Yesterday I went over to the house of my oldest and dearest friend, Zenobia.  We had soup and salad for lunch with her husband, Tyler (whose daughter is Aiesha Tyler, Talk Soup host on TV).  We drew some Tarot cards and chatted about our plans for the New Year.  Zenobia always tempts me with talk of going to Morocco and visits to oases. This time she spoke of the Fez Festival of Sacred World Music next June.  She knows my favorite music is world music. Hmmm

As I sat on her couch, I could see into the tiny sunroom she had built off an unused door of her living room.  It's only about three feet wide and about seven feet long, but it has windows on two sides.  The window ledges are lined with clear glass olive oil bottles, holding rooting leaves, later to be planted. 

Two rattan chairs sit conversationally side by side. Sitting inside feels feels fresh, and the limpid light is beautiful, soothing, and inspiring.  The high shelves hold begonias in eleven green pots.  The blooms are pink.  As we talked of Fez and sacred music, a fat bloom fell to the floor, plunk!

The sun room holds heat during the day and helps warm the house. It has an environmental impact.  It has an emotional and esthetic impact.  It's only 3 feet by 7 feet.

Later we took the train into San Francisco to visit Zenobia's step daughter Rema, and her child, Ivy--almost-two. We met her husband, Jason, at Colibri (the wonderful Mexican restaurant that my friend Karla Nagel's friends own),  Jason is attending a world conference on the environment.  He is meeting scientists who work in Greenland, and his job is to supply the scientific research stations.  Al Gore is going to speak tomorrow. 

Robert and I had watched the video (my second time to see the movie) an Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore.  It's so compelling.   Robert and I love watching the Discovery Channel.  Last weekend we saw a sperm whale, lost and trying to find a way out of the melting undersea tunnels from the melting icecap in order to breathe oxygen.  We have seen the scientists extracting ice core samples.  "You can see in the ice core samples the exact year, that we passed the Clean Air act," I told Jason at dinner.  He didn't seem that impressed with my layman's report.