"the art of racing in the rain" by garth stein :: literature

I came across this novel at Barnes & Noble and was intrigued by the simple fact that it is a story written from the point of view of a dog.  I mean how can that not be intriguing? A local author from Seattle, Garth Stein did an amazing job.  From the turning of the first page I fell into the story being told, loving how it made me laugh, cry, get mad and rejoice.  I look forward to getting ahold of his other two novels and diving into them.

**** I would definitely recommend this book to all adults.  The skill involved in writing from the dog's perspective really is amazing.  If you have an aversion to car racing you might want to skip it simply because there are a lot of comparisons made between life and racing and a lot of references to pro drivers and their careers.  I recently saw a preteen version of the book I would be intrigued to review that.  The original version is definitely not kid appropriate. 

weekend in sequim :: eats

This last weekend my hubby and I spent up in Sequim staying at Fern Hollow while we had guests there from out of town.  On Friday night, having heard of a little place called the Next Door Gastropub, we thought we would head to Port Angeles to give it a try.  Gracious me . . . . I can't say anything bad about it at all. 

We arrived around 6:30 and waited about 20 minutes until a seat opened up.  The street side wall of the pub was a garage door style that they had in the open position with patio heaters placed along the outside surrounding bar tables.  There was a wall of booth seating, misc. tables and chairs and a long expansive bar area for seating.  A great atmosphere of people gathered enjoying amazing food, great drinks and fun conversation. Once seated we began perusing the menu and knew right off the bat that we wanted to try the mac & cheese with the Dungeness crab added.  It was delicious, creamy, great flavor and served piping hot from the oven.  We followed that up with the Not Your Average Joe burger.  A coffee rubbed 1/2 lb 100% natural Northwest beef patty topped with tempura onion straws, and a romesco sauce all served on a lightly toasted pub bun. We got this with fries covered in chopped garlic and shaved parmesan.  Nothing says love like a big 'ol kiss after eating fries covered in chopped garlic. :)

We of course couldn't stop there and finished off our meal with a fabulous order of Poutine.  We would definitely recommend the Next Door Gastropub to anyone looking for a place to go and grab a bite on the Olympic Peninsula.  It was delicious.  Not only was the food great, but after about an hour, we saw a couple I had gone to school with years ago and who I hadn't seen in almost a year.  It was great to catch up and hear how their family was.

19 years and counting :: family

Growing up in a small town I am blessed with memories of activities I would have never experienced had I grown up in the city.  One of those such memories revolves around what happens to be the longest running Washington State Festival, the Irrigation Festival. Tomorrow it will celebrate 118 years and up until 19 years ago it never really held any special significance to me other than a fun activity to do on a weekend in May each year.

It was Thursday. A Thursday just like any other. I was 15 years old. My best friend and I had made plans to get together that evening and go to the opening night of the carnival.  Opening night was the night to go because all rides were 1 ticket and all the kids went.  We would go to the carnival, eat junk food, ride rides, play games, hang out with friends and then spend the night at her house.  We arrived and promptly began going on rides. We had to leave at 10pm and head back to her house so we didn't want to waste any time.  All was going great until we realized we wanted to go on rides her sister didn't and her sister wanted to hang with her friends and not us.  So, she and I went on the hunt to find someone to go on the rides with us.  She happened to see her neighbor hanging with some of his friends and so we went and asked him.  He said sure.

I have to admit I was a little giddy.  This was the same boy that my friend and I would watch from her bedroom window.  He was pretty cute.  Although I had never really thought a ton about it since he was 4 1/2 years older than me and therefore didn't even go to the same school.

The next couple hours seemed to fly by.  We talked, rode rides and laughed a lot.  We even laughed when the ride we were on came apart while we were hanging upside down in it.  (Something that brings us to laughter to this day.)  Before I knew we had to leave.  It was already shortly after 10 and we were under strict instructions to head back to my friend's house at 10pm.  Sad to have to go, we said "goodbye, see you around" and left. (Very casual and nonchalant of course.)  That evening we did what any normal 15 year old girls would do and stayed up into the wee hours talking all about the cute neighbor boy from the carnival.  His family and my best friends family were close and I wanted all the details.  She was happy to fill me in. I wondered when I would see him next? Turned out that day wasn't far off. On Saturday May 14th, dressed like ducks, my best friend and I walked in the Irrigation Festival Parade handing out candy and advertising the annual duck derby.  What better way to get a guy to notice you than to dress in a HUGE bright yellow duck costume, right? Nothing screams hottie like that does I tell ya. It turned out the duck costume didn't deter him and after the parade he asked me to join him for the afternoon/evening.  My very first official date and the beginning of the next phase of my life.

