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Sunday, September 25, 2016

gathering very little moss

...oh yes, we moved. Again. We are quite good at it.
The raspberry patch
So c'mon by and pick raspberries with us next spring. Or help me peel wallpaper--either way...

Saturday, August 27, 2016

one step away

I saw this a few weeks ago on the NYT and thought, 'we are one step away from being in a dystopian novel.' As Joe pointed out, watching is not yet mandatory. Of course, I question whether it would have to be....

Saturday, August 20, 2016

Construction

On campus...
So....they broke ground a new dorm project at the end of spring semester, and I've been slightly deluded in thinking that they were targeting the coming fall for completion. I walk past this every day (incidentally there is evidence of a third level since I took this photo). I started to equate their progress with mine, thinking: if they can get freshman in there by the start of the semester I should be done with X,Y, Z. It started to feel like an albatross to me. 
Turns out, it's slated for next fall.

Sunday, August 07, 2016

post-industrial

When I was out west to give a talk and attend a conference I got to hang out with some grad school chums and get up to no good. I was taken on a whirlwind tour that included the university, the local watering hole(s), what is apparently a "world famous bar" in the middle of nowhere, and an abandoned mill.

I have a friend who did her MA thesis on post-industrial landscapes and ruin porn in Detroit--she alerted me to ruins tourism (where people trespass into abandoned sites) and the power it holds over people. I was definitely one of those people the moment we set foot in this space. It was astounding, eerie, and quite frankly dangerous.



"Dear Sirs: I believe this was intended to be received by you."
It's incredible what is left behind--we looked through old log books, newspapers, files. And then of course there are new additions, things that people trespassing have littered around. Sci-fi VHS tapes, for example...

I enjoyed the graffiti. It strikes me that the main use of the walls in the past decade has been for various kinds of graffiti art. They certainly aren't holding up the building all that well...


proceed with caution: 1 floor down






Danger, contains asbestos


wedding rings and VHS tapes--strange bedfellows?



















Post-industrial silhouettes


Perhaps I've been watching too many comic book movies lately, but I kind of wanted to test the gravity around this truck...

Safety first...


This landscape that was once considered a sign of wealth and "progress" in the community has been relegated to another dumping ground. Curiously it is also an unsafe "safe" place for various groups of people who may be functioning outside of legal norms....

Saturday, August 06, 2016

The "week" in review

Hood river whiskey stop
You know how you put something off and then you've put it off for so long that you think, why even bother with it it's been so long? Yeah, I was almost there. But I like talking to myself in the cloud(s), and was recently inspired by a friend's photo a day project to at the very least keep allow myself a small view of the present. I spent a bit of time strolling back through some of my jottings from the last decade and was reminded of things I may have otherwise forgotten and of things I wish I could forget.

We got back from Cuba and classes started again. That sort of explains things. But I did more than teach, write, and read these last 6 months (6 months!#@%$)...

We went wine tasting, hiking, took up some space to grow things for the squirrels to eat, some traveling happened, I made soap, backpacking on the AT, we sold a house, we bought a house (...in 30 days), baseball, hung out with friends, and we got to know the first state a little better.

We also spent a lot of time reading (for work and play) and unsuccessfully keeping the cats out/off of things...

subversive fire (not allowed in rental housing)
Birthday seafood outing

clever


flight of whites, flight of reds
Joe holds a bee

Pocket finds comfort

Shoulder kitty, Risa style (read: wobblier)
spring garden

Pallet garden
Whiskey in wine central...

"alcohol receiver"
my favorite place to be in Hood River
Ariana to the beach!
Frisbee at the beach

Reduce Food Waste
This is a really interesting ad campaign that was all over the city. It's for the new city-wide residential composting in the Bay area. I mostly took this picture for my food class, because we talk about different sites of food waste in the larger system--something that has become a big topic of discussion recently.

Again, Pocket finds comfort

We went to a wedding that brought many of our west coast peeps to our neck of the woods--it was rather odd, and I kept having to check myself, realizing we weren't on the west coast. We had some time to wander about ahead of the wedding and so we checked out the capitol, walked the aqueduct, and took in some street art and enjoyed a beer. It was a lovely wedding. We drove home by way of a winery we'd been to a over a decade ago. We really liked the style of the production facility and the gravity feed set-up. Sadly it's become rather commercialized.

pre-wedding shenanigans and west meets east


At the Aqueduct in Richmond

Muddy flood in Charlottesville
 
In Richmond
Pocket makes his own space

































I also went to Arizona to meet my new nephew and hang out with my mom. We lounged around with the baby, I got way overexcited shopping for baby items and we generally just had a nice time. We made our way north for a couple days and enjoyed the beautiful landscape.

Also, we made soap, lotion, and chapstick...and I'm pretty sure my life has changed forever. I made my own laundry detergent the other day. I want to go to Greece and make Olive oil soap (I bought Greek travel books and have convinced fellow travelers to go....this is totally happening next summer).
Sedona
Sedona selfie

Mason!

Rose, Calendula, and pumpkin tea soap

Lotion

Seriously Pocket....
  
see how our garden grows...and feeds the local squirrel population

Major League!

post-AT backpacking...car camping relaxation, complete with cooler!

west meets east part 2

Minor Leagues!


"hiking" in the state park

Shadows in the grass
Scary Catch...on the kitchen cupboards