(Inside A Black Apple)

Out To the Coast

One of my favorite things to do is jump in the car & race the sun out to the coast to watch it set. The drive takes you through fields, then forest, then suddenly, you run out of land and you've reached the sea.

Sometimes we bring a sandwich picnic. A few months ago, at the very beginning of fall, we brought donuts from Blue Star. Today we just had thermoses of warm coffee from home (see: thermos selfie).

It was freezing cold, and we just barely made it in time for the most golden part of the golden hour. And now I'm back at home and warm but my toes are still frozen from salt-water creeping into my boots.

I'm always watching for something when I go. Watching the water, like I left my heart out there, sometime, maybe a long time ago. That's what everyone does at the ocean. We're watching and waiting for a monster, or a mermaid, or for something lost to come back.

Flutter

Sometimes you will find you need a Thomas Hardy paperback, an old tea tin, some military die-cuts, a piece of sari silk printed with elephants, and cat stickers. Maybe you also need some notecards printed with hundred-year-old images of Multnomah Falls.

If you need these things (or a tin wind-up toy or a 1960's beaded sweater or a book of photobooth photographs or some previously-unknown-to-you perfume from Imaginary Authors) there is only one place I know of to go, my favorite store:
Flutter.

There are lots of places I love here, but this place is special, the best-possible version your imagination's dress-up box. I remember the first time I visited, maybe seven or eight years ago. One look & I was done-for (you can watch a video on their website that gives you a tour of the shop, although it is a restless creature & always changing its feathers and colors and finery.)

If you visit Portland, you should wander into this giant jewel-box -- just know you will almost certainly leave with a collection of strange & beautiful clutter.

A Standing Date with Bears

These old friends are one of my favorite sights in one of my favorite places.

They were the first thing I saw when I visited the Museum of Natural History for the first time, ducking out of the hot, crowded New York Summer and finding inside the magic, dark and cool, of that magnificent place. It found me when I most needed it, nearly ten years ago, when I was just out of college and lonely and restless and out-of-place in the city. I walked in on a rare quiet day (it's never been so quiet, ever, on any of my further visits) and laid eyes on this diorama and tears crept into my eyes. We don't have a word for the particular way you love a place, but we need one.

I don't expect it to make sense what the museum means to me, the spell it has, no matter how many times I visit. I keep it in a safe place beneath my ribs, where we keep the books that found us at just the right time, the films and albums, the feeling of being understood, of being loved when you least expected it.

If you ever want to find them, the bears wait for you, huge and grand, in the Hall of North American Mammals.

Of, Pertaining to, or Inhabiting the Woods

Sylvan.
Just a few days ago, when my best golden-hair was here with me, we wandered in the woods all day.

I brought my toy camera (the instax 210) which remains maybe the best gift I've received as a grownup. I love using it outdoors for flowers and things, when there's enough light (though it's also a nice parlor trick to pull out indoors & delight people, blinding-flash style.)

Nothing like a little stack of pictures you can hold in the time of everything living in wires and up in clouds.

This Fall the Pacific Northwest has really outdone herself in the way of golden leaves and billowing gray skies. I was so happy to take a little break and get out and wander in it, especially with such lovely company.

A Tiny Carnival

There is a magical place in San Francisco stuffed with fully-operational automatons, games, and mechanical curiosities. I had heard tell of it from several pals, but I had never been. This last trip to the Bay, I finally got to go, and The Musee Mechanique was as wondrous as I had hoped it would be.

In the center of the arcade/museum is one of the most heart-achingly beautiful things I've ever seen with my own eyes - a miniature mechanical carnival, full of flickering golden lights, tiny people, worn striped awnings, games, rides, and teensy puffs of cotton candy.

For the price of a quarter or two, you can see it all come to life, though it's so detailed and intricate that it's difficult to race around and see the whole thing moving and lit up with one go-round.



I think the tiny band might've been my favorite part.

