Its the where what we're at

UK. 

This green and pleasant land.

what is the what?

1975

I'm not American, but I have so much to be thankful for this weekend.

there is love for you

in the light between the shadows.
can you see it?

cos i love you 4 realz xxxxxx

waiting. hoping.

election night.

Sunday. Awaiting the thunder storm.

on layers

(kitchen sinks, dirty dishes and favorite flavors)

 

ume carrot salad, a vague recipe

you can make this with carrots only, or by adding red cabbage, or apples, or both at once.  the apple bit depends on what's handy, or the mood of the day: a granny smith for tartness, a fuji for some sweet, or a jonagold for some of both.

using a food processor (or an eleven year old and a grater -- tell him it builds character), shred some carrots/cabbage/apples.  add a splash of olive oil, a shake of ume plum vinegar, a bit of salt, and fresh squeezed lemon or lime juice -- whatever you have.

toss it all together and that's it!  it lasts in the fridge for several days without pickling and the ume is good for the digestion.  (it also makes for attractive sinks dregs, like the ones in the middle)

Friday

Friday afternoon

Friday evening stuck in a cab in traffic

Friday evening Anzac bridge.

last light

ghost sign at almost-dusk.

broadway and pico.

Yesterday it Rained.

And I need to polish my boots.

forgive me my absence;  life has been a little overwhelming. 

Sour Potential

Spring is coming, the lemon tree is covered in buds and quite often bugs.

Its peaceful and warm and I am starting to be happy here and maybe more settled.

There suddenly feels like there is possibility, but theres still a nagging doubt in the back of my mind.

I dont want to stay here but the longer I stay.....

I dont know where I fit.

moths. no butterflies

bobo got me a pack of macro lenses, so i tried them the other day.  i
know i should have used a tripod or at least a stack of books to steady
the camera, since that's what you're supposed to do, right?  but
sometimes i have a hard time being careful and precise, so i just shot
away before i got distracted.


the moth was on the sill: mustard-yellow, with it's legs curled up;
beautiful even in death.  but every time i went to click the shutter,
it would come into focus for a second, then snap shut with a blur in
one place or another, or all over. 


this is how our limbo-life feels right now -- i want to do and see and
try so much, but only manage a little bit at a time; i try to take
care, but can't truly commit, or immerse myself completely.  some days
are quiet, quiet, quiet and i don't want to speak a word, and others are
filled with chattering anxiety about polar bears and elephants and the
man we saw on the street today, homeless and drunk with a beer in one
hand, a can of dog food in the other and nothing else.


anyway, the moth on the sill.  it's still there, days later, lifeless
and lovely all at once.  and so it follows that i'm mostly good and also not, all at once --
like you were a week or two ago.  it seems that i get especially maudlin when it
comes to moths and swimming pools and grandparents as babies.  and the london zoo three lifetimes ago.


here's the antidote that i'm imagining right now:  that we are on our
atoll in the pacific, drinking tequila, bellowing old mexican songs (aaaaaaaaiii aii ai, canta no llores!) and shooting our pistols up into the night sky.


what do you say?

Frank

My great grandfather was a sign writer at London Zoo.

found (lost)

my great-grandmother becomes a mother.

There and here, lost and found

Two places I love with a passion with the knowledge that one day I will be torn between the two and having to decide on one forever.

I have a profound and acute sense of loss today, of time passed and childhood on the brink of ending, of the feelings of such deep love that it makes your heart ache and your head explode and tears flow so freely.

Of friendships and friends that are no longer alive. Good friends whom I miss so much. and should never have died so young. Theres so many things I want to share with them now and thank them for, because I'd have been in a very different place if it wasn't for them.

I'm not sad, I just ache.

Sometimes its good to cry.

learning to swim

not me, a five-year old friend. 


i don't really know how to swim, beyond doggie-paddling and something that could be called a breast stroke, although 'breast clutch' is probably a more apt descriptor.


learning to swim is on my list of to-dos before i die: take a long trip with no itinerary or final destination; read frog and toad to my child; swim in the ocean without fear or panicked breath. 


there are lots more. tell me yours.

I have to admit, I didnt take this photograph, its one of Alistairs, but it feels smells like spring is coming and I want to start swimming outside again.

Spring is coming

walking over the Anzac Bridge

today

this morning;  just now.


(early fall)

Spring morning sun

hands, light, love.


(bigger here)

A kiss for Auntie Anna

A BIG Kiss.

he can't back out now -- his face is on all the tea towels

royal commemorative embroidered handsome stan tea towel!  teaspoons, plates and shot glasses coming soon!


(new stan ping to your old stan pong)

after all the meatballs are gone

or, how to get out of ikea without spending $400 and/or expiring in the lighting department with five different bulbs clutched to your bosom. none of them will actually fit your knappa klover anyway.

ping, part one

you said, inky scribble in the city.  i say, woody scribble in the city.

Handsome Stan

Emperors new clothes.

I thought Australia was supposed to be hot?

It rains here more than London and its flipping freezing.

(still working on the proper ping to your pong, but in the meantime...)

... nude photograph of my dog.


this is an out-take from one of the calvin klein ads lulu did back in the '90's.

PONG!

inky scribble in the city.

all of sunday afternoon

playing in the studio.  sewing, printing.


ps.  you know how you said i should be more self-confident?  well, i tried and i'm afraid that you're the one who will "benefit" from this little experiment in printing and sewing.  ha ha! (yes, that's a nelson ha ha)

Saturday Night, Sunday Morning

nevermind the (lime green) caull-ocks!

saturday morning at pie 'n' burger, pasadena.  best thin, well-done pancakes in the los angeles basin.

Well then....

Shock and Awe.

Awaiting Stilton and bacon for dinner tonight.....

What names were you called? I hope they considered some good swear words.

Call back.. 'BERK!' my favourite, old school rhyming slang = Berkley Hunt.

I expect you to join me for my birthday cake shortly


xxx

only the past; wishing it was the present.

a crappily day today -- a faculty member yelled and called me names.  but the fireworks from your rooftop cheered me up and made me think of this.  38th birthday cake.


now i'm off to watch project runway and eat frozen yumminess (what do you call it if it's neither ice-cream nor yogurt and is made from letovers?  and is sweet and delicious and eaten with a spoon?  Left Over Frozen Stuff doesn't quite work...)


thank you for the beautiful diptych, love.  i hope things are good today in the austral parts.


xxoo

Day and Night, Present and Past

Day on the Anzac Bridge, this morning.

Night from our roof, New Years Eve.

in, out

(home; san luis obispo)


this is dinky. it's bigger here.

Sorry.

I'm just relieved the talk is over and thought I was being funny, now I realise that I'm not.

I'm back on track. I take your planes and home and raise them

RE- SERVE

The Opera House, out and in.

Its a shirt, not my Pyjamas

I dont wear pyjamas. The cake crumbs get caught in them.

This is a Hanger (geddit?) and home.

I've lowered the tone again, havent I..... I'll get my coat.

birds

this is an old photo, but your shirt -- the birds and the colors, the sense of air -- brought me back to it.


(santa maria airport; home)

Southern Hemisphere 5.30am Tuesday photobooth

I haven't been up this early for years... feels like I'm taking a plane somewhere. But I'm not. Giving a lecture this morning at Art College. HA! ME! They'll be bored shitless.

northern hemisphere (early monday morning)

Early Monday Morning

hangar p

Before it Rained

orbs, hexes

(home; roman tiles at the la county museum of art)