Thursday, September 30, 2010

grateful: rollin' fog


a whole other post could be grateful: people who are bringing back snail mail. thanks gwen. marimekko perfection.

i was inspired by mati's grateful fridays. and needed to remind myself.

i am grateful for san francisco's fast moving, nighttime fog. the first time i experienced it, i didn't live here yet. i was on a road trip from vancouver and seattle, back down to Santa Cruz
with my friend tammy and her friend d. we stopped in san francisco and stayed overnight in a big pacific heights house. (pacific heights is a fancier, mansion-filled part of the city, for those unfamiliar with sf.) i can't remember whose house it was. i shared a bed with d. in an upstairs room. the room overlooked an empty, manicured pacific heights street. from the bed though, i couldn't see the street. i was nervous for various reasons and lay frozen in one position, staring out the window. soon, huge white clouds tumbled by. everything was a thick violet outside aside from the white clouds which moved so fast i couldn't believe it—like a silent, billowing freight train, or like a ghost or a herd of cloud animals. the clouds calmed me down—the wonder of them. they kept rolling by.

living now in the mission district, i'm not directly inside the fog belt, though i can see it in the distance from my window. and fog does pass by/envelop my house occasionally. sometimes i'll take the trash down our back steps late at night, and low clouds will be zooming by overhead. it takes me out of myself every time. reminds me of the larger world and the bigness of weather and nature. i think it's the silence of it that surprises me. here's this big thing happening, and we wouldn't even know it was happening unless we went outside. it seems like so much movement, so fast, would make a noise. it feels like a secret. it must be cleansing for a city to have fog regularly sweep through it like that from end to end. or anyhow, the fast moving nighttime fog is one of the aspects of sf's character that i love best.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

slow clothes



i posted a rant about slow clothes over on sew green.

can't believe i only have one book
(a place on earth) left to read of wendell berry's port william books. going to savor it and hope he writes more of them.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

prickle


i've never seen these pricklers before.

flickr faves
sweden
the rains have begun
rhodesian ridgeback

Sunday, September 12, 2010

good stuff




a few photos from flora grubb

i really like this bed found via mieke willems

also really like yelena bryksenkova's work found via lena sjöberg, who has a new book that looks fantastic: cold facts about ice.




some photos from my housemate heather of our general store/kite adventure, which i wrote about in my last post.

Sunday, September 05, 2010

general store + kite flying







general store is one of my favorite stores in sf, so i am so pleased that they're carrying From OFG. (i will stop posting about the book at some point, really.)

i love how every time i visit the general store, it has transformed—new shelves inside the store (new goods of course), their little greenhouse built, now a small stony-mossy patch in front of the greenhouse, copious cacti and gardening tools, a great, long wooden bench along the fence—a perfect lounging spot. i missed the blooming of the wildflowers. next time i go, there will be some other development/blooming.

because it's on the other side of town, it makes for an adventure to visit it. heather and i went today and then flew her kite at ocean beach. ocean beach was surprisingly not cold, and the wind was pretty gentle, but steady. the kite flew almost directly above us, a bright rainbow flapping against the blue sky. it mesmerized us like a swimming fish or a campfire. i was only a little nervous that it might take a sudden dive and poke someone's eye out. luckily that didn't happen—all eyes are intact.


Friday, September 03, 2010

spin







more, bigger thisaway

mati's and jennifer's opening, spin, was so fun. their work looked great together, and i enjoyed the playful board game-related theme and their interpretations of the theme.

it makes me smile to look at these photos of cuties mati, hugh, katrina and david.

it was a treat to meet jen hewett for the first time last night too. she contributed a beautiful screen print to From Orchards, Fields, and Gardens. also a treat to find From OFG front and center on the book display at rare device, thanks to lisa c.