Rear Window

Rear Window

Santa Monica. Not “Rear Window” like the famous Hitchcock film. I am not Jimmy Stewart in a wheelchair taking pictures of people across the courtyard. Rear wIndow like I remember Santa Monica in the 80's. I was a student at UCLA. We would come on the weekends and get lost in the buskers, bands, unique merchants and throngs of fascinating people who seemed SO much cooler than we were!  Hang out at the beach all day. Santa Monica was so different. Like a different country to which few had access. That is why I moved here after I returned to the U.S. in May 2023. I still can't imagine a nice place to live.

I am in my small room looking at the world as I know it. The Santa Monica Pier just to the north and Shutter’s a few blocks south. Yep, cloistered here with my cameras & coffee cups.

Well, coffee cup. I have one coffee cup.

And so here I sit. Watching the world coming and going, ebbing and flowing, the moon endlessly & effortlessly passing through one cycle after another every 29 days, 12 hours and 44 minutes. Marking the tides, the seasons, the time on our planet. For eons it has been and for eons it will be.

Older couples stroll down the boardwalk alongside endless lines of young men and women jogging past them decked out in the latest athletic attire. Forever young, forever strong, forever resilient, forever confident, forever poised.

Sometimes the beach is empty save for the huddles of birds clumped together on the sand.

Families will walk hand in hand down to the beach for a day of imagination and fun.

It rains. The sandcastles wash away. The tide comes in. Goes out. Leaves the sand smooth again without a trace of the castles so meticulously fashioned earlier in the day.

Mornings. Sunrise. Walks. Birds. Brown Pelicans flying in formation inches above the waves. Willets and Sanderlings darting in and out, poking for Sandcrabs. Western Gulls coming to life from their nightly perch on the rails of the roller coaster.

Evenings. Lovers dancing as the sun sets. Muscle Beach teaming with young people pulsing to beat music amongst the neon jugglers, tightrope walkers and visitors to the pier.

I am so fortunate to live in Santa Monica.  It is so beautiful, alive with artists, people, dancers, sunsets, sunrises... I think it’s one of the most beautiful beaches on the planet. Maybe even the universe.

Santa Monica, still magical. Still beautiful. Still unique.

All of this under the Flower Moon, May 1, 2026.

The full Flower Moon

From my rear window
99.9% illuminated, symbolizing renewal, growth, rebirth and the blooming of early spring flowers.

Taken April 28, 2026, 2:10 am
Latitude 34.91N, Longitude 118.49W.
99.9% Illuminated.
Santa Monica, CA

Brand New Starts

Tiny Dancer In the sand

Sandcastles.

Brown Pelicans.

Flock of Seagulls.

Sanderlings.

Willets.

Pink Moon, Waning Gibbous phase.