Present Joys Featured Guest: Trisha Cole
This week we welcome Trisha Cole to share her present joys with us.
Trisha Cole reached out to us after reading this newsletter (correctly!) identifying us as kindred spirits who prefer to stop and smell the proverbial flower. She wrote Life at the Dumpling (more on that below), a beautiful snapshot of her life from March of 2020 through 2023 filled with musings, recipes, and curiosities. Read on to discover what’s been bringing Trisha joy lately.
Dumpling Living
We call our house in Glassell Park, the Dumpling. More on the name can be found in Life at the Dumpling, a book I published earlier this year. Our house, which is like a member of the family, is very much a work-in-progress and we live very much a “Dumpling lifestyle.” Dumpling Living is about creating a world focused on what happens on the inside –of a home, a person, how you experience a place or how it resonates with you. It’s about the choices we make around listening and observing, what and how we eat, where we go, and how we take care of ourselves and the people around us.
Urban Hikes
One of the first Saturdays the stay-at-home mandate went into place, my husband Bruce and hiked from our house in Glassell Park to Civil Coffee and back. Little did we know this would become a weekly tradition that’s now going on four+ years. Most Saturdays now include a few laps up Eldred Street and the wooden stairs at the top – the tallest street in L.A. and third tallest in the country—as well as looping around the base of the Southwest Museum on Marmion Way; a stop at the Self-Realization Fellowship in Mt. Washington to pay our respects to Paramahansa Yogananda; and meandering through Elyria Canyon.
Treasure Hunting
East L.A. has some of the best spots for treasure hunting. Some of my best finds have been vintage Mexican pottery at Bridge Thrift and an 1800s English linen cabinet at Pasadena’s Huntington Collection. READ Books is a favorite place to sell books for store credit, and same with The Left Bank when it comes to clothes.
Fosters Freeze
Nothing hits quite like the soft serve at Fosters Freeze on Fletcher. Any hot summer night we all happily pile into our ’71 VW bus aka Baby Jerry for cones.
Secret Patio
Collage Coffee on York is a great spot for excellent coffee and a chat with folks in the neighborhood. If I am looking for some alone time though to journal or reflect on the weekend, I like to pop into Collage’s little secret patio just to the right of the threading place next door.
Favorite Mode of Transport
My Bluejay electric bike has been a game changer for venturing out from our house that sits at the very top of a substantial hill. Favorite outings include afternoon drinks at Barra Santos, oysters at Queen St. and produce runs to LA HOMEFARM.
Everyday Coffee
The thing about going to Grocery Outlet is that you never know what you may find there. The good news is that their organic whole bean coffee is one of the few constants and holds up to some of the fancier brands I treat myself to now and again (i.e. my favorite Cole Coffee in Berkeley). For every day, mornings-in-the-garden drinking, the organic Holllis St. beans that come in the red bags can’t be beat.
Indigo Dye Session
Once I year I love to get my indigo dye on. I buy flour sack dish towels and sets of cotton napkins online and get remnants of white denim at Michael Levine that eventually I have sewn into throw pillowcases. I dedicate a day to mixing up a batch of the Jacquard Indigo Tie Dye Kit dye and go at it. Perfect for gifting or keeping to use yourself. They look great even after a million washes and will make you happy every time you use them.
A few more joys from Joyce and Michelle...
Pond Fishing My nephew Matteo taught me how to fish this past weekend. I felt so happy that he shared his new interest with me. Although it was only a couple of hours and I did fall into the pond, I will cherish our morning forever.
Smithey Skillet I had my eye on this Smithey skillet ever since first seeing it in the Nickey Kehoe showroom. After tossing out some older scratched pans, we made the investment in this one and I’m so excited to use it.
Sweater Weather While it’s still pushing 95F here in LA, I am getting ready for a trip to Central Europe where the weather will be in the 60s. As I prepare to pack, I’m definitely bringing this sweater along. This pullover got me through two years in the UK and was a gift from the best gift giver I have ever met, Joyce.
Moon Dial Tracker A fun and interesting way to track the phases of your menstrual cycle. I’m still on my first month but excited to see what patterns arise, if any.
Ed Ruscha This drawing from the recent Ed Ruscha retrospective at LACMA made me so happy. Something so emblematically LA to see an apartment complex studded with satellites.
Feeding Friends Nothing rivals the joy that sharing food with friends and family brings me. Repeat recipes lately include no knead focaccia and roasted squash with chile yogurt and cilantro sauce.
Community Definitively not a joy that my husband’s car was stolen (please keep an eye out!), but it has been so heartening to see how swiftly friends and family have rallied their support.
Pajamas Was recently suggested Christian Dior Monsieur pajamas on Depop which led me down a rabbit hole + subsequent purchase of a cobalt striped pajama top. Feels nice to elevate my usual schleppy loungeware.