An inspiring garden video...

Photo Friday: contest prep

I'm getting some images ready for Holgapalooza. I need to stretch my contest muscles: Gather, prepare, submit. And since I've been in a toy camera frame of mind lately, it seems a good plan to start. I'm not sure I'll be able to use these images because the (only) prize is publication and I don't have releases from these kids. So, I figured just in case I'd share them with you. I'll either submit these under the category of "portrait" or "passion". Probably passion since the idea of travel to exotic places makes me happy.


Both these shots were taken at the holiest of holiest of happiest festivals in Bhutan. My dear friend Ken (see his website in my sidebar) and I attended on our last day in Bhutan. The Bhutanese are required to wear traditional costume during the day and they get out their best and brightest for the festivals. Ken and I dressed in the costumes as well. We had such a good time watching them watch us. I simply wanted to take this little girl home with me.




These two girls had become fascinated by my curls as the Bhutanese have stick straight hair. I could feel them pulling the curls to watch them "boing" back up. They would laugh so hard. Finally after one of the "boings!", I whipped around with my holga and they laughed even harder that they were caught. So sweet.

Sunflowers old and new...

I've been short on time for both Photo Friday and A Squid's Eye View from the Garden (I think a separate blog is in order and will work on that, um, someday soon). So, today I took a few garden shots with my iphone while I frantically watered. The phone has a green rubber protective cover with a Paul Frank monkey on it (to always remind me not to listen to what the buddhists call our "monkey brain"), but it sometimes leave a green aura around my shots. Hmmm, I wonder if that means lots of green is coming my way: cabbage, broccoli, money...I'll be happy for any of it!!


My gi-normous sunflowers are now bird feed. For every season....right?


But, new ones are on the bloom. This one is now taller than the corn. Totally different type of sunflower from exactly the same seed packet. Go figure.


And this one was me tripping on some clippings as I took it. But, I really liked how it came out and was actually bummed it was only on my iphone rather than my actual camera in RAW.

Three Perfect Pea Pods

Photo Friday: St. Patrick Cathedral, NYC

Still working through my NYC images that I made with the lensbaby. Not sure if I'm feeling that the lensbaby is "been there, seen that" and maybe I shouldn't be using it since I'm definitely behind the fad. On the other hand, I do like the dreamy (or in this case maybe Rosemary's Baby!) feel to it and I have certainly gotten some images I'm really liking. I can say that as many times as I've photographed St. Patrick, I have no other image like it.

What do you think: feels fresh or you've seen it before?

Daydreaming at the Guggenheim

Happy Fourth of July

Love Notes: 21st Century Style

I came home to this very modern love note from The Squeeze waiting for me on the tv screen. So sweet.

Photo Friday: started with a bang! (bang!bang!)

2:15 am
Would have been a great time to rob a bank in Long Beach.

From the Garden Today

It wasn't much today, but I'm happy for it anyway. Two strawberries, one zucchini, and a jalapeño pepper that was stunted and red. Who am I to question?! Oh, and Jaco looking too cute not to share.

Today's Harvest

One gorgeous, almost perfect japanese eggplant, a not so perfect radish, two jalepenos, five apples from the community basket, and herbs, herbs, herbs: italian parsely, oregano, basil, rosemary, and a bounty of beautiful looking sage so I can make my Squeeze some sage bread. He was bummed the last one got gifted.

The garden looks very green and wild. Not a lot of bright colors other than the golden squash flowers peaking out under enormous leaves. But, tomatoes are forming and the hot pepper that was a surprise to me (mismarked) has long green fruit that are just about to start ripening. The corn looks healthy and the tops certainly remind me of my childhood driving past the fields on end; so, I'm hopeful. I forgot to get the two strawberries that were ready today, so I suppose if you look closely there is a beautiful red amongst all the lush green. I'm grateful for this garden.

