Destination: Home

Hello! Yes, I'm back. I spent the last 4 months in a wonderful state of mind, and this allowed the blog to slide. I would apologize, but the past few months were amazing and so I'm not sad. I was simply busy enjoying life. However, now it is the new year, and I have a wonderfully persistent boyfriend who has been encouraging me to post more pictures here. So let's start with these!

Also, I realized that I think it makes more sense for descriptions/introductions of the pictures to be written before presenting the picture. Does it? And I'm trying out the text flush to the left. Just fyi. Anyways, onwards:

One of my good friends was in town for perhaps the last time (she moves around a lot, and my hometown is a bit out of the way), so one of my friends and I took her sightseeing and touring around the city. Honestly, this was the first time I've ever been a tourist in my city, so it was quite exciting. We all had a lot of fun together, and with the city.

It was a bit overcast (in other words, a real Seattle day) but not too cold. We started down at the Waterfront, where the new "Great Wheel" was just put in a few years ago. I'm not sure why, as I'm not entirely sure it's stable or safe (it's tall, metal, and on a pier in an earthquake zone...does this not raise red flags for anyone else?). However, the Sound was quite calm, and offered a really nice reflection. One of our iconic ferries was coming back as well. If you've never been on a ferry, please ride one. You don't even need a car. It's so much fun. And if you take it at sunset, it is beautiful.

And of course we had to go to Space Needle. By this time, we were being spoiled by the sun which decided to grace us with its presence. It made for a beautiful blue sky, and very very cold temperatures (there's always a trade off, isn't there?). We actually went up the Space Needle, which was really fun. As "locals" it was fun to point out our neighborhoods (my friend even found her house).

I really like that in this picture below, you can see all the trees surrounding and framing the Needle. I find it representative of Seattle, which is ridiculously eco-friendly, and the balance of the city with nature (Washington is the Evergreen state).

I also like the composition of the clouds and blue sky. It is quite pretty, and draws your eye up the Needle.

We went a few other places as well, but I couldn't let my friend leave without showing her this gorgeous view of the city skyline. The lights at night are beautiful, and this is my favorite lookout point. The light was a bit green/yellow, due to the clouds coming back in and oppressing all the light. But nonetheless, it is still quite lovely. I love our skyline.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful start to 2014!

A picture from the beach

Hello, I'm back from vacation, and a bunch of photos are about to pop up on this blog! (Just a warning, haha). But here is a preview; my family opted for walks on the beach instead of making sand castles, but we passed this little family who made a different castle every day. They were really into it, digging with real shovels and building a few bridges (you can see one on the boy's right). This picture was taken right as my mom commented on a toy whale that was hanging out in the moat, and the boy looked up at us and cheerfully exclaimed, "That's mine!"

The improvement I would make to this picture would be to aim for a straighter line in the waves in across the back. You can see that the scene is a little tilted.

The cutest demon bird ever

Exactly what the title of my post says: This is the cutest little demon-looking bird ever. It is an owl, but I don't remember the exact name of it.

Look at the eyes! It is clearly plotting something nefarious.

But he fluffiness factor is totally killing the ability to believe it is evil.

That is the worst kind. They are all cute and fluffy and the evilness sneaks up on you too late!

My Summer So Far....

Okay, so now that I have a bit more time, here is a recap of my summer, as evidence by these pictures! Be warned there is a lot of fun and sarcasm in my personality for this post. I had a lot of fun. I think school is finally getting to me :)

One day, my family woke up and decided to go to the zoo. We have passes because we kind of go crazy about the zoo. So what, we're grown up adults? Never stopped us yet ;) During the penguin feeding, a Great Blue Heron decided to stop by. Such a majestic and HUGE bird!

There was also this classy looking flower-plant by the elephants. The colors look just like the kale from the farmer's market! It makes me happy.

My all time most favorite part of summer are the California poppies. These little kiddos are beautiful from a physical and biological standpoint. When I was in ninth grade, I used to look at all of them in our backyard because they showed dominant, co-dominant, and recessive genes via their color, and I'm kind of obsessed with it. See the orange fading to sunshine yellow? Some of the them are all orange, and some are white! And I think it is so cool that they open and close with the sunrise and sunset!!! Ahhh, okay I'll stop talking about my love affair with these flowers. But just so I can admire their amazingness and beauty, there is this picture above.

