Golden Gate

I shot this a couple of weeks ago, when I was visiting San Francisco (aka The Greatest City in the World). Mom and I drove up to Sausalito to get a good shot of the Golden Gate bridge at sunset. I think conditions might have been better if we’d gone at sunrise, but since it was an hour drive from Palo Alto, we stuck with sunset. Next time, though.

I used mom’s fish-eye lens, and then fixed the distortion later in Lightroom. That’s the moon all blown-out in the top left. I thought about cutting it out of the photo, but I kind of like the line it creates with the bridge towers. And it just sort of looks cool. But I LOVE the reflection of the bridge lights on the water. Such a beautiful night.

Anyway, great story from this shoot – we met a fellow photographer named Eugeny from Russia. He was really friendly, and we did a bit of chatting and experimented with each others’ lenses.  Mom asked him at one point whether he was traveling with friends or alone. “Well,” he said (with a thick Russian accent). “I WAS traveling with a friend, but…uh…well, the shit has happened and now I am alone.”

Best. Quote. Ever.

Pancakes

So you know what happens when you say you want to start blogging again, and then write a post telling everyone that you want to start blogging again, and then you get caught up in all kinds of real life stuff that make it hard to sit down for a few minutes and actually write a post (because gracious, where are you even supposed to start??), and then you go for a few more months without any blogging whatsoever?  You get serious blogger’s-block.

Which is why I’m not going to get into any explanations or recap of what’s been going on over the last little while, and instead, I’m simply going to grace you all with the best pancake recipe I’ve ever tried.  See, I went to Chicago a couple of years back, and we ate breakfast at this amazing place called The Bongo Room.  Before I went, I looked up the menu (which they change frequently), and saw “Lemon Ricotta Pancakes,” which sounded like the best thing in the world.  When we actually got there, however, they had changed the menu, and I ended up having “White Chocolate Pretzel Pancakes” instead (which were amazing, btw.  If you are ever in Chicago, you must go there.).  And though I was completely satisfied, the idea of Lemon Ricotta pancakes did not leave me.  So when I was getting together with some friends for breakfast last Sunday, I did a google search and came up with these:

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Lemon Curd and Fresh Raspberries.  Yummmm.

And yes, they were pretty much the best pancakes I have ever made, and they probably tie as the best pancakes I have ever eaten (because those white chocolate pretzel ones were reeeeeeally good).

I did forget my camera, though, so I don’t have any pictures.  Boo.

A welcome and an explanation

So I’ve decided to start blogging regularly again.

For those of you who have followed this over the last few years (though I haven’t written much in several months at least), I’m resisting the urge to write a big explanation of why I decided to change things up again.  I’ll just say that I miss writing, and I’d like to do it more regularly than I have been.  I also want a place to share other thoughts/articles/projects I’m working on that is at least a little less obvious than facebook.  And I wanted a bit of a fresh start, which is why I’ve archived all my previous posts.  So that’s that.  Welcome, and comment away.

The title of this blog comes from a small little poem by Madeleine L’Engle, one of my all-time favorite authors:

This is the irrational season
When love blooms bright and wild.
Had Mary been filled with reason
There’d have been no room for the child.

I realize that it’s a Christmas poem, and we are well into January.   I don’t mind.  I love it anyway.