Been a Long Time Coming

My creative juices have a tendency sometimes dry up for a season. I will start a project and months or years later find myself picking it up again only to be surprised how much time has really past. I think that is one of the things I love about cameras. They capture the moment and hold it there suspended in time until you discover it anew.
When my daughter returned from living in London in 2004 she brought me back a vintage Kodak Cresta to add to my collection.

This camera has sat on my shelf since then except for a few outings but I could not recall where I took it or what snippets of time it held inside.
Recently I decided to ramp up my camera collecting and with that my old dream of developing at home. Inside Cresta was a roll of Arista 127 black and white I had loaded back in 2005. I gave it 4 minutes at 68 degrees with Kodak HC 110 solution B, the images were overexposed and a bit shaky, probably due to a sticky shutter, but with a little tweaking at last the story of the Cresta roll is revealed.
The first images were from a trip we took down 101 on the Oregon Coast.

Umpqua River Lighthouse

Paradise Café, Port Orford, Oregon

Sometime in 2006 or 2007 I took the camera on a day trip to Sequim, Washington.

Old Dungeness Schoolhouse

Then on my daughter’s wedding day I grabbed the camera and captured this shot of her vintage wedding dress.

Shelby in front of the Courthouse 

And finally  some of the images I took recently to finish out the roll so I could develop.

Harper, Washington 

            Retsil Cemetry Port Orchard, Washington

A Line In The Sand

I have been thinking a lot this month about endings. It’s something that comes natural this time of year. We look back at the rows of days on the calendar and think of that arbitrary mark that is the beginning of another year. Like Anne Shirley we look toward that “fresh tomorrow with no mistakes in it.” We pack up the memories of the day past, and line up our dreams for the one that is about to dawn. 
   Today I decided to make more than a mental exercise of this time honored tradition.  So Michael and I trekked off to Westport to draw a literal line in the sand.

 

 
Dear hubby indulged me in this makeshift ceremony, and stepped across with me into 2010.

Then it was off to catch a picture of the Grey's Harbor Lighthouse

And have a bowl of amazing seafood chowder at The One Eyed Crab

Thank you Michael for a lovely start to 2010.
Thank you Lord for another year stretched out before us... new and ripe with possibility.

First Jobs

My first job was waitress at Marv’s Café in my home town.
Check out the personal jukeboxes. I wonder how many quarters I blew dancing to “Rose Colored Glasses” while I mopped the floors. There was a wonderful neon sign on the ceiling of a crescent moon and stars and an ice cream center for making old-fashioned shakes and sundaes. I bought my first guitar with my saved tips and was asked out by my Ol-man in the corner booth.
Today my youngest was hired at the local Dairy Queen. He’ll be serving fries, making shakes and saving his $ for something fun I'm sure. Congrats son! May your first job memories be great ones.