Or the mouse-sized sideshow.

Or the glow of the tiny red ticket booth next to the whirring merry go round.

Between the glare of the glass, and me being dumbstruck with love for the thing, it was difficult to snap photos. I snagged these few, and I hope they give you at least a little scrap of an idea of how neat the whole place is.

If you're planning a visit to the city by the Bay, the Musee is really a treasure! And if a magical, miniature carnival isn't enough to sell you on the idea, there are also some early 20th century "risque lady photos" viewable for a dime, so maybe that'll seal the deal.

;)

 

River Rats

When we were visiting Georgia, Josiah, my mama and I went for an afternoon picnic to a semi-secret riverside spot we used to frequent when I was little.

It was just as nice as I remembered it.
Truly, I felt like we were living in Wind in the Willows. My mind was racing off with thoughts of how lovely a simple but cozy wooden house on a riverbank would be.

The water was freeeezing, but we waded in anyway, and perched up on the slightly-dryer rocks.

 
Then it's fair to say we spent the rest of the afternoon mostly hunting for skipping stones. And skipping them til' our arms were sore.

Josiah was really good!
I really think he got 5 or 6 skips off of one stone. I never got more than 2 or 3.

It was one of the best afternoons I've spent in a really long time, and when it was time to grab my trusty Mr. Fox tote and hit the road, I was more than a little sad to say goodbye to our river rat day!

All I know is that we've gotta get back there.
And I need to brush up on my stone-skipping skills.

Southeastern Mini-tour

All last week, we were on little jaunt through our home back South. We hit, in order, Georgia, South Carolina, Georgia again, Tennessee, and then headed back to end our trip in Georgia, like a couple o' native peaches.

I didn't take a ton of photos, and my camera did fall in the ocean once, so here's a rather random few!

Favorite things:

- The dogwoods, which were unbelievable every single place we went! It made all our driving much nicer...all those white and pink blooms are good company.

- My mama's garden in its Spring glory, and the fact that she will patiently walk me through dozens of plants while I hop around saying "What's that one? And whats that one?!"

- Laughing uncontrollably with one of my best college pals

- Chinese dinner with my sweet family & Chattanooga cupcakes with Josiah's

- A Chik-fil-a visit for ultra-sweet/tart lemonade and chicken sandwich - mandatory on any trip home.

- Little kids dancing to bad wedding music

- Watching old movies in a house full of comics and old toys (one of my favorite places on earth, 'cause it also contains two of my favorite people on earth)

- A morning at my old favorite junk shops in Athens

- An afternoon at the river with my two river rats...photos of that to come!

- Hunting for treasures in & around Nashville:

With so many people I love there and the beautiful, mild Spring weather, it was a little hard to leave. But then the humidity kicked in and suddenly it was in the 80's, which helped me tear myself away!

Being away from it for a few years now, I really do love visiting the South.

 

The Fremont Diner

On my weekend jaunt to SF, we drove out to Sonoma and paid a lunch-time visit to the Fremont Diner.

 
It was such a sweet, all-'round great little place, I think I should mostly just let the photos do the talkin'!

There were all kinds of sauces and bottled-up goodies for sale, in addition to the classic Southern-inflected American food on offer.

And there were countertop boxes of old timey candies and silly novelties!

The sensibility of the place was just perfect. Comfy, not too precious, but really elegant in its simplicity. Lots of light, fresh flowers, and green or amber glass jars everywhere.

I would love it so much if this place was just a little hop, skip, and jump away from Portland.

It would be perfect for a weekend afternoon.
And I really want to take the fella there - I think Josiah would really love it!  

SF Weekend Gallivanting

I just got back from my long weekend in the city by the bay, and it was so nice. Francie and Co. were so good to me.

Some of the best parts were:

Bakesale Betty's chicken sandwiches in Oakland.

Playing with fur-pants Mr. Westie Dog pretty much all day, every day (there were about 40 pictures of this pup on my camera and maybe 15 of anything else from the trip).

