Pictures Of Things + Le Love List :: 3/52

January 22nd, 2017 - filed under: Furthermore » Feedback

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♥ Snapshot by my dearest partner in protest: Exhausted, cold, and completely filled up with gratitude after the Women’s March in Los Angeles this Saturday. ♥

Hello hello, and happy birthday to meeee! Yep, today is my birthday, although with everything that’s been going on in my life and in the world, it hardly feels that way. Birthday? What? I’ve got other things to think about!

But, we’re supposed to be getting the storm of the year today, and I’m really looking forward to spending my time snuggling with my kiddo and my man, piled up in blankies drinking tea and petting cats, and hopefully making a voyage down to the seaside. Because stormy oceans are the prettiest oceans.

Anyway, here’s what this strange, surreal week of 2017 has looked like:


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Jeremy and I began our week with a quick-but-lovely getaway “staycation” in the neighboring town of Ojai. Wilderness, hippie vibes, vegan food, locally made art and wares, and did I mention hippie vibes? Ojai is good times, man.


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Of course we stayed at our favorite hipster hotel (I say hipster with all the love), the Ojai Rancho Inn (I’ve written about it before).


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Best lunch in Ojai — Ruebens at Hip Vegan. Seitan on rye for him, tempeh in a rice wrapper spring roll for me. ♥


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My new favorite shop where ohmigosh please can I buy all the things???.


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And date night.


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Follow the winding one-lane road into the canyon, snaking its way through the forest, all the way down until it kisses the river. Then make your way along the pebbled path, the one sprinkled with pistachio shells and lined with willow boughs. Over the boulders, and there you’ll find the hot, sulfurous, healing springs. An excellent oasis for you and your lover to bathe naked by starlight, I do attest.


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And back from vacation to my favorite face. Oh, this wee person! My very favorite.


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And back at the wine bar, we had a special event feature cider makers from Spain and France, showcasing their old world-style ciders. Have I told you that Im completely obsessed with cider? Oh yes. Wild yeasted, all-natural ciders are my current love. And this is José Luis, all the way from Spain, pouring the still Asturian cider in the traditional escanciada style.


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Flats of baby vegetables = happiest Sayward.


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After the Women’s March in LA, we found a Mexican fruit vendor selling traditional fresh fruit with chili and lime. Mango and papaya and watermelon and pineapple and cucumber, and after a long march, it was one of the greatest things I’d ever tasted.

More photos from the Women’s March later this week


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And now, it’s time for the one, the only, Le Love List!

A looooong lazy morning with Jeremy in our hotel room. Alcohol is the devil! Don’t drink it kids, alcohol is evil and oh my goodness, too much wine. *But* if I’m going to be icky and hungover and grumpy as a skunk, there’s no one I’d rather be grumpy as a skunk with than my man. It was a good morning. ♥ // Palo santo. // Jeremy playing the bamboo flute he bought for a few bucks in Ojai. // Jeremy wearing my “I Only Fuck Feminists” t-shirt, damn my man is sexy. // The fact that Jeremy and I listen to the Moana soundtrack even when Waits isn’t around. Seriously, full volume singing along, You’re Welcome is like our theme song. // Dancing naked. Just being cool with my body no matter what. // Picking up my CSA box and passing out farm fresh carrots, still mud-spattered from the field, to eagerly awaiting kiddos in the back seat. // Really complicated and difficult discussions about racism on Facebook. // Children begging for more broccoli. // Solidarity in my community in the wake of the inauguration. // My cats which are more like dogs sometimes, and gosh I love them. // Noodles. // Feeling strong. Guys, I feel really strong these days. More so than I ever have before in my life. And I’m not quite sure why, but I’m rolling with it. I feel strong, and centered, and powerful, and confident. I feel ready.

I feel ready.

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Alright, now it’s your turn! I really love reading your own Le Love Lists, so please leave them down in the comments below. What are the little things in your life that make you smile this week?

