Labels: Blue Angels, photographs, San Francisco, Telegraph Hill

   posted by Sal Towse at  12:32 PM|| |

The PhotoShop wizard who was visiting from Up North last weekend gave me a quick walk through some features I didn't know how to use. Crystal Ball sez: I see a deep time sink in your future.

BEFORE:
 

AFTER (with an artsy finish):
 

[Update: A more contrasty & saturated version per Don's suggestion]
 

Labels: photographs, San Francisco, Telegraph Hill

   posted by Sal Towse at  10:48 AM|| |

 

Labels: flowers, photographs, San Francisco, Telegraph Hill

   posted by Sal Towse at  2:49 PM|| |

Had a nice long, ranging chat with Hermon Baker when I stopped in at Yone Beads on Union on my way back from the library and further places afield. (Complete list of stops and purchases on the day after Christmas: Cost Plus: nothing. Even at 75% off there was nothing there I needed, but seems I needed a couple small, blank canvases and a sketchbook (all on sale -- total price <$10) at Artist & Craftsman Supply on Columbus.)

Baker and I talked about life and warm beds, the weather and the tiger sculpture that's allegedly over on the Greenwich Steps. I need to go over and see if I can find it. One of his earlier customers hadn't been able to. We wondered whether it had already been removed.

We talked about the year ending and his negative view of "top ten" lists for the year. Life is not a competition, he said. We shouldn't be ranking this or that as on or off the top ten list for the year. Winners or losers. Top ten or not. Don't.

I left the shop with two beautiful beads I will find some use for and something to think about.

Labels: craft, life, North Beach, shopshopshop, Telegraph Hill

   posted by Sal Towse at  6:49 PM|| |

I have a framed John Byrne Cooke photograph of Mimi Fariña on the wall to the right of the front door. She's standing at the top of the hill, at Union and Montgomery, goofing off with Debbie Green. I like the picture because it shows the waterfront behind them as it was back when the picture was taken, in 1966, and because it shows Mimi Fariña full of life.

It took me years after I first stumbled on the image on the Web to decide that his price was worth it and to contact Cooke and arrange to swop him $$$ for a print.

I'm still glad I did.

Depending on my mood, the photograph makes me smile, or tear up.

Same with DIAMONDS AND RUST.

The YouTube video is from 1975. Has it really been that long?

I guess it has.

yes I loved you dearly
and if you're offering me diamonds and rust
I've already paid

Labels: history, life, music, Telegraph Hill

   posted by Sal Towse at  10:37 PM|| |

Thanks be.

Sunshiney day outside with rain expected off and on through the weekend. Clear skies now, though. Lunch at the Bankers' Club to enjoy the views.

First, though we need to walk down to North Beach Citizens and drop off three bags of warm clothes. I rummaged through our closet. How many warm pullovers and sweaters can you wear at one time? We have more than enough and it's been so chill recently.

Labels: goodworks, life, nonprofits, San Francisco, Telegraph Hill

   posted by Sal Towse at  9:47 AM|| |

Yesterday, while I was up in the kitchen picking bones out of a pot full of what would become chicken and vegetable soup for supper, his nibs was down in front picking up leaf debris. I could hear him talking with someone just below my window. I heard a hearty laugh. His nibs came up the stairs. The door opened. "Sal? Sal? We have visitors."

Coming in the door behind him were two people I'd never seen before. Introductions made. Hands shaken. The man laughed again, a warm, hearty laugh.

I always told the niblets that they should keep their room/house clean because you never know when the Queen might drop by for tea.

This was one of those times.

The man and woman were the architects who'd designed the building we live in. The man had lived in the two lower floors for several years after he finished the building and sold the upper three floors -- our place.

His nibs gave them the grand tour: the remodeled bathrooms, the solar setup on the deck, the new floors, and the cupboards in the paper-strewn office. We discussed the work that we'd been through to fix leaks caused by construction flaws and how we wouldn't know until a couple more heavy storms blew through whether all the leaks were fixed.

We told them how much we enjoyed what they'd designed and the way the windows were placed in such a way they seemed to frame the views. The windows. Thank you for the windows. And the glass doors. And the deck. And for picking this piece of dirt and building a place where his nibs can see boats from any level. We stood up on the deck and pointed out buildings that were being rehabbed and remodeled. The neighborhood hadn't been so upscale back twenty years ago when they built this place, they said.

