happy halloween!

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here we go again...

Last night Alex broke his arm. Fractured the radius near the elbow. The good news is that it is his left arm and he is right handed, and his fall didn't hurt his still fragile jaw bones. The bad news is that in our four month marriage this makes the second time I'm playing nurse.

for sale!

Item: Levi’s White Tab Cords Description: Size 27. Skinny fit. Royal Purple. Condition: Gently used, worn no more than 5 times.

Item: Tecnica Kjetil Winter Boots Description: Black Bovine Fur with leather and boiled wool trim. 12” high. Perfect for snowy conditions. Condition: Gently used, in excellent condition. Item: Goldsign “Dietrich” Dark Rinse Jeans Description: Size 27. Designer Wide Leg (70’s style) Condition: Gently used, in excellent shape.

Item: North Face Nuptse Down Jacket Description: Women’s Size S. 700 Fill. Black. Condition: Used, in excellent condition. Spread the word!

darn it

If I hadn't already written the gizillions of thank you notes for all the lovely gifts we received at our wedding I would order these adorable cards from Cake + Milk Paperie. I just think they might have made the task of writing all those notes a little bit more enjoyable.

happy-sad, a letter to my nephew

Dear Robbie, Happy Birthday, Bubs! You are such a big boy! I was in Bath, at the Royal United Hospital a year ago, when you were born and will never forget holding you for the first time. I miss you so much and love you even more. I miss your mommy, too. It makes me happy-sad. Happy because you are such a joy for all of us, but sad because I really wish that we didn't live three quarters of a country plus an ocean away from each other. I was listening to this song this morning and it really made me think of you. Love Always, your Tia Nono

last few moments of light

it feels good to laugh

I spend most of my days and nights stressing out about the election. It feels like there is so much at stake, like the future of the possibility of this country. So it's nice to have a chuckle about it all every once in a while.

for a bigger version click on above via here

blowin' in the wind

photo from sandra

photo from simple lovely

Last night I was woken up by the chinook winds. A. is out of town so I'm by myself and the rattling and roaring kind of startled me. When I woke up today the leaves on two of my neighbors' trees were on the ground instead of glowing on the branches like they were yesterday. Is it just me or is fall going by way too fast?

if today I were a painting this is what I would be

portrait of dora maar, picasso, 1937

you go girl -- take two

(This is the first in a series of posts which will feature inspired and independent women.)

A few weeks ago my friend, Amy, a fellow aspiring writer, told me to re-read the introduction to Joan Didion's collection of essays, Slouching Towards Bethehem. So I did. And then I kept on going. I'm so happy to rediscover this writer, who's work comes pretty damn close to perfection. Here's an excerpt from "Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream":

This is a story about love and death in the golden land, and begins with the country. The San Bernardino Valley lies only an hour east of Los Angeles by the San Berardino Freeway but is in certain ways an alien place: not the coastal California of the subtropical twilights and the soft westerlies off the Pacific but a harsher California, haunted by the Mojave just beyond the mountains, devastated by the hot dry Santa Ana wind that comes down through the passes at 100 miles and hour and whines the the eucalyptus windbreaks and works on the nerves. October is the bad month for the wind, the month when breathing is difficult and the hills blaze up spontaneously. There has been no rain since April. Every voice seems a scream. It is the season of suicide and divorce and the prickly dread, wherever the wind blows. This is the California where it is possible to live and die without ever eating an artichoke, without every meeting a Catholic or a Jew. This is the California where it is easy to Dial-A-Devotion, but hard to buy a book. This is the country in which a belief in the literal interpretaion of Genesis has slipped imperceptibly into a belief of the literal interpretation of Double Imdemnity, the country of teased hair and the Capris and the girls for whom all life's promise comes down to a waltz-length white wedding dress and the birth of a Kimberly or a Sherry or a Debbi and a Tijuana divorce and a return to hairdressers' school. "We were just crazy kids," they say without regret, and look to the future. The future always looks good in the golden land, because no one remembers the past. Here is where the hot wind blows and the old ways do not seem relevant, where the divorce rate is double the national average and where one person is every thirty-eight lives in a trailer. Here is the last stop for all those who come from somewhere else, for all those who drifted away from the cold and the past and the old ways. Here is where they are trying to find a new life style, trying to find it in the only places they know to look: the movies and the newspapers.

I'm having a Joan Didion moment in a big, big way.

the passage of time

new photo, old finish

Six years ago today A. and I first fell in love. It was one of those enchanting New England falls where strewn leaves look like red and yellow rose petals scattered across the earth. We were in our last year in college and living on the airy third floor a beloved off campus co-op. It was during a full moon party that A. gently touched my waist and I felt an electric shock run through my limbs. I never wanted him to let go. Lucky for me he felt the same way: four months ago today on a gloriously sunny summer solstice we tied the knot. It feels important to mark the passage of time like this. Looking back helps you see it all for how wondrous it really is.

yawn...

first trip west 2003

Hello readers! Sorry I've been so absent, but I was very busy roadtripping with A. and Jude. We had a fabulous time in Santa Fe and now I'm exhausted and home. Hoping for a bath and an early bedtime. More tomorrow, I promise! Love, H. (That's me snapping away, circa 2003.)

happy weekend!

