A view of the harbor in Ventura from Brophy Brothers restaurant.
One evening last week, we visited long time friends in Ventura and went out to dinner by boat after a harbor cruise. What an enjoyable evening and a great escape from a humid hot afternoon. We are on our annual beach vacation to escape the heat of the desert. Unfortunately, there’s been warnings of excessive heat most days and there are few places with air conditioning on the coast. Finally the heat warnings are over and our last few days at the beach should be ideal.
This is a view from inside the Duffy boat of our friends’ neighborhood. It’s called “the keys” and homes are on the water throughout several inlets. Everyone who lives here has a boat parked in their back yard.
I’m not aware of many neighborhoods with boat parking, although there were a few in Washington state where I grew up. Lake Washington and the San Juan Islands definitely had boat docks in front of homes.
The Bougainvillea below the restaurant was beautiful!
This is our friends’ Duffy boat parked at the restaurant. They use the Duffy to cruise around their neighborhood and drive to dinner in the harbor. It’s a cute little boat. They have a big boat too, that they take to Catalina Island.
A few gulls hanging out on the docks.
I’m getting homesick and I’m ready to leave the beach for the desert. Just a few more days and we’ll be home sweet home!
Do you get anxious for home after vacation, or do you want vacation to last longer?
Tuesday and Wednesday evenings we went for beach walks and stayed until sunset.
On Wednesday night, we were with our son and daughter-in-law at our favorite beach. Everyone but me went swimming or boogie boarding. The waves were unusually big. This area is known for having the “world’s safest beach.” Normally there isn’t a current, rip tides or big waves. Wednesday was different.
My husband, son and DIL were out in the ocean in front of our beach chairs and umbrellas. After a few waves, they were way down the beach. When they walked back from the other end of the beach, they said there was a really strong current.
There were only four other people on the beach that evening — a couple including a stunning brunette woman under a pop up tent and two ladies walking their golden retriever.
The brunette jumped into the ocean. She was getting knocked around by the waves, right and left. We watched her swimming and diving under the waves and she looked like she had it under control. Her boyfriend was sound asleep under their pop-up tent.
We were sitting on the sand when my husband said, “Where did she go?” We couldn’t spot the brunette in the ocean. Since my husband had fought the current earlier, he walked down the beach to where he ended up. He spotted her more than a quarter of mile away. He called to her and asked if she was okay. Finally, she gave him a thumbs up.
The waves crashing against the rocks at the end of the beach. First time I’ve seen that.
The brunette walked up the beach to us. “I could have died out there. That’s my new boyfriend and he was asleep,” she said pointing to the man face down under the pop-up tent.
She and my husband talked about how strong the current was. He explained he was worried when she was out of sight. He said he could tell she was afraid and struggling. He wanted to make sure she was okay. She asked our names and introduced herself, Jennifer Lopez. She offered to buy us dinner downtown Santa Barbara next week to thank us.
I said, “No, that’s okay.” My son and DIL said, “You should do it!”
My son and DIL in the waves.
Jennifer said she was thankful someone was looking out for her.
Tip: If you’re swimming in the ocean, you need to have someone with eyes on you in case you need help.
Another Rescue Story:
More than ten years ago in Laguna Beach, my daughter and husband were at the beach after the lifeguards were done for the day. They noticed two panicked people stuck in a rip tide. My daughter, a swimmer and lifeguard herself, charged into the ocean and got them to calm down and helped them. My husband joined her and they got the two people to shore. Walking back to the cottage we rented that summer, my daughter noticed a neighbor’s dog out in the street. She called the dog and brought him back to his owner.
P.S. No, it wasn’t THAT Jennifer Lopez, but she said it was her legal name.
This is the view from our airbnb living room. The little cottage we have rented for nine summers has the feel of a tree house. The living room is upstairs at tree level overlooking the ocean. This is the one photo I took in this grouping with my Nikon and telephoto lens. The rest of the photos were taken with my iphone walking on the beach. I hope you enjoy a taste of California beach life.
This is our favorite beach to take walks and sit and watch the waves. This view is looking north.
There’s a canal along the walk and I caught this gull relaxing on a piece of drftwood.
This is the glimpse of the beach from the walkway that takes us to the beach. Ellen Degeneres used to own the house to the right of the fence, but sold it to have more privacy. It’s a gorgeous house by the way and sold last year for $35 million. Click on the link for a news story and photos.
The white house at the end of the beach is Kevin Costner’s estate. The tide gives him plenty of privacy because the beach is under water near his property.