"Did you know the hill became the Telegraph Hill Historic District (with all sorts of restrictions on what you could or could not do) the year after this place was finished? We always wondered if this place triggered the designation."

They said they had had no problems with buying the property and building the place. The other buildings on the path were rundown rental apartments for the most part. The neighbors were happy to see something being built on the lot.

Things had changed inside our place, they said, above and beyond the cupboards and bathrooms. The frosted glass doors to the kitchen had been added by the owner prior to the owner we bought the place from. The dining room walls, now plaster, had been redwood. (Question to ponder: Is the redwood still there beneath the plaster layer? Could we restore it?) [Update: We checked some books with pictures as the place existed in 1989, three years after it was finished, and the walls were plastered at that point. Perhaps they were misremembering?]

I was glad the place was pretty much clean, aside from debris and misarranged furniture due to tree decorating. Today we will finish the tree, lay down an afghan and a throw in lieu of a tree skirt, relocate the chairs to their holiday locations, and start cleaning/clearing/picking up for the family Christmas gathering. The older niblet and his husband show up Christmas Eve for our traditional dinner at House of Prime Rib on Van Ness. The remaining sibs and their offspring arrive late morning on Christmas for the opening of presents and consuming of brunch buffet.

Raining now. Perfect weather for staying inside and staging for Christmas.

Labels: architecture, life, Telegraph Hill

   posted by Sal Towse at  12:57 PM|| |

Sun peeking out from behind the grey for a few minutes. (And the grey has since drifted back into place.)

Sitting in my chair, which faces the bay. Reading a library book. Back from a walk down to the Ferry Building for bread from Acme and coppa di testa from Boccalone. Down to the Ferry Building and back up the steps, all 223 of them, but who's counting?

Concentrating on the words before me (Elizabeth Berg: The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted: And Other Small Acts of Liberation). In the background I can hear the parrots -- not chattering, not arguing, not squawking, as they usually do. Susurration. Murmuration. Low. Affectionate.

I get up out of my seat to see what they're up to.

Just hanging in the sun. [Click on the picture for a closeup look. They blend into the cypress in the smaller view.]

 

Labels: life, photographs, Telegraph Hill

   posted by Sal Towse at  4:49 PM|| |

And so it came to pass that we had our second annual neighborhood progressive dinner last night.

As usual, I skipped town -- after offering my minimal help in designing the flyer and settling on dates (dinner scheduled for a week and a day after we got back) -- and left the delivery of invites, acceptance of RSVPs, and scheduling to my charming co-conspirator, co-host and next-door neighbor.

We got back from Africa and I sent a note: Is dinner still on? Did we get enough RSVPs? Indeed it was. Indeed we did.

Some last minute re-shuffling of venues and a dinner we had. First stop, Napier Lane for kickoff and appetizers. Next stop our lane (and the charming next-door neighbors') for appetizers. Then upstairs next-door for salads. Then here for tapas (goat-cheese-stuffed Anaheim peppers, chicken piccata empanadas, beef and pepita sauce empanadas from me and vegetable frittata from a Napier neighbor). Then back next door and yet another floor up for dessert and coffee.

Neighbors included a couple who is putting their San Francisco life on hold and heading to Malaysia for a few years, a neighbor I'd never met but whose apartment I'd wandered through on one of our open house Sundays a couple months back, a neighbor who has left her job to go back to school for a post-graduate degree, the neighbors who have the colossal re-model just uphill from us, others, and the chocolate guy.

The chocolate guy lives on Napier Filbert but, because his life is still in boxes, decided he couldn't host and in lieu brought the desserts for the final gathering on the top floor next door. He had chocolate bars

 

and two types of chocolate gelato (chocolate/cardamom ym!) and I went home the happy owner of a bag of chocolate nibs from his latest tonnage. My assignment: think up new ways of using chocolate nibs.

"add to salads" is already a known use.

I finally put the bag away this morning. I'd been nibbling out of hand during and after breakfast, over reading the Sunday papers. Nibbling out of hand is good enough for me.

Say, Timothy. Why not just sell nibs as a straight-to-the-vein snack for chocolate lovers who don't want to wade through all the other ingredients needed to make a chocolate bar?

Tcho -- the chocolate guy's chocolate -- is that good. Tcho is a San Francisco company, working out of Pier 17.

Buy online! but only if you think milk chocolate is not worth the paper it's wrapped in and dark chocolate with chocolate content > 70% is the way to go.

