The Third Act

a little step back in time...

A few pinholes from my trip to the bay area last June.  

Kodak Ektar in the Zero, along the Embarcadero in San Francisco...

 

 

 

 

my kind of gold...

Or perhaps I should say it's the kind of gold I have access to!  It's beautiful out back, especially as the morning sunshine streams in with its slanted autumn angle.

I've been spending a lot more time in the rear yard recently.  Yes, there are still end of season tasks out front, in addition to ever growing leaf wrangling, but the back has taken me.  The more I clear out invasives and open up the landscape, the more I see to do.  I also see the potential, which makes me dig (figuratively as well as literally) in deeper.   It would be sweet to have a more lush woodland look among the trees.  Investigating all the native shade plants, especially food or medicine plants, is on my list (perhaps of things to do by the fire when I actually won't be going outside?).  Part of the reason for my obsessiveness with this task, is that the more the leaves fall the more the vines and whatnot will go into hiding.  Out of sight out of mind?  I want to get at these before they pop up again (or pop up so aggressively) in the spring.

So I try to practice a bit of triage with the task list.  What do I need to do today, and what can wait for a week?  Oh to be younger with better resilience and stamina.  But I do what I can, when I can.  My brain likes to keep me up at night thinking of said list, moving the parts and pieces around like some kind of puzzle.  Perhaps I should write everything down before I go to bed!  Ultimately, I'm grateful for the opportunity and the relationship I have with all this wonderful flora.

 

 

 

A sunny day...

It was great weather for working out back again.  The invasives are getting conquered (or at least subdued).  Now I'm beat...and sore.  But here are a couple more Instax photos for 'Roidweek, from this morning...

 

 

 

early morning

I did it...I got myself up well before sunrise!  When I thought about creating more routine in my life (in my ongoing quest for health and happiness), I hadn't thought about the fact that this inclination coincided with the new moon.  And after a discussion with my neighbor yesterday, considering the eclipses, well I guess more bang for my buck?!  Anyway, because I actually slept last night (which typically happens after a night of insomnia), it wasn't such a struggle to get myself up early.

Perhaps I'll actually return to more garden work today.  There's an appointment at 11am to attend, but after that my afternoon will be open.  The weather is a bit weird...yesterday felt like my old home in the bay area.  It looks to be somewhat of a repeat today, although maybe there will be a little sunshine in the afternoon.

Day 4 of 'Roidweek...time flies...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday

I didn't sleep well last night.  I think there were a number of influencing factors.  It happens.  My mind engaged and it was a bit like being on a runaway train.  Thankfully, the thoughts weren't depressing or distressing.  This was more creative mind gone amuck...mostly to do with everything I want to accomplish in the yards and gardens.  

Ironically, yesterday I'd decided to impose a bit more structure in my day to day.  Part of this structure calls for rising earlier.  So, the alarm was set, regardless of sleep deficiency.  Well...I didn't get up with the alarm, having fallen back asleep.  The dreams were weird, with big earthquakes and multiple individuals, blah blah blah.  Still, I managed to get up at a decent hour to get my day going.

Needless to say, I'm not exactly chomping at the bit to start work outside.  Actually, I need to get a couple supplies before I start anyway.  In the mean time, I'm getting my posts done for the day.

These are pinholes taken on very, very expired Reala film.  How expired, you ask?  I'm not sure but I'm guessing in the 30 year range.  The images on the negatives aren't terribly inspiring.  That being said, I still think it's cool to take 30 year old film and get images on it (and 30 years is nothing compared to what some folks have used).  Film...I can't help but love it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Polaroid Week day 2

Yep, it's 'Roidweek again.  Funny how quickly those come around, marking the spring and autumn seasons.  Then again, time and its inscrutability...

This Monday has dawned partly cloudy, but still a lot of sun peeping through.  It'll be warmer this week as opposed to that early blast of winterish temps last week.  There's a garden and yard to tend to...well, there always is.  I'm going to try my hand at building a couple low tech leaf bins.  Currently there's just a big pile-o-debris out back which becomes hard to manage. 

