PARTY AT THE CASTLE

BETTER THAN XANADU 

    Until a few days ago I could never say, "We partied at the castle."

   "Twilight on the Terrace" a fund raiser by the Friends of the Castle, permits you a chance to imagine the parties 

 hosted by William Randolph Hearst at San Simeon, his mountain top castle, six miles from our more modest ridge top abode. 

  We've been to great parties and feasts and have seen a bit of this planet, but San Simeon is certainly one of the very top party places in the world.

 The evening light on the mountain top is gorgeous.

   Now I understand why Charlie Chaplin, Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, David Niven, Clark Gale, Carole Lombard, Robert Taylor, Howard Hughes, Winston Churchill, the Barrymores, Jean Harlow, Errol Flynn, George Bernard Shaw among others, liked to party up at the Castle.

    Great local wine, food, music and views that literally do not end. And it should be noted, modern guests are offered a more varied menu and certainly more wine than W.R. permitted his celebrants. That's why David Niven learned to sneak in bottles and hide them in bedrooms! 

     See you down the trail

THE GOOD FORTUNE OF....

A CONFLUENCE OF AN IDEA
AND A PERSON
Mandela as an example

    The world's knowledge of Nelson Mandela has grown exponentially thanks to media saturation this last week.

    The comparison to George Washington as father of his nation is apt. Both men were requisite for their moment in history and by all accounts both rose above their own pain, suffering and challenge to evince a defining national character.  

    Churchill's legacy, rallying a battle scarred Britain to stand in the breach of WWII is another contemporary example-the correct person at a pivotal moment. Copernicus, Einstein, Newton and Da Vinci are among others who perceived and thought reality and boundary busting norms and who pushed history.

     Is there something behind such motions of time and history?  Fate? Serendipity? Providence? What do you think?

     What makes some people so very special?

and art as an example

A POINT OF REFERENCE
a meditation on
what was or what might be?

ART COLLABORATION
as an example

    Though my skill is sub zero on any scale, I've always been fascinated with artist studios. And I've been lucky to live with an extraordinarily talented woman who has created fascinating spaces from which to create.

   I've noted too, that artists generally stimulate greater output when they are in each other's company.  Here's a snap shot of such.  Karen from Marin County, Jane from North Carolina and Lana from Cambria in a moment that could best be described as an engine running flat out.

People and moments
historic passages
creative endeavours
break throughs in knowledge
like the advent of light in darkness.
Nothing is as it was before 
that moment or that person.

And we have the good fortune to live with the difference.

See you down the trail.

WINSTON CHURCHILL

THE FINEST HOUR

Several years ago a few of us then in the 

heartland, created a Churchill Society.

Impressed with his wit, love of adult

beverages and cigars, that alone was

enough to prompt our beginning.

But we were history nuts as well and

it is there we found the "serious" reason

for our gathering.  We've been 

trading communication in the last several

hours about the new Churchill Center coming

to Washington, even proposing field trips.

So, I've spent some time looking at Churchill clips, and 
thinking how my high school and college research
papers would have been different given the 
tools of youtube and search engines.

See you down the trail.