At Home In San Jose

Serenity along the creek

We recently moved back into the Willow Glen neighborhood, our favorite haunt.  We're living on Creek Drive, backing right up to the Guadalupe River, which at our point IS really more of a creek.  The trees that grow in a tangle all along the banks present a beautiful, constantly in motion curtain of green, filled with all kinds of birds and squirrels, butterflies, and sunlight.  The mallard ducks that visit infrequently fill the morning air with their distinctive quacking, and a solitary hawk flies in at dusk, causing quite a stir among the other inhabitants.  At least 3 feral kitties pass back and forth along the chain-link fence each day on their habitual travels.

In the back yard, our own kitties play hide and seek under the branches of three large natural Christmas trees...presenting a great temptation to buy miles of white sparkling lights to dress them up for the holidays this year.  The trees, not the kitties.   

It's an oasis, all the more precious given the world-shaking events mesmerizing all of us these past few days.  When the last rays of the sun fade and the quiet night takes over, bringing a sense of calm and serenity, I am very grateful for the smallest things in life, and the friends and loved ones who continue to have a presence in mine. 

A new sense of community

In every facet of life these days, I feel a collective sense of community and concern.  It showed up over the holidays, certainly, with more donations coming in for the needy, hungry and homeless in our city even when many are feeling the pinch in their own lives.  It showed up in the courtesy and laughter of grocery store cart lines that stretched far down the aisles on New Year's Eve day, as many prepared for evenings at home with friends and family instead of the traditional night out.

I am a Realtor (surviving still), and my trade association, the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors, has chosen a specific theme for 2009:  "The Realtor Family Lives On".  Our entire focus this year is going to be a sense of family, of sharing, support, encouragement, education, and social community, to give our members a sense of belonging.  We may even start a Weight Watchers and Exercise club...a pumping heart promotes a positive attitude, and who doesn't benefit from that?

I know that many organizations, companies, associations, small businesses, and family-run operations in the greater San Jose and Silicon Valley area will also work to keep their workers, keep their health insurance, keep a core sense of helping each other through these uncertain financial times.  With some creativity, integrity, and kindness, we will all make it together!

Cottages in San Jose??

I spent a perfectly charming evening last night with some old friends - we were the first group of professional opera singers who sang with Opera San Jose in the 1980's and early 1990's.  What wonderful reminiscences...some hilarious, some touching.  I hadn't seen many of them for such a long time.  We aren't all living in San Jose anymore, but we all managed to converge on Mary Elizabeth Enmann's home here, which turned out to be a revelation!

In the Burbank neighborhood, near the corner of Moorpark and Bascom, very close to downtown San Jose, there is a collection of original cottages that were built in the 1920's.  You would never know they're there...walk through the gate and into the past!  Our friend Mary has one of the prettiest, a tiny 2-story home that comes complete with a dumb-waiter and a large 2nd story porch.  A large vine covered arbor shelters the perfect example of an outdoor kitchen, very much ahead of its time.  We bbq'd, laughed, and sat long into the night while the rest of San Jose seemed very far away.

Keep visiting here for more secret spaces in our City!