{looking back} joshua tree

Two years ago we visited Joshua Tree for the first time and, a surprise to both of us, absolutely fell in love with the desert. The complete silence, the expansive views and the incredibly clear night sky was a balm for our city-dwelling souls. We spent hours sitting outside watching the sun set, followed by a razor thin waxing crescent moon. We watched as the blue-orange gradient of the sky deepened and thousands of stars came out, including my old friend the Milky Way. Our first year in September 2020 we saw Jupiter and Saturn in close conjunction, shooting stars, satellites, the International Space Station, and the Andromeda Galaxy. The next year our Airbnb, The Moon Cabin, had binoculars which we used to track roaming satellites and to view Venus, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and two of its moons, and distant star clusters.

The desert emits something that touches both of us in the same way. There's something about sitting outside looking into the vast distance, hearing nothing but the wind and the odd passing car, watching the one street light change from green to yellow to red to green from seven miles away. Since our first trip we've vowed to visit once a year. These images are from our second trip in July 2021 and we are headed back again this September with my star-loving dad, a gift to him so he can see the night sky from the desert for the first time!

{looking back} the great conjunction

 

A year ago during this time, planets Saturn and Jupiter were slowly converging across the night sky, dancing their way through the summer and autumn months to the great conjunction that takes place between the two gas giants nearly every twenty years. In the upper left was a waxing crescent moon with the two planets in the below right, taken two days before the winter solstice.

{personal} our sixth wedding anniversary

For our first wedding anniversary, we received a card in the mail from my maternal grandmother and grandfather that contained the obligatory well wishes and a single gold dollar stashed inside. The following year we received another card from them with two gold dollars. I thought it was a clever and surprising sentiment and was looking forward to growing our collection as the years went by, envisioning a box full of coins representing the years of our wedded bliss.

The third year my grandfather became sick and wasn't able to send the coins, but I went to the bank and requested them anyway. I figured I would keep the tradition going, even if he couldn't. He ended up passing away later that same year.

One the day he died, I was working my retail job and ringing up customers at the cash register. Near the end of the my shift I was helping a customer who paid cash with some gold dollars, which immediately made me think of my grandfather, as I didn't come across gold dollars very often. After I got home I received a call from my mom telling them that he had passed away. I told her about the gold dollars and asked her if she knew what time he had died and she told me it was sometime between 7:45 and 8pm Eastern Time. The next day at work I looked up the transaction from the day before and the time stamp read 4:54pm Pacific Standard Time. A three-hour time difference would put it at 7:54pm Eastern Time, around the exact time that he passed away.

My grandmother, my mother and myself all agree that it was definitely Grandpa saying goodbye to me.

Today is our sixth wedding anniversary and, just as I do every year, I went to the bank and exchanged six dollar bills for six gold dollars to add to our collection.

{personal} on flowers

Today was a lazy Sunday spent reading Amy Merrick's beautiful book On Flowers. It is divided into six sections on arranging flowers, city flowers, country flowers, fancy flowers, humble flowers and far away flowers. I love how the book is one part memoir one part instruction on flower arranging, but mostly it's about finding and appreciating flowers everywhere you look. I was immediately inspired to run outside and snip a strand of jasmine growing underneath the stairs to our apartment and take a few photographs.

Part of me wishes I had polished the leaves to remove the water stains from the sprinkler at our apartment building. But at the same time, leaving them be makes them true "city flowers." Perfectly imperfect.

From On Flowers by Amy Merrick:

"City Things To Do

Look both ways before crossing the street to look at flowers. 
Stay on the grass. 
Start an imaginary art collection. 
Walk the long way, preferably through the park. 
Put bouquets in your window. 
Smile when you see flowers in someone else's window. 
Watch birds in the park.
Throw a picnic dinner party. 
Carry flowers on the subway.
Order dinner at midnight, because you can. 
Talk to taxi drivers. 
Walk in all kinds of weather. 
Go to the botanical garden in winter. 
Overtip often. 
Volunteer in a community garden. 
Keep herbs on your windowsill.
Take yourself on a very fancy cake date. 
Read a book on the train. 
Make a container garden. 
Know your local florist by name. 
Say it with flowers."

{personal} my quarantine life

My quarantine life so far: I've gone twenty-five days without wearing a stitch of makeup (except for lipstick, because some days I just needed that little something). I've cleaned the apartment (but nothing crazy). I've done laundry. I've slept in. I've taken naps. I've stayed home. I've taken walks (but not nearly enough). I've worked from home. I've been furloughed. I've had three orders in my Etsy shop. I've supported several local restaurants. I've baked one loaf of chocolate chip banana bread, one batch of chocolate chip cookies and one batch of madeleines. I've started and finished four embroidery projects. I've read seven books. I've watched I don't know how many movies. I've worked in my sticker book. I've thought of finally starting that macramé project (as well as that Holga project, that sun art project, that collaboration with my husband). I've talked to family (a lot). I've texted friends. I've eaten well. I've eaten junk. I've been feeling a mixture of lucky, blessed, uncertain and scared.

In other news, I tried the trendy frothy coffee thing known as dalgona. It's delicious!

{personal} just because

"Because I love you. Because you're you..."

{personal} crazy about chamomile

Flowers from my valentine.

