My California home is finally in escrow. Selling my home fragrance-free was harder than I expected. I found a fragrance-free realtor who was willing to show my home on an appointment only basis, without open houses. He asked people coming into the house not to wear fragrance, but only one of the first four people who arrived to prep the house was fragrance-free. The other three were agreeable but unaware of the fragrance in their laundry detergent and grooming products. I finally agreed to leave town so the realtor could show the house without worrying about fragrance residue in the house at the end of each day. Lucy, Ewan, and my other two cats, Ani and Fern, spent ten days in Joshua Tree with me, living in the van and camping. It was great to see the desert in bloom, and I was able to get a tent site in a back corner of the campground, upwind of the other sites, but the air was so dry that when I blew my nose I blew blood. We returned to Venice to two offers, accepted one, and left again for the one week inspection period. During that time we drove up the coast to Morro Bay. It was easier to breathe but impossible to avoid exposure to fragrance and cigarette smoke in the almost entirely full state campground. I escaped by driving up the coast to the elephant seal rookery, where the seals are molting at this time of year.
And here are the elephant seals —