this is where peter grew up.

by my cousin karin, peter and myself. we doodled while sitting for a long time at it's a grind cafe.

peter grew up over there on the left hand side of the drawing (near the bottom), in the orange house that is sparkling like a gem. that is the road one takes to his house, past the track field. many people miss that last stretch of road and just follow the dotted lines.

there was a reindeer in the forest nearby where he grew up of course, with a candle for a tail. or that carried a candle around on his butt. you know it gets dark in northern(ish) sweden. (at first i thought that the reindeer was yawning/showing his mouth, but i think that's actually his velvety nose. which is it peter?)

not having any siblings, i am finding it very comforting to have karin and peter in sf for a few weeks. i like just knowing that they're over there on polk street. i will miss them when they go.

friday flickrs

cloud blanket this morning (bigger)

flickrs
get in here
sweet
--

tea flowers

good news

smoke

bits

after thinking about his new love for some time and not remembering the color of her eyes, looking at new york:

and then he saw a strange white cloud moving across the now golden face of the city's cliffs in the sunset. it changed shape and form as it flew about the towers like a whimsical ghost. he realized what it was—pigeons, millions of pigeons, in a cloud electrified by reflection. they wheeled across the skyline like particles of smoke in Brownian motion, caught brilliantly in a dark chamber by a clear stroke of light reverberating between a sky and floor of yellow brass. next to the bodies of the buildings they were like mites, or snow, or confetti, or dust...and yet they were one single flight, rising like a plume in the wind. Peter Lake knew from this that the city would take care, for it was a magical gate through which those who entered passed in innocent longing, taking every hope, showing touching courage—and for good reason. the city would take care. there was no choice but to trust the architect's dream that was spread before him as compact as an engine, solid and sure, shimmering over the glinting ice. he lay back, resigned until he saw her again not to know the color of her eyes.

and then he was suddenly overwhelmed. it was as if a thousand bolts of lightening had converged to lift him. all he could see was blue, electric blue, wet shining warm blue, blue with no end, everywhere, blue that glowed made him cry out, blue, blue, her eyes were blue.

such pretty words. this passage gave me the chills (but you may have to read the whole wonderful chapter to have that reaction). from winter's tale by Mark Helprin. the book is so good!

friday flickrs +

fika with my cousin karin
and this exhibit at sf center for the book

friday flickrs
texture (and a funny look)
80 yells at floretta (i like their names)
floretta and 80
beautiful snow and light and trees

the grand GG

the golden gate bridge is much taller when you walk across it than when you drive across.

today was my first walk across in eleven years of living here! so many times i've watched crowds of shorts-wearing tourists brace themselves against sharp, wet winds blowing into their pinched faces as they walk across and i sit inside a golden gate transit bus or a toasty car. and so often there is no view at all for all the fog. but today was a perfect day for a GG stroll, as you can see.

all hearts day

that's what it's called in swedish. happy valentine's day to you.

♥ this hot pink voracious painting by my friend oona. a good one to be devoured by today.

♥ that 3191 is back on.

♥ these lovers (or friends)

book review: fruitless fall

wanted to recommend fruitless fall by rowan jacobsen to you all. the book is about the honey bee and colony collapse disorder (CCD), which is a serious threat to the honey bee (and therefor to life as we know it). while the topic is frightening and depressing, jacobsen managed to completely engage me in his book. almost every page is filled with fascinating information about bees and pollination and how bees are essential to us for so many reasons. even the more scientific info is really accessible.

i recommend reading this book in conjunction with the omnivore's dilemma, because CCD is almost certainly caused by the effects of industrial agriculture. for me it reiterates the urgent need to transform our broken agricultural system. in fruitless fall, jacobsen examines the myriad of factors that have been considered in trying to figure out why CCD is happening. in the end, CCD is mostly likely due to a combination of factors including:

*pesticide, herbicide and fungicide use (and the complete lack of studies on how various pesiticides, etc. react/combine with each other to become potentially exponentially more harmful) (pesticide use is probably the most influential factor. did you know pesticide safety is determined by test results reported BY THE PESTICIDE MAKERS!)
*the transport of hives (trucked cross country and flown between countries)
*bees forced to feed on monocrops (like almonds)
*habitat loss (lack of competition with wild bees, lack of varied nutrient sources)
*use of corn syrup to feed bees
*climate change
*development of wild and farm land (blocks flower scents)
*noise
*possibly even the structure of traditional bee boxes.