Inside I still have a couple sets of color negatives to scan...plus some monochrome to process myself.  If you ever ask "what are you doing today?" I'll point you to my ongoing, ever added to list.  It's not a matter of what I have to do, rather how much time and energy I have to accomplish tasks.  I'm not getting any younger, so it often takes longer to get to certain items.

In the mean time, here are a couple Instax mini prints from this beautiful autumn morning...

 

 

 

Sunday

The weather has turned a bit gray and warm.  Avery and I spent an hour or two in the garden.  I was pulling out yet more spent plants and stakes, as well as turning over the buckwheat into the soil.  I thought I had more buckwheat seed to thrown in for more green manure, but it turns out that wasn't so.  No big deal.  I gave water to what needed it, moved debris to the compost and called it quits.  As for Avery, she found a vole to track around the base of the fig trees.

There's a Samhain witch market at Diversity today.  I actually bought a ticket, but now I'm not sure I want to go.  It doesn't start until 4pm and those things are more fun with a companion.  Plus, for whatever reason, I'm feeling inclined to stay home.  There's a book I want to read.  Oh, the life of an introvert.  No complaints, though.  I've been out and about plenty recently.

Autumn at home...Ektar 100 in the Holga...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NYC in the spring

Clearly it has been some time since I originally shot these photos.  These are from a trip to see Laurel when she was working in NYC for a week.  Staying in Chelsea was close proximity to the High Line and voila, here was are.  These are taken with the Holga on Portra 400 film.

In other news, I dreamt I was talking to Gordon Stettenius from Candela Gallery about learning wet plate process.  In the dream I was telling Gordon about my discovery of the work of  Stephen Berkman .  So impressed was I that it seemed a good idea to learn this process.  Now, in real life I've always felt it would be way too hard, complicated, messy.  But in the dream, I told myself it's just like anything else to learn.  In fact, I started getting ideas of what kinds of images I'd like to make.

Will I take a class in wet plate?  I don't know.  But what I'm delighted by is actually dreaming about photography and art making.  Normally my dreams are way non sensical (not that there's anything wrong with that), or overly emotional, or super frustrating (you know, trying to dial a phone number and never getting it right).  So, I consider this encouraging.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

mistakes have been made

When I loaded the Zero the other day, I changed the framing brackets to get a 6 x 9 (or was it 6 x 7.5?) format.  When I started taking the pinholes at Hollywood cemetery, I'd completely forgotten I made that change and thought I was using 6 x 6.  Consequently, the result is one long, continuous negative strip of images!  

I don't typically make overlapped pinholes, as I do with the Holga.  So this situation was a bit disconcerting...and amusing!  It was slightly challenging to figure out how to cut the negatives and divide the frames for scanning.  While this particular situation wasn't anticipated, I always ask for my color negatives to not be cut after processing (one of these days I'll learn how to process color film) which is a good thing.  Honestly, I don't think the lab would have known what to do and would've called.  

In the end, I'm rather pleased with the mistake!  It gives me something to consider when making more pinholes in the future.  I had fun finding the best framing for the images that emerged.  Granted, the sizing is all over the map and individual, but I guess there's nothing wrong with that.

 

 

 

 

 

sweet potatoes

Yeah, I know, it doesn't look like much.  For someone who might be well versed in this crop, it probably looks like a fail.  However...for me...it's got me pretty stoked!

First of all, I just planted this crop on a whim, because I had a sprouting sweet potato in my cupboard.  Sure, I've been intending to grow this for years but made no actual plans.  Second, I started late (and sweet potatoes need a long growing season).  And third, I had the grow bag in an area that didn't get quite enough sun for these guys (although they made beautiful vines and even popped a couple of blooms).  Consequently, even getting a few of these tubers makes me happy.  There were many very small tubers in the soil, but since we've already been getting frosts they really wouldn't mature.

So, for next year I have plans!  I'll use two bags for sweets and one for some small white potato variety.  All the bags will go in the front garden.  Lastly, I'm going to get these all planted in a timely, intentioned manner.  

Yipee!