The decision on May 12th, 1994 to ask this boy to join us proved to be a pivotal moment in my life and one that would lead me down an amazing path of friendship, love, marriage, travel, children and so much more.  Because of that one decision, I am blessed with a husband who puts up with my idiosyncrasies, desires, quirks, jokes, late night giggle fits and so much more.

  

thank you matt & rachel nickel for this photo.

thank you moch snyder for this photo.

thank you moch snyder for this photo.

thank you moch snyder for this photo.

thank you moch snyder for this photo.

I can truthfully say that 15 year old me had no idea what was ahead but I am thankful every day for the amazing coincidences that God blessed us with that lead us to each other and into this life we are leading.

adventure in gardening :: kopperskogen

scrape of the shovel. dirt in my fingers. small seeds falling in a line. 

a dusting of dirt. water. sun. growth. harvest.

All the things that call me to my yard and to the creativity it gives me.  With each decision I am painting a little piece of earth. Amazing to have found a raw piece of land to mold and paint into an expression of me and what I hope for my family. Ever since moving into our garpartment in 2007 we have gradually worked on this.  From the creation of our first garden dug into the dirt and surrounded with chicken wire, to our current raised bed garden with pea gravel pathways and beautiful hand built cedar and copper gate. It is a lot of work but so worth every bead of sweat when we get to stand at the top of our stairs and look out over everything.  Every year we get to see more and more of our hard work come to be.

This last fall I expressed to my most fabulous husband that the next step in my gardening adventure would be a greenhouse.  He was more than happy to help me realize this dream.  He began designing and building it in his head.  It was going to be a custom greenhouse; I was so excited.  I began collecting things for it with the hopes of building most of it from recycled and re purposed products; windows we got from an apartment complex remodel, a sink & faucet found at a garage sale, doors that were being thrown away, and so much more.  This February we started sketching out some drawings, my hubby finally decided on a design and at the beginning of March we broke ground.  He is a month into it now and it is taking beautiful shape.  I am so excited to be able to start growing in it. 

This weekend I plan to spend some time with my girls getting our second batch of seeds into the garden as well as planting some of our pots.  I found some french flower pots at a garage sale that I am going to plant with fuscia.  Last year I took some old galvanized garbage cans (think Oscar the Grouch) and cut 4" off the bottom.  I then planted these cans in the ground and grow herbs out of them.  I have decided to use the 4" bottoms of them as tops to the posts in my garden and am going to plant them with succulents that I picked up at Bainbridge Gardens. If only the rain will hold up on Saturday we will get out there and get dirty - and of course get some photos to share with you all.

Having this little piece of property brings so much happiness to me.  I love watching my girls run around, playing in the dirt and with their chickens, planting seeds in the garden, and harvesting the vegetables for us or to share.  Ahhh, the adventures in gardening!

tell us something about who you are :: reflections

I recently started participating in an all female study group that meets weekly.  At the first meeting the facilitator asked us to go around and say our name and something about ourselves.  This is something that always catches me off guard.  I am never quite sure what I should say; whether I should share a life characteristic, job title, favorite food, etc.  So as I am sitting there wondering what I should share and listening to the other women in the group tell the rest of us something about themselves I started to realize my answer was probably not going to fit in. I realized each woman started by saying 'I'm so and so and I have ___ children, or am pregnant, or have ___ grandchildren. . .'  Some left it at that and others elaborated specifying where their children went to school, whether their children had children, etc.  I found it interesting that in this large group of women (about 30) they all seemed to define themselves by whether or not they had children.  It got me thinking, who are they outside of their children? What type of food do they like? What are their hobbies?  What do they enjoy reading? Do they have a passion other than their children?

