What becomes a legend most

 

What a lovely Halloween!

Started the day with a book signing at Vorman's Bookstore in Pasadena of the great S.F. legend writer Ray Bardbury.

Poor dear man. He's almost blind, deaf, in a wheel chair and made strange old man sounds as he did the best he could to sign each book. We were limited to one book only.

I once had lunch with the man. A male friend of mine is a good friend to him. But I didn't say a word, just sipped my wined and listened.

Then I went home and got ready for the Halloween events. Scroll down for the events. I even posted a photo of me in witch's makeup

My neighborhood has mosly Mexican American kids and they're so sweet and polite and the mothers usually make the costumes for their kids no store bought costumes for them. Still a very sweet group of kids all said "Thank you".

My Halloween graveyard

 

Halloween night is here!

 

Trick or treaters - beautiful neigborhood kids

 

Cat or bunny trick or treater

 

Baby trick or treater

 

Friendly trick or treaters

 

Dress to kill-me in makeup for the trick or treaters

 

Om, namaste & happy Halloween

 

The Children's Hour

 
When looking for ghost stories sometimes all you have to so is go to your own backyard. Doing research I ran across a story of several hauntings at Rose Hills Cemetery (however their P.C. term is Memorial Park) whatever, dead people are put there.

One story is that in the 1960's there was a tragic school bus accident with elementary school aged children. There were no survivors. The children were buried at Rose Hills in a special area that is reserved for children only. It has been reported that the workers claimed to have heard the voices and laughter of children playing while attending to the grounds. The area has been made as cheerful as possible for a graveyard but I guess we should add playground to the name of the area.

An eternity spent in play doesn't sound so awful. My heart breaks for the living parents.

Ghost tours

 

"Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,
In their night encampment on the hill,
Wrapped in the silence so deep and still,"
Paul Revere's Ride - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

If you ever in Boston invest the $40.00 and take the "Ghost Tours" it's well worth it and amazing! This is a photo of the very graveyard that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote about in his famous poem. The old North Church can be seen from here, really on a short walk away. In the evening there is always (no matter what season) a mist hanging over the graveyard and some people claimed to have seen white shadows floating around the area. Cool!

A witch exposed

 

"(that day is euery Prime, when Witches wont do penance for their crime)" Edmund Spenser

On Mentor Street in north Altadena there is a row of small versions of craftman style houses that have seen better days. The block was once known as "Bungalow Heaven" , these were the days when homes were built with built in china cabinets with cut glass window panes and bookcases, dining room , cute tiled kithens and long porches you could sit out a lazy afternoon on and watch your neighbors walk by. The neighborhood may have gone to seed but the charm of these well designed homes can still be enjoyed. Among these charming homes built in the 1920s there stands a white, Victorian style farm house, the children in the neighborhood call it the "Witch's House". People claim you can see a woman dressed in white pacing up and down the porch as soon as twilight falls. Even in the cold winter months you can see this woman clad in only this white dress pacing up and down the porch. Some claims she sometimes is holding a candle or is seen standing in the center of the porch looking out to the horizon as if she is looking for someone. This home was obviously built when there were only farms in the area and native Americans was a real threat to the locals. They could attack and quickly escape to the foothills. Maybe this woman is waiting for a family member who went out for the day and never returned. Hope never dies.

A view from my hotdog

 

I have two weakness, one is art museums and another is the all American hotdog. Today I went to the Norton Simon Museum and after walking around for hours I stopped at the outdoor pool area and enjoyed a hotdog and a glass of champagne. The outdoors area has wonderful modern art statues and a lovely lily pool. A guard told me that during the evening raccoons come down from the foorhills and wash their paws and bring their baby raccoons to swim in the pool. Wouldn't that be just darling to see!

You can't teach an old pervert new tricks

 

Another story involving the haunted Rialto movie house in South Pasadena has to do with a naughty male projectionist. The projection room is near the female's upstairs balcony bathroom. It appears he found a way to spy on women while they were using the bathroom. When his out of the projection room behavior was discovered he was fired. However, in despaired over the shame of being fired he shot himself in the projection room. It is said that women have complained that the stall doors shake sometimes while they're sitting in the stalls. Great a pervert ghost! And to think, I use to go there to see the midnight showing of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show"!

