Unexpected in January

These are the unexpected things I came across while out with my camera this month:


A hummingbird on Greek Row


A flood


Chopsticks with ends shaped like a tiny fork and spoon. I didn't notice this until I was half done with my meal.


A stranger asked me to photograph his artwork since I had my camera out already. He wanted me know that he will be really famous someday.

Shadows

A few random photos involving shadows. The first one was taken a few weeks ago and the bottom two are from last summer. I've been going through the archives a little bit since I haven't been feeling inspired to take many photo walks lately.

Winter feasts

One thing I appreciate about winter is all of the delicious food that's still around and how wonderful it feels to eat a warm meal when it's cold outside. Here are a few things I've been enjoying lately.

* lunch at La Carta De Oaxaca, home of Seattle's best guacamole and a fun salsa bar.
* herbed beets, carrots, turnips, parsnips, and sunchokes for roasting.
* number 25 off my 25 things list: oatmeal honey bread modified from this recipe (I used half whole wheat flour and only 1/3 cup honey since my farmers market honey is so potent). It was amazing. And I discovered that making bread is not so bad! It was very rewarding to watch it grow from various stages of mush into glorious loaves that tasted like heaven.
* sweet potato soup from my favorite soup recipe book.
* The lunch buffet at Flowers where everything is vegan and almost everything is fantastic.

Winter Words: cozy

Our last winter word is cozy. My photo is on the left and Allison's is on the right. I'm happy with how this project turned out. It was fun to look for photo opportunities based on winterish words and I loved the surprise of how our photos looked next to each other.

Mine was taken in Elliott Bay Cafe, which is a cozy place to go on dreary winter days.

Flooding and fog

We headed out for the cabin yesterday but weren't able to make it because the roads were flooded. It was incredible to see roads completely lost underwater, gazebos located in the middle of new lakes, rivers rushing up over their banks. I feel terrible for the people who are having to deal with the destruction and hassle of this flood, but I've never seen this level of flooding first hand and it was very exciting and beautiful.

Winter Words: spiced

The word of the week for our Winter Words project is spiced. My photo is on the right and Allison's is on the left. These are spices I used for a potato chickpea curry which makes an awesome winter meal.

Animals

A few animal photos to go with my animals-inspired playlist.

Winter Words: snow

This week's Winter Word is snow. My photo is on the left and Allison's is on the right. I'm still hopeful we'll get the snowpocalypse that has been predicted for the Seattle area but so far we haven't had anything more than flurries since November.

January quiet

It feels pretty quiet around here lately after the excitement of Christmas with my family and New Years with lots of friends from out of town has worn off. I've got a bunch of projects I want to work on this winter to prevent the blahs from sneaking up on me, but tonight I will use my cold as an excuse to do nothing productive.

Lately I'm loving this series of photographs of a dead tree over time and this wintery desktop from Shanna Murray and Marina Porter.

Winter Words: steam

Our Winter Words word of the week is steam. My photo is on the left and Allison's is on the right. My glasses are constantly fogging up this winter, which was pretty amusing the first time it happened but by now the novelty has worn off.