Lotusland and Fishbon

It was tea for the staff yesterday at CAF, which was good, because I am returning to New York on Monday, but am leaving behind a schedule of events with guest hosts, and am planning traveling tea party, so there are details to discuss with the brilliant folks that work here. Before tea, Grant and I were privy to a private tour of Lotusland, which is the most amazing garden of pools, birds, cacti, and an old Japanese gardener that put in the original Japanese garden 50 years ago!! Grant and I saw him working away, it was amazing, everyone must see Lotusland!

Ganna Walska who died in 1984 at the age of 91, created Lotusland. In her autobiography, "Always Room at the Top," Walska spoke frankly, "Everything I have achieved, I owe entirely to myself." She was a self described feminist, and even organized suffragist meetings in Chicago before moving to California.

After Lotusland and then tea, Grant and I ran over to FishBoN, the collaborative, event-based, art group that meets every Wednesday night in Santa Barbara. They are working on their next major event planned for February. The theme is "Women's Mysteries," and they will be experimenting with womb-like structures. For some reason this theme made me a little suspect of the contemporary relevance of FishBoN's creative endeavors. Their last theme based project was the "Hero/Male Myth," and although Grant liked FishBoN's place and danced all over their amazing 3 floors of work, lounge and show space, I couldn't help but feel that women and mysteries is an outdated concept. Just not sure how I feel about womb structures? Not sure what Ganna Walska of Lotusland fame and truly a larger-than-life women, would think either? I should discuss this with some of my new FishBon friends.