And remember, the balcony is closed

 

Last year while doing research on hauntings in Southern California area I found several stories of hauntings in the old Rialton theater in South Pasadena. Now closed, it was one of the old grand movie's houses that were built when movies houses had stages and balconies. One story I came across was rather heartbreaking, it was reported that a young teenage girl killed herself by slashing her wrists in the woman's bathroom then walks back to the balcony and jumped off. Now, what was going through this poor girl's head? There have been reports that a young female figure can be seen walking around the rim of the balcony.

Back to life -back to reality

 

Back home, ah me I loved my week up in Pismo Beach. I'm going to miss listening to the sound of the ocean as I slept my room was the corner room. The photo is where I stayed "Cottage by the Sea". I'm going to miss the place.

View from my room

 

tasting room kitty Paso Robles

 

a view from wine country Paso Robles

 

wine vines Paso Robles

 

wine tasting sign

 

Sing along...

 


"Life is a shipwreck but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboat." - Voltaire

Took this photo at Big Sur. I felt how lovely it would be able to dive off this cliff and be able to swim to these rocks. How lovely it would be to be a mermaid and swim all day in the ocean and sun oneself on such a rock listening to the seals bark and seagulls songs all day.

Soul Train

 

"The woods are lovely dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
Miles to go before I sleep."
Robert Frost

Today Mom and I spend the day in Big Sur, luncheon at the most charming inn in Big Sur. Later, while mom sun herself in the patio deck, sipping herbal tea and munching on freshly baked scones , I took a quick hide in the woods of Big Sur. This place is so magical,you feel you're in another world. When I was growing up Catholic I read stories of the saints and read how many saints like Saint Jermore, Luke and my favorite Saint Francis and Saint Anthony, retreated to caves in the mountains. I can understand why. I felt so blissful, I felt I could become a hermit and spend my days in these lovely woods with a full view of the ocean.

Song of the Sirens

 

"First to the sirens you shall come: and they
Enchant all mortal men who come their way.
As in a mead they sit,
Where all around great heaps of
bones lie mouldering on the ground"
The Odyssey - Homer

When people think of California wine country the first thought that comes to many minds is Napa or Sonoma not Edna Valley or Pasa Robles. My mother and I are taking a week's vacation in Pismo Beach. This is my favorite time of year to visit this side of paradise in California. The weather is lovely and wine country is lush and green and all the wineries are holding special harvest events this month. Already joined four new wine clubs and bought loads of wine from each winery I visited.

Our room at the "Cottage by the Sea" has a full ocean view and you can hear the ocean. In the late afternoon after a day of visiting wine country my mom and I sit in the small porch of our room and sipped a glass of the fine wine I purchased that day and watch the sun set into the ocean.

It's been cool enough to put on the gas fireplace at night. This place is just magical.

Last night I couldn't sleep, so at midnight, while my mother slept, I slipped on a pair of jeans and layered myself with sweaters and walked down to the beach. It's almost a full moon so the beach was well illuminated. There is something so seductive about the ocean. It's like a life force that can bewitch you.

In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus has his men tie him to the mast so he could listen to the sirens songs without destorying himself by diving into the sea to join them.

I felt that way last night, while watching the waves of the deep, dark, blue waters, I couldn't help but think how easy it would be to dive into the waves and allow the ocean to envelop me into oblivion.

It's been a very hard year and I've been through a lot and sometimes I feel I'm not strong enough to handle the mental after math that the past events have left. But being here reminds me how beautiful this world is and what a blessing life can be.

Ghostly reflections in a koi pond

 

"I read once that carp don't have set life spans. They don't age like we do. They die if they're killed by people or predators or disease, but they don't just get old and die. Theoretically they could live for ever." Neil Gaiman from "The Goldfish pool and other stories"

Before I read this short story by Neil Gaiman's in his collection of short stories, "Smoke and Mirrors", I never thought much of koi, except that they were beautiful fish and peaceful to watch, now I see them in a more magical light. Koi can live for hundreds of years.

In Pasadena there is this tiny gem of a museum called the Pacific Asia Museum. Doing research, I couldn't find out for certain if it was built to be a museum for I also found information that may have first been built to be a private residence for a weathy Asian merchant but so much of Los Angeles' history is clouded in mystery it's often difficult to get to the truth.

The museum is tiny but charming with some of the most beautiful jade pieces you ever could dream of seeing. It's believed that this museum is haunted by the previous owners of these lovely objects of rare and beautiful jade. Satin robed figures have been seen ascending the lotus blossom stairwell in the courtyard.

Ghostly figures have also been seen sitting on the rocks and rim around the koi pond looking down on the koi as they swim through the lily pads. Guess they're visiting their old fish friends.