Most houses have it - that catch-all place just inside the main door which is the dumping ground for the mail, keys and whatever else we have in hand when we get home. It can be the kitchen counter or an elegant credenza, an antique table or the corner of the phone table. For most of us, whether we like it or not, it is the first thing visitors see. It is a snapshot of our lives and it changes from week to week.

In our house - the cottage part of Rancho del Cielo - this snapshot is just inside our kitchen door and it’s a long white sideboard. Just like the Rancho itself, this is not an antique, and it is rarely elegant. But it does sum up who we are.

Which is why this page is called The Sideboard. We hope it will be to the website what the real sideboard is to our house - a place to see at a glance what is going on with us, with our guests, visitors, animals, gardens and lives. And we hope that you’ll return to check us out from time to time...

Okay, okay, I tidied it up for the photo
and this shot was taken back in June
when we put up Santa Monica Fruit
and Vege Market peaches and jammed
raspberries. Don’t even think about
saying the M_____ S______ name,
jamming is easy otherwise I wouldn’t
do it.

Ziggy waits by the back door.
(He thinks he’s an inside rooster.)

The last of summer and the first of fall -- the sideboard holds
flowers from the last wedding of the season and our first
pumpkin. There are beautiful programs from two earlier
weddings and ceramic jar full of fans for a summer night.