The wildflowers of Marin are bursting forth after a recent hint of rain (luckily having misted the forests and fields before we arrived)!

The forests are teeming with new growth...

...and the poppies astound with their ability to cling to life in the most unlikely places

...except in my soggy front yard at home where I've tried to cultivate them for two years in a row.

Here I am breathing the smells my mother so loved, taking in the sights that filled her soul as they now fill mine. And every so often, as I gaze out on what a friend recently called "God's Country", I hear and feel the sigh of my mother's contentment breathe past my shoulder like a kiss~ kisses in whisps of cut grass, hot pine needles and hearty sunshine caressing spring blooms. I turn hoping to catch a glimpse of her face but am reminded once again, she is gone. But only as far as the next view, the next sweet scent, the next happy giggle that erupts from me but sounds startlingly like her!

Photographs copyright: Kirsten Steen

Personal Writing Retreat in Marin!

Just a brief note to say that I am on a personal writing retreat at Pt. Reyes this next week so while there will be upcoming photos in the near future, here are a couple just to show the view from my writing corner.

The weather has been perfect, with writing and meditation filling the mornings and sightseeing, picnics and postcard-perfect walks gracing the afternoons.

More to come!

Photographs copyright: Kirsten Steen