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some of the many chairs at the great kirkland museum of fine and decorative art in denver. one could go many many times and not see everything.
colorado mountains. the landscapes are so spacious. even downtown fort collins is spacious.
sadly, i didn't have my phone/camera for the beautiful steamboat springs and surrounding aspens. glad i caught this moose though just before my battery died! two more bulls are behind him—the dark shapes in the trees.
in addition to lots of cool old cars, alameda now has two pigs! this little one was visiting bosco the pig (who is much bigger) when i walked by bosco's yard on saturday, post farmers market. the piglet was snorting up a storm. sounded like a grown up pig already. its owners say she will get to be 25–30 pounds. CUTE.
jen's bob lake cuts sprout studio cards at patchwork, a craft sale held at jack london square. (skateboard footrest not pictured.)
i purchased this sweet cloud mobile made by katrina.
the JLS tree was getting dressed with lights (already).
the JLS farmers market pears were looking cute.
the sky, blue.
mati, katrina and maxwell at the farmers market. this photo makes me smile.
swedish illustrator lena sjöberg has changed her website. looks great!
in pictures:
1. cat is abducted by ufo (for being this cute)
2. year round roses in alameda
3. honey man showing off his bees at the farmers' market
4. fireside letters and light
5. green+green=green
my cousin, lotta (above), has a fashion, etc. blog as part of her job in the fashion department of one of sweden's oldest department stores, åhléns. she could be a fashion model herself—so stylish and beautiful.
i miss all my cousins and the beautiful streets of stockholm too. old apartment buildings with their accordion elevator doors. the echoes in the stone stairwells. in july i'll be there again. it's been since january 2006. too long.
more prettiness
lasso mauve rose (am loving these colors right now)
santorini
eva morell
also by eva
sirens of the sea
oh, and speaking of style, here's mati in her new sven clog-boots with a gold stripe! up the back!
this is what i remember of the process (not a recipe)
buy a box (20 pounds) of bitter seville oranges at the farmers' market (talk about flowers, food, plans, shoes with three friends).
in a small, beautiful kitchen inside an apartment filled with treasures at every turn...
rinse oranges, wash jars, cut oranges in half, juice, save pips, save peels, scrape out white from peels (save both), cut scraped peels in half, scrape down even more (compost white parts), slice peels into thin strips. (laugh hard at the pain of all the scraping and the bossiness of the generous teacher-friend, consume adult beverages. pet sweetest visiting neighbor dog who watches the marmalading process patiently. marvel at labor of ancestors.)
boil juice and strips of peels with cheesecloth bag for a long time in a large, non-reactive pot (bag contains pips and first round of scrapings from peels), boil until pectin does its thing (while simmering, go down the street and eat some food {somewhat ravenously}).
return to the calm of the now heavily orange-scented apartment.
boil jars and lids for 15 minutes, air dry, funnel marmalade into jars, wipe jar rims so seals will be secure, put lids on, lower into boiling water, boil for 15 minutes, remove from bath, listen to lids popping (now sealed!). admire deep amber color and rows of filled jars, now cooling. clean stickiness from everywhere.
sleep deeply despite tugging burn in shoulder and neck.
gratefully enjoy beautiful marmalade on toast with cheese.
my photos
jen's photos
so pretty. see how the blueberry lady's dress matches her berries? bigger over here.(so hot over here. the clothes i washed this morning are drying {or have already dried} hanging inside the house, not even in the light. foof!)here's one of the blueberry pages from a story i wrote/painted many years ago.
since bluebells are also on that page, i thought i'd quote a passage about bluebells that i just read in wendell berry's the art of the commonplace: the agrarian essays. the first essay, "a native hill," is, among other things, a poetic tribute to berry's home. here just part of the blueberry passage.
One early morning last spring, I came and found the woods floor strewn with bluebells. In the cool sunlight and the lacy shadows of the spring woods the blueness of those flowers, their elegant shape, their delicate fresh scent kept me standing and looking. I found a delight in them that I cannot describe and that I will never forget. Though I had been familiar for years with most of the spring woods flowers, I had never seen these and had not known they were here. Looking at them, I felt a strange loss and sorrow that I had never seen them before. But I was also exultant that I saw them now—that they were here.
For me, in the thought of them will always be the sense of the joyful surprise with which I found them—the sense that came suddenly to me then that the world is blessed beyond my understanding, more abundantly than I will ever know.
his essays make me reread and think. they are written beautifully and are often somehow both complex and simple. (this particular quote doesn't really reflect the complexity, but i liked the description of his bluebell delight.)
it's about time to start an alemany farmers' market set.
the precita eyes murals (and the diversity of farmers) make this market one of the most beautiful places in the bay area in my opinion.
i love how certain sellers seem to choose their stalls based on the mural.
i actually don't need to go to the market so much since i subscribe to a fantastic csa. but i go to spend time with friends and to experience the market and its saturated colors. i also like having something i do regularly on saturday mornings. (foods i do buy at the market include olive oil, honey, nuts, dried fruit and the occasional non-csa treat {asparagus today}).
