❤ ❤ ❤

an oldie i've probably posted before: me, my cousin daniel and my aunt katarina having a fika at vallsta, my mormor and morfar's old summer house in hälsingland, sweden. (sidenote: a girl whose uncle now owns my grandparents' old house contacted me a while ago after finding my photos of the house on flickr, and we are now FB friends! how rad is that. the internet gets a lot of points for that one.)

it's a bold statement, but sweden in the summer (a warm summer anyway) is my idea of heaven. 

some swedish summer flickr faves of late:

by lawa: 1, 2, 3
by juliasvardag: 1 
midsommar


when tomorrow comes: erika spring covers eurythmics. been listening on repeat to her album since kate miss posted about it. 

native plants

at the regional parks botanic garden in tilden park, where stony paths swirl and disappear into trees and flowers and bushes (all natives of california). 

here you can find a brook, a small sandy swath, bumble bees and flowers that look like eggs, sunny side up. the garden is home to over 200 rare and endangered plants.

sweet peas | luktärter

crazy how yummy these smell. instagram version. 

my mom is visiting. she told me that in google translate you can use a listen feature to hear swedish words and that the robot translator's accent is pretty accurate. we decided to test it. we tried my name (quite good) and some swedish tongue twisters. there is one tongue twister that is particularly difficult for non-swedes because it has tons of this sort of german sch sound. in the google robot translation it sounds like whipping, the sounds are said so strong/clear. we were very amused by it. 


to hear it, copy the following into the translate field and click on the megaphone/listen icon: seven beautiful nurses took care of seven seasick seamen onboard a sinking ship. 

or click here and click the listen button.

eskimo prints

the flight of the shaman and the owl and the woman who lives in the sun. aren't they nice? more here, from the book arts of the eskimo: prints

ibland kan det vara skönt att fly in i svenska. tänka på ett annat språk. hemligt o mjukt. undrar om det känns mjukt pga ljuden eller minnen eller båda. är nog båda. idag är det svenska som gäller. som en famn. o bra övning inför besök av mamma som kommer imorgon. 

lyssnar fortfarande på jonathan johansson: under sjukhusen. 
tyst nu
 

words

definitely need the stop thinking advice. 

from this show at ybca. very amusing show.

green | pink | green

back yard 

kitchen 

hall 

french navy

ask

happy fourth of july

i rode in the alameda bicycle coalition contingent of our fourth of july parade. alameda's parade is just the right size and length (3 miles), everyone greeting one another. very sweet. i'm a little sad to have missed seeing all of the other groups in the parade. i hear there was a beautiful mexican cowboy contingent with horses and riders decked out in their finery. but i did get some good bicycle bell ringing out of my system. though now i want more and other bells. a horn too. 

kitty | orchid

honey in hong kong

 

occupy | midsummer

i like this latest yerba buena center for the arts mailing cover (bigger). 

looking at the scandinavians' midsummer blog posts makes me long.

camilla's

elisabeth's

anna emilia's

emma's

cousin lotta's

försenad glad midsommar!
 

the pink man window watching

added a truck to the old trucks in alameda set.

great ny times paul fusco presentation, found through all the mountains—always great images/links there.

tall pear

sometimes i have to buy pears for their looks. i don't mind eating them, but i can't say i have ever bought a pear because i craved its taste. although, a baked pear with chocolate sauce and whipped cream....mmm

here is a mesmerizing short video of talented ceramicist karin eriksson throwing a vase. my friend liz and i visited karin and her shop/studio last summer, so i know just where this magic is happening.

new kicks

these sneakers are surprisingly not comfortable. so hard to find comfy shoes. 

andrew bird: sifters

low: home

the national: brainy

olaf hajek illustration 

colors!

the blonde woman drawings. really nice.
long time girl gone by Long Time Girl Gone By

From OFG is back

mistubako, a From OFG contributor, keeps taking dreamy bee photos like the above: beehives in the riverside kitakami

 

finally putting From Orchards, Fields, and Gardens back up online (on sale!) i put the books in storage while i moved last year, and i recently retrieved a box of them.

in addition to mistubako's photos, below are some more links to recent work by From OFG contributors—such a talented bunch.

heather smith jones recently updated her letterpress shop, blue sparrow press.

katrina rodabaugh won a lotta jansdotter fabric contest with her sweet soft mobile.

