formaggio

cheeses make nice shapes.

you can find art for sale from the pinky leon purrs fundraiser here. more will be posted there wednesday too.

hi

hope to see you here tonight!

you're invited

well, i guess i'm getting a little better about asking for help, because i'm throwing a pinky leon purrs fundraising party (with mati's, jen's and leslie's and a lot of other people's help). can't say i feel entirely comfortable with the concept, but it feels better if i think of it more as a party and art show. a bunch of friends/artists/crafters are contributing artwork. the moola will go to help pay part of the whopping cost of PL's procedure and surgery.

so, come to the party! not this saturday but next. party info.

(pinky leon will not be attending the party, unfortunately. he's even more shy than i am.)

blue

at dusk on the back steps. last bit of light and the deep blues.

thank you all for the recent book purchases. it's been a big help in many ways!

pinky leon got his cone off yesterday, finally! i think he was beginning to believe it was a part of him. he cleaned it regularly, making big scraping noises (sandpaper tongue on textured cone fabric). a little funny, a little pitiful. that cannot feel good on the tongue! he looks much more dignified now, and is markedly cleaner and more sprightly. there's a spring in his step, and his old orneriness is back.

some flickry cats and dogs for you
sunken treasure's cat
a beautiful dog by anja
dog shore's album cover
gemma always cracks me up

Pinky Leon purrs

it's been a rough week. an emergency trip to the vet (two vets actually) for pinky leon (surgery) and the emptying of my pockets to pay for it.

pinky leon's tummy is shaved and piglet pink; he's appropriately named. but i've known that for a while. when he was little he would meow, and for several seconds after meowing, his mouth would remain open. it was very amusing. he had a long list of descriptors—pink mouthed-pink toed-pink nosed-brillo backed-(his back fur was oddly rough when he was small) bushytailed leon. eventually shortened to pinky leon or PL.

the pink man is home recovering now. i am recovering too. so stressful. and while there is security in a bit of savings, there is also security in a warm, purring friend sleeping, finally, after much pacing about, settling in on my lap.

we are listening to the low anthem. (once upon a time PL was afraid of the piano. he heard it on the radio and freaked out. made airplane ears and ran and hid. his musical taste has matured, however, or he's become desensitized to the piano.)

to help pay for his surgery, i am having a Pinky Leon purrs BIG SALE on From Orchards, Fields, and Gardens. the books are half off.

some of my favorite PL photos
PL tiny, 1999
sweet face
in the sewing maching cover
tummy show off

love ∞

love ∞ big

bernal hill is my favorite place in the city, especially when it is green. very soon it will start turning brown/tan—its summer coat. but right now the grass seems unusually lush after our many days of rain and then bursts of sun. today the hill was dreamy. (these photos do not capture it.)

i walked by julia's old house before walking up on the grassy bernal hill. julia was the eccentric french lady i used to go grocery shopping with. she died in april six years ago. her house looks the same. i remember her peeking out of her upstairs kitchen window when i rang the doorbell, yelling down to me that she'd be right there (descending in a cloud of perfume—she must have lost some of her sense of smell) or waving goodbye from the window when i left. i thought the house would have been spiffed up. it'a a very plain house, but with a sweet, sloping, overgrown garden and an amazing view of the bay. funny that all the houses on her block are plain and a bit downtrodden. they're probably worth so much just for their view/location. i think there must be a lot of people on that block who have lived there a long time. julia certainly appreciated her home. she spent what i gathered to be her happiest years there with her second husband. he died 15 years into their marriage, but she stayed on there, enjoying herself and her view and her dog(s) for many more years.

up on bernal hill, there were the usual people walking their dogs. and then there were a few little groups of people, almost hidden, sitting amidst the grass. one couple was putting down their blanket, but it was billowing, so they were sitting, letting the red and white pattern billow over their heads and against them. today reminded me of that most fabulous hillside picnicking scene in room with a view. lazy and warm and soft and springy (though lacking that passionate kiss).

more spring

april morning (more/bigger anemone)

so much eye candy!

my beautiful aunt, ulrika lönnå, paints shimmering trees with thread. she recently had an art opening in gamla stan in stockholm. my cousin lotta blogged about it. so fun seeing my family on each others' blogs! (i'm just sorry i missed posting the link in time for any reading swedes to attend the exhibit.)

jen causey's the makers project made me tear up, it's so lovely. all these people making beauty in the world. and jen capturing it stunningly.

and jeana sohn's closet visits are such pretty peaks into others' closets and homes.

spring flowers!

