home in vallejo

feeling settled in our home in vallejo

started an around vallejo photo set. 

outside and inside

light and shadows

strangely beautiful days despite political madness 

moments of muddle and moments of clarity. sadness, anger, frustration, despair, love.

as many have said, this is a call to action. listen to more music, read more poems, make more art, take care of one another. stand up for each other. here we go.

today

fika and a silvery ferry ride

finally back to the blog after moving to vallejo!

september light

summer trip!

snaps from the pickathon music festival on pendarvis farm and some pretty portland drinks



and from san juan island visit

north beach date

m and i did some touristing in our former home city of SF: buildings, food, views, and the (heretofore not visited by either of us) enchanted gardens of telegraph hill.
more

north beach has always felt like a foreign place to me, a destination (even when i lived in SF). m and i remarked on how in the many years we lived there, no friends of ours ever lived in north beach. i did temp occasionally, in 1998 or 1999, as a teller at a bank in north beach. the chinese folks would line up for the chinese-speaking teller and the italians for the italian speaking teller. i guess i served the people who spoke english and/or who didn't mind my lack of other useful languages (there not being many swedes in north beach). on lunch breaks i went to the italian deli next door for seriously delicious sandwiches made by seriously italian men. i rode the increasingly packed bus through chinatown to downtown to go home, north of the panhandle. the whole thing was a fun intro to SF.

more summer pies!

(to be exact: key lime with graham cracker macademia nut crust, blueberry pie, and not pictured: peach/nectarine galettes and another blueberry/lemon verbena pie) 

and a window cat 

and macademia nut chi chi drinks at forbidden island 

grateful

summer peaches

the best

dose of pinky leon

land | sea

a belated happy summer solstice and glad midsommar!

outside | inside

colors

feet over the years

park life

dreamy SF day at the de young (mainly in the garden) and in the castro. 

feelin' lucky. 

here's a delicious flower near my work.

pancakes with pinky

last weekend

critters

my springtime sweethearts

ploughshares nursery

great wild edibles talk and tour of ploughshares, which is part of the awesome alameda point collaborative. marigold went along for the ride. 

indigo dye day

over in jen and bob's lovely back yard. fresh outdoor made eggs and coffee and chiminea cocktail times too.

check out how the indigo oxidizes from yellow to green to blue. 

all the photos

alameda /|\ /|\ oakland ||&||

east bay exploring: alameda boats, and across the estuary, oakland streets

Witchy: Tie your arm to my arm / So we can / Make our plans for this slow, slow weekend 

blooming in alameda

 

rosemary from the back yard
magnolia
mystery fruit
oxalis

colors

rainy in alameda

back yard scenes

good eats

so much good food lately. lucky. 

plus a green corner.

orr hot springs

 

such a relaxing good weekend 
 

cat meditation

nother view

happy new year!

 
some photos from new year's day with marilyn—a sweet start to 2016.

breakfast extravaganza, nyd selfie, a stroll around lake merritt (where we passed this refugees are welcome here poster), and a visit to luka's taproom. fun to walk with and by the other folks walking the lake. walking/hiking is my favorite way to start a new year.

i'm still pondering my word for 2016. last year was new. i did pretty well actually on that one! year before was yes. yes is really a word for every year. but considering some others too—risk, open, adventure, dream (all in the yes theme), let go, acceptance, patience, community, cultivate, tend, attention, appreciation, play, to name a smattering.  

winter light

happy holidays!

sweetness ❤ ❤ ❤

around the house

olivetti 
PL figurine amelie gave to me years ago 
hand/paw holding cuteness

cardboard times

when your sweetheart is somewhat cardboard obsessed and crazy imaginative/playful, this kind of thing happens—a board game that may be morphing into a puppet theater. 

the kinky stringy piece (aka louis) is by marilyn. the top pair are a bit roboty. more pieces. ++#==>>>///•••

november light

mexican marigold gnome 
pepper bright 
pinky light

november

 pinky leon and sötnos honey and salve (soon to be on etsy at Sotnoshoney)

honey harvest #2

  

that sketched plan above was cast aside when we got in the hive. there were so few bees in the hive that we removed both supers (20 frames!). this way the bees have an easier time keeping their hive warm in the winter. 

joan and i had the help of her son this time. mini beekeeper!

it looked like a beekeeper massacre on the kitchen floor. we left the scene of the honey robbery pretty quick-like as we all had angry bees buzzing by our heads. as soon as we were indoors, the suits came off in a flurry. those things are hot, especially after dealing with agitated bees.  

right now the honey is dripping through the first strainer; it'll strain through a finer mesh after that. 

dealing with 10-ish frames of honey turns out to be a lot messier than 3.5 frames.