It was chilly here this morning.  The car thermometer said 43 degrees (I know, I know–but it’s California) as I drove my daughter to catch the shuttle to her summer internship. Cold enough to think about enjoying a hot cup of tea and I remembered I’d never shared my “Me Tea” find.

As a charter member of the Me Generation, I love the idea of having something created just for me.  Which is why I was intrigued by herbalist Lindsay Holt’s service – she creates custom herbal tea blends for clients to help create balance in their lives.  Feeling a little wobbly, I figured I’d give it a go.

Holt sends you a questionaire to help determine your dosha balance. (A dosha is one of three body types in Ayurvedic medical practices.)

After reviewing your answers, she sends you an analysis of how the three doshas manifest in your life along with some advice about how to get them in balance. No surprise that I turned out to have a dual dosha–I’m a Gemini, after all.  Therefore Holt prescribed some lifestyle practices and a tea blend that would keep my Katta-Pitta in balance. My tea blend  included flavors I already like – hibiscus, raspberry, peppermint and fennel–along with a new-to-me herb called ashwagandha (Indian Ginseng).

A few days later the tea arrived along with instructions for a gratitude tea ritual.

Given my perpetual state of monkey-mind (split doshas?), it was initially difficult but ultimately very soothing and refreshing to pause and brew a cup of tea. Look how pretty the color is—perfect with my little Japanese teapot.

Ahh.  To sit in my living room looking out at the spring green of the big-leafed maple tree while listening to the creek below and Just Be.

I followed Holt’s admonition to think about something I was grateful for with every sip of the tea. At the end of the cup I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude for my full, messy, uncertain life.

The tea was definitely tasty–licorice-y, which I like—and I slept very well later that night (one of the things I told Holt I was having trouble with).  But the tea-sipping-count-your-many-blessings ritual was the best part of the whole experience.  It reminded me that I have a perfectly customized life that’s helping me attain balance if I will just settle down and Pay Attention.

Interested in a tea consultation with Lindsay Holt?  Contact her at Whole Body Alchemy.  The consultation and a generous amount of customized tea costs $45.00. 

I spent much of Saturday walking on holy ground.  First in the East Bay hills, next in another faith’s church, and finally, in a basketball gym. Sacred spaces all.

I was up in the hills for a memorial service was held on a private ranch overlooking Contra Costa county.  A dozen of us gathered to spread the ashes of a difficult woman we’d all had the opportunity to serve.  Barbara joined our church congregation 16 years ago and spent most of that time battling enormous physical and mental challenges.  Essentially alone in the world, she turned to her new church family for help. Though she was legitimately needy, Barbara was also belligerent and rarely grateful.  She tested us all.   In helping her I often felt I came up short, wishing I showed more genuine charity under duress.

But on a beautiful morning looking out over golden California hills broken up by a sparkling blue reservoir and a lush green golf course, I felt a surprising tenderness for Barbara.  We sang “We Are All Enlisted Till the Conflict is Over” and “God Be With You Till We Meet Again” as well as told stories of what serving Barbara had taught us.  As we released six balloons into the cloudless sky to commemorate her six plus decades on earth I was grateful that she was freed at last from the bondage of her mind and body.  And I was honored to be in the company of the truly good people who had served her over the years.

Then we drove into the city to see Laney, our family friends’  daughter all grown up now, lead an alumni chorus of San Francisco Girls Choir girls women as they sang Brahms and Randall and Gershwin in the grand setting of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church on O’Farrell.  With roots in the San Francisco Gold Rush, the gorgeous interior mixes Romanesque and Gothic details in an inspired mix of softened primary colors that was as elevating as the music.  Particularly lovely was the sight of Laney’s sister Rachel on stage singing “‘S Wonderful,” her belly swelling with a new baby after losing her first child to a rare genetic disorder.  Glory Hallelujah!

On the drive back to the East Bay we took our cue from the blissed-out doberman in the back of an olive green Oldsmobile convertible just ahead of us and opened the sunroof to enjoy a rare warm day in the city. Back over the bridge we headed up to our own church congregation’s spring potluck.  We gathered in a small gymnasium in the meeting house next to the Oakland LDS temple, sampling Doug & Pam’s kale salad,  Ernie’s Peruvian potatoes and Marion’s banana cake under the basketball hoops.  I brought along some tasty apricot tea cakes made from a recipe that had shown up in my mailbox (Bon Appetit) that day.  There was no musical program that night, but a sweet chorus of fellowship accompanied us to the parking lot as we headed home.