Now don't misunderstand me, I love my girls.  I love every little bit about them, even the frustrating parts that make me slap my forehead and go "really?"  That said, when asked to say my name and something about myself, I didn't think to say "Hi, my name is Jessica and I have 2 kids."  Instead, I thought "Hi, I'm Jessica and I love life.  I love being a photographer and getting to capture people living their lives. I have leapt out of a plane and free fallen 5000+ feet. I love getting my hands dirty and growing things in my garden.  I thoroughly enjoy eating deliciously beautiful food. I love to breath in the fresh air that can only be experienced when you are hiking through the woods. Unlike some people who don't get to see their family much, I work with mine every day. And I am wonderfully blessed to be able to teach my children to search out and love all aspects of their life."

So, how are you going to respond when asked to share something about yourself?

having a little fun with ISO :: photography

I took a little me time this evening. Yep, I said it.  Not only did I say it but I actually did it.  Kissed the little munchkins and headed out for a while to do something I enjoy.  For all you mothers out there, you can relate to how difficult this is to do.  To step away from our day to day tasks of helping, nurturing, preparing, and in all ways caring for others to devote time to ourselves.  A 1 hour massage or manicure (oh that does sound lovely), a much needed hair cut, a little retail therapy, getting together with a girl friend or, in my case, some time to play around with my camera.

Something I have been wanting to mess around with more and more is bumping up my ISO when I am shooting.  You probably would recognize this most from film photography.  When making an everyday film purchase, you probably made your choice based on the ISO (200, 400, 800 and so on). This rating was directly related to the level of sensitivity the film had to light.  With digital photography, the idea is pretty much the same as with film.  You might bump up your ISO to affect your camera's sensitivity to light.  The lower light situations (indoors or at night) might call for a higher ISO so you can keep your shutter speed higher while still allowing enough light into your image.  The risk is that it will increase your noise causing photos to be grainier than with a lower ISO.  That said, I don't believe this is always bad and in fact tonight when I went out to play around that was what I was looking for.  I wanted to create some photos that had some grainy character.  It was a blast and I can't wait to get back out there and mess around some more.

Here are a few of my favorite shots from tonight. 

 

The Olympic Mountains.  So beautiful!

 

Poulsbo Waterfront Marina. I love these.  They just scream of having a story to tell.  All the many adventures that each of these boats has been on.  So invigorating.

 

and my favorite color shot . . . the blues were so beautiful.

 

 

I encourage all of you out there, especially you parents who rarely make time for yourselves, to do so this week.  Find 30-60 minutes where you can sneak away and devote some time to you, to something you would enjoy.  You might just love it so much you do it again the following week.  Who knows......







greenhouse in process :: kopperskogen

A few years now . . . OK, five years if we are really counting . . . since we built our first garden and I believe it is truly time to step it up a notch.  I am not sure my husband was super ecstatic about this but being that he is completely fabulous he didn't complain one bit when I exclaimed last fall that in February of 2013 we would be building a greenhouse.  And he knew when I said it that what I really meant was that in February, he would be building a greenhouse.  :) 

The adventure began in late fall as we began collecting all the necessary building supplies. Acquiring windows free through both Craig's list and a house remodel we knew about, a wall hung sink from a garage sale, tile for the floor and behind the sink from the Habitat store, beautiful pine tongue & groove for the walls from another house remodel we knew about, misc. building materials from a friend who owns a local contruction company, and so on.  Every time I would find something new or get a new idea for this most fabulous greenhouse, my husband would just smile. Adding the sink wasn't a big deal since he already knew we would have to have misters in there for the plants. However, when I suggested a hot/cold hose bib he quite quickly replied that there would not be any hot water out there. I tried the lip but it didn't work.  That is quite alright.  I am very happy with only cold water if that is what I have to work with.  I am going to have electrical, so I could always put a coffee pot out there to heat water should I need some warm water for something . . . .

We began discussing design ideas and after some sketching have come up with something that will look like this:

The slanted roof will be in the direction of the sun so that the plants can get maximum sun exposure throughout the day, especially in the winter.  Originally we had discussed a 11'x13' structure but once staked out I (rather we) have decided that a 15'x17' is much more what I was imagining.

The area is all staked out and this weekend we will be purchasing and planting the posts and hopefully (depending on weather) pouring the concrete floor....Stay tuned.  As we progress I will definitely be keeping you filled in.