jacobsen goes into detail about how all of the above affects the honey bee, and i think you will be surprised by a lot of what you learn about these factors and how they interrelate.

so good! now i want to read some books he recommends, including the forgotten pollinators.

let me know what you think/thought of the book!

bee links
pollinator partnership
bee spotter

cross-posted at sew green

community garden start

i'm very excited to hopefully be starting a little community garden in the backyard. (just gotta clear it with the neighbors who share the yard.)

today jen and mati and i attended a free urban composting class at the awesome Garden for the Environment. what a great little place. SF has so much cool stuff going on.

then we went to Flora Grubb for some inspiration (though not a lot of purchasing—expensive). but look at those colors! you can view that succulent wall bigger in my new community garden set. ;-)

we're starting with compost and beds, but we also hear chickens clucking in our future...
here's a short article and video about chicken owners in the bay area.

flowers and diamonds

top: lithuanian folk embroidery (which reminds me of swedish embroidery) from an old selvedge issue.
bottom: from the neighborhood. i like the diamonds on the house.

how cute is this retrovore logo?! am going to have to have a listen to the podcasts too.

fresh

top: from an old selvedge issue: christina kim
bottom: from the backyard

i'm glad it's a new month and new week. it's so pretty out here today.

type + lettering week: day 5

lettering
the extremely prolific ed fella
shanna murray
kristen caston

type
typographica
fontfeed

and totally unrelated to type and lettering
read these two posts about the mercury you're eating! along with your high fructose corn syrup.
and to feel a little better after reading those, view this cutie dog discovering snow.

type + lettering week: day 4

ok, so there is no type or lettering on this last image. i just thought it looked pretty with the others.

type and lettering
a lovely typographic project: random project
marian bantjes
an obama quote
jonathan looman

type + lettering week: day 3

at first i only noticed the B and liked how centered it was. then i noticed the fading P (or B perhaps) and liked it even more. a peanut butter door!


yummy and beautiful cafe on folsom st.

lettering
robert ryan
sarah gardner. i like this one especially.
and found through sarah's flickr faves: sarah nicholl's drawings, and gemma correll's and oski's

type
i love typography

type + lettering week: day 2

my type about town photos didn't turn out so hot today, so am posting my pinky leon "holiday" cards in their place. my cards are terribly late this year. i'm blaming it on the cat. (bigger here.)

lettering
jessica hische
kate bingamen-burt

type
some type specimen books from grain edit (aside: check out this fantastic and sweet book by katie kirk that grain edit just reviewed recently.)
type for you
emigre (our local celebrity bad-ass typographers)

type and lettering week

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friday flickrs

i can't get enough lemons lately. i've switched over from drinking santa cruz lemonade (which i love) to water with a lemon squeezed into it. plus some honey. saves money and glass and isn't as sugary.

friday flickrs:
a beautiful nest
bark! (this made my day)
tea in the studio (with fox)
from margaret durow

orange times two

well the type/lettering week is put off for another week. (not that you're keeping track...)
just a quick hello. and a pinky leon green-eyed peek.

gasp by tim gough

ok, click on magic pictures and then on video spot and turn the sound on. i'm not sure what this dog is saying, but i like it.

two recipes + books

well, i will end my food week on a less ranty note.
above is the granola i made yesterday from this recipe:

granola
mix:
4 c organic rolled oats
1/4 c melted coconut oil
1/4 c honey
plus whatever other ingredients you want!
spread over oven sheet and bake for 15 minutes at 325 degrees

(i added in walnuts, cinnamon, salt, vanilla and orange juice for this batch.)

yesterday i also made the carrot-dill soup i make around this time of year using the carrots from our produce box. the carrots aren't quite as sweet and flavorful this year; maybe this is because of the warmer weather here in california this winter. but the soup was delicious nonetheless.