A month ago, my mom planted new flowers! This is one of them. I don't remember what it is, but it is so pretty. It sort of reminds me of a lily. I like the seemingly delicate look of the petals. A good flower to give a sweet little girl...

Okay that might have been a slightly weird comment. Sorry. Moving on....

Baby duck! Also called duckling!! I hung out with 3/4 of my old Girl Scout Troop (which was only 4 girls total) at what my city passes for a beach (it is actually a nice one, as far as beaches go). We were sitting on some rocks at the edge of the lake, and this cute little duckling swam by with its [legal?] (does legality apply to ducks?) guardian. We kind of went crazy over its cuteness factor. And discussed other names for baby animals. I had a weird moment when I completely blanked on what a baby dog is called (hint, it isn't doggy). That one goes down in the books for stupid quotes we shouldn't ever repeat :P 

And THIS happened in my house. Yuuup, we are fully capable of producing flowering tropical plants in the Pacific NW. I was fiddling around with the manual a bit here, and this lovely picture happened. Taken at the dead of night (when I finally noticed that something bloomed that wasn't there before. I said we could keep the plants alive, not that we are very aware of them... :P ) with artificial lighting. Looks like it was taken during the day if you ignore the grossly lit wall in the background, eh? 

And on one of our hot (80 degrees F, haha) days, I braved a walk out to this lake near my old high school where I used to sit with The Boyfriend. The Boyfriend suggested I draw a picture of the lake from "our spot" but I couldn't without a picture (Problems of a picky drawer....). So I braved walking on a windy path past scary barking and howling dogs of all sizes and random sketchy guys smoking sort-of-legal substances (i.e. weed) to take this picture and a few others. (Guilt tripping....haha. The Boyfriend better appreciate his drawing when he gets it :P ). A lot of people were out, as evidenced by these kids.

 I liked the resulting framing of the trees and brick detail in this picture. It looks like we are looking through a window into a different scenery.

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So that was my summer so far...how was yours?

Farmer's market

Hello, summer has been so busy, and I've been taking summer classes so I haven't had as much time as I would like to take and post pictures.Gray cement buildings can only be so photogenic :P

But, I finally got out into the sun today on a trip to my neighborhood's farmer's market. I love the variety of produce and array of colors! Here are some pictures of the colors:

I love the colors of kale. You think they are just a bland green when you hear the name. But it turns out to be bleached turquoise with the edges and veins a sneaky shade of purple. The cool frosty color reminds me of winter. I am in love with the look of kale.

Red chili peppers!

Have you ever seen colored carrots? I think they look cute! All the pastel colors running into each other....

Kitty Kitty Kitty Kitty Kitty!

The brother is cat sitting for a friend and invited me over to play with them. This one, Dusty, had to stay inside because he got attacked (they are outside cats) and is in the cone of shame :P But he was more than happy to rub against my leg and roll over for some scratching. Dusty is all grey, and such a pretty cat! I felt a little bad for him though because he really wanted to go out side. He kept going to the door and trying to nudge it open a crack. It was actually pretty hilarious/adorable when he would try to get his head into the corner but the cone would just hit it with a smack, and his head a good few inches away. There was a lot of clacking and mrow-ing. But he settled down a little for some pictures. I forgot my camera, so these are with my phone's camera.

We were trying to get Dusty to stay still so The Brother could take a picture of the wound to send a progress report to Dusty's owner. I love the alert look. When you scratch is head though, he squeezes his eyes shut and sticks out his tongue. It is adorable!

Kitty in the sun!

I thought this one was a bit defiant :)

I kind of want a cat now though! I think I might when I am alone and on my own. It would be a nice companion I could talk to. I'm just worried I'll get a demon kitty or something :P I want a friend to cuddle with. And I'm not too keen on their "presents" ;)

The simplicity of Homemade cookies

I made some oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookies last weekend, and as they were cooling on the pan, the afternoon sun slanted through the window right onto the cooling cookies. I thought it made for an interesting picture. Looking back, I also realized that though this picture is essentially three colors, the simplicity of it reminds me of what homemade cooking really is: a small gesture that means so much more.