Raspberry macarons as big as your hand from Bouchon (my little box made it home on the flight un-crushed! Hooray!)

Nerdy matching sailor sweater-coats.

Other highlights:

-Working on little projects
-Cozy tea and cozy quilts
-The Vintage Expo (we both turned up on this Modcloth post about it!)
-A funny and sweet side-of-the-road diner (so cute it deserves its own post)

Such a good visit, I could've stayed and stayed. But I have so many things to work on here, so it's happily back to my little world here with the rat Miette and my best fella.

Gallivanting: Miette

I wanted to share the photos I took on a few recent adventures.
First: Miette!
Which, to Mr. Disney, I'd say is the real Happiest Place On Earth.

We couldn't very well make a visit to San Francisco without a little stop in to the prettiest candy store in town to pick up treats.

We also had important business to attend to, because it was the outstanding Mr. Josiah's birthday that day, and he needed to pick out a cake!

 

He chose a very nice carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, which we enjoyed after a pretty incredible dinner at the cozy & in-demand Frances. But I digress -- back to Miette!

It just makes me so happy to be in that bright, dear place. I love traipsing around, basket over arm, picking up little treasures to send back to friends, and marveling at new, exotic candies.

And those jars!
There's something about rows and rows of little, pretty things in jars, isn't there?

I'm almost glad Miette's not local, because it's so fun to have it as a once-or-twice-a-year sort of thing. That way, like birthday cake, it's really and truly a treat.

Where the Forest Meets the Sea

We spent last Fourth-O'-July weekend at a beach house with friends. I'm still getting used to the differences between the Oregon coast and the hot, shell-covered Southern beaches of my childhood, but I really love the switch to these windy, cooler, rocky and forest-adjacent beaches.

 

We went to a cave-covered beach one afternoon, and it was so beautiful. There were excellent tide pools everywhere (I had been missing East Coast tide pools full of creatures)!

There were also these magical moss-doored (or carpeted) nooks and caves:

 

I couldn't help but thinking they might be portals to someplace else.

Our house was perched right on the edge of the forest, where it joins the sea (as seen in the above photo on the left). We had no internet, television, or phone reception, and I think by the time we left, our collective well-being was very high.

 

Even though it was really cold, it was such a wonderful holiday weekend...I kind of wish I was back there now.

Maybe I can find the other side of one of those mossy cave portals?

Sea & Sun

This weekend, we had a few elusive days of warmth and sun in Portland-town. When I saw the predicted turn-of-weather coming up, we made up our minds to brave the crowds we knew would certainly be at the beach!

We always do about the same thing: take a picnic, eat our lunch, stroll the beach for an hour or two (walk to Haystack Rock), and then hang out on the quilt for a little, listening to the waves.

 

It's always so windy - no matter how warm it feels when the air is still, there's always a little chill that comes and goes. When I was a little girl growing up in the South, vacationing on the Florida coast, I dreamed of a beach that you could wear a sweater to.

I also like to bring a scarf, because my hair goes crazy in all that wind. And because the beach seems to bring out the Little Edie in me, too.

I read aloud The Hunting of the Snark (which seemed appropriate, since it's about a sea voyage. Well, kinda). The copy I have ends with Jabberwocky, which Josiah read with panache. We have a friend who can recite it all - maybe I should learn it beyond the first four lines!

 

Then Josiah read some PG Wodehouse to me. The Jeeves & Wooster stories are some of the best read-aloud reading we have found.

 

And after the lovely afternoon, we bid the beach farewell for the day.

Happy Monday to you!

Tree-Spotting

Because we are nerds, and because he is awesome, Josiah recently gifted me this little map of the trees that grow in our favorite Portland park.

The other day, we went on our Laurelhurst expedition to learn about the types and names of the different trees (I was hoping we would look like official tree-spotters in those photos above).