more/bigger.

nasturtiums, anemones, sun and perfect park days.

am digging anja mulder's photostream

bits

non sequitur photo

Prairie Collective, another of my favorite stores in SF is now carrying From Orchards, Fields, and Gardens. and Rare Device restocked them. thank you dear SF store owners Annabelle and Giselle!

currently i'm reading The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball. it's making me want to escape to a farm. somehow i'm able to read about all the trials of farming (about the blood and guts, the extremely taxing and intense manual labor, the cold, the time suck, the death, the pain, the vast practical and particular skills/knowledge required, the unpredictability and instability, the neverendingness, the fact that it's mostly outside {while i'm a homebody}, the fact that one doesn't make money doing it, and on and on) and i'm still able to romanticize it. only because i've never done it. i don't even garden for goodness sake. of course it's that draw of community and closeness to the land and animals and food, the physicality (as opposed to the disembodiment of sitting in front of the computer all day). the sense of rootedness and home. the purpose felt in improving land and contributing to the health of a place.

Kimball and her husband, first generation farmers, are clearly both optimistic, strong, smart, clever, generous and open, and they're good improvisers and really brave people who have a lot of faith. i'm only halfway done, but i can tell you already that the book is inspiring and funny. (there's an auction scene that had me chuckling at many points.) the many unexpected and specific details in Kimball's descriptions of her experiences make the book especially engaging.

bitter+sweet

afternoon tea with rittersport marzipan (the only rittersport i like).

you can enter the hearts + hands raffle for japan. over 80 artists/crafters have entered pieces for the raffle. 100% of proceeds go to japan relief efforts.

point reyes dogs

just had to put something up to move the tulip head down.

i cani (the dogs in italian). hundarna (in swedish)

now this is a good dog photo.

GIANT tulip

ecco tulip (i'm taking italiano)


tulip for you


tulip hat


tulip headband


balancing tulip


:-P

one bigger.

have you listened to the most recent this american life? wow. oh so so so heartwrenching. infuriating and beautiful and really good.

harrison quilt

congrats to my bff from grade school!

here comes a quilt for baby harrison to roll about upon joyously.

more, bigger

style

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!

LWKND

this past weekend four friends and i watched the water come in and go out, be still and move swiftly past (first to the right and then to the left), lap beneath the house, sound like rain, reflect stars, shine shades of grey, blue, green, lavender.

of course we took pictures.

we stayed on the water of tomales bay in marshall, california. the weekend was like the water, moving fast, moving slow. so much emotion, so much laughter and silliness. we played (a surprisingly competitive game of) apples to apples, we dressed up, leslie set up a photo booth, we told stories and dreams, we beaded necklaces, made dinners, painted, ate and ate and ate. we walked on dillon beach, rambled rather loudly through point reyes, and ate some more. luckily, we didn't fit everything in, so we'll need to do it again. thanks katrina, jen, leslie and mati. y'all are beauties.

fika dags

my mom visited this past weekend. we ate our way through the pastries at knead and sandbox bakery (and at the rooftop cafe at moma, but that cake isn't worth this mention).

the almond twists at knead were new to me, and delicious.

finished i know you're out there by michael beaumier a few days ago. in it baumier recounts his experiences/observations working in the personals ads section of a chicago paper. that guy's really funny.

also funny.
comfortable (and kinda funny--her expression)

farm books and bills

i'm loving farm together now: a portrait of people, places, and ideas for a new food movement, a book that just came out by amy franceschini and daniel tucker.

it's beautifully designed, with gorgeous photographs by anne hammersky and illustrations by corinne matesich. and the text! it consists of interviews with the hero farmers who are reinventing local food systems (plus sidebar definitions of things the farmers mention that the reader might not know about—organizations, legal acts, etc.) i've only just started reading it, but i'm already moved by these folks' wise words.

about the farm bill, the first farmer interviewed, Jim Knopik, says,

The Farm Bill—and I'll put this very bluntly, as clear as I can—is like a bull with a ring in its nose. The Farm Bill leads the farmers in whichever direction big industry wants them to go. If the Farm Bill is set up by big industry, or the big packers, or whoever has the most influence, then that's the direction the farmers will go. And that's the direction the farmers are in now in conventional farming. They are where industry and the big guys want them to be....But I do think it would be best if the change happened through the Farm Bill—a better farm bill. I think it almost has to, because it's so far out of hand. If it isn't going to happen there, I think it's going to be by a revolution.

this year i'd like to somehow get involved in the movement to get a fair farm bill.