Labels: food, life, San Francisco, Telegraph Hill

   posted by Sal Towse at  11:59 AM|| |

We live where we can see the water because his nibs wanted to see boats, boats, boats!

And we do.

The Festival of Sail kicks off at noon today with a parade of ships sailing in through the Golden Gate.

I'll be downtown for lunch with his nibs and will miss the ship parade, but I've been enjoying some of the runup this morning.

 

 


 



Shown:

[1] The fire boats serving San Francisco Fire Department from the Bay spray a welcome for an incoming military ship.

[2] Some masts over by the Ferry Building. And a ferry, and a docked dinner cruise ship. The Delta Queen, the largest of the dinner cruise ships on this side of the Bay, has been docked elsewhere to free up some room for the wooden ships to dock. The ships will open for tours starting tomorrow. We've been enjoying views of a two masted ship, docked at Pier 19 since we got back.

[3] Another smaller boat.

Labels: photographs, San Francisco, SanFranciscoBay, Telegraph Hill

   posted by Sal Towse at  10:22 AM|| |

 

Black birds (not "wild parrots of Telegraph Hill" although this *is* their tree if you believe what the politicos would have you to believe).

Where are the parrots? Ou sont les parrots?

Labels: life, photographs, San Francisco, Telegraph Hill

   posted by Sal Towse at  8:04 PM|| |

In today's Chron ... a view from the Hill

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2008/04/13/PKMADONNA.DTL

:-)

The text was influenced by the mystery I'm allegedly working on. (Nothing about people with telescopes and/or wheelchairs. Honest!)

Update: Updated link to Madonna strip. Previous link was 404.

Labels: art, life, people, San Francisco, Telegraph Hill

   posted by Sal Towse at  10:54 PM|| |

from Mixed Use to Kopi Luwak.

Mixed Use, a fun shop on Union at Grant that sold used everything from Dooney & Bourke bags to fur coats, to men's cowboy boots, fifties furniture and Scandinavian bookends at prices too high for my Goodwill sensibilities, closed up at the end of the year.

The store had a diverse collection of things for sale and was a wonderful place to poke around in but, as I mentioned, I never bought a thing there because I'm a thrift store girl at heart. I can get the D&B handbag that Mixed Use was selling for fifty dollars for fifteen at the Goodwill, ten dollars if the store is having a "30% off anything with a blue price tag" day. Plus no sales tax at the Goodwill. Oh, yay, Goodwill.

Granted, Mixed Use had the crème de la crème of secondhand stuff. No need to hunt pearls in thrift store oyster beds. But, for me, the hunt (and the successful pearl capturing) is the fun of it. ("Like my Ferragamo shoes? $6 at the Goodwill!")

The store's location on Union, a few buildings east of Grant, might've also been a factor in its demise. (I'm sure my not buying things there wasn't.)

Shops on Grant between Broadway and Fillmore have problems attracting a customer base. I'm not sure what the solution is. Mixed Use was not even on Grant, but off Grant and being off Grant -- on a stretch of Union that usually only neighbors walking home and hardy hill-worthy tourists use -- had to have effected its walk-in business.

Despite the sign down at the corner of Union and Grant directing people up the hill to the shop and good writeups in the San Francisco mags, I was usually the only potential customer in the shop those times I popped in to see what they had in their inventory. Their problem was their location. They would've done much better in Polk Gulch. Or Union Street in Cow Hollow. Or down on Fillmore. Their problem was there were no other nearby nifty little shops to attract like-minded customers.

I was sorry to see them go.

Who would brave the space next?

We noticed new signage last month. A new tenant had opened shop at 463 Union Street. The windows are still papered over but his nibs was able to pick up a brochure when he walked by the storefront the other day. Will this business make a success of the space?

Kopi Luwak Trading Company

Hm. Phone and email orders only at this stage.

Maybe that's the ticket: not depending on walk-in customers.

Labels: San Francisco, shopshopshop, Telegraph Hill

   posted by Sal Towse at  1:03 PM|| |

Amazing what's available on YouTube.

I'm a huge fan of Orbison. I will probably bounce from YouTube to YouTube to YouTube to ... until (not long from now) I decide I'm about ready to crash.

Claudette. Pretty Woman. Running Scared.



Blue Bayou




from Orbison to Patsy Cline


to Hank Williams



to ... well ... oddly enough there's nothing much on YouTube from Cisco Houston.

Joan Baez, however. ...



