I can’t remember why I decided to move back to blogger but I did- http://kelly-cw.blogspot.com
Over the last few years, I have been really struggling (learning?) in my faith. Back in NC I had a large circle of Christian acquaintances (I called them friends at the time but looking back, we weren’t really that close). I had trouble with some aspects of their faith but I just went along and tried my best to believe because I felt like I should. When we came to CA I felt very lost. Without the support of that circle to convince me I should support certain aspects of the Christian church (or what I thought were aspects- I don’t want to get into details though, lest I offend people- I’ll save that for another post!) I started to give up. However, despite all of the messed up stuff I associated with the church, I always came back to Jesus. Underneath it all I still love Jesus- He still makes sense to me. Even without all the church-y stuff, He was still there, waiting for me.
I have a tendency to be busy and keep my brain full of new things and push God to the back. Then there are days like today when I am empty of other stuff and it feels REALLY empty. I come back to Jesus and again, he is there waiting to fill me up. Always waiting for me to get my focus off myself and back to Him. I imagine him sitting on a bench in my brain, waving occasionally trying to catch my eye, but I am focused elsewhere. He waits patiently until I am ready. Thats another thing I love about Jesus- He does not force himself on people. He will wait for you to get to a place where you can see him. Anyway, I’m not really sure where I was going with this- something about waiting.
This afternoon I spent a couple hours in the garden doing some clean up and weeding. The mexican sunflowers were falling all over my peppers and looked really ragged so I just ripped them up. The chamomile has been dead for a while and the yellow pear tomatoes were scraggly so they both got yanked. My neighbors’ cactus broke and there was a big chunk laying on top of several plants. I’d hoped they would clean it up, but its been over a week so I hacked it up and tossed it in their plot. I also pulled up a bunch of bermuda grass that has been gradually sneaking in from my other neighbor unattended plot. I have decided that after this year I am leaving this plot. We are either moving from Davis and I will leave the garden 
or I will just change plots. My current plot has a lot of perimeter compared to area due to it elongated shape and it is just too much path maintenance for me- especially when I also have unattended neighboring plots. There is no hope for keeping the weeds at bay. I also don’t like being near the cactus. Its very pretty, but people are always tramping through my beds to get to it. hmm.. Maybe I should rename this post “Garden Whine.”
Emily and I are starting a spur of the moment road trip up the northern CA coast this weekend! Emily has been awesome and basically planned everything- here is our proposed route. I am going to take the Amtrak from Davis to Oakland where she will pick me up and we will begin our journey. We will sleep in Mendocino, Humboldt Redwood SP, Eureka and Redding with stops along the way wherever we see fit. Maybe Emily has a more thought out plan than that but as far as I know we are playing it by ear. I don’t really care, I am just excited to be going somewhere!
I am really excited about taking some pictures! I finally figured out how to load the 120 film into the Argus 75 (had to trim off the edges of the spool) so I am ready to shoot! There are only 12 pics per roll and I only have one roll so I have to really plan out each shot. This will be such a different feel than shooting with the digital camera. With digital I just take as many pictures as I want, get all the different angles, lighting etc., and then pick the best one once I download on to the computer. I have found that the ones that look the best to me through the viewfinder are not always my favorites once they appear on my screen. So I will really have to dig deep and find my inner photographer to get some good shots. Then I will have to figure out how/where the heck I am going to get the film developed. But that’s a whole other post.
Yay! My new camera finally came! On the left is a picture of the front- the button with the white dot is the shutter; the knob on the left side is the film winder. That’s pretty much all there is to it! The top glass is for the view finder and the bottom is the actual lense. The red flips away when you take the picture and then you wind the film knob until it reappears. On the right is a shot of the view finder in its flipped up position. The image is so clear and nice- the pictures don’t do it justice.
I played around with the through the view finder shots. As you can see my first shot had lots of glare from reflection off the glass. I remedied this by hiding me and the digital camera under a blanket while I took the shot.
yay! problem solved! Now I just need to find something more interesting than my living room to take a picture of..
This afternoon I went on a photo walk. I think I might have just made that term up, but its where you walk around somewhere and take pictures- pretty genius if I do say so! I just went around campus and I never realized how dead everything is on Sunday afternoon. I like to take pictures when there are not so many people around; it makes me feel less silly. I don’t know why I feel silly. I think people are looking at me and wondering ‘why is that girl taking a picture of *insert random thing here*??’ But they are probably not paying any attention at all. I also like to take pictures of people but I always think people will get mad- are there laws against taking pictures of people in public without their consent? I guess not, because then all the tabloids would be breaking the law. Anyway, I am rambling now- here is a sampling of the pics!
-
- This is like 10 steps from my apartment
-
- I liked that it was dusty and expired
-
- Who can resist a macro flower shot??
-
- Oh hai! I’m eating a fruit. You can’t have any.
-
- Around and around and around…
I have gotten this terrible idea in my head that I want to run a marathon. I am scared to sign up though because they are expensive and what if I chicken out or don’t have time to train or some other unforseen emergency arises that I must attend to? Then I will have wasted money and I hate wasting money. So to ease myself into it, I have been trying to get myself in a running schedule of 3-4 times per week to test my schedule and see if I can squeeze in anything else. So far it has been going OK. I feel like I am getting faster so that is good.
On Monday I decided I wanted to do a long(er) run – around 4.5 miles. Compared to a marathon that is like nothing, but you have to start somewhere! I got to about mile 4.0 and I started getting pretty pooped. I’m not very good at long runs because I always go too fast. I have a need for speed- seriously, my knees like to go fast. So, its hot, I’m tired, just pushing through that last half a mile when all of a sudden it feels like someone is tearing my foot off my body. I look down and see a walnut rolling away from my throbbing ankle. Then I start to feel a little woozy and cursing ensues. I hope there were no children or elderly people around because I probably scarred them for life if they were. I was not conscious enough to notice- I did notice that there were people going by and surprisingly none of them asked me if I was OK. Maybe walnut attacks are so common in this area that no one even notices anymore. Anyway, after I regain my sense of awareness I start the half mile hobble home. It was a long hobble. I almost pooed in my pants but I made it. TMI?
So this is the second time this has happened. Except last time I was 2 miles away from home. I think I need to find a path with shade trees that do not produce trip hazards…
I love old stuff and lately I have been wanting to get an old (antique-old) camera to play with. I wanted to be able to use medium format film and to do some fun through the viewfinder (TTV) shots with my macro lens. I also think it will be helpful in becoming a better photographer to have a simple film camera to play with. I had been monitoring etsy and ebay and finally came across one that was advertised as ‘working’ and not just ‘as is’ on ebay. Its an Argus 75 twin lens. It has a fun flip up view finder and takes 620 film, which according to the internet is 120 film rolled onto a different sized spool. And best of all it was only $12! I am sure it will take me a while to find film and figure out how to get it into the camera but the TTV stuff should be fun in the meantime!
Derrick got a zucchini from one of his coworkers and requested bread so I made some. I used this recipe. The only thing I changed was the cooking time- it took around 70-80 minutes, but our oven is always slow. It is DELICIOUS! It has a nice crust on the top and the inside is very moist and yummy. We have already almost finished one of the loaves and I just made it yesterday.
-
- The ends are the best
-
- Fresh out of the oven!
My name is Kelly and this is my blog. I am a grad student in CA and I like photography, running and plants. My main life goal at present is to graduate before I am 80. I think I will make it.
