green night

hello there.
these are some farm shots from back in august, when it was bright sun and heat. these bright photos are quite a juxtoposition from today's weather. today was really one of the first grey, fall days we've had and it poured! the rain is very nostalgic.

but these photos work very well with autumn color week, since today (tuesday) is green day.
and they also work very well with my dinner tonight! i know i showed you photos from the boistfort valley farm's barn stomp last week. the above photos are also from boistfort, a month earlier. we have been dutifully getting their csa every week and every week we are overwhelmed with fresh produce; greens, cucumbers, tomatos, flowers, carrots, beets, radishes, green beans, squash, zuchini. and today we received our first fall vegetables--rutabega and parsnips! i made a primavera, ravioli tossed with every green vegetable i could throw in. i will save the rutabegas for a another night. it's so magical to see where my food comes from!

they need support

hi today!
i am going to be slowly making a few changes to this space and before i do, i have to do a post that i've been meaning to do for awhile. see those three pictures on the right sidebar? scroll down a bit, yes, those ones under my contact info. those are my little handmade, makeshift public service announcements (psa). let me tell you a bit about them and why they are important to me.

 support local retailers

this mini-psa links to a great project that i found via (don't laugh) molly moon's blog. the 3/50 project's tagline is "saving the brick and mortars our nation is built on" and their challenge is for you to think about 3 independently owned businesses that you would hate to see die. for one month, spend up to $50 total at those businesses. "pick 3. spend 50. save your local economy." i think that it is useful to just think about which businesses we are attached to and that make our community vibrant. whatever our income, going in and saying hello and purchasing something is a manageable and important task.

support independant bookstores

this psa is close to my heart. okay, you probably know i work in an independant bookstore. and you also probably know that i am strictly against that huge giant we call "amazon.com" but why? well, most people don't know that thier local bookstore can order just about anything you need for you. and your local used/rare bookstore often times carries those hard-to-find or out of print books you are looking for. oh, and the people who work there are real people, devoted to books and to helping you, so why undermine their business by giving your money to one global, online company that seeks to stamp out physical bookstores and the book itself by their aggressive tactics? (i know, i get emotional) my solution to those of you who don't have as wonderful access to local independant bookstores as seattlites have? 1. even a corporate bookstore like barnes and noble and borders employs your fellow neighbors. walk in and say hello. 2. powells.com: because the new and the used and the hard to find are all there, online. and because though it may not be your local bookstore, they do have a physical sight and they are fiercely independant.

best of all, if you aren't sure who is indie and who is not and why indie is important and where is your closest indie....my little tab on the right that i call a public service announcement, it links to indie bound and indie bound will tell you everything. *thanks for listening!

support local and organic farmland

it will soon not be practical to eat food that has travelled across countries and hemispheres just to get to your table. we might as well start supporting our local and organic farmland before it is too late. whether it is shopping at farmer's markets, participating in a csa, requesting from your grocer to stock regionally produced food, or growing your own produce, starting little will make a huge difference on the environment, your local economy and even your health. take a look at local harvest for more information.

all i really want to say is it is important where we put our money and who we support. in whatever way feels important and passionate for you, follow that. i hope these links are fun and this post was more interesting than preaching.

happy monday and to those of you observing, have an easy fast.

picking onions in my yard

 

one red onion was ready to pick. jaala helped me pick it and she got to eat a little  of the juicy green end, for all her help. tomorrow is jaala's birthday, happy birthday jaala! the red onion is now sitting on my counter, ready to be sliced. 

there is a special visitor coming to seattle this weekend, who i am meeting tomorrow. should be fun! and on sunday, i'm having an open house for my photo show. i'm very nervous about that.

i'll see you on monday. have a great weekend!

the lost summer roll

i found it! i developed a beautiful roll of summer flowers right before i left on my trip to montreal. when i came back, i was so excited about my montreal photos that these got lost somewhere in the shuffle. oh, how i've been longing to show you this one lingering holly hock, growing in an alleyway. i am so happy about finding that lost cd in a pile of negatives, that i have added this photo to my shop.