mati rose mcdonough's Daring Adventures in Paint book is coming out very soon!

anna emilia laitinen's peaceful scenes grace an array publications.

jen hewett delves deeper into textile art.

i could go on about all of the contributors. but you can look them up yourselves in the links on the book's homepage.

farm bill time

americans, if you care about any of the following—small farmers, sustainable farming, food stamps/food accessibility, safe food, treatment of farm animals, it's time to contact your senators about the farm bill. while the current bill mostly sucks, there is still time to get some meaningful amendments added to it. the farm bill lasts five years and affects all of us (we all eat!) and affects animals, land, and water.

two easy ways to contact your representatives:

1. through food & water watch (their letter focuses on two amendments related to small farmers and non-GE food)

2. through organic consumers association (their letter focuses on reversing the food stamp cut)

for more farm bill info, read this open letter from food movement leaders and/or watch a very short video.

for more detailed info, check out this page of food & water watch's site, or check out the book food fight explains the farm bill in greater detail. 

california coast

on the way to strawberry picking saturday

heima

 

i watched heima last week. it documents sigur ros' series of free concerts they played in iceland. of course beautiful scenery and music cuts through the film. i found myself tearing up right from the start watching an old man walking with two children to a performance. in small villages, pretty much all the inhabitants seem to have attended the shows, if not for the music, for the gathering with each other. sweet. 

i saw sigur ros play in 2006 at the beautiful marin county civic center—i think it must have been the tour that ended with this series—and it may have been my favorite show experience. definitely my favorite big show. floaty, dreamy, eerie, as one might expect. but strange to feel like the entire (huge) audience was in that same floaty dreamy space. the audience seemed so quiet and relaxed and groovy—like we'd all had massages and sat in the sauna. peaceful.

cherry jammin'

tart treat

farmers scrambling to find harvest labor

insta

 

some instagrams of late. (pinky leon is making a nice shape in this one, no?) 

lover's spit

william wondriska

from  a long piece of string

love this folk dance found on rosa pomar's blog  
a very different kind of freestyle dancing
and choreographed by this same (from above link) anthony lee: wildfire and somebody that i used to know

sun sipping

julie's coffee and tea garden in alameda has a great back patio, with bright sun covered benches and shady coves and everything in between, plus plants and iron wings.

weekday carnival, a finnish blog

my cousin lotta's fashion, etc. blog (for swedish åhlens department store) is back 

this calls for a swedish song: redan glömda

hi little dog.

julia mint

falcon wright

fenster spring break

beach house zebra

thomsen's and vines

 

i love finding new favorite spots in alameda. i keep thinking i've seen all the cool stuff in alameda, but not so, luckily. this morning i discovered thomsen's garden center/vines cafe run by husband (in the cafe upstairs) and wife (in garden center downstairs). they've been there over 30 years and the place is super charming, with nooks with benches and surprises all over the cafe—birds flying above the molding, patterned floor, stained glass windows. i had to have a fika and buy a couple of plants, which i plan to hang stephanie style.

reuben margolin

bigger

a few years ago i saw this make episode on reuben margolin, an sf kinetic sculptor. randomly, last weekend, i saw one of his pieces, tule wave, in real life at the david brower gallery in berkeley. so beautiful and calming. see it in motion.

more

alameda houses 

right now my favorite on blunderbuss (partially because of how he sings "swea(t)-in" and "noyvous")

he looks pissed

but he is purring

thank you to sofia gatica

congratulations to courageous argentinian, sofia gatica, who has been fighting monsanto for over 10 years and is one of six leaders awarded the goldman environmental prize. (there's a great short video in the article too.)

it is completely baffling and disgusting that monsanto is allowed to continue their "work" (more like greedy exploitation and poisoning), given the long history of their products and actions killing, sickening, hurting people and the earth. the list of their truly evil deeds is so long and so many people fight against them (usually unsuccessfully and sometimes while having their lives/livelihoods threatened by monsanto in the process). how monsanto-ans live with themselves is a mystery.

$20

more green

especially me

green

gave the plants a sun bath while i could keep an eye on the plant-eating cat.

and knitted a cowl this weekend. took less than one skein! may have to do more in other colors.

the big trees that line alameda's streets are sprouting green leaves now, flourescent in the sunlight. the spring abundance is building.

b/w

feliz!