Some pilgrims journey many miles to find their God and each other.  I’m grateful my mecca is so close at hand.

Organist playing at Oakland's Grand Lake Theater before a showing of The Great Gatsby

The summer movie season began officially for me last weekend when we took in The Great Gatsby at The Grand Lake Theater in Oakland.  Built in 1926, just a year after Gatsby was first published, the Grand Lake boasts marvelous Art Deco interiors and some awfully sweet concessionaires.  The story fell flat for me but the costumes and sets were fabulously fizzy. So go. See it for yourself on the big screen. Then find out more about the sets here and here. Other things worth imbibing in, old sport:

1. Educator Madeline Levine on her own struggles with the empty nest.

2. Writer Susan Orlean works and works out at a treadmill desk–could you?

3.  Farewell to “The Office” featuring Creed’s swan song.

4. American Idol winner Candice Glover sings Lovesong and I Who Have Nothing.

5. Just in case you missed this earlier, Angelina Jolie explains why she’s undergone a double mastectomy.

6. The campaign to give Abercrombie & Fitch clothes to the homeless.

Happy Weekend!

"And I like large parties. They're so intimate. At small parties there isn't any privacy." F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Hot Cocoa + Graham Thomas

Speaking of birthdays.  In a few days it will be my middle daughter’s birthday and that means it’s time to go hunting for a rose for Sydney Rose.  Her dad picked out the very first birthday rose when she was a baby.  ”Bewitched,”  a beautiful clear-pink hybrid tea, captured this spellbinding strawberry-blonde daughter perfectly.

Bewitched

Every year since we’ve planted a rose around her birthday. Other favorites include “Ballerina,” “Hot Cocoa” and  ”Sterling Silver.”

Sterling Silver

Fortunately, we’ve moved to a place with a lovely hillside garden that has NO roses—so I absolutely have to add a few.  I picked up Cecile Bruner and Cornelia on my trip to Annie’s Annuals a few weeks ago but want to include some old favorites as well.  However, after spending a week dropping by local nurseries, I’m finding that the rose pickin’s are pretty slim.

Cornelia

I finally asked the owner of my neighborhood nursery what was up when I saw that he, too, offered only a few white carpet roses and a single purplish tree rose. He gave me two reasons for the limited rose options–first, that many of the major commercial growers have gone out of business ( including Jackson & Perkins–really?!) and second, that roses have fallen out of favor here in the inner Bay Area.

“To keep them looking healthy in the fog they often need pesticides and fungicides,” he pointed out, “and people are more leery of using them now.”

Hmm.  I’ve never sprayed my roses—though I’ve been pretty careful about choosing varieties that do well in this climate.  ”Sterling Silver” is the one exception and I tend to just plant it in a less visible spot so I can enjoy the cut flowers without obsessing over the less-than-lovely (at least if you choose not to spray them) leaves. So it’s hard for me to believe that gardeners can’t grow chemical free roses here.

Wise Portia

There are still good resources for mail order roses like Heirloom Roses in Oregon–I ordered “Just Joey” and “Wise Portia” this week–but I’m thinking my best bet might be the Celebration of Old Roses event at the community center in El Cerrito this Sunday from 11:00 to 3:30.  They advertise that heirloom and hard-to-find roses (the list is now so long!) will be for sale.

Is anyone else wondering where have all the roses gone?

Today is my baby boy’s 22^nd birthday.  Like all three of my children, he ignored his due date and lingered with me for awhile.  Though my midwife Peggy (aka the Babycatcher) knew this was a pattern with me and mine, she thought the baby was getting too big and decided she better hurry things along.

“Happy Birth-day!” she said greeting me at the hospital on the morning of the 10th to break my waters. “See you back here in a few hours–just go about your business until labor begins.”

Easy for her to say.  She wasn’t the one who would be hooked up to an IV and induced if she didn’t go into active labor within the next 24 hours.  But I did my best to have a normal day. I went out to breakfast with my husband, played with my little girls, took a short walk in the woods and an even shorter nap.  But still no labor.

“Go to the movies,” said my mom who was already in town hoping to help with the new baby. “The girls and I will bake a pie if  you’ll pick up some ice cream on the way home.”

