I’ve been meaning to visit this angel for a while and finally found her this week. She is in the Ross Bay cemetery, which is so close to the sea that in earlier days, some of the graves were washed away in stormy weather. Ross Bay reminds me of a smaller, saltier Mount Auburn or Forest Hills, for those of you back in Boston. The grey autumn weather has arrived in Victoria; it seems to suit her.

Yeah, I love you Canada, you big galoot.

Well, not quite. But I have been to some very nice places. This little cabin overlooking the Pacific, where Mount Tamalpais meets the sea, north of the beautiful magical city of San Francisco, and shared with great friends, is one of them.

Talk about dumb luck. A few weeks ago, I set off for a visit to Boston and made a stop in San Francisco to visit my dear friends Laura and Tom and their kids for the weekend. When they picked me up at the airport Saturday morning, I learned they had a surprise in store for that night. By a fluke, a friend of theirs had reservations that weekend at a campsite called Steep Ravine and couldn’t use them. A second friend used the reservation Friday night but couldn’t stay Saturday. As Laura says, this was like winning the lottery. These sites are really, really hard to get. They book for the season almost immediately. Pretty soon we were packing the car with camping goodies and on our way for a breathtaking ride over the mountain to the coast.

I had never heard of Steep Ravine, or its connection with photographer Dorothea Lange, who spent time here with her family in the 50’s and 60’s. (There’s some background on the story and some photos here.) That’s Laura playing the part of Dorothea in the photo above.

The cabins are like little jewels carefully set in the landscape. The mountainside rises up behind the camp, and the cliff drops below. A hillside path leads down to a rocky crescent beach tucked under the cliffs. The waves crashed on the beach all night, filling the quiet with that roar that makes everything feel, look and taste better. The camp is at the end of a narrow road which descends to the site, so you are well off any travelled roads, and sharing the place with a fairly small number of campers. Its a really special place.

It’s only been three weeks but it feels like another life. I’m glad I have the photos or I might feel I’d imagined it all. Thanks to my lovely hosts, big and small, for a wonderful visit.

I’m so ready for Valentine’s Day, courtesy of my new stamper. Love it!

Yeah, maybe I will.

Here’s a tutorial (found via Craft magazine) on making polymer clay candy hearts (known to you parents out there as choking hazards).

Okay, Battlestar Season 4.0 has arrived. We are not going to complete watching this in time to watch the second half of season 4.0 in real time. So please — no spoilers!

Almost as wet as the Polar Bears at our beach on New Years Day. Maybe next year my resolution will be to join the swim. A few shocking seconds and you could have a feeling of accomplishment for the entire year.

Even without the swim, I am feeling exhilarated. I’m excited about all the possibilities of the year to come. Possibilities are the upside of having short-term commitments, in terms of my work life. I’m having so much fun at work right now, running between the faux finishing work for the upcoming exhibit and back to my web project, where the pace has picked up as we race to the end. The inveterate procrastinators of British Columbia are emerging to send in their last-minute stories to the project, so suddenly I’m flooded with material. Then at home I’m learning Drupal while building a website for Gary and revamping my portfolio. I have two studio classes (drawing and sculpture) and two museum studies classes this spring. And I’m reorganizing my office (aka the dining room). My resolution this year is to make the house a nicer, comfier, more organized place, whilst being as thrifty as possible.

And now, two more things I’m highly excited about. The first is above, my thrift store find from last weekend. One look at the box design (tossed, if I remember correctly, amongst the health and beauty aids) and I knew it had to be good. It’s an awesome alphabet stamping set, with all its parts, including the tweezers for sticking the little rubbery letters into the stamper holder (you’d go mad otherwise). The letter blocks even have kerning built in (though of course you could space them out too, what with the handy holder).

Second, the next installment of Battlestar Galactica (1st half of the last season, which we have not watched yet) on DVD is on its way to us! Perfect for those wet winter evenings. Can’t wait.

When I see this photo, I just think how lucky it is that this era of New York City and of photography coexisted. This is an amazing photo for so many reasons. The photographer shown in the photo is Margaret Bourke-White, a pioneering photojournalist with Life magazine, taking shots of and from the Chrysler Building. The image of her setting up on top of a skyscraper is stunning, but once you look past that the image of the city in the background is just so gorgeous.

I’m pretty pleased with the fact that I developed three rolls of film today, and all the negatives look pretty viable. For the last two rolls, it was a race against the clock to get them done before my class at 4:30, and I couldn’t be late because I had to make a presentation in class. I dashed into the lightproof room to load the two spools of film in total darkness, and luck was with me — I snapped open the film canisters, snipped the ends off the rolls, and spooled them up in record time. I just had time to process the film, hold it up to the light for a quick confirmation that there were pictures on there, and hang them in the dryer. At 4:20 I was out the door.

I’m not always sure that this going to school is such a smart idea — I mean, I can’t really explain to anyone what I hope to accomplish, from a practical point of view, but it really is amazing how much you can learn in a short period of time. When classes started in September, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you the first thing about what abstract expressionism is, or who Margaret Bourke-White or Cartier-Bresson were, and I can’t tell you how many times in my life I’ve tried to keep straight whether f22 is a bigger or smaller aperture than f8, or which one gives you a greater depth of field. Now I finally get it.

Pretty soon work at the museum will be winding up, and I’m sad about that. I’ve gotten quite attached to the place. This week was fun: I got to help decorate for Christmas and actually spend time in the galleries (instead of the somewhat less magical basement). I still have a couple of months before I go, so when classes end, I’ll be turning to polishing my resume and updating my website. Hopefully I’ll finally be able to go to knit night again — its been ages since I’ve been able to go. Time to start thinking about Christmas, gifts and travel plans, and all that. Lots to look forward to.

Good things today:
Sunshine.
Walk with Sam.
Friends in class (and I thought I didn’t know anyone)
Visit from Mom next week.
School perks (Safari books online — for free!).
Homemade bagels (made by my hubby).
This song and video posted on My Fair Isle.

Don’t think about Tom Brady’s knee or the reports that John McCain is polling ahead of Barack Obama. Just watch the video.

Have a lucky day!

What do you see?

I see a ground squirrel looking at me!
Ground squirrel, ground squirrel, what do you see?

I see a mule deer looking at me!
Mule deer, mule deer, what do you see?

I see a baby sheep looking at me!
Baby sheep, baby sheep, what do you see?

OMG!!! I see the CUTEST BABY MOOSE EVER!!!!!!!!!!!

Makes me crack up every time I see it his funny face. He’s so plush and soft looking.

“got . . . a leaf . . . stuck . . . riiiiight there . . . ”

Special thanks to Gary for the wonderful photos, all from our trip to Jasper in June.

My mom lives near a store called the Fabric Place, which is always worth a visit when in the neighborhood. They have bins of great remnants from the home dec department. These little remnants were the right size to take home, and at only 50 american cents a piece, they were truly cheap and cheerful.

I discovered they also have a pretty good yarn collection these days at the FP, so I snagged a little Cascade 220 in grey to make my very own Ella Phint, an adorable little elephant pattern by the talented Knitfish. I’m a pretty slow knitter, so Ella is still just a tube with ears, waiting for a trunk.