California | Ana Heller

big bottom

9 Jun 13

Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom’s. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own. Never let nobody talk you into shaking another man’s jolt. And never you … Continue reading→

loose in the desert

12 Oct 12

The blacktop had that shimmering, mirage-like quality that comes from great heat and makes the distance look unreachable. The sky was a bluish white color that looked like there was no sky, no lid to our world. Despite mountains on … Continue reading→

liminal seasons

27 Oct 11

I never knew if my birthday fell in summer or in fall. Every year it was different, sometimes tinged with the hot glare of summer, despite being stuck in school (which was always exciting, anyway); sometimes the leaves had already … Continue reading→

notes from this summer

26 Aug 11

Lassen National Forest shows up on Google maps as a swath of green protected land, surrounded by tiny archipelagos of green pixelated dots, some as small as a few acres. Sierra Pacific Lumber Co. owns most of the land surrounding … Continue reading→

Big South

4 Jun 11

Bright orange poppies dotted the way down south along Highway 1 and cropped up among the railroad ties that ran alongside us. Swaths of mustard flower electrified the fields, despite heavy fog in Pacifica and Half Moon Bay. Santa Cruz … Continue reading→

signage

31 Mar 11

Pt. Richmond, CA

a loon with a view

15 Feb 11

Petaluma River, 15 January 2011

the year of the metal rabbit

9 Feb 11

At the fortune cookie factory: All those decorations made me want to watch Raise the Red Lantern. Happy Chinese New Year! with love, from San Francisco’s (first) Chinatown (the largest outside of Asia!)

Tall Ships

5 Nov 10

The Lady Washington was docked in Sausalito this past week. Chloe and I went aboard. When the ship was built in 1989, they didn’t know what Lady Washington actually looked like, so they took a bust of George Washington and … Continue reading→

singing autumn song

29 Oct 10

Happy Halloween!

and the livin’ is easy

5 Aug 10

The Fourth of July has always been my favorite holiday, since I was a little kid in a small town with a parade and relay races and fireworks over the beach at night. The fireworks exploded so loud I called … Continue reading→

a midsummer dread

14 Jul 10

Driving up to Petaluma, I passed an 18-wheeler hauling the broken-down rides from the county fair, which ended a few days prior. I half expect to see little Pete and Artie tussle with some waves, but it’s still only July.