A Few Discoveries

I'd like to share a few discoveries with you since coming back to Bellingham. Coincidentally, they have to do with food - this little city does quite well for itself in that area.

Our local food co-op opened a location just a couple minutes from my mom's place while I was away, and being the grocery shopaholic I am, it's a delightful place to go.



On Saturday I was in search of apples for a compote I was making, so when a mound of local organic Ginger Gold apples caught my eye in the produce area, I made sure to add an extra one to my bag to eat fresh and crunchy.



At home I sliced up the spare apple and passed a couple juicy slices on to my mom. Thankfully it occurred to me before we got any further into oohing and aahing that this apple would probably pair perfectly with the Whiskey Cheddar in our cheese drawer. And, oh, was I right!



The cheese came from my other Bellingham discovery in the past week: a superb little cheese shop in Fairhaven called Quel Fromage. It's small but pristine with clean white walls and a beautiful cheese case, filled with goat, sheep, and cow milk cheeses in all forms and textures. While I was there, per recommendation of my sister, I picked up a Bucherondin and my previously-mentioned Whiskey Cheddar. Both are amazing, but the cheddar leaped ahead in favor when placed alongside a slice of crisp green Ginger Gold apple and eaten in one harmonious bite.



If you don't have a specialty cheese location where you could possibly track down, or request, a Whiskey Cheddar (this one comes from County Limerick in Ireland), then at least make sure you buy some good sharp cheddar cheese as you head into fall. As the apple season peaks, this is one of my favorite snacks.

Simple Things

Sunlight through a glass and a scrap of paper turned shopping list.

I love it when the simple things become beautiful...

That's been a gift from this blog recently. If something doesn't present itself to me during the day, I have to set out in search of "it."

Each picture is taken on the day it is posted. Each picture is a reminder that life can indeed be beautiful.

Here I Am

Hello? Is anyone still here?

I hope so because, boy, I've missed you guys. Thank you so much for your comments on my last post (and archived ones) while I was away. I read them all, and my heart was warmed.

About a week ago I got a real itch to head back to blogging. The desire had never completely left me, but as a new year was heralded in with champagne glass clinking and blue flames of rum, my heart picked up speed in anticipation of 2009. This is one big year, folks. And if it comes that in August all I have to show for myself as I head into the big, wide world is a BFA diploma and a humble portfolio, at least I'll have this blog. Not that it will get me a job, but it will at least be a testament to a few things I love:

Words, photography, and food.

What's new this time around is that food is going to take the back burner. I just don't feel like this season is a time to pour myself into its creation and documentation, at least not extensively, like a good food blog requires.

Today I'm presenting you with a taste of what's to come. I'm still a self-proclaimed Hungry Soul in search of beauty and satiety in this life, so I'm hoping to continue to use this blog as a canvas for satisfying that hunger.

I'll be looking for the little details in life and try to bring them forth on a daily basis through photography and words.

This afternoon the sun is shining warmly and brightly on the monochrome landscape of Abilene, Texas. However, its brownish, tannish, yellowish palette was brightened as I walked home from the grocery store with a big bunch of vibrant green carrot tops flowing over the top of my bag.



My roommate and I squinted down at the bleached-out sidewalk as we carried our groceries back. One more thing off our checklist before the semester starts. But I wasn't thinking of the beginning of spring semester. Rather, I was imagining that the January sun was casting its face on a late summer day and was even able to almost, almost convince myself we had just been to the farmer's market.

A girl can dream, can't she?