a japanese instant

Eric showed me this site called behance.net. It's way cool for design inspiration. Many of the things on there don't really relate to me, but every few posts are really great. This is one of them. Helene Dodet, a photographer from Switzerland, took a medium format camera to Japan. Enjoy the results.

Helene also has a beautiful series of photographs that she took in Yellowstone National Park.

orchard II

view of ella from behind the big wood things that you take a picture of everyone's head in.

savannah after a significant amount of hay jumping.

there were tiny goats. i was more interested than the kids.

giant inflated caterpillar thing for them to crawl through. it looked hilarious when they came out the other end...

see?

the honey bee exhibit. i loved it. the texture, the sound, everything. i wish i wasn't allergic...

smelling all of the candles. the scents were all way to artificial and strong for me, but the unscented one was heavenly. unscented beeswax is one of my favorite smells in the whole wide world.

and, of course, the obligatory donuts. obligatory cider not pictured... and yes, that is pumpkin glaze. and yes, it was as amazing as it looks.

growing things.

Kitchen o' herbs.

Basil, purple basil, thyme, stevia... Oh, and tomatoes! The groundhog hasn't been hanging around so much lately.

Stevia! It is now commercially available in its dried and powdered form as a calorie-free sweetener. By weight, it is 2x more sweet than sugar! Crazy, right? I'm so drying all of this right now.

I love purple basil. My plant wasn't very happy. I think it didn't really get enough sun. It was definitely shaded by the osteopurnum gone wild next to it... I'll place it more appropriately next year.

Heirloom tomatoes from the A2 farmer's market. Expensive, but cool. We liked about half of them. One, called Clint Eastwood, was so good that Eric wants to grow it next year!

I promise I'll post the rest of the orchard photos soon. Hopefully tonight, but I can't promise... Things are busy around here. Mostly good busy.

orchard I

On Sunday, we went apple picking with Eric's family and his two cousins. Needless to say, it was a beautiful day. This was my first time going to an orchard... I know, lame, right? I love it though. I want to go back! Half climbing the trees to get to the best, untouched apples... waiting for the tractor and getting excited when you heard it coming... tasting the apples right off of the tree to figure out whether you liked that kind or not...

I found out I like Golden Delicious, Northern Spy and Cortland the best. Oh, Cortland. Your pear-like qualities amaze me.

If you haven't gone yet this year, I highly recommend it. With or without kids.

I have more photos from our trip that I will post later. It seemed like a bit much to post 27 photos all at once.

P.S. The idyllic scene of all of us chowing down cider and donuts didn't last too long. Soon, the bees found us and we were all freezing one second and swatting the next. Otherwise, it was still wonderful!

a bit of fall and friends

The fall part... Aren't these flowers so great?! They're Teddy Bear sunflowers and you need some. And back behind them is my little veggie bounty I have going on right now. Tomatoes (mine and some heirlooms from the market), green peppers, our peppers (habanero and cayenne) and a spanish sweet onion. Can't wait to eat all of it.

Chelsea and Grace came over on Thursday for dinner. We made a pattypan squash and pesto pizza. Yes, it was even better than you're thinking. The recipe was from Cooking Light. I totally suggest it. In fact, you must make in order to remain my friend. We made the pesto right before we put it on the pizza. Instead of butternut squash, like the recipe called for, we used the pattypan squash that Chelsea brought. And it was so very good. I saw some beautiful white pattypan squash at the Plymouth farmer's market yesterday, so if you're around me, you have to get some next week and make this pizza!

come with me

on a boat ride...

these stairs are kind of a big deal at our cottage. there are a lot of them and the metal ones hurt...

i know this picture is pretty unimpressive, but i had to include the "water rises rapidly" sign. great, no?

this is hardy dam, on the little muskegon river. we used to go camping on the body of water that is on top of this dam. does that even make sense?

the first tree to turn.

we investigated a new waterfall/stream. there are lots of them along the river, all spring fed, but we've only really gone to two of them. so, we tried a new one.

the woods in this area are so beautiful. these big areas on the side of the river are mostly untouched. eric found this cool mushroom. thinking of you, lisa!

we have to park the boat before it gets too shallow. part of this process includes my dad running to the back of the boat and lifting of the motor so the propeller isn't damaged by the sand. very thrilling.

eric and i are pretty sure that this is a wood anemone. it was growing out of a stump in the water. i love that purple grass, too.

i think i like this stream...

this is fish head shanty. when my dad was younger, his grandparents had a cottage on this river. i'm pretty sure it was the owners who nailed all of the heads of the fish they caught onto it. sounds pretty gross, but i also think it's pretty cool. there are no more fish heads, and it's falling into the river, but it's still there.

the water...