I bought a photograph of Mimi and Debbie Green, taken while Mimi lived on Alta. The two are goofing off at the corner of Union and Montgomery, with the piers and Bay as backdrop.

Thank you, John Cooke.

Cooke sold me a piece of his life. Man, I love the Web and the John Cookes of the world.

Labels: music, people, Telegraph Hill, video

   posted by Sal Towse at  11:21 PM|| |

In 2008 may you have warm sunshine to bask in, blue skies overhead and a light heart.

Update: (n.b. Yes, that is what la tour's color was. The sun was setting over <<<< to the west, you see. ...)

Labels: life, photographs, San Francisco, Telegraph Hill

   posted by Sal Towse at  3:11 PM|| |

Click on the picture to get a better look. Some of the parrots were back yesterday to check out the pruned trees. They stayed longer than they usually do before heading off.

Labels: causes, environmentalism, life, politics, San Francisco, Telegraph Hill

   posted by Sal Towse at  9:50 AM|| |

As promised, befores and afters.

BEFORE: (18 Jul 2004)
[note: added another before: Dec 2003]





I rummaged through my photo bins to find photos of the trees as they were. These two show the north and south ends of the cypress grove on 18Jul2004. Imagine, if you will, a large clump of green between what these two photographs show.

I obviously didn't take a lot of shots of the trees standing alone.

DURING: (October 2004)



Later that year, in October, a large chunk of tree came down.

In October 2005, another tree was taken out before Mark threw himself between the trees and the tree cutters and successfully halted the project.

We all know the result: a Landmark Tree ordinance. After much negotiation, in February 2007 the City agreed to indemnify the remaining trees' owner from any liability arising from the fact he wasn't allowed to take the "rotten" (his description) trees down.

The City also agreed "to hire a special arborist who has the skill to delicately prune the trees and preserve them for at least three years -- long enough for new ones to grow to shelter the parrots. The two trees are all that remain from what was once a larger grove." [n.b. Three years to grow trees this tall? Really?]

The Northeast San Francisco Conservancy (president: Nancy Shanahan) pledged $5,000 to the City to cover the cost of pruning and care.

BEFORE: (December 2003)


AFTER: (15 Nov 2007)

What can we see that's different? (Gee, this is like those picture puzzles: find six ways this picture is different from the ones above.)

In 2004, the cypress grove obstructed the view of most of the green building you can now see to the northeast of the trees. We can now see the tennis courts on top of the Bay Club.

The trees in 2004 were considerably taller than the trees that remain. We have an uninterrupted view of Treasure Island instead of having trees obstructing our views of the northernmost third of the island. We can also see more of Teatro Zinzanni -- those tents down at Pier 29 -- and twice as much of the rooftop of the condo building to the north of the green building.

 
I'd taken this shot to show the tidal bore on a very boring day, but it also shows what our view of Treasure Island was in May 2004. That's a whole lot o' tree that's been taken down in the last three years.

I have mixed feelings about all this. I love trees. I miss the green stuff -- I much prefer green stuff to views of the neighbors' roofs -- but I think there was far more agitation over the poor parrots and this privately-owned cypress grove than there needed to be. I think the City spent more time and effort -- when they don't seem to have time to worry about some critical problems -- than the situation warranted. I know Mark loves the parrots and I know he made them famous with his book. If someone had said we should spare the trees, if at all possible, because they're right outside Mark's door and he wants to have the parrots right there, well, I could understand that, but that's not how all the agitation and public spin came down before the City set about changing rules, trimming trees and indemnifying the owner.

"The parrots are fine," I tell worried friends who have read the tales of woe and crisis and parrots. This bit of greenery is not what it was, but the parrots still flock to trees on Telegraph Hill. We still hear them yackyackyack yackyackyack yackyackyackyacking. They still amuse the tourists and scare the cat.

May the flock prosper and increase.

Labels: causes, environmentalism, life, politics, San Francisco, Telegraph Hill

   posted by Sal Towse at  3:48 PM|| |

 
 
 

Talk about a job I wouldn't want! I can't even stand at the edge of the roof without getting shaky knees.

Tree trimmers are trimming the trees down the hill from us, trees which caused such political uproar a year ago or so and resulted in new rules regarding tree cutting on private property. Siblings of the trees were taken out three years ago. These remaining trees are supposed to remain in place and be taken care of until they can't be maintained. The City's indemnified the owner from any lawsuits that might arise should the trees topple over or break a limb.

