The Lesser Works, Series I

Or, making a crappy, blurry photograph of a pigeon look artsy and deep with digital chicanery. Or, the death of photographic craftsmanship.

Lobelia in the Garden

Watcha’ doin’ raccoon?

We found our local raccoon assiduously removing the rocks and shells from one of our neighbors’ planter pots late last night. This was the scene this morning.

Oh Figs!

 

We discovered this afternoon that our scraggly little fig tree has apparently decided to bear this year. Little more than a weed when we moved in almost two years ago, with some judicious (although largely clueless) pruning, our little tree has become quite the young man now. He’s providing excellent shade in our little back patch and perhaps even some tasty figs by summer’s end. These may not be edible this year, but it’s going to be fun to watch them grow. I’m already making all sorts of fig recipe plans, but as Anne rightfully wonders, “what has figs in it?”

It’s Been Real?

Update 5/10/09: I realized that this original post was the result of an imbalanced life — mostly due to dissertation-finishing stress. I’m back to blogging here again, and I’ve transformed it a bit into more of a “hey, this is our life and this is what we’re doing” blog for our friends and family to keep up with us. It’ll be updated as the need arises, so y’all should check in periodically.

Actually, no, it hasn’t, and that’s part of why this is my last post. I’ve posted here about my, er, “fondness” for the internet. Or rather, the narcissistic search for fulfillment through various vicarious internet outlets. Blogs, photo sharing, etc., it’s all a way to seek self-importance, a way to affirm existence. And the more I think about it, the more false it seems. I spend way more time making posts, checking comments, making comments, etc. than I do actually doing things worth posting about or commenting about.

So here’s the thing, Internet, I think we should see other people. We can absolutely still be friends, but I just don’t think this whole “exclusive” thing is working out. I don’t like how dependent on you I’ve become. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I just think we spend too much time together. It’s not that I find you unpleasant — quite the contrary — I just feel like I’m missing out on a lot of other great things.

So this blog is going away, along with a few other “droppings” I’ve left around the Internet. I’m tired of the incessant demands on my time — real or imagined — and I’ve decided to live less of my life (much, much less) behind a keyboard and a computer screen. The other day, I added it all up, and I literally spent an hour and a half of otherwise-productive time just messing around online. I’m sure this is much less than a lot of people, but to me it’s unacceptable to lose time like that for no good reason.

If you read this blog for updates about what’s going on with me (I think there are a couple of you), just drop me an email every once in a while, and I promise I’ll do the same. I’ll leave this blog up for a little while, just so everyone gets the message, then down it comes, and this little patch of Interwebs reverts to its wild, uncultivated state. Thanks for reading, folks, and if I may, please use the time you would have spent reading my posts to do something enriching, productive, and worthwhile.

March

Early Spring

I debated whether or not those of you still in the icy throes of winter would appreciate this, or whether it would upset you too much. This is our first nasturtium of the season–a volunteer growth left over from last year’s(?) crop, which suddenly started taking over our planter (and our plant trash bin) a few weeks ago. I also tried to snap a photo of the leaf buds opening on our little fig tree, but they didn’t turn out. I’ll try again another time. Take heart, those of you still in winter, spring is coming to you, too (just in another month or so).

Diversify in a Down Economy

Scavenger AND chimney sweep. Now that’s maximizing your skill set, and your profit. Not only could he afford an ad in a magazine, he has two telephones, and an office, apparently. Advertisement from 1899.

February

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted. I guess I’m sort of on a part-time hiatus until the dissertation is done in a month or so. I’ll be back. Probably.

January 20, 2009

After watching the inauguration this morning, it feels a bit like I’ve taken a rubber band off my head that’s been there for the last eight years. How strange it will be to have a president that doesn’t make me cringe and turn away whenever I see him on the television or hear him on the radio.

We’ve just returned from a quick trip to Oregon to make up for missing Christmas on account of the weather. We had three full beautiful days in Oregon, and half of another beautiful day yesterday before we came back. Except for the first day, which was foggy, it was clear and cold and lovely for our entire trip. We spent some time clearing storm damage to the trees and walking around taking photographs. I also scanned a few images from the family photo archives. The first one is a photo of my grandmother and her brother, the other two are some random photos of me around two years of age.

Yup, that’s a teddy bear and a chicken, too. I like this photo because they look like lost urchins in some kind of migrant worker shantytown.

Here I am concentrating very hard on a truck. I still get that look sometimes.

This one didn’t scan or clean up too well, so I got a bit creative with the editing. I like it because I appear to be just accidentally flopping through the edge of the photo, looking somewhat tragic and harried.