We went out to dinner with friends and came back to our cottage to see this sunset out the side window.
I caught a Snowy Egret in action
A southward view of the beach.
I believe these are Willets but not quite sure. There are so many similar looking shore birds.
Father and son walking and talking.
I made them stop and pose. It’s such a joy to have our son and daughter-in-law join us for some relaxing beach time.
Which photos do you like the best? What are your plans for the weekend?
It’s time to turn in my final project for photography class. I’ve been taking photos of sea glass that I’ve shared along the way HERE and HERE.
Sea glass has both Meaning and Memory for me (FYI, that’s the theme of this semester’s final project.) My memories are from summers at the beach which were my favorite days of being a mom. As for meaning, one is that change always happens. For example, the purpose and original form of bottles change through time. Bottles turn into beautiful glass pieces tumbled in the sea. We also change — but it doesn’t mean that we no longer have purpose or beauty.
I took photos for the past few months of sea glass. Outside by the pool at different times of day. On glass tables by the pool, inside in jars, glasses and on glass with light coming from different directions.
For this project, I looked through photo albums and found pictures from our summers at the beach. Every year, I took photos of our kids and used them for Christmas cards. I scanned old photos and improved them using Adobe Camera Raw. The quality of the old photos taken with film are fuzzy compared to the new photos using a DSLR. But they have memory and meaning as well.
Here are the photos for my final project:
The Palm Springs gang on a beach day.
In the original photo, the hand looked like it was boiled bright red. A little Adobe Camera Raw and it’s more natural looking.
One of my favorite sea glass photos.
All that’s needed for entertainment is sand, the ocean and big stick.
Two more sea glass photos I took by our pool in the morning light.
I never heard the end of making my kids sit on this rocky outcropping. They asked me, “Why did you make us sit on an ashtray?” I didn’t know that this was a favorite place to smoke for locals. It was covered with cigarette butts!
Our daughter with a fist full of sea glass.
College age kids.
The final sea glass photo taken on a glass table with a light underneath.
After several hours, I finally got my new scanner to talk to my laptop. This was the first photo I scanned. It’s of me and my kids, one of my best friends and her two girls, plus assorted kids we brought along with us for a beach day.
I’ve spent this week going through my half dozen photo boxes, looking for pictures to include in my photography project of Memory and Meaning: Sea Glass.
If you missed my description about Sea Glass and my project, I wrote about it HERE.
Going through all my old photos from summers’ past, brought back so many memories of a life I’ve left behind. Carefree days of summer, hanging out with my kids. Every year, I’d take photos of them together for our Christmas cards. It always took more than a few days to get something good. Sometimes they’d cooperate, other times they enjoyed torturing me with their silly faces or looking away.
Here are a few photos from my beach memories. I haven’t decided yet what gets included in my Memory and Meaning Sea Glass project. All of the photos spark memories and have meaning to me.
Angus at the cottage. He wasn’t allowed inside, but at our home he was. It was a difficult transitiion for him, but he loved being near us.
This is the cove where we collected sea glass.
Our daughter with a handful of sea glass. Her preferred method was diving under waves for it.
Boogie boarding was always a hit.
When they were young.
Then I had one teen and a preteen.
College-aged kids. Where did the time go? Now they’re grown ups!
The bootlegger’s house was second from the end. Because of the bootlegger and a shipment of his booze that went overboard from his boat, this cove is filled with sea glass.
I took this photo a couple days ago after my first photography class of Fall 2025.
So how did it go?
I was introduced to the five other students in the group. The class was by zoom. Then after we gave a short bio of ourselves, the professor shared our first photo assignment. We each got a turn to talk about our photo.
I was blown away by the talent in our group! Like the professor told me, everyone is internally motivated to improve. “We are all on the same learning curve, just at different points along the way.” Some are way, way ahead. It’s exciting to see their work.
The main problem I had was the time. 7 to 9 p.m. I’m not sure if it’s me getting older, recovering from surgery, or getting up early, but I fizzle out around dinner time. That day was busy with an earlier zoom call meeting from 8:30 to 11 a.m. and all my other daytime duties.
I managed to stay awake. I enjoyed seeing other photographers’ work plus learned about the semester project.
Memory and Meaning.
That’s the theme. I’m been noodling on it since Thursday. The professor gave all sorts of examples of what we can do. He said to reflect on the questions, “Why did I take this photo?” and “Why did I keep it?”
We can use photos from the public domain, photos we’ve taken before, new photos, or photos we’ve restored….those are just a few of the examples he gave. I’m thinking of taking photos with sea glass. I have tons of it from the days hanging out at the beach with my kids from when they were infants to before they left for college. My sea glass gives me memories of my favorite days at the beach with them.