The guy up in the tree checks his knots frequently. He has an ally on the roof of the building just east of the trees and an ally on the ground, who is cutting the fallen branches with a chain saw. The guy in the tree has done most of his work with a tree saw on a long pole but just now switched to a chain saw.

Earlier today, the neighborhood e-mail list flashed with a "someone's cutting the cypresses" note, followed by a note from Mark Bittner that the cutting was all in order.

The neighbors are watching. The parrots are sitting on someone's railing to get a better view of what's going on because their usual tree perch doesn't have a good line of sight for the trees being trimmed.

When allz done, I'll post before and afters.

Update: Gone for the day. Ropes still in trees.

Labels: causes, environmentalism, life, politics, San Francisco, Telegraph Hill

   posted by Sal Towse at  2:14 PM|| |

Laura doesn't talk anymore about her plans to be away since the time earlier this year that her home was busted into while she was away (after she'd mentioned her away trip on her blog).

But ... not only do I have a guard cat, I have my guard Auntie K who makes sure that the raccoons (and less vicious miscreants) don't DARE step foot inside the place while we're gone.

And we will be gone.

Off next week (Thursday to be exact) to visit a third cousin and her husband and the third cousin's mom (who is my second cousin once removed -- is that right? I can never get it straight without checking the genealogy sites.) in Harrogate, N Yorks.

In clearer terms, without the second cousin once removed terminology, we'll be visiting Jen, the granddaughter of the woman who was my grandfather's cousin, and her family and her mum, who also lives in Harrogate these days.

After Harrogate, we'll be off walking with the clan for a bit, then to London for a few days of respite before we head home. Three weeks in all.

I'm sure you're sobbing in your microbrew beer just thinking of the upcoming lack of Sal.

I've been telling Auntie K to make sure that (if she's having a huge sleepover) her guests know that the Bay Bridge will be closed Labor Day weekend.

I've also been telling her that there's a huge blowout planned for Barry Bonds (baseball player -- for the non-USAns -- someone who's alleged to have got his recent title record nefariously through use of steroids) at Justin Herman Plaza, just down the Hill and over thataway, at noon on Friday.

Sometimes I leave notes for Auntie K detailing in great and gory detail all the events that are happening while she's here. We'll see if I have the stamina to do so this time. Loads of stuff happening, but then, why the lists anyway? Auntie K has always been very sharp about finding her amusements while we're gone.

The trip? Well, after we hang with the relations in Harrogate, we meet up with our walkers in Manchester, then off to hills of Conwy and the Conwy valley and over to the Isle of Anglesey and off to the sod of Dublin and walking to Tara and from Derry into the Inishowen peninsula and up the next day to the Giants' Causeway. Well. You get the idea. We're in a rigid inflatable recreating the journey of St Columba from Derry to Crinan, across the Irish Sea (Iona, I've always wanted to set foot on Iona) and then Loch Lomond.

The walkers drop us off in Glasgow and we take the train down to London to putter around where we've been and where we've never been and then home again home again riggetty jig.

Loads to happen between now and then, though. The wedding of a lovely girl, whom we've known since she was a sprout, on Sunday. The older younger one is coming over with his partner on Saturday to sort through the SFF that I've put in boxes as up for grabs. I need to check to see if they're staying the night and make sure they know that we have a wedding celebration to get to Sunday afternoon up at Thomas Fogarty Winery & Vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Keb Mo at the Fillmore on Monday. Lunch with school chums from forty years ago down in the south bay on Monday as well. Maybe I'll stop by the 'rents place and do some packing and boxing as long as I'm down there.

When am I going to pack for the trip? That's the question, isn't it?

Checked the tread on my walking shoes, so that's good to go. Other than that? Oh. My. So much to do. So little done.

Labels: life, San Francisco, Telegraph Hill, travel

   posted by Sal Towse at  11:43 PM|| |

Our guys are almost done, they keep saying. Maybe soon. Maybe today or tomorrow. Then all that's left is for a final walkthrough on the project and some water testing to make sure that the leaks that were to be fixed have been.

It'll be none to soon for the downstairs neighbors in our two-unit condo building. They were keen on watching the soccer finals that started this week but their satellite antenna has been out since work started in May. They didn't mind before, they always said. They could read or go out, but the match on Wednesday started at 3 a.m. and THEY HAD NO TELEVISION!

Soon. Soon.

