Saskatoon is my home. If I weary of battling the long, cold winters, I may move away. But for now, I’m very comfortable here. That being said, I have a soft spot in my heart for California, where my sister Janice Hagey-Schmidt has lived for nearly all her adult life, and where my husband, children, and I have lived on two separate occasions. I get back there as often as possible. I am particularly fond of San Francisco. I can conjure the smells of cable car oil and Bay water in a heartbeat. I can still walk up the Filbert Street steps like a youngster. I will never forget sitting in the sunshine with my sister at Alcatraz (following a tour) and looking up to see the Golden Gate Bridge. A banana slug glistened at our feet. We vowed to keep that memory forever as a link between us because we don’t get to visit each other very often, and because a love for that city is something we share.

If California were a color, it would be gold. If it were a scent, it would be salt air, spun sugar, pine, and the oil of invention. People with dreams went to California, and still do. I made memories in California that could not have been made anywhere else. One of these memories is 15 years old. I had two children then: aged five and one. My five year old had just learned to ride a two wheeler, and I pushed my youngest in a stroller while she rode like a baby maniac on the campus of the California Institute of Technology. The campus was alive with ancient oaks and stands of striking flowers, fountains, and frog ponds, a beautiful place to wile away the day. My daughter sped past a man in a wheelchair, barely giving him clearance. It was Stephen Hawking. Ten years later, we went back to Cal Tech. Our plans were nearly scuttled by (can you guess?) Stephen Hawking. He was planning a last minute visit and we were going to get bumped from our temporary home, a Cal Tech guest house. Unbeknownst to him, Professor Hawking nearly had his revenge on the bicycling maniac and her family. Unfortunately for him, he caught a cold and cancelled his visit. We carried on with our plans.

I haven’t even mentioned the California climate. As I’m still waiting for the Saskatchewan spring to arrive, I don’t really want to think about it.

California is the birthplace of wonderful ideas. Visionary architect Joseph Eichler designed houses for middle class families in 1960s Southern California. Steve Jobs lived in an Eichler house as a child, and the exceptional, minimalistic styling likely influenced his later appreciation of simple, elegant design.

The Pixar movie The Incredibles, directed by Brad Bird, features a house in which the superheroes-in-exile live with their growing family, a house that can only be Eichler inspired.

My sister has an amazing story of her personal connection to California from a very early age, even though she grew up on the shores of Lake Ontario. She created an illustrated story and used Californian names for places and streets, names that she could not have been consciously aware were Californian. Neither could she have known that in the future she would live in that State.

My sister and I share a love of California, San Francisco in particular, so it is fitting that the very first gallery exhibition of her beautiful handmade jewelry should be in that city. If anyone reading this is in or near San Francisco, I envy you, and I urge you to visit the Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts exhibit at Manika Jewelry.