so cozy
I am up in the Bay Area this weekend visiting assorted friends from different stages of my life, and I am spending tonight in R's guest cottage in Berkeley. R owns a house in common with a friend from high school and his wife and children, and they have a tenant, so it's a complicated household, and they have a back cottage for friends and relations. I had never been here before. It is *beautiful*. You walk past the garden, down a path, through a heavy and ornate gate, past the enclosed outdoor shower and the hot tub, through a door set with stained glass, into this little building. It has yellow walls, dark exposed beams, and a high bed with a warm duvet atop many drawers containing extra bedding and other practical items. There is a small kitchen area with food adequate to several reasonable meals and, more importantly for me at the moment, a teapot and many kinds of tea. There is a armchair, a writing table, and a bookshelf full of books I remember from my childhood. There are towels and robes, a set of instructions on how to use the hot tub and other cottage rules (eg, do not smoke in the cottage, but smoke whatever you like on the porch), and a guest book I will peruse later. A round black-and-orange cat joined me shortly after I arrived and is now sleeping in the armchair.