North Along the Coast, Fall Equinox, Full Moon

I got off at 3 this afternoon, sunny, windy day, brilliant blue sky, on the road to Louie’s. Country music on radio. Tomales Bay murky, with windcaps.

I love getting out on the road. Best of all is going down a never-before travelled road. In a small riverside village in Laos a couple of years ago, I met a young Serbian guy who said he never goes back to the same place, it’s always new roads, new places.

Driving along, I was thinking of the beauty of the physical world, like the bleached-out whale vertebrae on the beach last night, the windswept tree on the hillside (above), the seashells I’ve been collecting. I put one days’ haul of shells in a flat bamboo basket and just looked at the patterns and the iridescence of the irregular-surfaced rock oysters. Lesley has made a lot of abalone necklaces — the beautiful colors, the way abalone catches the light, prettier to me than diamonds.

Thinking about the tiny houses book that is unfolding. Different than I imagined. I knew the subject was hot, but oh, the material we’ve got! Everyone’s with us on this — photographers, builders, architects some), dwellers, road travellers — the book’s already alive.