carrot-dill soup recipe
saute 1 onion and some cloves of garlic in oil for 5 min
add 7–9 or so diced carrots
and 1 diced potato
and 4–5 c of broth
simmer for 15 min
puree most of the above
add dill, pepper, lemon (2 tbsp)
serve with sour cream dollop

(the above are all rough amounts. hard to go wrong making soup.)

good books about food/alternatives to industrial agriculture
(in order of most–least accessible)

slow food: come to the table
plenty
the omnivore's dilemma
animal, vegetable, miracle
fatal harvest
manifestos on the future of food and seed
stolen harvest

related books i want to read
in defense of food
alice waters and chez panisse
more by wendell berry
silent spring

any other suggestions?

and finally, the art/design projects of futurefarmers

i can't get no satisfaction

pistachios from this week's produce box from terra firma

"the whole horse: the preservation of the agrarian mind" is a poetic essay by wendell berry. in it, he beautifully explains the problem of industrial economy:

One of the primary results—and one of the primary needs—of industrialism is the separation of people and places and products from their histories. To the extent that we participate in the industrial economy, we do not know the histories of our families or of our habitats or of our meals. This is an economy, and in fact a culture, of the one-night stand...

...In this condition we have many commodities, but little satisfaction, little sense of the sufficiency of anything...the industrial economy's most-marketed commodity is satisfaction...this commodity, which is repeatedly promised, bought and paid for, is never delivered...

...The persistent want of satisfaction is directly and completely related to the dissociation of ourselves and all our goods from our and their histories...

...When there is no reliable accounting and therefor no competent knowledge of the economic and ecological effects of our lives, we cannot live lives that are economically and ecologically responsible.

he goes on to explain that the way to live economically and ecologically responsible lives is to build an agrarian economy, a local economy based on land. this is a subsistence economy and is a culture before it is an economy. (makes me think of this documentary i wrote about here.) he writes about how agrarianism is concerned with figuring out what is best (for the land, people, animals). "What is the best location for a particular building or fence? What is the best way to plow this field?..." All the questions are entirely site specific. local. and to answer them, one has to study the history of the place. knowledge must be passed down.

i tried to find a link to the whole essay online, but couldn't. it's very worth checking out from the library though. the essay can be found in the book fatal harvest and in the art of the commonplace: the agrarian essays of wendell berry. my summing up here, does not do the essay justice.

anyway, i think about all of this when i listen to economists and politicians talking about how americans need to start consuming again to get the economy back on track. just put more money into the system. makes me a bit sick to my stomach. seems to me that berry is right. we need an entirely different kind of economy. and now when our current economy is failing we should be looking at the deeper causes of the economic problems.

chickens and eggs

so to continue with food week...

today i made plättar, which are swedish crepes. i made them with TLC eggs. i remember reading in the omnivore's dilemma that even supposedly free-range chickens eating organic feed often are really not free-range. their "range" is so tiny and their living conditions so crappy, that the chickens don't opt to go out to the little patch of outdoors. the organic eggs i used to eat were from just this sort of place. recently i started buying TLC eggs at rainbow grocery. they are the best eggs i've tasted from rainbow. i looked them up; check out the farm digs. pretty sweet.

here is some info about how free-range can be deceptive. WARNING: sad photo of chickens at top of post.

box of food links

(photo of the excellent book fatal harvest, from the chapter where they talk about CSAs)

i find myself getting more and more into food/farm books/issues. here are some good links i've come across lately:

civil eats "promotes critical thought about sustainable agriculture and food systems as part of building economically and socially just communities." (i also love their logo.)

local harvest is a great place to find sustainable farms and CSAs near you.

organic consumers association is a politically-focused site that posts great articles (from various sources). their millions against monsanto page is super informative and important. you can watch the documentary, the world according to monsanto here. i have only watched part of it, but that part was chilling and infuriating.

and finally, some action! if you are interested in getting america to move toward a more sustainable agriculture, you can sign a petition to get some good folks in beneath the agriculture secretary: food democracy now's sustainable dozen.

