Limbo part 3: Adventures in California

This week I find myself in northern California, specifically the town of Morgan Hill. Because I had three weeks before I left for London, I thought it would be fun to take a trip out west to see my Aunt Julie and my Uncle Ramon before I left. As I leave Sunday for the UK, I'm cutting this trip a bit close, but I'm enjoying every minute of it.
My Aunt Julie is a mosaic artist and a damn good one at that. She's currently in the same room as me while I'm writing this, so I must keep my bragging to a minimum. She received her degree in nursing but has always been a writer. She's my dad's sister, so like my dad, she and I discuss books and swap titles. She was influential in my writing career, mentoring me in finding my own voice.
 Yesterday I flew in, and she put me to work right away in her mosaic studio. She's been mosaicing for years, turning the walls of her house into glittering masterpieces. I've been assigned painting an owl bell in the style of Hedwig from Harry Potter. I get started right away and try to remember everything that she taught me when I was a little girl visiting her.

This is the only picture I can take of Aunt Julie, as she says she can't
 have her face in any of my pictures

When we're not busy playing around in the studio and talking about books, Uncle Ramon and she take me out to town. Aunt Julie  showed me her finished piece, 8 feet tall, donated to a restaurant named "Rosy's at the Beach." As she directed my attention to all the different "easter eggs" placed within the mosaic, she kept getting interrupted by locals walking by and asking her about her artwork. Aunt Julie is very reclusive and humble about her work, so she didn't spend much time discussing her creative process. She told me later that she does want to keep doing artwork down the street, leaving her own personal legacy for Morgan Hill, California. We ended up eating dinner at "Rosy's," and I fully enjoyed staring at her work between bites of my seafood pasta. One of the things I fully enjoyed about Aunt Julie's mosaic for "Rosy's" was that she had done her research in Marine Biology, as each fish was copied from its living model. The scientist in me was glad to discover Marlin fish peeping their heads between coral, while an octopus lounged in the corner.

I also enjoy Aunt Julie's and Uncle Ramon's house because of their beautiful gardens. This morning I helped to water many of the plants around the property. I took in the beauty of bright pinks and blues, marveling at some of the rarer species my Aunt kept in her garden. I couldn't name many of the flowers I saw, and many I just stared at for a long time to appreciate their beauty. I harvested tomatoes the size of baseballs, and wandered in between the fig trees on the lawn, nibbling on their inner regions.
It's been a nice relief to be busy and feel productive and artistic. Aunt Julie, Uncle Ramon and I all have some good times together and I'm grateful I was able to visit them before I left for London. I keep trying to convince Aunt Julie to come out to London to visit me...but that dear reader is another story entirely.

Yours truly enjoying some wine tasting with my Aunt and Uncle 

Another of Aunt Julie's art projects: the bottle wall