Photo Friday: the morning after

This morning, by Fed Ex, I got some scans and prints back from Paris Labs. The package contained: The exciting 11 x 14 Somerset Rag print which marks the end to a portrait session which hopefully will be on a family wall within days (and beautiful if I do say so myself) and some Holga film/scans which I had been holding since New Years. There were lovely desert shots of The Squeeze's favorite place on Earth... the Kimber's Ranch in Arizona. This shot was from a walk at sunset with Lisa K. The light was dramatic.

Photo Friday

To apply for a Model Mayhem account....

Photo Friday

Scanning old shots...

Thought this one (without the label, of course), might make a great candidate for metallic paper. It's my current passion for printing....

The plan for it is:

- Sage Bread
- Quinoa with rosemary roasted Japanese eggplant and carrots (with basil)
- Organic Free Range Roasted Chicken with fresh oregano, parsley, and chives.
- Apples slices for dessert

Which still leaves the green onion and bulb onion for another day!

This is my Poppop, my father's father, and me in 1965. I adored my grandfather. Truly adored him. His name was Guiseppe. But, everyone called him Joe.

Last year I wrote a piece on my other blog about picking hyacinths and lilac with him behind my grandparent's house. I planted hyacinths in my garden this year in his honor. The smell of the two flowers always brings me back to his twinkling blue eyes and gentle voice. I wrote also about our ritual when he would get home from work, him leaning on the enormous ping-pong table and me sitting cross-legged on it. He would read the paper and tell me the news or read me the funnies. I will say it again, I adored him. The white shirt he's wearing in this long lost slide my father scanned and sent to me today reminds me, though, of his barbershop.

Family lore has it that he came to America to be ordained, but while chaperoning a CYO dance he fell for my grandmother. The Church's lost, our gain. But, it wasn't until I was in jr.highschool doing a report on our family tree and he wrote me a letter with family history that I suddenly realized English wasn't his first language. He wrote in broken English. But, he spoke it perfectly. I couldn't reconcile that.... Which brings me to his barbershop. Tailor's ran in his family, but once he tossed the frock away, he apparently apprenticed at a barbershop near the courthouse. He knew lawyers would get their hair cut there and he wanted to learn how to speak proper English. Who better to learn from than the highly educated? And so he did.

Eventually he owned his own barbershop on a busy street with cracked sidewalks. I don't recall what it was called. Certainly not Joe's Barbershop, although I wish it had been. My brother has one of the wonderful old, antique chairs and my father still has the really old school barber sign. You know the ones: red and white that actually spiraled up and down. (Boy that would look good in a loft, maybe, *wink, wink*).

But, I have his small secretaries desk. It sat in the back, in a strangely dark corner given the entire front of the shop was glass. He paid his bills from it, had his phone on it, but above all had pictures of his family on it. When my apartment roof caught on fire once, I carried that desk outside with the family photos... that was all I cared to save. (Luckily the firemen came and I carried it right back up!)

He was a proud and hard worker. He told me that I carried his name and so I must always do things that honored it. I see how he is looking at me in that photo and the feeling has been mutual. I have photos of my father looking at his grandchildren with the same adoration. How lucky they are to have another Poppop of equal stature standing with them. I am so heartily sad that he won't look at a child of mine like that. But, my siblings and I were so blessed to have Poppop C. for ourselves. He was with us just long enough to see me off on my first weekend of college. My other grandfather told me he knew he was hanging on through his illness that long to see his oldest grandchild make it there. And I did. And we spoke that weekend. And I know he was proud of me.

My only bad memory? I cried when he gave me boy haircuts, but I miss him so much still, that maybe I would let him give me one more.

Hot Stuff

Imagination

I imagine this will probably be the most perfect radish I will ever grow.

Limiting?
Defeating?
Triumphant?
Not imagining at all?

Summertime By The Sea

The Squeeze launched off the season with his Collective opening the summer music program for Shoreline Village. They played upbeat jazz standards while the sun set and the folks enjoyed a beautiful summer evening with a glass of wine, an ice cream cone, or a stroll around the harbor boardwalk.