you can see the rest of my flower photos from that roll on flickr. but i love this one above the best. yay!

sales, not mine

i can share other people's sales and not my own, right? good. because i can't resist.

image: sophik

image: sophik

sophik shop (her images are above) is having a 50% off prints sale through the end of september. shop here.

and studio olivine is having a birthday sale on stationary! info here. shop here.
enjoy!

some thoughts

i'm making postcards today! one set will be harvest themed, like the photo above. it's fun to arrange and rearrange and choose what might look nice as a mini piece of art. they should be up in the shop soon.

i came home from my aunt's on sunday with a big bag of italian plums. just in time to make molly's plum crumble. i tripled the recipe, just as she suggested, because i had so many plums. yum.

talk about beauty.

love new york? this video does. (video has sound)

my toes have been getting cold in the morning and at night. that can only mean winter is not too far off.

i love this raven mug.

last night we hosted a photo archivist at the bookstore. now if that's not the coolest job...

i also love the brown paper collection on design is mine.

poppytalk handmade has launched there newest monthly-themed market. there are some really cool artists on there. i'll take one of these cute cards, anything from this collection. oh and for sure this little calendar.

i'm so glad you enjoyed my farm photos. thanks for all the comments. 

have a great day!

i'm so lucky

 

this weekend i had a chance to visit the boistfort valley farm, the farm we get our csa from, for their 2nd annual barn stomp! the party featured a bountiful meal made by seattle chef, dennis ronspies of art of the table and three wonderful bluegrass/country bands: pickled okra, the blackberry bushes and tilted stilts.
we ate all sorts of salads made with the farm's own produce plus two grilled freshly caught salmons,  and a whole spit fire roasted pig, slaughtered by the chef himself. and for dessert, a carrot cake with a goat cheese frosting, made from a local creameries' goat! delicious.

before dinner, we wandered around the farm and saw it's end of summer transition. there were a few cover crops where veggies had been before and the raspberry bushes were all dried out. but the sunflowers? oh the sunflowers were in full bloom! and gorgeous!

did you notice the picture of our plate of food? i'm proud of those. those are the best close up/food pictures i've been able to take with my yashica electro. i'm also proud that i got my film developed so quickly, it's really exciting to be sharing with you pictures of something i actually did quite recently!

i hope you had a wonderful weekend, too.
thank you for all your wonderful musings about fall. i may have to take up some of your traditions as my own.

september 17

the fog has finally started to roll in here in seattle. days are still record-breakingly hot for mid-september, but when i step out of my house in the morning there is a soft mist and dew over my yard that unmistakeably reminds me of fall. tomorow is the new year for me and my family. we'll be eating apples and honey all weekend. i really think there is something to be said about celebrating a new year each fall. i mean we did it every year when we went back to school, right? we've all had those nervous, excited anticipation feelings of something new, a fresh start. that's fall, isn't it? i'm excited and humbled to get to celebrate the coming of another new year.

and i'm curious, in what ways do you celebrate fall?

the real summer fruit

tomatoes are everywhere!
my csa delivery yesterday consisted of a HUGE bag of cherry and slicing tomatoes.

things i do with tomatoes:
toasted bread, sliced cheddar, sliced tomatoes, salt and pepper.
tomato sauce with zucchini, summer squash, onions and ancho peppers on top of fettuccine.
tomato, green beans and balsamic salad.
tomato and basil and mozzarella: on grilled flatbread, mixed together in a salad, popped into my mouth before i can properly mix them all together.
salsa with hot peppers from my garden, cilantro, lime and salt.
put them all in a glass vase with and call it a center piece (i hope my pictures of that turn out!)

tonight i'm going to roast them and put them alongside chicken breast.
any other ideas of what to do with tomatoes?