   

Laurelhurst park has around 1,000 trees, and there are approximately 120 species represented. Among them are cedars, firs, birches, oaks, and these curious trees that look as if they're melting called "English Planetrees". As we walked by each little grove, we sussed out exactly which variety was which.

From the Portland Parks & Recreation website:
In 1912, Emanuel Mische, Portland's park superintendent from 1908-1914, designed the park based on his experience as the longtime horticultural expert for the Olmsted Brothers landscape architecture firm. Inspired by the Olmstedian 'natural' landscaping approach, his plan included several distinct sections - the concert grove, Firwood Lake, children's lawn, plateau and broad meadows, picnic grove, and Rhododendron Hill.

According to our excellent little map, 10% of the trees are original to the land, and 30% were planted by Mische. Some of them are so enormous, you can tell just by looking that they must be very, very old.

   

There is also a big pond with lots of birds and turtles, and there are always cute dogs running about. It is a good go-to place when working at home makes a person stir-crazy.

 

Unrelated to trees, I've been experimenting with purposefully bumping the exposure settings on my camera way up and way down from the "correct" settings for the light. The element of surprise is really fun! In full disclosure, I also tweaked these myself, so it's not all camera hi-jinks. 

   

That naturally-occurring big heart on the tree is so sweet! I had never noticed it before. Going around with our little map made me notice every little thing.

It was such a great afternoon field trip! I love field trips.

Pumpkining Report, 2009 Edition

Last week, we headed out to Sauvie Island Farms with our excellent cohorts from last year's pumpkining. It has been very gloomy and chilly and lovely-in-a-sad-way around here most days, but we lucked out on the pumpkin-fetching excursion, and the island was Autumn-bright and beautiful.

Pumpkins as far as the eye could see!

I had a hard time not taking a bunch of identical photos to the ones from last year's post. I suppose we're just charmed by the same things over and over, and that's not such a bad thing.

 

Most charming pumpkin at the patch (coincidentally, holding in his arms a not-too-shabby pumpkin).

 

I love to see all the different types of pumpkins, squash, gourds and things. Are those with the little hats on the left called "turban squash"?
And goodness knows I can never resist a whole bin of apples.

 

The last of the flowers were sweet in their curly-edged, slightly wilty Autumn phase.

  

Everything is always so golden and giddy and fun out on that island, especially when we're out there pumpkining.

 

Me in my official pumpkin-picking gear with pretty rows of some enormous lettuce.

As I write, there are trays of sweet-smelling butternut squash roasting in the oven, and a chill in my toes. I've got pumpkin muffins, and gingerbread-blondies to bake, a pumpkin to carve, and I can't wait to see what trick-or-treaters find their way to us tomorrow!

Happy Friday & Happy Halloween!

Oh, Miette!

While we were in San Francisco, we managed to steal away Monday afternoon to do a few little fun things before we drove back home. After all, we didn't want our whole impression of such a neat city to be derived from the inside of the Fort Mason Center and the interior of the SF Marriott!

The only place I suggested insisted we visit was the famous Miette patisserie. It has the same name as my little fur-person, and it seemed just as sweet. I was so happy that they were open on Monday (and we were met at the door by the lovely, gingham-clad manager who happened to know me from the blog!).

It's safe to say that our visit there made me incredibly, dorkily, sweet-things-ecstatic.

 

 The wrappings and foil and boxes and bags were almost too good. There were so many candies there I had never even seen! And then a few that I had, but only once or twice before, like those jewel-colored pansy chocolates on the scale below:

 

Here's our bag of goods! And a close-up of these beautiful, beautiful bee chocolate bars we brought home.

 

These are the two candies that we're really hoarding:

 

Seriously, we're both interested in proposing candy-marriage to them. I found the Napoleon sour candies online, so the hoarding can relax a little as far as those are concerned. But if anyone has a source for those incredible, so-rich-you-can-seriously-eat-one-for-dessert foil wrapped strawberries, feel free to send it on!