{personal} iphone photos

Every year for the past eight years or so, I've created a calendar for my mom featuring photographs I've taken throughout the previous year. These are my favorites from this past year, all shot on the iPhone 5C (yes, I'm long overdue for an upgrade, but I'm getting by just fine!). My goal this year is to not use my iPhone so much, to slow down and use my DSLR and Holga cameras again.

1. Sunrise behind Griffith Observatory and surrounding mountains, standing at the Hollywood Bowl Overlook, Los Angeles
2. Clouds above Burbank
3. Walking among the wildflower "super bloom" near Lake Hollywood
4. Palm trees in Glendale
5. The coast at Manhattan Beach
6. A foggy morning view of Hollywood Mountain from the Burbank IKEA parking lot

{personal} cross stitch creations

I'm still stitching away and very much enjoying my cross stitch hobby! Select designs are now available for purchase in my Etsy shop.

1. Pattern from Japanese cross stitch patterns
2. Floppy disks by PixelPower
3. Black cats and jack-o-lanterns designed by me
4. Patterns from Japanese cross stitch patterns
5. Pattern from Japanese cross stitch patterns
6. Tiny pixel flowers designed by me

{personal} plants & a life update

Hello there! Here I am posting after far too long yet again. I'm here. I'm around. I'm just not sure where I am with photography anymore. I rarely pull out my DSLR or Holga cameras, yet I still post subpar iPhone pictures to Instagram and I still keep my Etsy shop going despite lower than lackluster sales. Anyway...

A life update!

I took a huge step at the very end of last year and quit the job I was extremely unhappy at. The job I was at for seven years. The job I've had since moving to California. Even though I was unhappy, I was still very comfortable where I was and the thought of job searching and interviewing for the first time in many years was terrifying. But I knew I would never look for something else unless I absolutely had to. I came to the realization that I would rather be stressed about looking for a new job than stressed in my current situation. Knowing I had some savings to tide us over just in case, I quit my job and started 2019 afresh. It was very scary, but I am so proud of myself for finally doing something. It took awhile, but I finally found a job close to home (goodbye 30-60 minute commute!) working for a company that I am proud to be a part of. I'm starting at the bottom and have a long way to go to grow and develop, but it's a great company to work for and it offers us a two-year-plan to get the heck out of Southern California and its high cost of living and awful weather! My husband and I have missed the beauty of the east coast and long to live among its green hills and changing seasons and, more importantly, closer to family. It feels good to have a plan.

Also, I've finally developed something of a green thumb! Pictured above are the first two succulents I've ever managed to keep alive and they've both been going strong for over a year now in their sunny little spot on the windowsill. One hasn't grown at all but is still alive (I swear it's fake) and the other has grown like crazy, producing little babies and stretching out to impossible heights (I fear I'll break it every time I move it to water it). And the larger plant is an epipremnum, a new plant I bought from my new workplace that seems to be thriving as well.

And so, this is life right now!

{personal} anacapa island part 1

I first read the novel San Miguel five years ago which ignited a spark in me. A spark in me that flares whenever I read tales of people in isolation, in nature, surrounded by the vast openness of the world, people who struggle and work hard and who live off the bare necessities. It's highly romanticized, but I often long for this seemingly peaceful kind of life. San Miguel tells the stories of three separate women who live on San Miguel, "a tiny, desolate, windswept island off the coast of Southern California." Though the first two women struggle to find happiness, the third blossoms amidst the peace and beauty of the island. I relished her accounts of everyday life and longed to one day visit the island which is part of a group of islands that make up Channel Islands National Park.

Last year I officially wrote down and shared my bucket list which contained, among other things, visiting the Channel Islands. So, in an attempt to start doing and stop dreaming, I quickly booked a trip to Anacapa Island (famous for its Arch Rock) and Santa Barbara for Labor Day weekend with my husband to celebrate our four year wedding anniversary. After being together for twelve years, it would become our first true vacation for just the two of us.

We departed on an early, gloomy Saturday morning, driving sixty miles west to Oxnard Harbor. We then took an hour-long, overcast ferry ride to the islets, East, West and Middle Anacapa slowly emerging from the fog. We docked at the landing cove and spent the next three hours traversing the two-mile-long trail system of East Anacapa. The sun emerged and we delighted in the feeling of being in the middle of nowhere, miles away from the mainland. The island was near silent, the only sounds being the wind, the waves, the seagulls and the other hikers. Though it lacks a single tree, Anacapa boasts its own stark beauty of meandering hills, scrubby bushes, a patchwork of guano, feathers, rock, and dirt, the odd flowering plant, and stunning coastal views. We visited the last permanent lighthouse built on the west coast, Cathedral Cove, Pinniped Point and Inspiration Point, named for its remarkable view of Middle and West Anacapa trailing off into the distance.

Being a photographer, I often battle between completely savoring a place, unhindered by technology, and the need to document it (I took three cameras with me, four including my iPhone). I feel I would have been better able to appreciate this experience if I hadn't been distracted by the need to capture it all. But alas... this is what photographers do.

Though we didn't actually visit San Miguel Island of the book, Anacapa Island was beautiful and I was very excited to see the Arch Rock. Being only an hour away from the nearest port, we can always visit again and see the other islands!