*******
replies:
tifanie: thank you, i'm excited for you to come back and visit, too.
lecia: your welcome, i just love the dreamy/eeriness of your photo.
jane, at swim, trinsch: i'm glad you enjoy the photos as much as i do.
ida: i agree, the film adds such a unique quality to the already beautiful ocean!
lecia and lea: thank you for your compliments on the coast post.

my first flickr faves + holding on to the ocean

more ocean.
through other people's lenses.
i can't get enough.

remembering by lecia/a day that is dessert

rehab by johannacarlsson

untitled by Pwsteal.Ldpinch.D*

hawaii by noddyboom

check these ones out, too:

untitled by maplesyruponly
polaroids + canon beach = magic by Citrushearts

*****
replies to shocks of good:
alexandria: let me know if you end up reading it, we can chat!
jane, at swim-two-birds, montague: i hope you find the book and enjoy it.
marion: thank you, double exposures + holgas = awesome!
**
replies to coast:
the southern hostess: thank you. i love that calm, too. i want to be there now.
ida: thanks for the good wishes. i will try to come back here and to all my friend's blogs to stay calm and find beauty.

coast

i'm sorry.
this isn't photos of orange leaves falling.
or of tea and apples.
i told you i wasn't done with summer photos.
i miss the ocean.
the roll that wasn't double exposed came out really foggy.
what's up with that?
despite my denial,
this week really marks the beginning of the season for me.
i have three author events to work in the evening.
one during the day.
it will be like that from now until next may.
with a little breather in december.
are you ready, anna?
get ready.

the little shocks of good

"the simple things come back to us. they rest for a moment by our ribcages then suddenly reach in and twist our hearts a notch backward."
-colum mccann, let the great world spin

i think today is a good day to talk about this amazing book.
the night before i left for new york this summer, we hosted colum mccann with the washington state center for the book at the seattle public library. he told the audience that this book was an intentionally creative response to 9/11. instead of all the anger and fear and revenge that sprouted from that tragedy, mccann instead was intent on the human aspect of healing. inspired by little pieces of beauty that flutter around us in tragedy, colum mccann wrote an allegory. he uses the story of phillipe petit, the tightrope walker who commited "the artistic crime of the century" by walking between the twin towers on a tightrope as they were just erected in the 1970's. and from that story, mccann creates a multitude of other stories of new yorkers directly or indirectly effected by phillipe petit. there is war and pain and death and beauty and so much thought. it is a masterpiece.

today is for you, new york. for your ability to heal and to keep on going.

"it (the city) accepted whatever came its way, the crime and the violence and the little shocks of good that crawled out from underneath the everyday. "

-let the great world spin

******

responses to september 10:
ida: thank you, quebec city was so european, i loved it. and, yes, there is always more and more inspiration on etsy.
trinsch: thank you. the real world can be a good thing, right? :)
hiki: i love that time of day, too. somehow that was when i got my best photos in quebec city.
polly: van gogh! oh my, thank you! it was, indeed a canon, if you can accept that. :)

responses to end of the road:
montague, marion, alexandria: thank you!
jane and lecia: sigh, fall is inevitable and i'm sure soon i will remember why i love it so much. but not yet.

september 10

i don't really have much to say today, but i love the lines in these two photos, taken with my canon G10. i don't post digital photos on here much anymore. that's okay. i love film. but there are some treasures from the G10. these are from quebec city.

anything interesting you've been looking at online recently? i'd love a spruce up of inspiration.

enjoy your day!

the end of the road

this bridge has a sign next to it that says "bridge dangerous: cross at your own risk."
today is labor day and it is raining. it's been raining all weekend and i finally have to face the fall and the dark. rain in seattle is so nostalgic. after a beautiful long summer, the crisp, wet fresh air reminds me of going back to school, of hot tea inside with sweatshirts on, of running from house to car, of puddles and soggy pant legs. i know there is beauty and comfort in the fall and i know that the rain is the only way to support the beautiful lush spring and summers. i just have to get prepared...

***
thank you all for the FABULOUS (!) comments on my last post. i'm so blown away by how much you loved those photos that every comment i got made me go back and look and love them more. i appreciate all the new people who have commented and all my stand-by friends who keep giving me great feedback and support. thank you all!

