English Bay, Celebration of Lights ~ hanging out on the beach with friends and crowds of happy onlookers, listening to a lineup of bands playing as the sun set golden, chillin’ in the the spirit and soul of summer. Bliss.

oh and RUN out and buy this book ~ I am smitten.

trash indeed

In the coffee shop this morning (one pound organic breakfast blend) the boy in the lineup behind me sang along with ‘banana pancakes’ and it was so charming ~ his girlfriend wore a dress the color of mint julep and I could tell they hadn’t even brushed their hair yet which seemed to me the most perfect thing in the world.

I have a simply divine little notebook I carry in my velvet satchel ~ it is by paperblanks and the cover is dedicated to the fabrics of the jacquard loom silk weaving tradition of france and I cannot tell you how happy it makes me feel to pull it out with my pencils and write in it…

In this green (saffron, wildberry, gold, silver beaded) notebook I jot down snippets (don’t you love that word? ~ ‘snippets’~ ) of life I see and overhear ~ quite often ‘found’ in coffeeshops.

So this morning, which began albeit a bit grumpily (there really is nothing worse than waking up and finding you have no coffee in the kitchen) soon transformed into a glimpse of such cheeriness in the coffee shop humming along to banana pancakes.

My beautiful friend Darlene is preparing to launch her new photography course ~ and having benefited and blossomed from her generous and patient and inspired teachings with the camera I cannot testify enough how bountiful this course will be ~ there is bound to be lineups at her registration door so be ready!

Today…I am enamored with these portraits just ooooozing lovely love ~ they feature the talented Laney with her beloved taken by Michelle Stone Photography and I am so pleased as Laney is working on a ‘conversation’ for us:)

Oh!!! aaaaaaand I am impatiently thrilled as Liz’s retreat I am teaching at (polaroids and poetry) is filling up ~ I can’t wait to spend a weekend with a soulful gathering of artistic women in the effervescent Pacific Northwest. I have been working on little ‘goody bags’ for my class and getting a bit carried away I think.

Happy Thursday beautiful world!

The other evening I went to Bard on the Beach with my friend
Catherine and had the most positively brilliant time.
The summer evening was hot and breezy
and Bard on the Beach was sheer magic in the tent~ you see,
behind the stage the entire tent was open which welcomed
views of towering trees and the singing sea complete with
swooping seabirds (and the odd motor boat but we won’t
talk about that) ~ the set was designed with pillars and
balconies (after all this IS Shakespeare and you
simply have to have a balcony) and floor to ceiling windows
so the background of sea and trees and seabirds became
part of the set if you can picture it most beautifully….it
was beyond gorgeous and positively symphonic and completely
took my breath away

…and the sun SET all the while we enjoyed this most darling
rigamarole of plays in above mentioned trees and I almost
fainted with the sheer gorgeousness of it all not to mention
the twinkling stars which shone so brightly through the set
windows

I had chocolate and beer (because you can bring picnics into the tent)
and I laughed out loud perhaps a little too loudly too often
making people glance over at me with barely tolerant smiles

it’s not my fault I am quick witted enough to catch all of the
Bard’s bawdy references

the lead Jennifer Lines (who is the lead in TWO of the
Bard on the Beach shows this year!!!) reminded me of
Katherine Hephburn with her spunk, guts and moxie in this frolicsome play

It was just all to much joy and I am still basking in the energy of
that evening as I sip my Sunday coffee, listening to my beautiful cd
a certain lovely man made for me with this song crooning through my morning ~ and oh! there are fireflies and hummingbirds in my garden celebrating summer:)

I have a most splendid conversation to share with you from the brilliantly shiny Steph Parke ~ go see! Gosh, that girl has me green with camera envy:)

Happy Sunday!

Who is Stephanie?

A tall, curly-haired nerd with a whole lot of cameras and unsubstantiated worries; a girl who loves the outdoors, lazing about, wearing jeans, cooking, and traveling.

As an Artist, what are your favorite ways to express yourself?

I’d love to be able to draw, or paint what I see, but since I’m better with a camera, photography is my thing. I shoot with toy, vintage, and Polaroid cameras mostly. I do enjoy drawing and painting though, but don’t often have the patience.

