Grow...harvest...forage...eat...preserve

It's hard to keep up with the bounty of fresh summer food.  Growing and foraging is one thing but preserving food for the rest of the year is skill of it's own.  Hope this all makes you hungry enough to harvest, pick, support local farms, and preserve some tasty food...oh yeah and eat some goodness!

Harold's well loved lettuce...most perfectly shaped lettuce ever!

Bring on the kale chips ;)

Stop and smell the flowers...pea flowers!

 Dig this!

Just tall enough to reach this!

Perfect pickings

CLEAN and ready to sterilize.

 Jamming...can you hear the Rolling Stones in the background?

"Fresh Veggie Melange" for salt fermentation

Fridge pickles and salsa 

Kale chips, plum jam, salsa, pickles, salt-fermented veggies all made in one evening...minus one hot jar of jam smashed on the ground and on my foot.

My favourite grafitti...shin high...Fernwood style

An unexpected "camera bag"

I was handed a plastic bag, similar to a bag filled with water and a goldfish. Except the bag didn't contain a new pet.  Instead it held bits and pieces to one of my favourite cameras I have ever had...my Canon s90. 

I have many different types of cameras for different occasions and my s90 was my pocket camera, a trusty friend that I carried with me daily almost everywhere for all of those "just in case" shots.  On a 3.5 month trip in Europe in 2013, this trusty friend became my main camera when the lens for my DSLR randomly stopped functioning on the first week of the trip.  This little gadget was well used and loved, but also banged, dinged, stuffed, and carted around on many adventures.

Last month I was in Tofino and was taking some shots in the water of a friend learning to surf for the first time.  I had no idea that these images would be the last ones taken using my s90. The initial appraisal to fix it was not super cheap ($169) but in the grand scheme of things it seemed worth repairing what appeared to be just a power switch problem.  But once the technician opened the camera, bits and pieces fell out and signs of salt water damage were throughout...making repairs not impossible but difficult and well over the cost of replacement.

This little video clip was the last official recording.

Anyhow, thank you little camera for being a trusty friend!  Your images will live on!

Mount Aerosmith...One of the first shots...used timer for first time

Pacheena Bay, Bamfield

Nelson, BC

Relish, Victoria

Strathcona...Mouse in food cache

Nanaimo River...above climbing area and gorge

Jimmy Cliff plays at the Phoenix in Toronto

Harz Mountains on the "East" side

Prepped for the 2014 Sooke Fine Arts Show

Getting ready for the Sooke Fine Art show takes a bit of work.  Here are some goodies ready for the show and the gallery shop.  

This years entry, November in Erzgebirge is one of my favourite images from 2013 taken on an afternoon walk in "East" Germany.  I love how the image feels like you are entering into a magical world.

This years show runs from July 25 to August 4 at SEAPARK Leisure Complex in Sooke.  I will be doing an "artist demo and display" about Plastic Toy Camera Photography on July 25 from 2- 4 and August 4 from 2-4.  Hope to see some familiar faces!

Ossies surf the West Coast of Canada

 When they met as teenagers in the ore mountains in East Germany, they probably never imagined surfing on the west coast of Vancouver Island together.  The realities of surfing and learning to surf are refreshing, exhausting, humbling, and healing.

Mobile Phone Cameras and Superheroes

Sometimes, the best camera you have is the one you have with you...in this case it was a mobile phone camera.  The quality of the images are not so fine, but the moment and mood are obvious.  It's not every day you get to hang out with a superhero so you better get some shots to remember it all. 

Anything can happen at Drink and Draw! https://www.facebook.com/pages/Logans-Drink-and-Draw/440799602712166

Anyone else get to read comics with Batman this week?

Streamers and Fascinators at Urbanite

Taking time to act a bit silly at Urbanite!  

The amazing hats and fascinators were designed and handmade by Tierre Joline http://tierrejoline.com/ .

Climb Like a Dancer

I have always known that dancers make the best climbers, but after seeing ballerina Amanda and the breakdancer-ballerina Freyja boulder at Fleming Beach for the first time...I am convinced you should climb like a dancer!  

Stay tuned for a dance-climbing video in the near future ;)

 

Giant-sized, human engulfing rhubarb!