January 13, 2025

I used to live in Los Angeles, at times in the city and other times in suburbs.  When I was in college, we would drive into Los Angeles for shopping or visiting the world's best chili hot dog stand.  After college, for a while I worked in Santa Monica and would drive down the 405 and then west on Sunset Blvd to get to the office.  Years and years later, we lived in LA and then in Ventura County.  We would drive Pacific Coast Hwy back and forth to visit friends or hang on the beach or go to Getty Center Museum and Getty Villa (in Pacific Palisades).

These fires that are raging in Los Angeles and the surrounding areas right now are tugging at my heart.  Last month in the Mountain Fire, our friends lost their beautiful home where we go to watch Fourth of July fireworks.  During the years we lived in Camarillo (Ventura County), we were evacuated two times from our home due to fires, one of which burned to about two hundred yards of our house.

destroyed vehicles in the parking lot above our neighborhood

This is why I am following the fires happening now in  LA.  I have read that Getty Villa and Getty Museum are safe at this point.  These two museums were our favorites to visit.  Staff at Getty Museum are stating that the buildings are safe and were built to withstand fires.  You can see how carefully and strategically they were designed.

I am very concerned for my friends who live in LA and Ventura Counties and am keeping in touch with them.  People are more important than buildings and art, but I do hope that the care and planning that the Getty Foundation did to protect its buildings will keep them safe.

It's December

First Friday in December.  And of course that means Friday Fave Fives which is hosted every week by Susanne at her blog Living to Tell the Story.

1.  I don't need an excuse to visit The Getty Center.  Since it was a first visit for two of our Thanksgiving guests, we happily arranged an expotition.  Although we were not allowed to take photos in the exhibits we chose to view (Canterbury and St. Albans), the architecture and views of the LA coastline did not disappoint.

2.  My daughter and the two little ones stayed on for a few days after the others left to return home and to work.  The weather was frightful.  But that didn't stop us from a couple of beach visits.  Equipped with warming drinks, the adults staked out our sandy claim

while the children did what children do--ignored the temperature and headed straight for the water.

3.  The pelicans were fishing.  I may have taken an abundance of photos...

4.  Listening to Christmas music in the car...

5.  and attending the Christmas concert of the Channel Islands Choral Association which is a local choral group comprised of both local people and students from California State University, Channel Islands.  We attend every year, and this week our little ones accompanied us (and did very well sitting and listening to the music which included several pieces played on the harp).

These are the highlights of Willow's Week.  There were of course many normal, boring hours and events, but each day was filled with blessings.  How was your week?

This Last Week of April Showers

It truly has been 'April Showers' here at Willow's Cottage this week.  It is unusual to say the least that we have rain in April.  And this week, it has rained several days.  Although I appreciate the benefits of the rain, I'm looking forward to May Flowers!  I appreciate the blessings that God brings me each week, also.  Here are five:

1.  I love this video of my hometown which a Portland friend posted on facebook.  I watched it with great fondness for the beautiful place of my childhood (and a decade of my children's childhoods).  I remember the views.  In the video, I saw the steps I sat on as a young girl at Washington Park and gazed at Mt. Hood.  Seeing the bridges reminded me of driving with my brother across the Markham Bridge in his new black convertible, top down, my long blonde hair blowing in the breeze.  Great memories of growing up in a wonderful city!

Finding Portland

2.  I read This post at becomingminimalist and want to share it with everyone.  In so many ways it describes my journey through the years.  Since early adulthood, I have walked the voluntary simplicity road which is now called 'minimalism' by most people.  Voluntary simplicity or minimalism isn't involuntary poverty; it's choosing to live simply with only what best graces your life.

3.  On the subject of minimalism, simplicity and decluttering, this week I met in real life a wonderful woman whose blog I've been following for a long time, for two years (shortly after she began blogging in March 2010).  Colleen of 365lessthings.com who lives in Australia has been on holiday in the US for a couple of weeks with her husband, and they had a long layover in Los Angeles.  After emailing back and forth, we decided to meet at The Getty Center for a few hours.  Just think, if the internet didn't exist, if we didn't have similar interests, we would never have met!  I'm so glad we did, both virtually and physically.

Willow and Colleen at The Getty Center

Los Angeles in the background

4.  A gardening mystery contest.  What flowering plant is this?  I know; do you?

5.  This magazine is my absolute favorite!  Country Living, British edition, is a delight which I enjoy monthly.  The mother of one of my students receives it from a friend who subscribes to it.  After she has read the current issue, she sends it to class with her daughter to give to me.  It makes my day!  I read it avidly and then pass it on to someone else, sometimes two someone elses, and it eventually ends up in the hands of the lovely lady who owns the local tea shop All Things Tea.  Each issue is read, treasured and passed on to at least four people.  I know I live in a mediterranean climate and the gardening advice is mostly useless for me; I know that it's geared for the English market and I live in the US;  but I love it and read it cover to glossy cover every month.



These are just five favorite events in Willow's Week.  I take joy in searching for positive, pleasing things in my life.  It just makes the week go better.  Thanks to Susanne who faithfully hosts Friday Fave Five, and thanks to all the other people who post their faves to encourage the rest of us.