They're so beautiful, it's really a little heartbreaking to eat them right now.

Renegade Dispatch

Hello, everyone! I'm about to bombard you with a bunch of photos of our little temporary Black Apple store at Renegade SF. I debuted quite a few new products there, as well, so those eagle-eyed among you might spot some!

My adorable helpers, and this spinning-rack for the prints that I was kind of crazily excited about:

 

Booth treats!

Dolls and things going into shopping bags:

...and dolls in their little trunk.

Plus Fancy Wearables!

It was such fun to meet so many of you in person, and take photos and chat (I chatted myself right into losing my voice by Sunday night)! I suppose I don't talk so much in my everyday life.

Dear Renegade,

Thanks for the memories. And that Michael Jackson commemorative cupcake.

love,
The Black Apple

*****Lots of you are asking about the jewels! They were such a hit at Renegade, and we sold out of every piece we brought! Buuut, luckily I kept some reserves at home just for my lovely online customers, and I'll be adding the rest of the collection to the shop on Friday afternoon. I'll have very limited numbers, but multiples of each piece.  Keep an eye out!*******

Strawberry Fields

On Monday, we went out to the wonderful, calm, restorative Sauvie Island Farms with the lady Berkley for the last of the season's strawberries.

 

Ashley blogged a couple days back about her trip out there...and I think they brought something like 20 pounds of strawberries home because the fields were so bountiful just a few weeks ago!

We had to peek under leaves and crouch and search for our berries, but the last of the harvest were so sweet and just perfect (if a little shrimpy). They were like little jewels.

 

 

But we persevered, and eventually Josiah, Lu and I had each collected a respectable harvest.

Not too shabby!
We took home enough to have some for freezing (future smoothies), jam-making, and just gobbling up.

We also took home a few enormous heads of spinach.
I'm including my feet (also enormous) for scale:

Such a good, chilly, Portland afternoon...and then we had delicious spinach and strawberries, and a day later, jam!

 

I like tart, not-too-sweet jam, and it ended up just right on that front. That's one of my favorite things about making things for yourself - you can tailor whatever it is to your exact persnickety tastes.

Happy Friday!

New York Dispatch 3

 Aannnd...if you missed the TAL live show, there is actually an encore tonight (May 7th)!

Hooray!

New York Dispatch 2

 

Naturalia, Part Second

I have lots of actual photos from the AMNH to supplement my little comic from yesterday's post, so I thought I would share some of the diorama-ific goodness with you.

When I was looking through my photos, I noticed two things:

1.) It's unbelievable how much some of the (three dimensional!) dioramas look like 19th century paintings. Especially when photographed! They are really things of beauty.

2.) Even though the dinosaur wing is my second favorite place (the first being the bi-level underwater chamber), I have no good photos of anything from it. I think that can be chalked up to the different approach in there: it's bright, white, not cavernous at all, and the dioramas (if there are any) are quite spare...to complement the bones, I suppose.

 

  

 
(I knew there was something different about that polar bear...and looking at my post from a few years ago, my suspicions were confirmed!)

Also, I am crazy about those little prehistoric under-sea dioramas. They are so nostalgic and comforting...I think they look a lot like illustrations in my childhood World Book encyclopedia or something.

 
Tiny skunk babies!

When I lived in NY, I would go to the Natural History Museum to get some quiet time in the dark, cool beautiful world they've created. It had been so quiet + deserted every time I've been, in fact, that I've actually worried for them! This time, it was hustling and bustling with tons of schoolkids, grownups, travelers, etc.

But it didn't diminish the magic that place holds for me. Not one bit.

New York Dispatch 1

Taking the Airship

(amazing old postcard image via Flickr)

Even if it won't be all salmon-tinted skies and airships, I'm pretty excited to be back in ol' New York.

Bagels!
The Natural History Museum!
Books!
This American Life!

We leave late tonight/early tomorrow...Take care & See you soon.
xoxo