Far Out. Far In.

Your inside is out and your outside is in.

-J. Lennon

The auspicious lotus from the Huntington Library collection.

I'm not all that crazy about winter but we've turned the corner and I'm so glad. The days are getting longer which will continue from now till June 21st after which they start to shorten again. The way in is the way out. Who said that? Can you tell me?

Beautiful Science at the Huntington.

The world in a tiny tree.

A window in a fence. Isn't that great?

The last thing I did in 2012 was pay a visit to one of my favorite cultural institutions, The Huntington (Library, Art Collection, and Gardens). What a treat and how fortunate we are in L.A to have such a treasure. I hadn't been since they opened the newly expanded Japanese garden and completely rebuilt the teahouse. " The teahouse, called Seifu-an (the Arbor of Pure Breeze), was donated to The Huntington by the Pasadena Buddhist Temple. Built in Kyoto in the 1960s, it made a return trip to Japan for restoration in 2010. Kyoto-based architect and craftsman Yoshiaki Nakamura (whose father built the original structure) oversaw the restoration. The restored teahouse was then shipped back to San Marino and painstakingly reassembled here under the tutelage of Nakamura and other expert craftsmen who had traveled from Kyoto for the project. " 

I'm taking you to tea. Walk through the sliding panels.

Here we are.

And here is where we imagine ourselves to be.

The previous owners of my own house were Japanese American and I feel they imbued the place with that spirit. The house is also imbued with cold when it's cold just like a traditional Japanese house. But I love all things Japanese. Well, let's make that a number of things Japanese. So from Japan to China, actually Taiwan for lunch after the Huntington. It's a little place not far from the Huntington in Arcadia. Din Tai Fung: voted best Chinese restaurant 2012 by L.A. Times readers.

The Japanese Garden continued. Here we see the future through the past.

The to-go bag from Din Tai Fung.

Goodbye old man 2012 and hello baby 2013. The way out is the way in. That's a labyrinth and that was my start of the new year. 

Here it is, the labyrinth in my neighborhood..

And here is the labyrinth in the Chartres Cathedral, same design.

 It's taken me nearly 10 years to at last pay a visit to the Peace Awareness Labyrinth which happens to be 20 minute walk from my house. It's behind the old Busby Berkeley house on Adams which now houses the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness. Read all about it if you care to, all I know is that they very kindly allowed us access to the gardens and labyrinth and left us alone. How nice, awful nice. Really quite paradise and the song went on forever. (apologies to D. Bowie)