The top floor neighbors on the other side had a baby this spring and she (the baby's mom) is not thrilled with the banging and thumping and people walking around over her head while either she or the baby's trying to sleep. Our guys need to walk on the roof there, you see, in order to get over to our places that need work done. They've cut back on the shouting back and forth and raucous talking after she asked, but the thump-thump-drill is just something that has to happen.

But our guys are almost done.

The folks three buildings to the south along our path, at the corner of Filbert, are gutting their historic building and rebuilding it, preserving its historical-ness, of course. They're also adding a lower level cut into the hill that won't be visible from the public walkway and they're tinkering with the roofline. They've already ripped off the roof and reroofed the place and rebuilt the supports.

These days, when we go out during the day (or come home midday from a medical appointment as I did this morning), we bump into sturdy worker guys carrying 5 gallon plastic buckets full of rocks and dirt up the path, up 42 steps to Montgomery, and then over to the large debris box that's taken up precious parking spaces.

Yes, you heard me. The worker guys are hauling 5 gallon buckets of dirt up on their shoulders and dumping the buckets, carrying them back down, filling them, carrying them up, dumping them.

5 gallons of dirt weighs approximately 65 pounds.

This job will be over none too soon for them.

The couple who owns the building right uphill from us (with an address on Montgomery) bought it for a bucketload of money. It was for sale The asking price when they bought it for was $10.5m for a 10K sq ft house with seven car parking. (I have no idea what they actually paid for it. Can't find the information easily online. The property tax information implies that they paid far less than asking for the building but still a pretty penny.)

All the neighbors had been agog when the property went on the market: SEVEN CAR PARKING!!!

Well, agog and envious.

The couple who bought the building are gutting it. They're retooling the layout inside on the multiple floors. They currently have the roof ripped off as well and will rebuild the 4000 sq ft roof deck. They are clearing out underneath the seven-car parking garage to make room for some storage. They plan to add a small exterior elevator up from the garage storage level. Fire safety regulations also require them to pour a flat landing spot under their fire escape and create a path to either our path or the steps as an emergency exit route. A fixer-upper, the place be.

I haven't planted any flowers this year because we were "away" and then were back and then our guys were working on our place and then ... well, the folks uphill would just be tromping all over trying to get their lower level dug out and fire escape work done.

In the last couple days, their guys have ripped off the bamboo netting and ivy and what-not we'd planted so we didn't have to look at the dirt under the building. They have ribbons stretched to show where things are going to happen.

Tomorrow morning, I think, when his nibs is home and can spot me in case I fall, I'll do some work on the slope up to their property and move some of the plants that I care most about down closer to the path, so the plants won't get trompled in all the activity up there.

Ugly. It looks very ugly right now, but if all goes well, the finished product will not look any uglier than it did to begin with.

Our new mom next door said that she'd thought about moving when she found out she was pregnant, but decided she'd stay because it was so quiet here ... but now it's not quiet! And aren't the contractors not to supposed to start work until later in the day?

Well, no. San Francisco rules are that construction work, even in residential areas, can start at 7 a.m.

But not to worry. Soon all this work will be done and things will be quiet again ... until the next person decides there's some "remodeling" work that needs doing.

Labels: architecture, life, San Francisco, Telegraph Hill

   posted by Sal Towse at  1:45 PM|| |

The flags from Lhasa got old and tatty and finally ripped apart in a storm. I mended them and then searched until I found some more down on Pacific Avenue.

When those needed mending (the weather here is rough on the flags ... those flags are still flying mended), I went off to Wonders of Tibet on Lombard, near the condo at Broadway and Laguna. Those flags were cotton and went stiff and sticky in the first rain, needed to be shaken and unstuck after rains and ... well, they're still hanging too.

Haven't found yet flags like those we bought from the non-Tibetan Han Chinese vendors in the square in front of the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa.

But we need more. These are wearing. The guys come next week to tear off the photo-voltaic panels and then more guys to tear off the roof and replace it. Then our solar guys come back to replace the panels.

The prayer flags up on the deck are on their last legs and need replacing. They probably won't survive the activity.

A couple weeks ago we went back to our purveyor on Pacific and found he was moving up and around the corner onto Columbus. We went up to Columbus, but he wasn't open yet.

Today for lunch we hied over to the House and had deep-fried salmon roll with a chinese hot mustard sauce to start, unagi and avocado sandwiches with a side salad with sesame seed oil dressing that came with the sandwiches. Tapioca pudding with mango swirl for dessert. Ym.

