There is nothing like spending a few minutes a day in your neighborhood markets finding the perfect food for dinner. I know that many people have stressful days and they just want to get home and kick back with some takeout, or whatever you can make the fastest, but for me, spending a couple of minutes in the cheese shop making small talk and getting free samples, picking up some meat at Drewes and saying hi to the staff who know us by name, or walking down the street to Church Produce to find the perfect heirloom tomato and chat with my neighbors for  a few minutes – is a really great stress reducer.

Here are a few snapshots of my beautiful neighborhood yesterday – it was cloudy and gray, but that only makes the roses more brilliant! These beauties were at the very top of the hill on Noe street. Someone has a lovely green thumb – I think I need to leave them a note on their door letting them know how jealous I am of their roses. They make for great incentive walking the steep way from my house to 24th street.

Here is St. Paul’s church, I’m guessing it’s why they call it Church Street, and it’s pretty impressive. We snuck inside once during afternoon mass, and it’s just beautiful inside – Gothic arches, buttresses, and intricate stained glass. One of my favorite classes in college was a course about spirituality and architecture, and regardless of what you believe in, walking into a church like this is sure to make your heart soar.

When I have a house, I’m going to paint it gray and grow some of these flaming climbing flowers. Look at the pop!

It’s not hard to shop in the markets every day when you have such a beautiful walk to look forward to. And it sure beats shopping for an hour in the terrifying/overwhelming Safeway on 30th. And then you have the added bonus of the freshest of produce and ingredients. Win!