Strawberries, Ginger, and Rhubarb, Oh My!

Spring is fully sprung and after seeing (and buying) the beautiful strawberries at the Farmer's Market yesterday, a hankering for Strawberry-Rhubarb pie overtook me. I didn't see any rhubarb at the market since it doesn't grow well in this climate. I'll test it myself since I planted two roots a month or so ago. Nothing has popped up, but I keep telling myself this winter when it's colder I'll see it thrive. Hmmm. Anyway, since I can't grow it in my own garden, off to Whole Foods I went and came back with some beautiful, slender, ruby red rhubarb.

Then came the dilemma. I'm not a baker. I can't bake. I've tried to bake. There is really no nice way to say this other than I truly suck at baking. So, that narrowed down my baking choice to a crumble...which is usually how my pie crusts turn out anyway. And yet, I wanted a bottom crust...all that strawberry/rhubarb juicy goodness laying on top of a sweet crust to make sure nothing gets lost on the plate. Yep, a traditional crumble wouldn't do. Now, if it wasn't Mother's Day, I would have called Mrs. S. for her recipe. She's (a) family (friend) and I remember her beautiful strawberry-rhubarbs from my childhood which always showed up in the summer for the pool parties, inevitably arriving in her gigantic wicker basket covered with a gingham cloth. I used to have a smaller version of that basket because I loved her entrances to the parties so much....

But, since it was Mother's Day and she's surrounded by a bevy of children and grandchildren today, I'm sure....the internet would have to do. After a lot of yummy recipes passing across my eyes, I settled on a bit of a combination of things. Its core recipe is from Ken Haefich's book PIE
which includes a "skillet crust". This is right up my alley. Basically it's melted butter with vanilla and then the flour and sugar is folded in until if forms a crumb-like crust that can be pressed into your pie plate. Just up my non-baker alley. From there it was adapted by Barbara Fisher on her site Tigers and Strawberries where she added lemon juice and lemon zest as well as ground ginger and cardamon.

I took it one step further and added a tiny bit more ground ginger in the skillet crust and candied ginger in the actual pie/crumble. The pie is decidedly more rhubarb that strawberry given its 2 to 1 ratio, but that's fine by me! It's cooling now and The Squeeze and I will have it after his Mother's Day gig at The Cat Man Blu, a new cajun restaurant that opened up in place of Casa Vino. We'll let you know how it is!

Green Long Beach

A break from NYC pictures because I've been too busy catching up at the office to actually even download them. And besides, you know how I feel about my garden and today was garden-liscious. Today in Long Beach was the first Green festival. It was being held in the Arts District Downtown and actually goes on until 10pm tonight. It seems like it was a great success. It coincided with the Saturday AD Farmers Market and the nighttime Second Saturday Art Walk, so there was a LOT going on including music all day, free yoga in the art park, free classes, tons of green companies showing their wares, activist groups sharing their visions, and naturally our little organic community garden was in full swing as a testament to it all. Green Long Beach







I spent most of the day in the Garden which was open to the public and which hosted the worm composting seminar (kind gross and yet so cool!). Time was spent with all the other gardeners watching people marvel at our little patch of heaven in the middle of the Arts District. The peach trees are heavy with fruit so they were giveaways along with extra seeds and seedlings each gardener contributed. We hope that everyone got inspired to grow something, even if it's in a pot on the windowsill. And a shoutout to Adriana from the blog/podcasts "Anarchy in the Garden" which I read religiously. I understand you were there seeking out information to start a community garden. Sorry I didn't know you were there and GOOD LUCK!