A. and I are headed to Santa Fe for the weekend with our dear friend, Jude. I cannot wait to eat lots of red and green chile and relax at my favorite onsen. Happy weekend, everybody!

coolest. thing. ever.

I'm gaga over this amazing tool that converts your photographs into vintage antiques (via little brown pen.) Try it out, but make sure you have some time to kill because you won't be able to stop! It's in Japanese, but pretty easy to figure out anyway. The top and bottom photographs are A.'s from India, the middle one is mine, from the Grand Canyon.

the garden of earthly delights

Was just catching up on some reading and I wanted to share these gorgeous pictures from the New York Times T Magazine. They were shot in Olympic National Park in Washington and I love how ethereal they are. Will have to check the park out for myself some day. Probably not wearing such beautiful clothes, though. That's too bad.

l'España + la comida = el Cielo

I fell in love with Spain and all things Spanish when I bit into my first authentic gambas a la plancha at the amazing tapas restaurant, Ciudad Condal, in Barcelona. Mmmm. I especially love Spanish food. The jamón, the olive oil, the paella, the tortilla española, manchego. Hell, I even ate the octopus carpaccio. That's why I am just over the moon about the new PBS show, Spain... On the Road Again. It's just so pleasant and fun to watch that A. and I have become completely addicted. But be warned: you better have some vino tinto and some manchego on hand at home because as you watch Batali, Bittman, Paltrow and Bassols eat their way across the country you're gonna want some of your own tapa to share in the good time.

WOOHOOO!!!!!!!!

And this is my mail in ballot:

the first frost

october morning 2008

it's the moment that counts

The weather here in the mountains has taken quite a turn in the last few days. We've had heavy rain and a bit higher up, snow. As I write, our outdoor thermometer reads 39˚F. The mornings have been bloody freezing and the sky is as dark as a storm cloud which makes it very hard to get out of bed. With mixed emotions I pulled out all my cedar and lavender infused sweaters from their summer storage space.

This silent gray day was made for cooking something hot and hearty. So I'm making my favorite beef bolognese sauce, borrowed from someone else's Italian grandmother, which takes close to seven hours to cook. No, you read that right, I said seven hours. It's been so much easier and more pleasurable since we recieved all of our fabulous kitchen appliances from our wedding. (Thanks everyone!) A. and I are going to make lasagne with it later tonight. And while it's slowly simmering away I'm going to listen to the Cowboy Junkie's Trinity Sessions, talk to some friends, drink some tea before switching later to wine, and watch Masterpiece Theatre.

fog, paradise divide 2007

la maison d'artiga

A few years ago my sister and I took a trip through Corsica. It's a stunning place to vacation. The island was a part of the alps thousands of years ago that found itself drifting into the Mediterranean Sea. You can be on the most pristine beach, hop in a car, and an hour later you are in the middle of the mountains. Kind of perfect for a gal like me who is equal parts beach bunny and mountain mama. While we were shopping in Bonifacio, my sister and I stumbled upon a store that sold fabrics, pillows and other products from La Maison d'Artiga. She and I have a healthy obsession with basque toile and we went nuts. I still kick myself over not having scooped up more stuff while I was there because you just can't find this stuff outside of Europe. Lucky for me, I discovered their website (!) and now plan to buy loads of fabrics to make some goodies of my own. PS- you may need a French speaking friend to help translate, or just e-mail me and I'll do it for you!

the first chill

On a day like today, cold and clear:

I'd really like to be wearing this:

from toast

"a tale told backwards and a tale told first"

While on my honeymoon I passed a few languid days reading the delicately drawn Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje. It's an amazing book, my favorite read in many years. It's almost two or three novellas in one. Ondaatje picks up the beginning strands of a few different stories and weaves them very loosely together into this diptych of a narrative that wanders from Northern California through seedy bars of Reno, Nevada to the bucolic fields of Southern France. His writing, as always, is stunning, completely enchanting, and almost hauntingly elegiac in tone.

It's a book about the divisions and changes that happen in one's life and about the ways in which try, however clumsily, to glue back together the broken glass shards of the past. Then maybe, we can peer through all its scratches and dents to see something that is both old and new. Check out this interview (his voice is as luscious as his prose) from npr.

if today I were a photograph this is what I would be

les larmes, 1933-34 man ray

for the perfect cup of tea

I've been searching for the perfect teapot for a very long time. They are actually much harder to find than one would think! But with the weather starting to change my enthusiasm has been renewed and I think I may have finally found some good options. Here are two front-runners:

harp by ichiro iwasaki

teapot from toast

I'm leaning towards the latter. It must be pretty obvious by now how much I love the color white!

!OBAMANOS!

Are you watching the debate?

Go Biden, Go Biden, Go Biden, Go!

blurgh.

I had originally planned an elaborately written entry today but due to a paucity of sleep last night I can barely complete a phrase. Blurgh. So instead, dear readers, I will give you the view of the (very) early morning light on this indian summer day that I happened to catch in my gumpy state of mind.

early morning light

it takes two

I was trolling the internet yesterday and came across this beautiful site, how we say hello. It is a collaboration between two photographers who have never met and who live in Sweden and England, respectively. They individually post their pictures everyday, while sticking to the theme of the week, and we get to see the marvelous outcome. I think this is an amazing and innovative way to use the internet, as opposed to letting the internet use you. I just love the match above, don't you?