I love the lighting in old dark buildings that have lots of windows. The company my husband works for owns pubs and hotels and it seems most of their places have this lighting that I love so much. I always bring my camera along when I know we will be eating at one. This was Friday night at Ringlers, the pub connected to the historic Crystal Ballroom where we will be seeing Modest Mouse in a couple of weeks. I am feeling overwhelmed by a million and one projects I have started and not completed. From painting to cleaning to sewing to grocery lists...Where I once was efficient and tidy I have become the opposite and it to be like it was before. All that and sales are slow with my vintage stuff. I need movement to be motivated and when it stalls I stall. Also stalled on the creative front...pretty much all I've made lately has me holding my head in my hands wanting to cry. So I know I should just step back from it all but my instincts have always led me to push on through which now feels like trying to force the square shape into a circle one. My goal: to be happy with the ways things are, to just let it be. I'll let you know how that goes ;)

Olivers flowers

This summer LD has been taking Oliver out for evening walks or to ride his big wheel. Usually I stay home and do the dinner dishes, grind the coffee beans for our evening and morning coffee, package orders, just get caught up on stuff. Almost every time they arrive home Oliver has brought something with him. I have the hardest time not keeping every single thing that comes through our door by his hands...twigs, smooth round rocks, crumbling leaves, and in this case dandelions. I took a picture of them thinking I could let them go after that but ended up keeping them around of course. Now I realize they are gone and I wonder what happened to them?

A bowl of cereal before bed

Oliver on most nights tries to get an extra meal in right before bed. Mostly we've agreed it is a stall tactic but sometimes we fall for it and let him have a bowl of cereal. So it was last Saturday night. It was then I noticed how much of the light was gone and summer is fading. It seems to happen so quickly - here one day, gone the next. So it was Wheaties by lamplight. I found that old lamp out junking and really liked it. It didn't have a shade and I wanted to use it so I went out and bought a pretty orange-ish hued bulb and left it bare. I kind of like it like this...it reminds me of candlelight.

I used to think the end of summer was a little depressing and I would wish it away and will the fall to hurry up and get here. As most things do, my thoughts on it have switched directions and I love these late summer days. I realized this is when our yard looks its best...all the plants have matured and it looks wonderful out there. Of course there are the tomatoes that we don't grow but that our neighbor does and shares a bountiful amount with us, there are the crickets in the evening, the cool hint in the air at both night and in the early morning. The days are still long but not quite as much and that is ok too. Today we went to a park not far from out house but that I always forget about. I don't know how. It is huge and offers lots of shade plus sun and there is giant and magnificent rose garden that scents the air so sweetly. You don't even have to get close to smell the roses ~ it just scents the air ever so slightly. There is a fountain there that Oliver loves to throw rocks in and I let him even though I don't really think he is suppose to be doing that :) Today I caught our shadows reflection in the fountain. Me with my latte in hand and Oliver looking so tall I can hardly believe it. He's almost my height!

North Portland 6:40am

I haven't done many morning walks this summer. I guess it feels like last summer I went everywhere and took pictures and things just haven't changed enough to go back and rephotograph it all. I planned last night to go out for a run this morning and then procrastinated on going until it was almost too late to go and I had to run the whole time to make it back home in time. I just knew I needed to get out with my camera, my music and the fresh air. I saw all the things I love...lonely benches, stairs leading nowhere, old cars, long summer shadows and the amazing soft morning sunlight that illuminates the city in the most perfect way. The light that is fleeting and not to be found again until the following morning (hopefully). I always set my ipod to shuffle and trust that the songs it chooses are the ones I need to hear. Today i heard: Concrete Blonde, Tori Amos, Springsteen, The National, The Killers, The Shins, Death Cab for Cutie, and Evan Dando. I made myself run up the hills that I usually let myself walk up and I swear it nearly killed me! I ran close to home through a neighborhood I used to live in. Although it is so close, only a mile down the road, for me it was a whole different lifetime ago.

Being 4

Oliver had me cracking up most of the day yesterday and reaching for my camera more than once. First he and his BFF Lily built a pillow mountain. They spent at least a half hour searching the house for every last pillow and building this thing. Then they scaled it to the top only to experience an avalanche that landed them on the floor, buried in pillows and screaming for help. It made me remember so much being a kid and getting an idea and being so excited to do it! Later in the day I walked to the top of the stairs to find O dressed in nothing but underwear, a T-shirt, a fireman's helmet and my green vans. lol! He loves wearing my shoes. He asked if he could jump on my bed and then he just jumped with abandon. The black fur heap beside him on the bed is our cat Lili. She just layed there the whole time, totally unbothered by all this jumping. It was so great.

In the rear view

was this too cool dude, hanging out on the street, holding up the street post, smoking a cigarette. I wonder what he was waiting for? There is always so much I see in the rear view and just as I see it, it passes because the car keeps moving. I was given a stop light today and able to catch this city image.

It rained today

A good hard summer rain. Usually the summer showers are more brief but this went all evening, lasting through the night, stopping at breakfast time and then starting again this afternoon. The garden is watered and the air is rinsed out. It's nice because it is warm, not sticky warm, just soft and sweet air warm. We had tomato soup and bread with mozzarella cheese broiled on top and then we added tomatoes, fresh basil and olive oil with vinegar drizzled over it. It feels so cozy I think I will bake chocolate chip cookies as a perfect ending to this rainy day!

Heart shaped leaf

We went out today in the breaks between rain and as Oliver was flying down the sidewalk on his big wheel this little leaf on the sidewalk among so many other leaves caught my eye as it was a perfect heart shape. I picked it up and carried it around wishing I had a pocket I could put it in so I wouldn't loose it. Soon a huge shower came through and we had to hustle home if we didn't want to get completely soaked. It was still in my hand when we walked in the door.

Two vases

Summer Twilight

amber bottles

Venus de Milo

Scabiosa stellata (ping pong flower) in the morning

From an estate sale

and I am left wondering who these two happy and so lovely ladies are. What is their story?

Tattered Rose