Take Cake

Tradition is a curious thing. Why do we go out of our way to re-enact events from our past superimposing them upon the present? We make the same cookies every December or return like swallows to a favorite location. We find comfort and build memory with traditions and we love to capture it on film for posterity.
A couple of weeks ago I spent some time picking out an Anniversary cake for Shelby and Josh.This got me thinking about a messy tradition based upon my first birthday cake. Here I am enjoying my first birthday by destroying my baby size cake.








I decided when Shelby came along that I would continue the tradition.




Again when Darren turned One he was given permission to smear to his hearts desire. I was much more practical by then and opted for the hi-chair method.
Finally when Morgan reached the appointed age he too was granted his own heart shaped pastry. The cake pans are stored away now. They wait for the day when possibly one of my three will find joy in the act of cleaning frosting from their own children’s hair. Here’s to traditions! Big or small, they are great signs along the road.

Linen Memory

There is something magical about an old “linen” postcard. They are tiny windows on a past that exists only in our mind's eye. I suppose some would call them kitsch because their simple drawings and un-realistic colors are more than a little sentimental. But I choose to honor the creators of these bits of whimsy. I appreciate their commitment to the idea that the reality of a subject sometimes is not as important as the feeling or mood left after the viewing. They take me back to the blue perfume blowing off my first moonlit lake, the icy chill of red and green light on grandma’s aluminum Christmas tree, the sweet pink melody in a bag of cotton candy.

I found this Linen PC from 1943 a few days ago and brought it home to live with the photo I took of this lighthouse on the Washington Coast.

I can’t seem to find the matching photo in the jumble of my life, so I have enclose another. This is the Point Pinos Light near Monterey California on Thanksgiving Day 2006. Followed by the vintage linen I purchased off e-Bay. Which do you prefer?