We used to rent a cottage a few blocks from a cove in Laguna that was home to a bootlegger during Prohibition. The story the locals tell is that one stormy night, his ship came in to the dock by his house, and the liquor all went overboard. That cove is an amazing place to find sea glass. My daughter had a special eye for it and would spend hours wading in the waves, diving down to pick up pieces of royal blue, lavender, yellow, white, green, brown and turquoise sea glass. Some of the colors are unusual because of how old the bottles were.
I found a lilac piece of sea glass for the first time in my life, while praying during my DIL’s cancer surgery. I thought it was a good omen.
Then in my Palm Springs home, I refinished our wood block kitchen counters. I practiced on a nightstand in the garage that belonged to my husband’s grandmother. I didn’t know turpentine would self combust. I smelled smoke and was shocked to see the rags I tossed on the nightstand were on fire. Thankfully, the house did not catch on fire, although there was soot going up one wall.
I used sea glass and shells to fix the nightstand:
Although it smelled like an ashtray for a few years, I thought this was a creative fix for the smoldering hole on the nightstand.
I have sea glass displayed throughout the house and I found a banker’s box full of it. My daughter used to decorate picture frames with it. We had a grand idea of beautifying a glass table with sea glass. We never quite figured out how we would do it. Then she grew up and moved away before we got around to it.
I’m thinking about different ways I can photograph sea glass. I have tons to set outside for morning light, use water, different settings, frame beach photos. The choices are endless.
What are your thoughts for sea glass being an element in my Memory and Meaning photography project?
Before I get to the homework assignment, I’m sharing a photo of the beach from Saturday’s morning walk. We got to the beach extra early because it was the start of Labor Day Weekend at the beach. The freeway was stopped on Friday afternoon beginning at 2 p.m. through the night. We were expecting to have no parking at the beach and believed it would be really crowded. You can see going early paid off!
My DIL is teaching AP English to high school seniors this year. She and my son worked together on her curriculum for the year. They were both Lit Majors at the College of Creative Studies at UC Santa Barbara. They selected poetry, short stories and novels to read beginning in modern times and then going back 50 years, 100, 150, etc.
They asked if I wanted to read along with them, as they are planning on conquering the list as well as my DIL’s students. I said yes!
I’m posting the first two pages of the syllabus which covers September. Early October I’ll post those assignments, because I think posting all 13 pages at once would be overwhelming. The short stories were excellent. I also am enjoying re-reading “My Brilliant Friend,” which shockingly was published almost 15 years ago! I can’t believe that much time has passed since I read it.
I remember loving this book which is the first of four in the NeapolitanSeries. I wrote a blog post about it and was surprised at the comments. Many people found it too gritty with too much violence and wondered about my taste! I found it to be filled with details and complex, memorable characters. I think it’s an accurate reflection of life in1950s Naples, where women led a subservient role to their husbands. The characters lived in a violent, poor neighborhood. It was interesting to get so many different opinions on the book.
Here’s September’s reading list:
FYI, I’m trying to do all the reading, but have not agreed to do the writing assignments! So far I’m on schedule. If you’re not interested in this reading challenge, at least you have an abundance of literature to add to your TBR list!
There’s a lot of poetry to read which reflects my DIL as a published poet. Here’s a poem of hers that I love, I know I’ve shared it before, so if you’ve read it, enjoy it a second time! Maybe it will be a first for you.
Coal Oil Point Tonight the sky with its plummy texture Is especially dear to me, and the small purple Flowers shuddering in the sand. Tonight the wind curls soft and salty against My bare arms with that strange lively mourning. You let me look at you and understand that Nobody has ever had eyes like yours, fringed with Red-gold lashes, and nobody will again. I look up at the stars and pity them: The more they burn the faster they die. How I burn makes me live beyond myself.
Catherine Simpson is a cellist who lives in Berkeley. She has been previously published in Big River Poetry Review, Right Hand Pointing, Spectrum, Step Away Magazine, Into the Teeth of the Wind, Poydras Review, and Splash of Red.
Are you familiar with the Neapolitan Series by Elena Ferrante? If you’ve read any of her books, what did you think?
Did you know that Elena Ferrante is a pseudonym?
Elena Ferrante maintains her anonymity for a combination of artistic, practical, and personal reasons, prioritizing the work itself over the author’s public persona. She believes that once a book is written, it should speak for itself, and the author’s identity is irrelevant. — Google’s AI Overview