The Art

Art at the Getty

The works of art displayed in the pavilions at the Genter Center in Los Angeles at any one time represents only a small portion of J. Paul Getty's collection. Rooms are filled with statues, furniture, books, photos, paintings and decorative items. While the Getty Villa focuses on displays of works of antiquity, most of Getty' acquisitions of medieval through modern art are housed at the Getty Center.

The Getty Center website describes the different galleries and collections like this (writing is copied from the website, photos are mine):

"The galleries at the Getty Center are housed in the Museum's five exhibition pavilions, plus the Getty Research Institute Exhibition Gallery.

The East Pavilion features primarily 17th-century Baroque art, including Dutch, French, Flemish, and Spanish paintings as well as sculpture and Italian decorative arts dating from 1600 to 1800.


The South Pavilion houses 18th-century paintings and the majority of the Museum's European decorative arts collection, complete with elaborately furnished paneled rooms, dating up to 1800.



The West Pavilion features sculpture and Italian decorative arts of the 1700s through 1900, as well as 19th-century paintings.

The North Pavilion presents paintings dating up to 1600. The plaza-level galleries that house Renaissance sculpture and decorative arts are closed for renovation. They will reopen with a new thematic installation in late 2009.


The Exhibitions Pavilion features changing exhibitions."

Paintings from each century are rotated on a regular basis. I have a couple of favorite paintings that I enjoy viewing on each visit, and I rush into the room to see if they are on the walls. (I tried to copy the portraits from the website and couldn't do it, but here is a link to sweet little Maria Frederike painted by Swiss artist Jean-Etienne Liotard.)

In the West Pavillion, you can see original paintings by Monet, Manet, and van Gogh and many other Impressionist artists. Irises is on permanent display and I am always amazed that I can stand only one foot away from that beautiful oil painting! (If I get any closer, the guard will come up and ask me to step back a little.) Another gallery contains display cases filled with brilliantly sketched and painted illuminated manuscripts. I wander through those rooms, gazing at the intricate and detailed writing and drawing and wish I knew how to read Latin.

I could stroll day after day through the pavillions and never tire of reading the descriptions of the works and sitting for a while to concentrate on one particular portrait or sculpture. Realistically, I can spend one or two days in a year there. I hope I live to be a very old woman, so I can return again and again and again.

So much beauty, so little time!

The Gardens

I had intended to write a little essay about the gardens at The Getty Center, but I decided that words would detract from the beauty of the photos and the place.

The Architecture

The first time I visited The Getty Center, I spent the majority of my hours there gazing at the buildings, their structure and material composition.


I was enthralled with the travertine marble which was quarried in Italy and transported to Los Angeles. In the shadows, the marble looks pearly white, but when the sun shines on the rough exterior, the marble takes on a creamy yellow color.

As the stone was cut, fossilized leaves were revealed. You can see many of the leaf images on the buildings' walls.

The architecture so fascinated me that I walked around staring up at the arches, corners and overhangs designed by Richard Meier. I was distracted from the exhibits by the extraordinary beauty of the museum buildings.

Even after several trips to the Getty, I still love strolling along the hallways and balconies, gazing at the pavilions, admiring their size, structure and setting!

This link gives more information about Meier and the Getty Center's architecture.

In The Dark

Having been in communication with the camera repair magicians, I am hopeful that sometime in the near future I will have my third eye back. I look around and observe scenes that I know would make fabulous photos. I am impatient, but the repair people are working as fast as they can. I hope.

Ellen and I met Sara, another Southern California blogger, at The Getty Center in Los Angeles on Friday. While at The Getty, I took photos with one of Ellen's camera, which she very graciously loaned to me, but for some reason blogger will not recognize that those photographs are on my hard drive. Both The Professor and I have tried everything we know to fix the problem, which for me was a little bit and for the Professor was a lot. But we are both baffled. I can promise you that The Getty Center is a photographer's paradise. Until we can diagnose and fix the problem and I can post my photos, you can visit their blogs and see what I saw.

On Sunday afternoon, we drove down Pacific Coast Highway through Malibu and Santa Monica to Los Angeles, where we popped in to the Southern California Weavers Guild Fiber Festival in Torrance. Again, because I was camera-less, I can only tell you in words that the array of fibers for sale was fabulous. The trend seems to be moving to brighter and more variegated fibers for spinning, knitting, and weaving. The Professor found the perfect black, deep blue and turquoise handpainted wool and insisted that I buy it and spin it, just for me. I happily and graciously complied. It is important to please our husbands and support our local fiber artists, isn't it?

After a much too quick visit with my former walking buddy and friend from The Beach Cities (mama of the kitty we cat sit for), I met up with The Professor and The Grad Student, who was in LA for two days. The hours spent with TGS flew by, and we were back in the car and on the way home. You'll have to believe me when I tell you that the white travertine marble walls of The Getty Center were shining brightly in the late afternoon sun as we drove along the 405 Freeway through Sepulveda Pass. I wish I could show you because 'a picture is worth a thousand words'. I want my eye back.