On Saturday, January 23, I taught a writing workshop at the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanical Garden in Arcadia, in the San Gabriel Valley.(www.arboretum.org)

It was the first day of sun after several of rain, and it looked as though the world were new. As my friend Judy Horton says, winter in Southern California: oranges on the trees, aloes and cybidiums in bloom — and snow on the mountains. There was snow on the mountains. And this is an aloe in bloom.

The workshop was about writing about what you love. (That’s where the Julie and Julia come in.)

Debra Prinzing, that lively and fine writer and speaker, had a guest turn. Saved the day! (www.shedstyle.com)

Writing about what you love with clarity and brio takes practice, and that is also what the workshop was about. Or at least was its intent. The proof will be if most of the twenty-five souls braving four hours in chairs have gone home to hand over hearts and minds to what we used to call “the page” — but may now be the tweet. Sweet. Maybe.