I’ll keep posting photos of WFD when they come in but, right now, I’m back at my ranch chilling and writing. That means I am very very happy cause this is where I so love to be. The weather has been perfect. Sunny and not too warm. Brisk is the word. I went riding for the first time in more than 2 years. Wasn’t able to before because my body hurt too much before and then right after all my surgeries—knee replacement, back etc I couldn’t risk it But I’m Baaaaack. It was so great. You have a different perspective on the land from horse back.

I’m about to go for a long walk with Tulea, my little dog. Then hunker down to write. I’ve fallen way behind in the writing department what with the World Fitness Day and the move to Los Angeles. I love people’s comments about my loft photos. I wasn’t sure the vibe of the place would translate but I guess it has. It is a most unusual place. I have been so happy there. It’s the kind of space where I could be happy all alone but could also entertain 70 or more people comfortably…and often did. Lofts are often so cold and angular and I really sought to do the opposite with mine—make it warm, curves and feminine. I had a golden retriever at the time and so the floors were her color and I’ve always been fond of soft pinks. The truth is, I was rehearsing to perform in Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues” at Madison Square Garden in 2000 when I came up with the concept for the womb-like entry. So there!

See you next time.

THIS IS THE BEAUTIFUL JEWELLE BICKFORD ON MY Arab mare, Gitane. And she thought she couldn’t do it!!!

...and here’s Nat Bickford. But what he really liked doing was fly fishing. Troy took him. It was cold but there were a few hits. He’ll come back in the summer and really get into it.

...and Troy and Simone, my son and daughter-in-law (I’m not a monster)

...Troy on the Argentine saddle that’s covered with sheep skin. Very comfy.

...Nathalie Vadim in foreground.

I cannot ride yet cause of recent and not serious back surgery. But I look forward to doing a lot of it in the spring and summer. Just because I’m falling apart doesn’t mean I have to stop doing what I love. I feel like Katharine Hepburn who said to me in her quaky voice while we were filming “On Golden Pond,” “ I’m going to live a long time, Jane, though I may spend the last of in in a chair.. All my organs are like spring chickens. It’s my joints that’ll get me.” Ditto to that.

See You Next Time

AT&T were a no-show for the five days around the holiday in spite of our continuous cries for help and as a result I have had no internet access. Our offices in Atlanta were flooded when a pipe broke and we had to move into new digs and the internet was a non-happening. That’s why my blogs are all backed up. Oh well. When these things happen I just think that a couple of decades ago the technology didn’t even exist. So—can it really be all that important in the end?

We gathered at the ranch for a week and it was great fun. My friends, the Bickfords joined us over the weekend. They were with us on the Galapagos trip so it was a 6-month reunion of sorts…though I see Jewelle all the time when I’m in New York and she’s just joined the board of The Women’s Media Center. Emily and George’s daughters, Nathalie and Elizabeth somehow didn’t make the photos but they were a delicious addition to the otherwise adult gathering.

I took everyone into town on Saturday and in the fabulous store called Nathalie on Canyon Road we all put on cowboy hats to have our picture taken.

Left to right - Laura, Nick, Nat, Jewelle, Richard, Me

Nathalie, the beautiful owner of the store, with me and Jewelle

Me with Jewelle

It was a snowy weekend…very appropriate for Thanksgiving. We played games like this one where we each had a name attached to our foreheads and had to guess who we were. I was Beethoven but didn’t guess it. We also played a fabulously fun games called Taboo. Men against women. We won. Then we sang Christmas Carrols…a holiday tradition for my family although I’ll have to admit I always have to strong-arm the kids to join me (I grew up singing the old fashioned carrols and want my kids and grands to know there’s more to it than ”Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer,” tho that’s perfectly charming).

Laura Bickford, her sister Emily Lansbury and Nathalie Vadim

Richard who is trying to guess who he is (Marlene Dietrich)

Troy, George Lansbury, Nick Jarecki and Nat Bickford

Laura and Nick gave me a beautiful Mexican bowl with a couple of skeletons dancing on the bottom. I love it cause I love how Mexico isn't afraid of death

Richard's not the only one to wear my mug shot T-shirt!!

Today’s our last day and we’re going into town for some Christmas shopping. As always, I am slightly down cause I hate leaving.

See you next time.

click photo to enlarge

Where has the summer gone? It went by so fast. I know that in some parts of the country where the temp is still over 100 degrees it still feels like summer but here at my ranch..brrr. The leaves are really starting to turn yellow and when I go back to Atlanta next Monday I hope I’ll get to see the gorgeous Liquidamber in their crimson fall finery.
I haven’t heard from my daughter as to whether the Georgia flooding had any impact on her house. Guess I’ll soon see for myself. Monday’s her birthday. Tuesday I do a nice fundraising event for G-CAPP— in the home of one of our board members, Walter Jospin…dinner and a reading I do about the experience of making “On Golden Pond.” It is a funny and moving experience for all. When it comes to the end, about my father winning his Oscar and dying 5 months later, I always have a hard time not choking up. I’m doing the same reading for a group from Santa Fe at my home for the benefit of the Women’s Media Center. Oct 1st I do it in Dallas.

3 more days at the ranch. I start to have separation anxiety about now, added to the inevitable melancholy that accompanies all transitions, especially at my age when there is a limited number of falls left—30 maybe.

See you next time.