Afterwards, we decided to check whether Global Books and Art had the Columbus Avenue location open yet.

They did.

"When did you open?"

"Nine-thirty."

"No, when did you open here, after moving?"

"Last Wednesday."

The new space is excellent. Large windows onto Columbus. A MUCH larger space (and selection) inside.

Global Books and Art can now be found on the west side of the Columbus block between Broadway and Pacific.

Go thee there. Buy some prayer flags, some pashmina shawls, some jewelry, some thankas, some books.

Or just say hey to the guy who runs the space. He is very happy with the new location.

We really hope he does well. Quite a gamble. Hope it pays off.

Labels: bookstores, food, life, San Francisco, Telegraph Hill

   posted by Sal Towse at  11:17 PM|| |

A few neighbors had a walk around in the neighborhood last evening from 6 until, well, after getting home and clearing up our messes, it was 2 a.m.

The first of more I hope.

The original idea was something K and I hatched when she was new to the neighborhood and didn't know anyone. She'd dropped in at a party next door hosted by P & Y and introduced herself.

We both left at the same time and I invited her in to take a look around. We talked about how entertaining it would be to have a party where everyone could poke noses into each other's places instead of having to wait until the place was for sale and the agents were showing a real estate open house.

But then we were gone, and then K was gone and then we were gone again and then P and Y were gone and we were ...

Finally in February Y and I were talking about it again.

"We'll be gone in late March/early April. March isn't good."

"Let's just choose a date and a few people and we'll plan a smallish gathering and expand it to include more neighbors later if we have fun."

"How about later. How about April. How about the weekend after taxes are due. Okay by you?"

"Okay by me."

"If the date's okay with K, we're on."

And it was. ...

We sent out invites. Y sorted out who would be where on the walk around. We all gathered at K's down the walk where she and M, who lives in the same building, provided cocktails and hors d'oeuvres at 6p. Then, on to A's next door for salad (and to catch a glimpse of S and B's brand-new (as of Sunday) baby) and then to P and Y for tapas and then here for more tapas and then down to the next walk down (in the pouring rain) to J's for dessert and coffee, hosted by J with help from J and G.

Fun time was had by all.

Tapas here were empanadas: (1)cashew chicken with a honey/soy sauce (2) homemade pesto and toasted pine nuts (3) marinated beef with onion and peppers (4) sausage and peppers and cheese.

The pastry was kind of tossed together because I couldn't find the butter pastry recipe I remembered so I checked what ratios Christopher Kimball used for fat to flour (he used part butter and part vegetable shortening) and made up two batches of pastry. Chilled in frig. Rolled and filled and pat-a-cake pat-a-cake. The pastry ingredients for both batches combined were simply 5C flour, 1 pound butter and about 12T cold water. Easy peasy.

The cooking of the various fillings, the cooling of same, the making of the pastry, the rolling of circles, the filling of the pastry circles and the crimping and the baking until almost done so I could finish the baking in just a few minutes after the party arrived here took far longer than I'd thought it would, but it all turned out as good as I'd hoped and there were a few left over.

Reheated empanadas for bfst. Ym.

We're already talking of another one. More neighbors. More fun. Next time!

Have to start planning now, though. I checked this morning. That original party where I met K and we started talking about a walkaround party? November 2005.

Labels: food, life, Telegraph Hill

   posted by Sal Towse at  12:04 PM|| |

Labels: photographs, San Francisco, Telegraph Hill

   posted by Sal Towse at  12:55 PM|| |

We were woken up around 6 am by the sound of helicopters, multiple helicopters, hovering nearby. The helicopters were all news helicopters, though, we could tell, because you couldn't hear the high pitch whine of the Aérospatiale Alouettes that the Coast Guard uses. Something newsworthy was up on our sweet little hill.

We turned on the radio (KCBS 740) and heard this: Landslide In S.F. North Beach Prompts Evacuations. Traffic on Broadway detoured around the block between Montgomery and Kearny. Morning commute traffic a mess. No one hurt. Lots of mud and rock.

The CBS5 site has pictures, raw video and a live Webcam setup to look at the slide.

455 Vallejo is teetering.

The helicopters went away for a few hours but now are back. We'll wander over to see what we can see at some point.

Labels: San Francisco, Telegraph Hill, urban

   posted by Sal Towse at  12:08 PM|| |