February 07 2008 A Good Loaf of Bread

I actually made a New Year's resolution. It's to enjoy the cornucopia the Grand Valley offers. This bread is made in a bakery about 3 blocks from my house. It's soft, tasty, local. I bet if I went to my front porch at 5 a.m. I could smell fresh bread being made, it's that local. So far it's the only local thing I've enjoyed this year besides the local-roasted coffee sold at my warehouse store and the local brewed coffee at the knit group and the local brewed beer at the microbrew 12 blocks away. Actually, listing all those things, I don't think I'm doing too poorly on my resolution. [Insert pun about toasting my progress]


How to take a picture when the batteries are dead: Turn camera on and quickly turn off display. Point, shoot. Save-light flashes just before camera auto-offs. Adjust mechanically adjustable settings. Push power button, point, shoot, watch for save light. Repeat until camera ceases to take or save picture before power dies. Plug camera into computer and upload photos. Choose the least terrible shot. Write post. Be grateful one was pretty good. Make a note to find the rechargeable batteries. Also, make note to find battery charger.

February 06 2009 A Lesson in Handwriting

Some have it, others don't. The girl's homework on the left, the boy's on the right. She's six, he's four. She's been writing for 2+ years, he just started. That boy has talent, and she needs practice without being overwhelmed. It doesn't matter, she knows more about Gothic Architecture than I do and is writing a play about the first two Europeans on the American continent. Just sayin'.

Flash, with zoom, from further away. Finally, a flash photo I don't hate.

February 05 2009 A Collection of Something

Shopping at warehouse stores increases the need for space and planning. I hadn't taken a good look at the organization of our pantry since we moved in, and things clearly weren't working. You had to take everything out of the baking shelf to find something, we weren't using our beautiful collection of tasty oils and vinegars, and the whole thing was pouring out onto the floor of our kitchen in a general in-the-way sort of fashion. Thus, the trip to buy hundreds of dollars of food for the next few months required my attention. After about 4 and a half hours time and a consciousness of how we use the food in the space, I came up with this.

It was a photo of the pantry, a dark place by its very nature, so I opted for flash. There's something disturbingly commercial about taking stock of one's food stores in a photographic manner. The visibility of all the labels, all the logos; it's not something that you notice as you use it, but recording it... On the topic of labels, please, please read Collections of Nothing by William Davies King. (At least read the article.)

February 04 2009 A Night Alone

Went to a knitting group at a coffee house tonight, and no one was there. I enjoyed my coffee alone for a while, then took up my knitting and enjoyed double-perling the fish, with 70s afghan yarn and small needles that made my hands cramp. The group over there was discussing the Bible; I always enjoy listening to discussions, and I always enjoy feeling free of the dogma. My two cents had something to do with why the Greeks so easily accepted Christianity, but I didn't put them in. He was listening to music on his laptop, she was working on hers, click click click, and the owner of the coffee shop asserted his beliefs on baking cookies. Some of them drove by, the group in the next room was youthfully noisy. He had an assisting dog, and hot tea. He left somewhere with a guitar on his back and a girl at his elbow. I have no idea where the people come from through that door. He said to someone on the phone about the girl he met on the bus never emailed him. I met a guy on a bus and never emailed him, either. What, your definition of alone is different?

I took this picture at home, being that a camera is another set of eyes and to use it is to disturb the isolation, and I couldn't bring myself to get it out of my pocket at the coffee house. Auto, no flash, florescent lighting.

February 03 2009 A Day of Waiting

Really, now, I have spent the last 12 hours waiting. Waiting for the refresh button to yield me something other than this. 12 hours! Did something go wrong? Where is my site? Today, today, today today! Already! *refresh* Blegh. Totally anti-climatic.


Photos of screens have always been fascinating. My husband takes them all the time--of the television mostly. I took this at 0 zoom from about 6 inches from the screen. It came out pretty good, with fewer diagonal refresh lines than I expected. Anyway, now you have the site address, and you can wait patiently or impatiently with me.

February 02 2009 A Demonstrative Push

Tai chi has been on my mind a lot lately, since I've been writing the site for my instructor. Also, I'm saving for a week-long intensive in the Utah wilderness in a few months. Since I'm practicing and learning new things, and the best way to learn is to watch, I go to other class meetings to learn with a different dynamic with different skill levels of people. Today, I watched specific moments of two whole forms I'm just barely catching the choreography for.


I was actually asked to take this photo because my classmate in the middle needed to see he was leaning, and my instructor couldn't find his camera. I turned off the flash due to the white everywhere in the walls, in the tunics, and in the light. And I took the photo when I was told to. The composition was merely to demonstrate differences. In short, this picture is my choice for today because it was not my picture. It was a moment of my day.

February 01 2009 A Moment of Peace

Of my albums of children photos, sleepers seem to dominate. There's something exquisite about a face that won't change so quickly I can't get a picture of it, but too quickly to trust my mind to remember. A rare moment is the siblings sleeping together: they've been bonding more strongly the past few months, playing more peacefully, planning world domination more artfully. Two together.


For sleeping babies it is best not to use flash, because that changes things. Of the photos I took, this is the best characteristic anonymity I can provide, what she is like, what he is like, in one frame they are there completely yet you cannot know who exactly they are.