some pig

We just couldn't make it all the way to the lake to capture this amazing sunset.In my desperation to capture it, it's a bit blurry.Still lovely, though.
I've been looking forward to the movie in the park series for awhile. We were just too busy with things last year to ever make it. The movies are pretty much always for kids and of the animated variety, but this week's was Charlotte's Web, which made it irresistible. Luckily, the weather cooperated and it was a gorgeous evening ,full of fireflies,that turned just the right amount of chilly.So we stuffed ourselves with snacks and candy (can you spot the DOTS box?), and some of us were up with a stomach ache. Maybe that's just what happens after you turn thirty.




I've been busy with things that definitely are not of the creative variety, but I think it's good in a way. I'm spending a lot of time creating in my head and looking forward to the second when I can get to work on things I want to do. Like things for the swap. So I think this free time premium thing may end up working out for me.

patience

Nothing tops off a swim like a fresh banana cone from the Honey Hut.

deliciousness

from Max's deli.

I have no idea what these are...

...but I think they're pretty great.

splendidly

I'm reading Daniel Handler's books Adverbs at the moment.I'm really enjoying it, but it's structure as possibly interrelated short stories makes it difficult to follow as a before bed read. I always feel like I missing out on the more subtle relationships because I've forgotten them from the night before. It did manage to inspire my title though.

The weather here has been gorgeous. We went to the Huntington Reservation this past week. It was gorgeous.




We definitely enjoyed ourselves, but I suspect it was Ramona who had the best time.





The next weeks are going to be busy, but I have some more of my favorite recent pictures to share.

blueberry consolation

Isn't this picture fantastic? I wish that I could say that I took it, but I didn't. My brother and my best friend, otherwise known as Nate and Hannah, took a trip to Assateague Island.They are actually there right now. ( Did I mention how lovely and convenient it is when your brother and best friend are a couple?)They sent these via camera phone. We were supposed to go with them, but just couldn't manage it. I think a few days of beach and camping and wild horses is just what I needed,so i was pretty bummed that we couldn't go. I also wanted to be there when my little brother saw the ocean for the first time.But, I do have a great picture of it:



So on a chilly and disappointing day, baking was in order. I've been wanting to make some muffins every since I read this post. I actually have that Ina Garten cookbook, but I'd never baked the muffins. They were exactly what I wanted. The batter was gorgeous, the muffins were gorgeous, the texture wonderful. I've really been wanting the blueberry muffins I remember from my childhood, when muffins were really good, not just big and sickly sweet.


I'm sure that part of the wonder of these muffins is that I made them with butter and eggs and sour cream (albeit light sour cream), when most muffins around here involve flax seed and wheat germ and whole wheat flour. Don't get me wrong, these can be delicious and certainly have their place, but it's just not always what you want.
I love when you make something and the process feels effortless and the result is all that you hoped for.I think this recipe will become a regular around here, even if it alternated with something flax-high fiber.

the sporting life

I'm not really much of a sports fan. This is probably partly because I'm not much of an athlete and mostly because the town that I grew up in is fanatical about high school sports that it's been the subject of a well-known documentary.With that much said, I have to admit that it makes me really happy when a hometown team makes good.I'm sure that I've mentioned it before, but my city has a serious inferiority complex. It is pretty well earned, but even amidst the hard knocks, I still happen to think it's a pretty great place to live.I know all about getting close to something good and then having yet another thing not work out.So, it gave me a few goosebumps last night despite the hot humid night, when Devin was refreshing the score and it was clear that our team would win, and all through the night,up and down the street, you could hear people in their living rooms cheering and celebrating. It mad me appreciate the whole notion of sports and community a little better.For a McSweeneys take on the NBA, check this out.



I have no images that are even close to being sports related, but I like this picture from the Tall Ships festival a lot.It also reminds me of the other thing I did yesterday, which was watch the Decemberist's dvd, A Practical Handbook. The live Portland show is really great as are the interviews. I am endlessly fascinated by the evolution of bands. It also includes some music videos. I love the Bachelor and the Bride video. It's a series of animated silhouettes. I tried in vain to track down a link for the video here. Here's a link to the video for O Valencia instead.

As I'm ending this post, I find it hard to believe that I'm about to type "sports" as a label. Maybe I'm getting over my sports rebellion. It probably has something to do with that big birthday I just had.

milemarker

Well, I'm feeling a little funny after passing a milemarker birthday yesterday. I've always been this way as long as I can remember. I think passing a birthday just makes me feel reflective about the past year or years and where I thought I might be at this point.Mostly, I just spend too much time in my own head for better or for worse.

This past week I've watched both The Devil and Daniel Johnston and In The Realms of the Unreal., the movie about outsider artist Henry Darger. It got me thinking about the nature of creativity. Clearly the motivation for both Johnston and Darger was something bigger and more powerful than even the most creative of us feel. We may never really know what pushed Darger to rarely sleep in order to write a 15,000 page illustrated novel.

The blogging world is full of inspiration, full of pages of people in the midst of the creative process. There are so many prolific people out there, full of inspiration and motivation. I guess what I wonder about is what about when you don't feel particularly inspired? What do you do on those days when it seems that everything wonderful has already been done.That feeling reminds me of one of my favorite Bright Eye's songs, Waste of Paint.When I'm feeling frustrated, I always think of the lines:
As I hide behind these books I read, while scribbling my poetry,
like art could save a wretch like me, with some ideal ideology that no one can hope to achieve.
And I am never real; it is just a sketch of me.
And everything I made is trite and cheap and a waste of paint, of tape, of time.

Those words may not be particularly positive or inspiring, but they comfort me in knowing that I'm not alone in that feeling, even someone who's been a prolific writer since adolescence feels that way.Sometimes you have to step away from work in order to get around to the right place, sometimes you have to push right through it to get to that place. It's tough sometimes.

We work in the dark
We do what we can
We give what we have
- Henry James