So off we went to “Mister Johnson,” a Pierce Brosnan movie set in British Colonial Nigeria that I’d recap if I could. I think it had something significant to say about race relations and overcoming challenges, but I was embarking on a challenging period of my own.  Mid-movie I felt that familiar low-down cramping that told me labor was finally underway.

We left the movie uncertain about whether we should stop for ice cream or check into the maternity ward and pulled into a grocery store parking lot two blocks from the hospital to call Peggy–on a pay phone, I guess?–for advice.

Peggy said to head over to the hospital where she’d see us sometime in the middle of the night. Fifteen minutes and one admission exam later the nurses called her and told her to get over to the hospital NOW.  Within half an hour all 9 pounds and 10 ounces of  William Grey Pritchett had arrived. I learned then that when that boy decides to do something he does it quickly, efficiently and with a lot of enthusiasm!

So on this Mother’s Day weekend I’m celebrating the chance I’ve had to mother three terrific kids, but today I’m grateful for Will.  And for Peggy who helped usher in all of my kids.  And to my own mom, who bakes the best pies ever.

Looking for a few last minute ways to celebrate another mom or your own mothering experience?  Consider:

1. Babycatcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife by Peggy Vincent.  Yes, she was my midwife and is a good friend but she’s also a terrific storyteller.

2. Roses.  Personal favorites? Abraham Darby, Bewitched, Bonica, Hot Cocoa, Julia Child, Just Joey, Sterling Silver, and to honor my own mom, Wise Portia.

3. Ancestry.com membership—to help connect all the mothers who came before.

4. 21-Day Meditation Challenge – Perfect Health by Oprah and Deepak Chopra.  Helpful, hopeful meditations to download.

5. This recipe for strawberry rhubarb pie—both the crust and filling are exceptional.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Look what showed up with my CSA box today - Sweet Williams!

Nothing beats heading over the Richmond Bridge on a beautiful spring day.

Then turning towards Sausalito and the Golden Gate Bridge.

First stop:  Scoma’s in Sausalito

for a Crab Louis salad while watching watercraft like this paddleboard and boarder.

Satiated we headed over to the Heath factory store.

And perused earth-toned plates and bowls.

Neutral pitchers, covered dishes and salt & pepper shakers.

Vibrant house numbers.

Beautiful tiles.

Many shades of blue

and white.

Always interested in a bargain, there were plenty of great “seconds.”  Including these mugs with the low handle which were designed by Edith Heath to accommodate holding a cigarette as she enjoyed a cup of coffee.

We left with the intended wedding gift as well as a few Mother’s Day gifts–for ourselves!

If you’re interested in picking up some Heath for yourself or someone else—this weekend everything is 15% off in their Sausalito, San Francisco and Los Angeles showrooms.

The night that Boston police were shooting it up with the Tsarnaev brothers, I was at our favorite restaurant Camino celebrating vegetables.  Renowned cookbook author Deborah Madison was in town and Camino was hosting a dinner for Madison with a menu inspired by the recipes from her new cookbook Vegetable Literacy.  I’d like to tell you about every little leaf and stem and pod that graced my plate that night, but sometime after the spectacular first course salad was served I started to receive texts about a shooting at MIT, where my son attends school.  Then he called to confirm (again that week) that he was fine, though he’d been in the vicinity of the shooting.  The rest of the meal was kind of a blur.

One captured bomber, a trip to Miami, and a feverish week succumbing to the flu later, I saw that Luissa Weiss, aka The Wednesday Chef, had posted a fennel salad recipe from Madison’s cookbook on her blog and it reminded me that I hadn’t cracked the book open since the night Madison signed it “for Kathryn!”  Reading through the ingredients list I realized that I actually had everything in the house including fennel and truffle salt (good on popcorn, what can I say?) and so I made it up for lunch today and boy, was it good.  (Head over to The Wednesday Chef for the recipe!)

Here are a few other tasty things I savored this week:

1. Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder – so good I’ve been totally bereft since I finished it.

2. Sisters photos through the years.

3. Russell Brand’s honest depiction of addiction.

4. Steve Harvey reconnects with a couple that helped him get his start.

5. Time traveling through tile.

6. New Age negotiations.

Chatting before dinner with Deborah Madison

 Happy Weekend !

Look for an extensive overview of the San Francisco Decorator Showcase in the Bay Area News Group papers this Saturday, but in the meantime here’s a peak at design elements that felt fresh and noteworthy this year.

