Light & Dark

March/April 2024: Front Seat

This was SK's third trip to Houston to visit JFK & PT in their brand new East End place (a gem). Events included visiting botanical gardens, roaming lazy country roads aligned with 💙💛🧡💖 wildflowers, holding baby goats in a beer garden, touring the Museum of Fine Arts (thoroughly enjoyed 'Multiplicity') & seeing behind the scenes of the Works on Paper department, artist studio tours, visiting a spacious ceramics classroom with friendly students + a generous teacher, playing lotería at Cochinita & Co., laps/steam/sauna at the Y, wholesome dinners on the back porch with one chiminea fire, sounds on the turntable & singing bowl, fewer mosquitos but numerous birds, beautiful sunny weather, two easygoing indoor house cats, long, dreamy talks, avoiding trains & an evening walk to the tracks.

Thank you so very much Jess & Patrick for your expert navigating (+ giving me the front seat), cooking, explaining, your openness, candor & love! Although I'm still lost in Houston, I so enjoy being in the spaces you inhabit.

(Front of house on Leeland St.)

(JFK's briefly blooming cactus flower)

(Beetle)

(Couscous)

(Houston Botanic Garden)

(Blue Heron Farm, near Brenham)

(Wildflowers, Brenham)

(The Beer Can House)

(Houston Community College)

(Smither Park)

December 2023: Turn Up the Volume (& the Heat), Turn On the Lights

Spending time together this December 25th-30th meant daily walks around the flat loop at Tom Cully Park (Tiff came once), lunch at Chin's with Jim & Alison, five episodes of 'The Crown,' Otto's pizza, Peter's clam chowder, lemon/chicken/orzo/dill soup, popcorn & cheese fondue, a Yuka tutorial, walking along Sacramento St. in drizzly rain, one Burgerville stop, two puzzles (wooden one completed), two thrift store visits, heavy sweaters & fleece-lined sweatpants, bright hats, loads of conversation, cold, wet, windy weather (Minnesota-like), Cribbage + Farkle (CR won all 👑) & a sweet electric BMW i3.

Mom: thanks for making the trip, being easy-going + bearing the cold & dark!

(Wooden Puzzle Borrowed From Windsor, Missing 1 Piece of 103)

(Tom Cully Park)

(Neighborhood Walk)

(Reading SK's Baby Book)

(Burgerville)

($1.50 Flashlight From Hannex)

October 2023: Getaway

This October 17-21 was spent an hour & a half drive away from Portland in a small town called Birkenfeld at a friend's cabin on the (ahem) man-made Fishhawk Lake (read here about the 2019 blunder). Not one single person I mentioned either name to was familiar. We drove the hybrid rental car to the top of the steep driveway Tuesday afternoon, parked it & drove it back down late Saturday morning to return home. Our time was spent at the '2-3 season comfort' cabin building fires, completing an '80s puzzle, learning how to work the stove/oven, preparing & eating all the food we brought, enjoying happy hour on the lower level porch, watching 'Thirteen Lives' + simply absorbing the enormous, endless tree view. Long walks meant trying to see the lake from different vantage points, hiking though tree-packed forests on trails littered with leaves, pine needles, mushrooms & sword ferns while keeping alert for bears & cougars. The only real sounds were the (ahem) distant construction from the lake entrance & falling leaves. We only talked with one other person -- Eric, now responsible for the (ahem) lake engineering project. A couple birds & squirrels were spotted along with large slugs & fuzzy caterpillars + a single dead baby mole on the trail we laid in a soft moss bed covered lightly with small sticks. The highlight of the trip was finding chanterelle mushrooms up, up, up near an old fire road amongst the alder trees. We verified their authenticity at least 5 ways, cleaned, cut & ate 'em up with Friday dinner.

🙏 Arigato Kevin, for sharing your sensational mushroom house! 🏯