b is for...

books! The best bookstore - Powell's Books. If you've been there, you know why, if you haven't, you *must* go there if you are ever near Portland, Oregon. New and used books intermingling on all the shelves in a city block sized bookstore. It's a labyrinth (another favorite i'll talk about when i get to 'l'). I must read before closing my eyes at night...sometimes i'm so tired i fall asleep having read less than a page. It's a ritual that i've had all my life (i don't remember a time not having been read to or reading on my own). In our next home i plan to have the most beautiful and functional reading light next to me.

basmati brown rice. Yum. The nutty, chewy texture. Add a bit of chopped veggies and a tad bit of sea salt. Stir in a nice bead (that'd be *bean*) salad and you have a fabulous summer meal.
birds. One of my great joys this past year are our weekly walks along the Half Moon Bay trails watching all the birds along the way. We frequently say 'we should get a bird book' because we don't know the names of many of them, so we name them ourselves...the Greg Louganis (they dive straight into the water with no splash at all) is one of our favorites. Recently there were swirls of thousands of tiny baby pelicans, i love to watch the parents flow so close to the water that they have to swoop up just a bit to flap their wings or else they'd touch the water and slow down. so beautiful. There are ravens, sandpipers, seagulls (of course) and many other little birds. We've seen hawks too. I love to watch them as they stalk the mice in the fields we walk through, they have such concentration.

blue. that sea sky blue. tiffany blue. deep july 4th night sky blue. i love blues.

buttons. Summers growing up were full of art and craft projects. We spent a couple of weeks in wisconsin at my grandmother's house, where my mom grew up. So many wonderful memories, including the collection of buttons snipped from all our loved ones clothes, bits of fabric holding the matched sets together.

what are your b's?