Winter 2005 Newsletter

Merry Christmas & Happy Hanukkah

I didn't notice him at first.

When seen from across the highway it just looked as if one of the fence posts had grown by a foot and a half. His speckled breast puffed and bristled in the cool morning air. He was on his haunches so his feet were covered and his neck was drawn down into his chest. He blended perfectly until he swiveled his head toward me. The brilliant yellow above his hooked beak and his penetrating, shiny eyes made that fence post come alive. He wore that perpetual raptor look — the one that says, "Wanna make something of it!" We stared at each other (albeit briefly) until I thought I heard him say, "Nuts!" Then, in one graceful motion he lifted himself on his wide wings, spread his barred tail and headed for a more private place to sulk and wait for breakfast to present itself. A red-shouldered hawk at work: just one of the inhabitants of my country life.

I enjoy the changing panorama outside my Mendocino office window: the fog as it comes and goes; swirling through the sunlight, tantalizing — promising to go away. Beyond the bluff edge, I can watch the whitewater break over Chapman Point. At home, as I look south, my vistas are of grapevines and picturesque barns, rolling hills and ridges that turn from gold and green to layers of grey and blue at the end of the day. Behind our house I can almost hear the forest as it tries to reclaim this land that was cleared more than a hundred years ago to graze sheep and since has become our home site. I laugh now when I remember that before we moved from LA, I was afraid to walk around in the dark even under a full moon. It's not as if I take extended nighttime strolls, but the prospect that something might pop out of the trees doesn't daunt me any longer, in fact a close encounter with a pigmy owl is welcomed.

I've been lucky in life to be engaged in what I do for a living: whether it was in television, and in the subject matter I was working on; or now in Real Estate, to be a part of the lives of people who want something more than pavement and hubbub. It's been a great sleigh ride of a market for the last few years, and though things are threatening to "burst," I can't help but speculate that here, on the North Coast, we have so much to offer people that this place will always be worth sacrificing for. It is a sanctuary in a wild world. Here it is still possible to turn off the chaos for a while.

My wish for you during this holy season is the peace you crave, the success that is your due and the fortitude to walk the path you've chosen. Thanks for your patronage during the year. And I'll look forward to hearing from you when the time is right.

Gio
December 2005

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