I am so happy to be back in Santa Barbara! It took all the emotional and physical strength I had and the help of a number of angel friends to make this move back, but here I am, and I am so thankful. I love my little townhouse with the garden in back even though the garage is still filled and poor “Precious” (my car) can’t get into her room yet. Perhaps in another week or so. Meanwhile, I keep dusting her down.

I recommend moving as a great reducing plan!..I have lost twelve pounds, and hope to keep them off. Of course running up and down stairs all the time and lifting and emptying boxes and bending and unloading and painting the nicks where the movers bumped things....all of it helps. I have also gotten into gardening. Started taking out weeds by hand from between bricks in the back yard. Many bricks! Many weeds! I have almost completed the job. Great therapy, but my right shoulder complained yesterday, so I am giving it a rest.

I cut out sugar a couple of months ago. This includes fruit as well. Every evening for quite a while I was enjoying my vice of chocolate sorbet. What a treat! I have always adored chocolate. Oops! Not so good. I’ve known it has a reputation for being a depressant, and of course the caffeine is not good either, but there is a kind of euphoria one gets from chocolate. It was my comfort food. Bye bye old friend. Not really a “friend”.

How I enjoy being near the ocean again. I am three minutes away, and I can walk the beach any time I choose. My life has become wonderful once more. I even have a pet rock I sit on sometimes and I watch the waves and feel I alone with nature. I think Santa Barbara is the most beautiful place in the world and I am blessed to be able to return. I will enjoy the community once more, and get involved with its activities. It is such a benevolent city.

My webmaster, Debbie, sent me an email she received from Mr. Edwin L. Schoen, part of which reads,

“Just wondered why there is no email link for Anne Francis' wonderful web site. She puts so much beauty and intelligence into her newsletters that it seems kind of narcissistic without any address given for "reader's" comments. It seems hard to believe that Anne is not interested in her fans' comments.”

Hi Edwin,

I am interested, and I do get some lovely letters sent to me at my P O Box. The reason I don’t have an email address is because I really have quite a time keeping up with my regular email, and when I write my newsletter, I compose it on my processor, and would send copies to everyone by snail mail just as I do my other letters, but that is not a possibility. I enjoy reading the comments that come to me the old fashioned way. You know, snail mail is really the only safe way for private communication these days! I am so pleased though that you like my letters, Edwin. That means a lot to me. Thank you.

My P O Box is 5608, Santa Barbara, CA. 93105

I really feel a new life shaping up. I have no idea where all this change is taking me, but I am finding happiness in small things. I remember my Mom tended gardens all through her life, and I think I am beginning to understand the true pleasure she received in doing so. I wonder if she knew how deeply she was touching Life with her care. I do remember an incident however, many years ago when she put things straight to a large geranium bush that lived next to her vegetables which had not come up with one bloom in ages. “Listen”, she said to this healthy plant, “You’ve been taking up a lot of space there for a long time, and if I don’t see a blossom in the next two weeks, out you go!” Would you believe, within two weeks that plant was ablaze with color! Hmmmmmmmmmm. Thanks for that memory, Mom. There’s an old saying.... “Bloom where you’re planted.”

And now the Fall approaches, and the birth of my grandson as well. Many miracles still in store.

Go Well,