I fell in love with Ladytron when their Witching Hour album came out a few years ago. Visually, I’m currently in love with their video for Tomorrow. It’s like a series of softly lit polaroids.

Along somewhat similar lines, Barbara Cole was recently called in for work on an Anthropologie catalog. Barbara specializes in underwater photography, and you can see a bit of insight into her process here. The light in her photographs is distorted, played with, discovered. The colors are definitely intense, which pleases me greatly.

So, I’m just curious if anyone has an opinion on the following.

Here is the first, an original of some poppies in front of my house on a partly cloudy day.

Here is the same photo, “polaroided” by myself in under 5 minutes. I tried to add more yellows and softness to achieve the effect, which was actually a little tough because of the intense red of the flowers.

Here in Seattle we’re going on just about a month without any rain. It’s kind of unusual for this time of year. Usually the drier weather starts in July. My garden is suffering a bit, even with nightly waterings that Mike administers with great concern (will the beets make it? should the swiss chard look like that?). But two things are flourishing: our grapevines, and our lavender.

I did a little research on how to harvest lavender. The most important element of harvesting the little purple spears appears to be the following: cut just before the blooms open. You’re too late if you see the bees doing their own share of harvesting.

Megan at Not Martha had an even more useful guide to harvesting lavender, a little experiment. She actually harvested the blooms at one week intervals and then did a sniff test to see which bunches held the best scent.

Above: the line of lavender plants along the southern border of my house.

Too keep myself from going nuts and just clipping all the lavender, I came up with a limit: 5 bunches that can I can hold in one hand.

My office is in a room of the house that faces north, so it’s a cool and dark room to dry the bunches. The smell in here right now is incredible—clean, slightly floral—and the other bonus is that the color is so pretty.

Here’s the story of the rock.

About 4 years ago, I decided to take a cross-country trip on my own. On my own, because at 25 my friends were all working and unable to take a month off from work, or they were trying to save money for one reason or another.  I was searching for direction, ideas, and more than anything I wanted to get out of my NJ hometown that I had started living in again in spite my best intentions to move on. I told Mike to meet me when I was in Washington State for camping and exploring.

Two weeks later, when Mike arrived in Seattle, we decided on a trip around the Olympic Peninsula on our way to Portland. One of our stops was at Ruby Beach, where Mike found a rock. It was a peculiar rock—one with little button at the top (later simply called “the nub”)—which fit perfectly into his hand.

The rock was magical. So says Mike. It was his talisman while we lived in Florida. On some late nights I could see Mike holding the rock while thinking, and it worked better than a stress ball. He believes it helped him make some good and important decisions.

Recently, our friends Shannon and Jay came for a visit. This thrilled us terribly and made us want to show them some of the most beautiful places in our region. Mike and I decided to take them to Ruby Beach - and Mike brought the rock with him. His intention? To put the rock back where he found it.

So the rock was laid on top of a pile of other rocks that Jay assembled, and we walked away.

Jay and Mike are now convinced that because Jay was the last one to touch the rock, its magical powers were transferred to him. Jay has found a total of 5 $1 bills on the ground since the events at Ruby Beach.

If you come across the rock, and take it home, beware. But also, please send me a photo of yourself with the rock! We’re curious.

Also, remember to take it back.

—-

My birthday dinner took place the night before the rock-replacing ceremonial trip. Mike told me that I’m the first person he’s known that actually wanted to cook on their birthday. What can I say, I wanted to have some Copper River Salmon for 4 without all of us spending a fortune.

My Birthday Menu:

• Copper River Salmon
• Baby Red Potatoes
• Spinach and Radish Greens Salad

I tend to cook simply. I started dinner by putting the potatoes in a covered iron put and roasting them at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes in olive oil and salt. Meanwhile, Jay made the salad - diced peppers, radishes, and spinach. He asked about the radish tops, which looked very plump and fresh, and asked if we should put in the salad. I said why not? and in they went! The salmon, the last thing to get taken care of, was simply pan-fried in olive oil and butter, with some salt. Dill and lemon were sprinkled on the fish after plating.

The soon-to-be-famous pig truck

First of all, thanks to Keren at Frantic Foodie for putting together another great event last night!

As you can see from above, Seattle now has a pig-truck to serve your pork consumption needs. The name of it is MaximusMinimus. You can order your pulled pork sandwich as a “maximus” (savory-spicy) or “minimus” (sweet). This spicy or sweet choice applies to a number of other menu choices, from the drinks (ginger-lemonade or a hibiscus blend) to the slaws - I tried the sweeter apple slaw.

Overall there’s a general consensus among people I’ve talked to in Seattle that they don’t quite get BBQ here. But I have to say this was pretty darn good! Overall my minimus sandwich was the right balance of sweet and a little spicy, with just a little touch of cheesiness. Yes cheese, I figure the Beecher’s people would put good stuff on these sandwiches. My only off-key comments are that the bun was fresh but maybe not quite right for this type of sandwich, and my “chips”—mainly what appeared to be sweet potatoes and green beans—were seasoned well, but half of them were soggy.

I didn’t expect my sister to deliver her baby exactly on her due date.

I kept hearing that the first time a woman gives birth, she’ll usually do it a week or two after the doctor-codified due date. Because science isn’t that good yet. But guess what - in this case, the medical field got an A+ in predictability!

I’m already just over 6 months into my pregnancy, and I’m starting to feel big. Not in a bad way, it’s still rather novel to have to rock back and forth to get out of bed, and to have a firmer belly than I ever did before in my life.

I’ve heard a bit about the before-the-baby’s-born vacation, a last hurrah to get out with your partner before your life is taken over by your sweet spawn. Mike and I decided on a last-minute weekend retreat to San Francisco.

The trip was a warm and foggy lineup of walks up and down hills. I had a few flashbacks to a trip 6 years earlier, where we had also stayed at the San Remo hotel and munched on salmon-cream cheese-caper-topped bagels at Cafe Sapore. But more than anything, this was a trip to get great Italian food! The kind of Italian food with sauces that make you shake your knees with the first taste and make your breath smell like garlic when you wake up the next day. We weren’t disappointed!

Here is the dessert highlight of the trip - Torta della Nonna with Meyer Lemon Zabaglione.

As you can see, it was so tempting that before Mike could remind me to take a photo I just had to have a taste. It wasn’t as dry as I thought it would be, and the lemon cream was so tart and refreshing. Mixed with the fresh whipped cream, it was perfect. From Calzone’s on Columbus Ave in San Francisco.