When did you ‘know’ you were an artist?

I have a tough time referring to myself as an artist; I even work as a photographer and I have a hard time calling myself one. When I was a kid, whenever anyone would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, without hesitation I’d respond “an artist”, but I apparently held artists in a different esteem. Back then it either seemed much more glamorous and high-paying, or difficult and gritty. I guess what I didn’t realize is that being an artist is just a normal, day-to-day job, one with ups and downs, fun times and hard work, lunch breaks, and meetings. Artist or not, I’m having a really good time doing whatever it is I do.

What are you moved to express in your art?

Pretty subjects I find in the outdoors. I love being outside and my job requires me to be in the mountains and forests so I feel very lucky to be able to shoot my favorite things any given day.

How do you handle an interruption in the flow of imagination or writer’s block?

I have to write a lot for work and I definitely get writer’s block often. I end up blog-stalking or sitting in my cozy firecracker-red chair in the front room with my legs up over the arm, staring out the windows. I’ll waste an hour or so then force myself to get back on track. Luckily my work writings don’t require much creativity, just a lot of research, so it’s as simple as turning on some music and getting my head back in the game. If I’m writing for myself, I’ll procrastinate for days then when the time comes to write, I’ll sit down at the keyboard and just spit it all out with random sentences here and there, mish-mashed, out of order, all over the place, and then comes the editing – my favorite part. I think I unconsciously and purposely jot everything down out of order just so I can edit!

In my photography, the only time I’ve suffered from a block of sorts was when I was working for another photographer. I’d work on his photos all day long and I had no desire to pick up my own cameras once I got home. It was a tough time for me and one that I was ecstatic to walk away from. As soon as I left that horrible job, I got back into the swing of things and have been shooting without pause ever since.

What brings you joy, contentment, happiness?

My husband, our marriage, and the home we’ve made together. It’s all better than I ever imagined a marriage would be and after 12 years together, I still can’t wipe the smile from my face when I think of him; also (and perhaps less mushy) my sweet nieces and nephews, a beautiful photograph, a successful dinner party, our growing garden, a crisp fall day, pretty light, Pie Sundays with our neighbor friends, a road trip, live music, banjos, sandals, and snowflakes. And ice cream. Never underestimate the happiness contained in a single scoop dolloped onto a fresh cone.

How has saying ‘yes’ in your life shaped your path?

Surprisingly, the “horrible job” I had when I worked for the other photographer was one of the times I said “yes”. I left my steady, full-time, good-paying government job that I’d held for almost 10 years to work in the spider-filled basement of this guy’s house, editing his photos, answering his phone, filling his camper propane tank, picking up his dry cleaning, and getting his ski boot fixed (humiliating experiences!) for half the pay and half the hours, yet being brave enough to venture out on my own got me to this comfortable place I am today.

What holds you back?

The fear of falling before I’ve even gotten off the ground.

Who are your creative role models? What books, art or music inspire and ignite you?

I am a Flickr junkie and find so much inspiration there. I browse my contacts’ photos whenever I’ve got the time and am continually wowed. I adore magazines too (Sunset, Everyday Food, Bon Appetit, Coastal Living, Real Simple, Backpacker…) I love the design/layout of these publications and the photography is always so pleasing. I’ve been reading Sunset since I was 10 and I’ve always just loved it. I read it cover-to-cover and never peek ahead. I am giddy when a new issue hits the mailbox.

I have a love affair with everything West and am fascinated with its literature, but I don’t mean gun-slingin’ cowboy westerns, I mean The West. The deserts, the peaks, the high mountain valleys, the wildlife, flora and fauna, the history. My favorite authors are Terry Tempest Williams, Ivan Doig, Edward Abbey, and Rick Bass. My copy of Abbey’s Desert Solitaire was a constant companion one summer years ago, its pages are still stuffed with pressed wildflowers from White Pine Lake in Northern Utah. It was our first backpacking trip there and the first time I’d finished the book. The pages are dogeared, the cover torn. It’s contents stir my soul.

