last day

Enjoying my last days at home before traveling on. Whenever I leave I always miss cooking for myself, the sounds and smells that frequent my house on the bluff, and my perfect, fluffy bed (of course). 

a day off

Yesterday was one well-spent in simplicity. 

It felt so calming to spend the day at home, waking up with the sun.

As always, enjoying plenty of snuggles with the pretty pup. 

Chopping up mounds of veggies for a homemade dinner.

Baking with the little sister (never complete without sticky fingers covered in a lovely mixture of coconut + banana) 

fresh

Summer blues and greens make me want to:

a) take a nap in the sunshine, preferably on a warmed bed of grass or

b) go be crazy productive and paint and draw and learn to knit and speak fluent Spanish (also flamenco dancing) 

Hopefully this summer will be equal parts of both. Cheers! 

city by the bay

This post has been a long time coming -- almost two months now -- which is crazy in and of itself. Time is a silent little bugger, moving sneakily through our lives in minutes and hours and days, until it speeds up so fast it's impossible to remember all our yesterdays...or so I've found, but maybe it's just me.

Either way, I think it was a good thing for me to take some time before coming back these photos from my April trip to San Francisco with Mum, since the memories that came flooding back once I did were almost sharper, and definitely more bittersweet. Isn't it funny how life can seem so normal in one place, and in another, even one not that far away, life can seem vastly different. Everything changes. The colors seem sharper, the smells more intense, the buildings more haunting, the people more interesting, and the pace of life is just more. Of everything. I can still feel the balmy wind slicing through my hair as we descended the infamous hills on a rather sketchy give-and-go trolley, and the sense of curiosity that made my eyes try to go everywhere at once -- need I say -- City Lights Books, the beautiful golden bridge (yes that one) the ferries, handmade ice cream cones, and beaches for miles and miles. At it's finest, San Francisco is beautiful; and it is a place that I will always carry in my heart.

(I love you Mum, thank you for everything)

spring delights

I can feel it again in the air -- that rejuvenation -- the one that hits you straight in the chest, and knocks you right down into the soft grass beneath you, the same soft carpet that grows more day by day. Finally, spring is here.

On a weekend note, there's something to be said for sharing a meal with a new friend. It's exciting to hear stories of faraway places and unfamiliar faces -- and more importantly to spill laughs into coffee mugs. Nothing seemed to be more fitting than eating somewhere completely new -- Toast Ballard -- a speciality eatery that promised to fill our brunch bellies with gourmet-drizzled waffles and thoughtfully topped toasts. And we were not disappointed. Fresh flowers and stretches of windy sand didn't hurt either.