(cross posted on sew green)

(maybe this will be a food ranting week on my blog and the type/lettering will wait until next week...)

hello

hi there. isn't this a nice piece of pavement?

i think i'm feeling a type/lettering week coming on. next week all photos of letters and numbers.
perhaps.

some snowy flickrs for you:
from leah
portrait.
grass

happy 2009!

photos from new year's day hike in the marin headlands.
such a lovely way to start off the new year.
i'm hopeful for 2009. cheers!

att minnas

well, i know there's a lot of rain, snow and ice out there right now. but i came across liivia's photostream on flickr and must share some of her summery finland photos. i could favorite almost every photo of hers. her photos and her house make me very nostalgic for vallsta. her house isn't actually that similar to vallsta, but for some reason, her photos make me think about kakelugnar, blåklockor, att bada i vattnet, gammla sax, morot rivaren mormor hade, trapporna upp till vinden o ner till källaren, morfar's skrivbord, stora rummet, barnen i bullerbyn, midsommar...

yesterday i was waiting for my friend laurel to arrive at greens restaurant, where we ate a delicious lunch looking out over the bay and the golden gate bridge. so lovely. anyhow, i was sitting outside in the sun and watching people enter the restaurant. many were dressed up for the occasion and it seemed like maybe many were celebrating the holidays there with family. there were several grandmothers in the mix. i watched a young girl (maybe 12?) gently usher her grandmother in through the door after the rest of the family had entered. it made me miss mormor. that kind of love and care. so big and simple at such a young age. so sure.

(ovan: mormor o jag på millesgården. jag tror att mamma sa att vi skulle posera så här.)

special friday flickrs: mav tribute

this friday's favorites are all from maria, aka mav.

mav's (and for a while arc and mav's) blog is one of two blogs that i have checked almost every day since 2005! it's odd to spend part of each day "with" someone i've never met. i am really going to miss the port2port part of my days. yesterday was mav's last port2port post. amazing how just a short visit to her blog offered such a huge amount of beauty and inspiration. her posts made me reflect and see the world differently. i feel lucky that she shared/shares so many of her projects, photos, thoughts and her own inspirations with us. i think her blog is/was one of the most beautiful out there.

i started posting friday flickrs after seeing mav's, so it is even more appropriate that today's faves are photos by her. i don't know if friday flickrs was something she started, but her posting hers certainly influenced many others out there to post theirs. and she has influenced/inspired many art/craft/photo bloggers with her ideas, images, letterpress work, projects and with her grace. i am grateful, she'll still be an online presence with 3191, more, lines and shapes and other projects.

anyhow, here are some of the MANY mav flickr faves of mine in no particular order.

a moment like any other but somehow better
new watercolors
hungry, {really i am}
my breakfast partner
three of my favs
thursday: looking past
a lunch from last week that i wish i had today
untitled
dinner after the storm
evening
going back...july 2006

thank you so much maria!

fin

i'm done with my graphic design certificate program today!
now comes the scary part.
but first some coat silliness.

on friday, a special friday flickrs. ;-)

a pretty, calm, newish to me blog.

lines of thread

it's been a cookie/card workshop in my house today.
made a set of 4 pear cards, 4 lemon cards, 4 leaf cards, 4 shape cards and some random others. lately i feel very shape focused. normally i'm mostly interested in color. it's kind of exciting to be seeing shapes everywhere.

speaking of shapes...

i almost forgot. glad sankta lucia! i have yet to light my lucia candles.

outside/inside

it's finally winter in sf. and the leaves which are normally down by now are finally falling (and swirling in mini tornado fashion). the crunch underfoot is good.

inside, i cleaned to prepare for our holiday party. also mulled the wine to make the glögg. and made some cards while listening to neko case. she sounds especially good on a windy day.

tomorrow the cookies get baked (and sampled). and more card-making! and possibly dancing in the evening if it's not pouring rain and cold.

friday wintery flickrs:
i heart my sorels i love this combo from shari.
three little berries
from maditi

to diana's

my black sheep + diana's lamb. :-)

went for a little studio visit at diana's last night. diana is ever the charming hostess with spiked (and spiced) cider (poured from a big, stout kettle into small, diana-formed cups), homemade gingersnaps, stories and lamb ornament gifts! so inspiring to see her work all out together, lined up in rows and collected here and there in her studio. the shapes and colors and textures and lines!

from last night
and on diana's flickr.