Squid's Eye View NYC: Day Two: PART I

Day Two began early and went so long that this day will have to get covered in two, count 'em two, blogs. We started the day by taking the MACRO view of Manhattan when we boarded the cheesy, but fun CIRCLE LINE. I wish I could remember the song from those old commercials. I just remember the footage was from the 50s! We took the 3 1/2 full around Manhattan ride. We saw where Sully landed the plane and heard the crews' stories of how they went to the rescue. We went under every bridge and got to see the skyline from all sides. Our guide probably came to NYC to be a Broadway Star. He had the voice for it. But, you know what they say about the lights on Broadway....

The day continued on by us covering most of Wall Street and the waterfront and hearing some great jazz, but more on that in Part II



The NY skyline is sadly not what it was when I lived here. It's painful to me still. But, there is still much to behold in the Empire and Chrysler Building.


The Staten Island Ferry. Worth taking just for all the movie trivia. We may just do that before we go...


They are taking these old subway cars out to sea to create an artificial reef for fish as an eco project. Recycle, Reuse...


Notice his peace sign hat. LOVED this guy! A most excellent NYC dockworker.


And we ate bagels. Although you wouldn't believe how long it took us to actually find one. Yo, it's New York! Where the bleep are the bagels!

Stay tunes for Part II.... must go eat more bagels and prepare for our adventures today.

A Squid's Eye View From New York:Day One

The Squeeze and I have touched down in NYC. It's always strange for me to come back here. In some ways I will always consider myself a New Yorker. But, in other ways I'm just another tourists asking which train is express now. It has been a ton of fun seeing NY through my Squeeze's eyes since he's never been here before. In all the hustle and bustle through my years here, for instance, I never looked UP at the ceiling of Grand Central. It's so gorgeous. Makes me wonder what else I missed. In an effort to carry a lighter camera (survival) and not take a million pictures I've already taken of NYC (artistic choices), I've been relying heavily on my new lensbaby. I'm still getting my mojo on it, but the results are fun.


The day of the redeye was really interesting at The Loft. There was a MAJOR pot bust: DEA, guns, camera's, stakeouts - the whole nine yards. The cops ended up giving us their cards in case we ran into any trouble at the airport due to possible contact high exposure for lack of a better desciption, yikes. But, that's for another blog!


Apparently I started walking like a New Yorker the minute we landed. The Squeeze kept having to tell me to slow down! Old habits die hard. Our first taxi ride.


We are staying in Chelsea at a friend's apartment. What a fantastic location for us. We headed right over to Chelsea Pier. All of that was built after I left, so it was fun to explore. The girlie umbrella is mine.


The first subway ride was fun. The Squeeze was digging it. He's also brought his camera and it's been really interesting watching him express himself that way, as well. I pulled out the lensbaby. He looks adorable in the beret, no?


We checked out our friend's "Guide to Vegan Eating in NYC" book and settled on a great place called the Dosa Hut on the East Side. I meant to take a picture of it before we ate it, but we were both too hungry to wait even for one shot. GREAT Dosas. Brought back great memories of Nepal for me.


A lensbaby stock shot maybe?? Korean delis don't seem to have the salad bars the way I recall, but on the other hand there are gourmet delis on every corner now so who needs the salad bar!


Grand Central through the lensbaby.... I dig it. It reminds me of a shot my dear friend Jacqueline Veissid took (check out her website to the right) with an old polaroid camera she has. She's had that piece published and sold.



We headed up to Times Square from Grand Central. I still can't get used to the newer, so called improved version. There's a part of me that misses the peepshows and hookers!


We headed over to "Music Row" and visited Manny's, and Rudy's, and Sammy Ashe's. The Squeeze had a field day trying guitars.


He tried to barter the price down on this one, but they wouldn't have it. So, he passed.

Our first whirlwind day (including the redeye!) ended with WAITING FOR GODOT at the Roundabout Theater. It starred Bill Irwin, Nathan Lane, John Goodman, and John Glover. What a cast. It was the most slapstick version of the play I've ever seen, making it also the most fun. We had great, great seats and it really ended a perfect day in NYC for us.