Happy Sunday, I hope you have a most wonderful week!

  • Laurie

    Making (then eating) a double broccoli Buddha bowl; seeing my cat in the window, anxiously, excitedly watching for me to get home from work; bananas–oh, how I love them; and best of all this week: marching on Saturday with the sisters and brothers I didn’t realize I had in my small, conservative city.

  • http://angieeatspeace.com/ Angie

    I love that you are feeling strong. That energy has been coming through your posts. Thank you.

    I am heading up to Ojai for my first time this week and bookmarked some of these suggestions. I appreciate it.

  • Jayne

    First…OH MY GOSH THAT DATE NIGHT DRESS, seeing so many people come together and start having the difficult discussions in order to make things better, spending this weekend cooking delicious things, cleaning and organizing my little apartment in the city and recognizing this is a clearing of the way for excellent things to come, my silly cockatiel William the Bloody whistling the theme to the Andy Griffith show and then screaming at me when I try to join in.

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    Welllllll please add to my Love List the fact that you have a cockatiel named William the Bloody!!! =D

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    Thank you Angie, it’s great to know the strength is shining through. It’s such a wonderful change!

    Have sooo much fun in Ojai!!! We also love The Farmer and the Cook, and the Thai place is great and very veg friendly. Rainbow Bridge grocery also has a great deli and juice bar. Have a blast!

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    Mmm all the broccoli! I’ve been loving it too lately. And I’m with you, the march on Saturday was absolutely soul nourishing. SOLIDARITY, SISTER!!!

  • Sarah C.

    happy happy happy birthday!

    I’m loving: marching (and not being able to find my friends because the rally was so large!), snowshoeing, the first blue skies in a week (it’s an omen, I tell ya – things are going to get better), and my girl whose sign at the march was all about love.

    Here’s a birthday card for you – pics of the gorgeous hoarfrost on trees at the peak of my mountain (10,500 ft) while snowshoeing today.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eb39e5b7cf45853fe5d68df86154e14477d7ff9b136712b4bf2b168a116267b7.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/232809c7a7876b40ce3dad86dc90a5138e421110c45b44dbfcf38c45732e66e6.jpg

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    Wow! Sooo gorgeous, thank you for sharing Sarah! And I had the exact same experience at the march, I literally did not run into one single person I knew even though there were dozens of them there. But, yeah, 750K people will do that! ;-D

  • Sarah C.

    I know it’s only one day, one event, and that we have lots of work ahead….but the marches around the world really made me feel better and more optimistic!

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    Me too! Such a powerful force. Still sooo much work to do, especially along racial lines, but this was an incredible and historical moment. We are birthing a movement, I believe. It’s like watching a birth. It’s beautiful!

  • Becky Carpenter

    Happy birthday!!!

    I came out of the march this weekend here in Boston feeling the same way – for the first time since the election, feeling somewhat optimistic and not quite so scared. I’m still so nervous and freaked out but being around so many people who support everyone regardless of race or gender or gender expression or orientation… it was so powerful. Here’s to the future, and to keeping up that momentum and making the changes we need, and keeping the things we need!

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    Yes! That solidarity is a powerful force and did a lot to help re-fill my cup. Hopefully we have enough hope to last us a long time now, because lord knows we’ll need it. But as long as we all have each others’ backs, we will be unstoppable!

  • Elizabeth Wagner Belnap

    I’m definitely supposed to be doing homework right now but this is way more fun!
    The womens march changed me fundamentally as a person, i think. it was my first major protest (we had one at my small university once, but that was nowhere near this scale) and the march I went to in New York City was incredble. We walked by trump tower and sang and cheered and made friends. I marched with a friend and her six year old son, who, even long after we had left the march, was singing “love, not hate! that’s what makes america great!” to himself. The way I felt at that march was how I want to feel for the rest of my life. Inspired and determined and strong and loved.