here's the farm together now site with a great list of inspiring links.

surprise!

surprise packages, with surprise eggs inside=double delight!

bigger

take a walk with me

on this glorious SF day. (they don't get much more beautiful weather-wise.)

buy a tasty morsel at knead (second choice of treat since they're no longer making persimmon chocolate chip scones—their persimmon tree is done for the season) and use all willpower to wait until we are atop bernal hill to eat said morsel.



take a blurry photo of custardy goodness whilst a dirty white poodle tries, with poodley charm, to snatch treat.




marvel at the day! the view. the dogs of all stripes with their dog walkers.




walk over to past cortland avenue and meander by the houses...



with big numbers on their sides.



walk around holly park (which is in the shape of a circle, roughly), back to cortland avenue to see if our friend jeff is working at the video store. he is not, but the succulent part of the store has expanded into the video part and is super pretty.





talk with succulent guy in the sun. feel a bit guilty about not buying any plants from him. next time.

over to church street, through noe valley, and back over to the mission district and the corner natural foods store to buy some straus ice cream for later. soon it will be later.

here is amelie walking with the blind man.

speaking of cows

went on another hike in wildcat, but the cows didn't howl today. moo, yes. howl, no.



you would not believe how loud the frogs were in this pond/puddle. it seemed like there must have been a whole fleet of very loud frogs in there. the water was rippling with them. but as soon as jen and i got out our gadgets to document their talking, they went quiet. all at once. except for one frog, who apparently didn't get the message that it was time to be quiet. so the slow one ribbeted once more, but then silence and stillness on the water. and they didn't start up again. i was glad to hear them though as it seems i hear frogs less and less these days. there used to be frogs in the valley behind the house i grew up in. i would hear them in the evenings and at night, but no longer.

bigger, more

more old homework

bigger poster, bigger scene

while i'm at it, i'll upload some other old homework assignments to flickr. the above was for photoshop class.

my excellent photoshop teacher loved (and presumably still loves) shocking/twisted/gross images; he often has as an assignment portray your fear (real or fake) and include yourself in the scene. the results generally are blood and guts-filled. because i knew i'd be staring at it for a while, and i preferred not to be spending hours zooming in on snake scales or the like, i chose a fake fear: fear of woodland creatures. (who doesn't love woodland creatures—aside from those woodland snakes?)

for the above assignment, we were to create a persuasive political/topical poster and then include the poster in a scene. my poster was about (surprise!) sustainable agriculture and industrial agriculture: sacred cow vs. mad cow. in the scene, the independent farmer (my classmate) is vanishing in a wasteland, america's heartland soil dead from the destructive farming methods employed by industrial ag.

the poster is another piece of mine that i didn't like at the time. i thought the poster was too literal. it is pretty literal, with a lot of text, but now i can see that it is also emotional/powerful—i feel sick about that poor jailed cow (even though it's not showing the actual brutality of a CAFO) {which again, i didn't want to stare at for hours while completing the assignment, and which would have been even more literal}).

new to read, to listen, to see anew

love it when i am excited about my reading list:

housekeeping by marilynne robinson
the devil's teeth by susan casey
a visit from the goon squad by jennifer egan
i know you're out there by michael beaumier
freedom by jonathan franzen
by nightfall by michael cunningham

and got some new (to me) music from the library—the latest the national album.

i say it again: the public library is where it's at.

since i have no new photos to post, i'm posting the above stamp i made over a year ago for an illustrator class assignment (stamps about a social/political issue). at the time, i didn't like my stamp compared to my classmates' stamps, which were much more technically advanced. but i found it printed out at stamp size recently, and now i think it's pretty cute. i wouldn't mind getting it on an envelope.

my seed saving US stamp rant:

This stamp commemorates and encourages seed saving and trading. Seeds connect us to our heritage and to an unbroken chain of people who have saved seeds over hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of years. Immigrants from all over the world have brought their countries’ seeds with them to the United States, preserving and integrating a vital part of their cultures into the greater American culture.

Seeds that have been selected and saved over generations possess an invaluable genetic heritage and are often specifically adapted to the region in which they have been sown. Multinational agrochemical corporations are attempting to control seed supply worldwide, buying out smaller seed companies, dropping the regionally-adapted seeds and instead selling and distributing a select number genetically modified hybrid seeds and patented seeds, rendering the saving of their seeds useless and/or illegal and significantly diminishing the genetic diversity of seeds. By protecting seed diversity through the free saving and exchange of seeds, we honor those before us and protect ourselves, our culture(s), our future and life on earth.