Contemporary Art as Inspiration

Check out the Cy Twombly inspired floors in Catherine Kwong’s living room, above.  See those splashes and swirls?   They set the tone for this entire showcase house and they’re likely to be the thing people are still talking about in years to come.   Similarly, Heather Hilliard looked to the public art of Sol LeWitt to create the painted detailing on the upper walls of her dining room.

And Martha Angus and Esche Martinez anchored their exuberant playroom with a op-art inspired custom carpet.

Oceanic Blue

Though black and white was the predominant color theme of the showcase, the #1 accent color was a rich turquoise blue.  Kelly Hohla hung it over the mantel by way of this mirrored “jewel” in her Makers Mark Retreat.

Matthew Leverone used it several ways in his ground floor Salon.

Kriste Michelini welcomed visitors to her cozy writer’s retreat with this cheery velvet sofa in the showcase’s signature color.

Decorative painter Willem Racke’ used it for his cut-out mirrored wall mural in Emilie Monroe’s 3rd floor bath.

And Alfred Gregory specified it for this custom tile by Waterworks in the “Elysium” guest bath (note the cool custom threshold while you’re here.)

Living Walls

Vertical gardening can happen just about anywhere, including this sculptural bathroom by Soil Studios.  The plants in this bath wall include French lavender and mint which can be snipped right there to scent the bath.

The same technology was used to create this gorgeous courtyard garden off the kitchen.  The befores are truly incredible–nothing was here besides bare brick wall before Living Green designed and installed these living walls.  Glorious stuff.

Statement Lighting

But living walls weren’t the only artful designs reaching skyward–unusual lighting did as well.  Here are some of my favorite examples.

Kelly Hohla used this mobile-like fixture to draw your eye to the unusual pitched ceiling in the Maker’s Mark retreat.

Alfred Gregory chose this glass chain link fixture both for dramatic effect and because it would stand up to the open shower in the room.

Gioi Tran commissioned a creepy crawly light fixture to fan out across this resin map of London in the teenage girl’s room.

Zoe Hsu paired this undulating fixture with python wall paper in the master sitting room.  Sssssspectacular.

And Stephanie Marsh Fillbrandt  used a hook-like light fixture from Coup d’Etat to add industrial heft to her sweet Chocolatier’s Lab.

Treat yourself and maybe a friend–mom!–to a trip to the showcase before it closes on May 27. You’ll come away inspired to try a new thing or two in your own personal showplace.

I’m just back from a long weekend in Miami where I enjoyed the surf and sun and wondered what this world is coming to.  Everywhere I looked people were ignoring the lovely sites around them and glued to their smartphones.  Perhaps they’re just better at multi-tasking than me, but it seems that if you can’t sit on a beautiful beach and gaze out at the ocean, enjoy al fresco dining with friends or meditate in the spa without constantly checking your twitter feed you’re missing out on a whole lot of good stuff.  It was enough to make me  want to tell you all to put down your phones RIGHT NOW and go take a walk, but then I calmed down (channeling my own unplugged surf and spa experiences) and pulled together some of the things I read in print this week that fostered a greater appreciation for the big wide world beyond my smartphone screen, including:

1.  A nostalgia-inducing essay about packing away your children’s picturebooks.

2. This lovely obituary for E.L. Konigsburg–one of my own favorite childhood authors.

3. John McPhee’s antidote for writer’s block.

4. Chef Gabrielle Hamilton’s road trip to track down great home cooks.

It just so happens that next week is Screen Free Week where parents are encouraged to unplug their households in order to spend more time with their families.  Even without young kids at home, it could be useful to “mindfully” use technology next week. Who knows what you’ll see when you look up.

Happy Weekend!

Living Room design by Catherine Kwong

Like the pairing of a clever black cocktail dress with a custom strand of pearls, the 36^th annual San Francisco Decorator Showcase is both sophisticated and provocative.  This showcase speaks to those of us who crave less clutter and more meaningful design.  After touring the disciplined and compelling rooms this morning, I’m excited to share more images and descriptions soon. But in the meantime get out your calendars and schedule a visit.  You have a month to tour—don’t miss this beauty!

When:  April 27-May 27, 2013

Where: 2800 Pacific Ave., San Francisco

How: www.decoratorshowcase.org/tickets

Painted floor detail

Photos by Bess Friday