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Photo by real thin air.
The Best of 2009 Blog Challenge asks about the year’s moment of peace. There isn’t one particular moment that comes to mind, but working at the nursery is generally very peaceful. Being outside, quietly pruning a rose bush might be the perfect meditation for me.
Dog!
No.
Two sandwiches come to mind for the Best of 2009 Blog Challenge. First is this sandwich that I found on my friend Willi’s blog. Yum. I actually already wrote about it here. Second is this sandwich: take a piece of bread and melt some cheese on it; put a hefty quantity of sprouts on top; and then add some hot sauce. That’s it! I eat lots of them.
That’s Zoey the Dog up there, by the way. Isn’t she cute? (And tasty?)
That’s Patrick drinking some coffee up there.
P and I have been slowly chugging away at thank you notes for our wedding gifts. I’m the one that makes thank you notes happen in our relationship. I address the and stamp the envelopes, write my part of the notes, and then give them to P so that he can write something and stick them in the mail. At work a couple of days ago, a coworker thanked me for the note and asked me about the stuff at the bottom. The coworker and his family had given us a gift certificate to our favorite restaurant, Birchwood. I my note, I had thanked them for coming to the wedding, told them about how good our meal at Birchwood was, and even commented on the tie their son had worn to the wedding. Underneath my note, P had simply scrawled, Birchwood! Birchwood! Birchwood! He didn’t even sign his name. It made me laugh.
The 2009 Blog Challenge asks about the best album of the year. I just have best songs, not albums, and those up there are them. Enjoy! It’s interesting how the videos are so similar.
These photos are by David Maisel. Pictured are canisters containing ashes of people who were once prisoners in an insane asylum. The ashes were unclaimed and have sat on shelves for years. I read about these photos on the shape + colour blog, and what Jeremy Elder wrote there about the project was very beautiful and profound.
I feel that this post should maybe end now, as it’s hard to follow those striking photos and all the thoughts they evoke. But, in the spirit of the Best of 2009 Blog Challenge, I’m going to keep writing. About my best blog find of 2009.
This is an easy one for me: saipua. It’s the blog of a floral designer, Sarah. I love looking at all her beautiful creations. In another life, or maybe later in this life, I might be a floral designer. (And also maybe a dancer, a physicist, and a mail delivery person.) In addition to being a talented designer, Sarah is also hilarious. If I had to be someone else, it might be her. (But that’s probably because I don’t know her.)
I’m not sure who made this. I found it on Ffffound!
Continuing with the Best of 2009 Blog Challenge… My best book of 2009 was The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. A couple of years ago, a man stopped me in the airport to tell me that I was what he imagined the woman in the book to look like. Hearing something like that really made me want to read the book! But then I forgot about it. The next time it crossed my radar was this past summer, shortly before P and my wedding. Our friend Felicia was marrying us, and she found the passage she read at our wedding in the book. The passage was actually quoted by Niffenegger; the original author was A.S. Byatt. And I just love it. Here it is:
“What is it? My dear?”
“Ah, how can we bear it?”
“Bear what?”
“This. For so short a time. How can we sleep the time away?”
“We can be quiet together, and pretend – since it is only the beginning – that we have all the time in the world.”
“And every day we shall have less. And then none.”
“Would you rather, therefore, have nothing at all?”
“No. This is where I have always been coming to. Since my time began. And when I go away from here, this will be the mid-point, to which everything ran, before, and from which everything will run. But now, my love, we are here, we are now, and those other times are running elsewhere.”
I finally had the chance to read the book on our honeymoon. It is romantic with a fascinating premise. And it made me cry so much. I like books that make me cry.
What’s your book of the year?
Photo by gabbylawson.
Yay, yay, yay! Artist Yeondoo Jung replicates scenes from kids’ drawings. Thanks to my friend Esther for showing me these.
Gwen Bell started the Best of 2009 Blog Challenge for the month of December, and I’m going to try my best to take part. Yesterday’s prompt was the best restaurant experience of 2009. Bests are tough because you always forget something, but what first comes to mind is a meal at Namaste in May.
My sister was out for a visit, and it was her last night in town, so we (my sis, my mom, P, and I) went out for one last dinner. My mom had made an offer on a house that day. It was a fantastic meal, but what made it so memorable was all the laughing. We laughed so much! And Denise and I got silly in a way that reminded me of our childhood. I have wonderful memories of the strange, creative, wild, and wonderful ways that we would spend our time as kids. At one point during this supposedly grown up meal, Denise grabbed my face and tried to squeeze the food out of my mouth. Instead, she made my lip bleed. In the moment, it was the most hilarious thing. Hilarious in a crazy kid way. It’s nice to end visits on a high note.
You’re all invited! See you tomorrow?
