It has been a long, cold, mostly icy winter. I’m not sure if age makes this feeling more acute, but the data seem to show that this winter has been colder than average. I can’t remember the last time I pined for spring this badly.
But, just yesterday, as temperatures finally hit 50ºF, the garlic began pushing through the still hard frozen earth. Woohoo!
A quick update on our home addition; it is done! My mother-in-law is moved in. She’s comfy and cozy and we are really happy with how the entire project turned out. On time and on budget. Unheard of! I’ll share a photo in an upcoming Diversions when the muddy soggy frozen mess of our backyard has been fixed up.
Photographically this winter has also frozen my creative side. I’m at peace with it. Life doesn’t always allow us to work on our art. And if it comes, it comes.
Due to the construction the darkroom was a mess. Construction dust, disarray, and neglect. But I’ve been slowly able to steal some time to get it back into working order. I recently developed some color film, which led me to question whether or not I want to continue doing so, and was able to get that area cleaned up. Next I’ll spend some time getting the printing area clean and organized.
We have a lot to do outdoors this year in our yard. In fact, since the addition construction tore up our yard so badly, we’re going to invest both time and money in getting it to our liking this year. So I may not be able to revisit the layout of the darkroom until next year. But I still have plans of making a capable darkroom. I have nearly everything I need to do so.
To break up the long, cold winter we took a break at a resort in the Dominican Republic on Hispaniola for about 8 days. It was, as resorts go, very relaxing. We had a great villa to stay in, a pool to float in, some mediocre cocktails to enjoy. I finished re-reading Dune. I’m debating continuing the series which I hadn’t done in the past. Should I?
Speaking of cocktails. I’ve been really enjoying gin lately. It is so interesting to me how my tastes have changed over the years when it comes to spirits. I think I’ve ridden the entire spectrum. Scotches to whiskeys, vodkas to mezcals. It is an expensive hobby, and I totally understand why some abstain, but I really enjoy the stories, the people, the places that are involved in some of my favorites. Lately I’ve been enjoying Japanese spirits – perhaps because I want to travel there so badly.
I have a bunch of links to share:
- George Tice: Seeing Beyond The Moment – Tice recently passed away and I hadn’t been very familiar with his work. This documentary is a great introduction.
- The making of Longquan celadon – via Dan Cederholm.
- LocalSend – Cross platform AirDrop substitute.
- Gina Trapani’s Life In Weeks – I have no desire to spend the time to make one of these, but they are very cool.
- The Hardest Working Font in Manhattan – Marcin Wichary doing Marcin Wichary things.
- The Uncomfortable – “a collection of deliberately inconvenient everyday objects by Athens-based architect Katerina Kamprani”.
- Ravens – A trailer for an upcoming film about photographer Masahisa Fukase.
- Nick Carver Frames from Andalucia – A short video profile of Nick Carver by Jaime Dezcallar. Jaime’s series of videos have less than a few dozen views somehow. See also Taylor Pendleton, Luke Stackpoole, and Mike Chudley.
Leave a Reply