For music, we listen to a lot of jam bands in our house (we’re closet hippies), from groups like Yonder Mountain String Band, Railroad Earth, Umphrey’s McGee, Widespread Panic, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals… It’s generally such happy, energetic and lighthearted music that seems to mirror the outdoors. It’s perfect for road trips.

If there were absolutely no obstacles whatsoever, what would you do tomorrow?

We would probably buy ourselves a VW camper bus and travel our brains out.

What is on your wish list?

Polaroid film! I’d settle for more classic 600 or new varieties of beautiful, magical, reliable stuff from The Impossible Project. My stash is dwindling and I flip-flop daily between slowly savoring what’s left or burning through it all in a mad dash. I also am wishing for a new weather-sealed DSLR. It’s very contradictory to my whole “I use film!” mantra, but my current 5-year old, 6MP DSLR is starting to go. My line of work includes a lot of dusty dirt roads which are not friendly to fancy cameras that are not properly zipped away in their dust-free bags. (Oops.) Plus, my iPhone has about the same amount of megapixels. I mean, come on!

What is on your inspiration board?

The lovely Susannah Conway recently said that she has “a terrible affliction” where she’s inspired by everything and is always seeing photographs everywhere she goes. I love how she feels about it and wholeheartedly agree. I told my husband a few months ago that it’s a sickness. I can’t go anywhere without finding inspiration. I do try to contain it occasionally, and have a string of twine stretched above my computer with trinkets and memories attached to it with clothespins. Photobooth strips hang there, inspiring me to get out of town and go visit the friends in them; a greeting card with a canoe and two little oars is there with a beautiful quote by Emerson: “Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.” inspiring me to get outside and live; a watercolor painting of a mountain sunset that I am still shocked I made; Polaroids from friends, a pipe cleaner necklace from my adorable niece Maggie, a heart-shaped aspen leaf… All of these things remind me of the my loved ones, to keep playing with cameras, to keep trying new things, to love life.

Where is your creative space/corner of the world?

Anywhere outside. That’s where I’m usually inspired to make the photos I do.

Outside of photography, probably the kitchen. I have learned in the last few years that it’s exciting to be creative and experimental there. I’ve really fallen in love with cooking and baking because of that realization and finally actually look forward to coming home from work and throwing something together.

In a paragraph ~ describe yourself/your life in ten years times

Oh gosh. I always love this question because it lets me dream, but I hate it because what if I come back in ten years and I’m embarrassed by what I wrote? (Really, that has happened. I had to write a letter to my 25-year old self when I was 15 for some church lesson and I was so misguided back then. Aside from graduating from college, I was doing nothing I had hoped for myself, and boy was I happy about it. Almost all of my 15-year old dreams would have made me feel like a repressed failure!) Honestly in 10 years, I hope to be doing exactly what I’m doing now: living with my husband in our cozy red brick home with the giant sycamore out front, reaping the shady rewards from the aspens, oaks, and maples we planted out back, enjoying every moment of our lives. I hope to have a little more time to devote to my garden, and I hope I can still get my hands on instant integral film!

Steph Parke is a photographer and writer, and she’s also the supervising editor of Light Leaks, an independent quarterly print magazine dedicated to the art of low fidelity photography. She’s hopelessly addicted to Polaroid and thinks the Matterhorn at Disneyland is the greatest ride ever invented. She’s embarrassed to admit that only yesterday, she ate her first raspberry straight off the plant while sneaking around in her dad’s gorgeous garden. Steph loves being outside and would rather paddle a kayak than drive a car. She lives in Northern Utah with her husband, three kayaks, and 38 cameras.

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love is the whole
and more than all

~ ee cummings ~

there are unseen things afoot and i am unflinchingly happy….made a raspberry smoothie today with a little paper umbrella balancing tiptoe in the straw (because it is far more lovely to do lovely things with everyday moments) and I can’t wait, just can’t wait to see Bard on the Beach ~ there really is no better way to spend a perfectly glorious summer evening unless of course ~ it is spent outside with a picnic watching goonies or the karate kid (the original naturally)

sending out hippy~happy vibes all around ~ wishing you endless days of love, a happy song and a little moon

beautiful photo of maddie shot by her beautiful daughter tess herzog with a sonar sx70 and expired 600 film

Life is just so darn beautiful. Sunday’s are just so gosh darn beautiful as I laze around listening to a beautiful cd made just for me (spilling over with lovely love songs:), drinking coffee and testing a new batch of Irish scones straight of the oven adorned with homemade cherry jam no less. Later I am going to make a brie and blackberry sandwich and tease a little poetry out of unlikely corners just for the fun of it. Oh! and a yoga class will be in the schedule as well as it keeps me so overwhelmingly positive, grounded and lovely in my bones.