***
it is the last day of my labor day weekend sale and i have added one photo from the double exposed roll. i'll be adding more of that roll to the shop soon, but since that one is my personal favorite, i thought i'd give it a day on sale. go take a look at the boulder shot! it is 10% off and 15% off with the purchase of another item. but for you, if you enter weekend deals + the baker's daughter in the message to seller, you get 20% any item in my shop today (monday) only! let me know if you have questions.

*i am going to try to post less about my shop than i have this week and instead set up a e-newsletter for those interested, thanks for your patience.

i hope you enjoy

surprising beauty

i guess one thing that isn't always so glamorous about shooting with a 1970's camera is that it doesn't always do basic things. like advance fully. sometimes the whole roll from my yashica is on one frame, leaving the rest blank. and then i cry for a bit. and then i get over it and keep shooting. but this time the whole roll was like these pictures above. each frame overlapping the next. besides wishing so much i had just a simple shot of the beach, these photos have their own beauty, don't they? the third one is like a natural made diptych. and the first one is by far my favorite. how did it know to frame that boulder just so? and if you look very closely at it, there is a shadow of people on the right hand side. eerie.

well, anyway, not all the roll had the surprising beauty of these shots, but i'll go on. in the meantime i'm in the market for a new vintage camera.

*yes, these are my beach shots. there are a few more, still imperfect in a different way. taken on the olympic peninsula of washington state, my favorite place.

*****
sweet potato anna (my photo shop) is having a sale! from now (sept 3rd) to september 7th receive 10% off everything! and if you purchase two or more prints, receive 15% off. i'll try to stop advertising my shop soon, but i'm just so excited! i've got some new stamps and ribbons to package up each shipment just beautifully and i can't wait to grow a little more, because i have all these great ideas!

you know who else works with a vintage yashica and is celebrating the birth of her postcard shop with a giveaway? ida!

is it not friday yet?
****
replies:
jane: yes, i just want to sit in that coffee shop all day and see how people react to my photos. is that weird? :)
tom (dad): yay! i can't wait to go back.
ida: i wish you could drop by, too. and once again congrats on your shop!
montagugue: thank you!

last night i...

...hung up my pictures on the wall of a cafe!!! for the month of september, i am having a photo show with my dad at the blue saucer cafe in maple leaf (neighborhood in seattle). i've shared my dad's photos here before, but take a look at his website! it is an honor to hang my humble photos next to his. but it was so fun to print and to frame and to organize and then hang. and they look great up there on the walls. i wish you could all visit.

thank you for all your wonderful comments on my last post. it means a lot to know that you aren't sick of my trip photos or that you wont laugh at me if i post a photo of the beach in october. (p.s. it's just the washington coast, so don't expect anything too sunny or tropical. mostly cloudy with a chance of rain). and thank you all for following the baker's daughter and for sharing your comments and for being so positive. you brighten my day!

today is jon's birthday and i'm excited to have a special treat to celebrate. i baked a huckleberry pie last night. i hope you get a special treat in your day, too. for jon.

september 1

is it really september already?
and i haven't even gotten to show you my photos from quebec city. or my farm photos! or my beach photos! i've been a little slow. in my idealism i like to do things seasonally, but i'm learning that with film, time gets rearranged; slows down and stops and starts. i kind of like it.
but will you be okay if i show you beach shots once the weather starts getting cool and the evenings are darker? how will you feel about fields of fresh farm food when the tomatoes and summer greens start to disappear? do you have patience to sit through the last leg of my canada trip into the beautiful, european looking city of quebec? and really, how will i feel posting all my summer shots when leaves are crunching under my feet? i hope it will be an important re-living and looking backwards. i've always processed my experiences on the slow side, taking time for them to sink in. this will be no different. i hope you are along for the ride.

happy september

**********
comments on comments:
rahel: thank you for finding me and stopping by my blog! i'm excited to get to know yours better.
jane: welcome back, i has a lot of fun seeing your daily questions. i hope there will be more giveaways.
trinsch: thank you thank you. you have a great week too.