pre travel travel

i'm in north carolina visiting my family before i head over to london. i always spend the days running around to see everyone because my entire family is here and it gets exhausting, but i wouldn't have it any other way.



this week me, mom and sis scooped up my 93 year old grandmother, genevieve, and drove from raleigh to asheboro to visit her sister, aunt mary, 89 years old. our goal was to capture some family history for story corps, and for ourselves. too bad i bungled the first part of the recording, we need to get that written down. but we did get some great details on great granddaddy and grandmommy kirkman (my namesake - middle name). aunt mary has an amazing yard and we have some great memories from playing there. it was really nice to go back because my grandmother has long since moved from the house she lived in when we were young. i wish i had more photographs of it and the lake nearby. i photographed some really old photographs on my aunt mary had, they are a bit hard to see.

great grandparents in front of their farm house holding danielle, their granddaughter (4 months) and a kitten who walked into the frame.

lloyd, aunt mary and grandmommy's brother who died as a young boy.

great granddaddy kirkman in his wheat field.

great granddaddy again with his collie, ted. the back of the photo says that after "grandpa died and grandma wasn't home all the time - he grieved himself to death." and aunt mary told us this story as well, which made me so sad!

tonight we're heading over to my sister's to cook a huge birthday dinner. her birthday was yesterday and mine is in two weeks. i'll be spending the weekend in paris with leigh for my birthday, but i'm just as excited about celebrating tonight.

gettin out of town

in about a month i'll be leaving for a month. i'm going to visit leigh in london after stopping in nc for a week to see my family. we've got two side trips planned, one is a few days in paris over my birthday weekend, and another few days in bath. work is crazy right now and i'm writing on my blog because i'm so tired that i don't want to write my paper or study for my first of three finals (which is tomorrow at 10am). i just want to dream about london, paris, leaving it all behind for a month - no work, no school, no nothing. i haven't even had time to think about where i want to go when i get there, but leigh has got a good list going for us and i can read and plan stuff on the plane right?

or maybe just sleep.

photography

i was chatting to my dad today and we talked a bit about some of my recent blog posts. he casually mentioned i might want to consider changing my profile photo because he doesn't think it's flattering. i love this photo, and it reminds me of graham's birthday party where we all took photos in his studio's photo booth. for now the photo will stay for now, but i was touched at his comment and one day i'm sure i'll decide to change it.

cabby

the cabin inspection went off without a hitch and we are moving forward. well, al is. we are taking mom & dad up tomorrow to check it out, and it will be just the second time i've seen it myself. our plan is to get the sofa bed first, take some random pieces of furniture and the air mattress up for now, and slowly buy stuff as we can. hopefully we can score at estate sales, which we need to get back into our schedule. time for some russian river vacations! we can't wait.

d grind

everyone is gone and it's back to work for me. we had a great time, but didn't take many photos. here dad is checking out an old wagon we saw up near heath/fish. we had a great time but all sort of got the cold that mom ended up with (for mother's day no less!). i'm feeling rough and canceled my library shift today. al is up north doing the cabin inspection right now. then we'll know if it's really going through! i just heard a string of email come in, time to get back to it.

sleepy

aurin, mom & dad arrive today at noon and i couldn't sleep this morning thinking of what i want to get done and what i need to get done before heading to sfo. also, word is the cabin is almost ours so i've been thinking of what we already own vs. what we have to buy and started a spreadsheet to track it all. i've also been looking at different treatments of rooms with wood paneled walls and found some really gorgeous stuff. time to hit the estate sales hard.


our paint by number clipper ship will probably have to move up north.

mikado

i walked down to the church street apothecary (yes, that name is now "illegal") this week to grab a little gifty for bonnie and saw this funky plant called mikado. i needed something to put into the pot portion of the set of ceramics my dad bought in greece back in the day... probably 40 years ago. this thing is so cute, looks sort of space age and i like that contrast with the pot. i love this little pot as well, it's self lined with a removable inner pot that is red clay. apparently the mikado's blooms last for up to 10 weeks, they are just little buds now. my dad will be excited to see the set on display. i didn't realize this photo was so blurry, but i'm too lazy to go take another one.

bamboo

back from the frame shop and the price was just under what i had predicted. $357.89 later and the low poster never made it out of it's tube. ooof, art is expensive. anyway, much to the dismay of one cheap pete's framer, i chose this black bamboo. i couldn't help myself. it should be ready before the lowry's arrive next week.

the visit

floridian front yard portrait, 1987

my parents (and maybe aurin, too) are coming to visit, and words cannot express how excited i am! it's been years since they've been out to the west coast and my list of places to take them is exhaustive. eating & drinking establishments alone could take up weeks: zuni cafe, bocadillos, hotel biron, anchor oyster bar, fish, kiji, the church key, broken record, hangar one distillery, tosca. as far as sights, i've got mine set on: the marine mammal center (a behind the scenes tour with tony), the academy of sciences, the de young, heath ceramics, the conservatory, free concerts (student recitals) at the san francisco conservatory of music, the alemany farmers market... let's see, so that's the plan for friday. i wonder what the weather will be like, better start checking obsessively on that.

new old stuff

after visiting my family in north carolina last month, my parents sent me home with their very old & loved cast iron pan. i've been in serious want for one of these for several years, and i don't know why i never bought one. i'm so glad i didn't because i love this pan. every time i use it i think of mom making cornbread back in our house in cary. we've cooked with this at least once a week since it came home and met our wedgewood. i found the orange cast iron grill pan at an estate sale recently, and sold it's mate on etsy.

early birthday

aurin and i spotted a set of 4 framed prints at a consignment store in north carolina last month. we could not stop laughing at them and she ended up buying them for me as an early birthday gift. this is the pear song.