Dear Amy...a place to have a meaningful encounter with a total stranger? These conversation salons sound like something out a dream! What a fascinating idea! Will you go visit one? And how lovely to think someone comes here all the way from Ireland. I'm so glad you do. xo

Thank you, dear Carol...your comment raises many thoughts as to what it means to convey oneself in a genuine way...I'm quite touched to think you have seen me through my words...I sometimes worry that in staying away from harder (more personal) topics, I imply life is glossier than it really is, or that I'm more polished than I actually am.

Hi Karen...I hope you feel better soon. Four days seems like a long enough time to entertain the flu... I am on Instagram...the account is @ktollipop and I apologize if you tried and I did not add you...I've had a few troubles with it but will look for you...

Dear Lia, it's so true...how does one follow up after the Okanagan? It's such a visceral part of my...DNA, it seems. It makes me so happy to think you've found your way back...I will live a little bit through you. :) To me, it feels like Narnia--a place that shimmers in my mind and exists behind some magical, changing door. It is beauty beyond reason and tied up in a wealth of memories... ps I am wanting to hear all about your trip to NYC. xo

That's oddly touching, to think people would get a tattoo of their home state :)

Thanks for this comment, your words console me a bit. It conflicts me to even admit this struggle...it seems petty and juvenile and disloyal not to be anything but deeply grateful for where I live. I AM grateful...and I have a true and abiding love for the desert...it's more that I find Las Vegas, in particular, a bit disheartening. We just spent a week in San Diego where it was easy to play an entire day away at the beach. The air was gorgeous; I'm always struck by how pleasant and "livable" it is. We visited my brother and his partner, and my cousin and his lovely family, extending the invitation to visit us in Las Vegas. They (my cousin and his wife) asked what there was to do in LV (for a large family with young children)...I mean, there's LOTS to do if you have money to burn and an appetite for nightlife, etc...but in the sweltering heat of the summer it seems like the worst place to bring a family for fun. Which kind of kills a part of my soul. Sometimes I think I'm a person who wants to love things too much...you know? So many of my friends love it here in a much less complicated, kind of more practical way. I think I identified to the core of my soul with the place I grew up and was aware of it nearly every moment of every day...I just haven't been able to find that here in Las Vegas, though I have connected with other places I've lived. So...it's hard for me to answer your PS question...it almost feels like a failure to even HAVE an answer. I suppose some things I miss are a sense of seasons, of changing weather, of pure, sweet air, of easy access to a lake or ocean (let's not count Lake Mead), of a community/historic resonance that never seems to have been an important component of this town...I'm reading over my answer and cringing at how it sounds. It's really impossible for me to say. We are here and this is where I want to be happy. I do love many things about this area...but if you ask me if I like living in Las Vegas, it's probably going to take me some groping around to find the answer, every time. Hard for me to admit all this. ps let's make t-shirts! xo

My pleasure...it's rare that I find time to distill my thoughts into words these days. I'd be happy enough in an empty room, I suppose, but I'm very grateful a few of you are here to share it with me.

I do that, too. More often with food, but also with nicely arranged words. :)

Here's to girl crushes and the casual use of the word "husbandry"...long may they live on. :)

Jacqui, I feel badly that I use words like shiv and you use words like aspirational. :) Hopefully you know me well enough to know our house is as much a study of reality as anyone else's...but in the observation and wonder of living things, we do find genuine joy. xo