Restoration and Relaxation

These pictures were taken by local architect and photographer, Conrado Lopez. At the request of Anthony Denzler, Conrado shot them back in the early spring of 2007. The intent was to possibly use an image or two in Anthony's book on Gregory Ain, planned to be pubished the next year. When the book finally came out in the fall of 2008, I think four or five finally wound up in the published edition. It totally blew us away. We were greatly humbled by both Conrado and Anthony's enthusiasm for our home, and can never thank them enough for being such great gentlemen.

All of the above photos are about three years old at this point, but still pretty much representative of what our home looks like today. Some of the furniture has moved around a bit of course (must keep it interesting...), and more significantly, the plantings have all grown in remarkably well. Our friend Kathleen Ferguson helped us with the landscaping, though I was such a pain in the butt with changing out things, I don't think she wanted to take real credit for it. Nevertheless, she is remarkable, and HIGHLY recommended. The picture from the Pasadena Heritage Tour back in May is more representative of the current growth. Oh, also... the Arrowhead dispenser is long gone, thank goodness.

I debated putting up images from our own house, but figured... why not. So... more to come, if I can ever find a minute to sit down at the computer at home, of course. Got some great shots of the Station Fire, as it blazed up above us in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains a couple of weeks ago. Didn't take any pictures of the ash that looked like snowfall or the pink sun, but it was pretty damned smokey for quite a while.