‘Sunday’ just has to be one of my most favorite words today along with…

mellifulous …’flowing with honey…melodious, musical, dulcet, harmonious’

sentipensante ~ “The fishermen of the Colombian coast must be learned doctors of ethics and morality, for they invented the word sentipensante, or ‘feeling-thinking,’ to define language that speaks the truth.”

—Eduardo Galeano, from “The Book of Embraces”

I adore this word as I am surely one to feel while thinking.

olio…a medley or potpourri, as of musical or literary selections

inkling…a hint, a vague notion….

cacophony…’hoots, cackles, and wails’

fabulosity…fabulousness:) (what’s not to love here?

hullaballoo…an uproar (but a happy uproar in my books anyway)

festooned…’to decorate a room or other place for a special occasion by hanging coloured paper, lights or flowers around it, especially in curves’

(i LOVE the ‘especially in curves’ bit)

This week there are plans underway for many lovely summer/fall adventures including a roadtrip through the mountains to visit my friends Darlene and Duke with my children, Shakespeare in the park with Catherine and friends next week, and even a beautiful birthday celebration on Ocracoke Island in which we are hoping to catch a magical glimpse of phosphorescents whilst sipping champagne under the stars.

I also discovered ‘skype’ this week and yes, I realize I must be the last person to sign up for it but I had such a lovely conversation with my friend Kate yesterday morning in Ireland and I am quite the fan now I do declare:)

Wishing you all delightful summer picnics with homemade lemonade and potato salad and hours spent in a hammock with a very good book and catchy tunes:)

what are your favorite words by the way? just curious! and just in case you didn’t know…I am fan of Olivia

“…to be led calmly down the stream of time
to the ocean of futurity, which has no boundaries.”
~Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Paul & Virginia, 1849 ~

This past week I felt a lot and wanted to share a lot with my friends, my children, the world around me. Eight evenings, three friends, two children (and also their friends), one love, a rabbit, a dog, blossoming freckles, the sky, sea, rainy summer mornings and homemade Irish oatmeal, hundreds of seabirds swooping past, laying on our backs staring up into the warm languid summer sky.

I unplugged myself from the internet this week preparing meals in the slowness of the everyday, taking long meandering beachwalks, listening to music, delving so deeply into the reason for things whilst swimming in a tranquil pool of strength, grace and love with incredible, active emotional openess.

Taking my time.

The most beautiful things in the whole wide world are so simple really. One morning spent wandering along Commerical drive, shopping for fresh produce which found it’s way into a gorgeous evening meal spent with dear friends ~ we lit a fire in the backyard, guitars were played, voices ringing gently into that good night. I thought I would cry from happiness ~ (perhaps I did, I can’t help it sometime’s I do.)

Just an hour ago I wandered into my garden ~ things are growing here, raspberries, blackberries, wild cherries and chocolate mint. I feel as if this is something tangible ~ that I can hold, turn over in my hands, gather deeply in my heart.

Remember this post? I think I found my little shelf ~ a tumbled, bleached, and most beautiful piece of driftwood which I will put up in my studio and fill with treasured sea bottles and shells and whatnot. I like that word ~ whatnot.

I am feeling generous, loving, real, beautiful, personal, unfettered, joyful and wholesome after this week ~ and keep smiling in the middle of a sentence.

As I type I am listening to Neil Young (harvest moon) and contemplating the quiet sanctuary of my moroccan mint tea. There are flecks of gold spinning through the leaves in my garden (I can taste them in the raspberries)

Later I will watch summer rearrange the sunlight as the pendulum of the sun swings west.