a birthday wish

From Amsterdam to Portland: Happy Birthday to my lovely little sister Alyssa. Alles Gute zum Geburtstag zu meine kleine Schwester Alyssa. One of the most important people in my life who is always up for a laugh or adventure. Ich liebe dich!

a girl who reads

Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag.She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

Read the full text here, attributed to Rosemary Urquico (image via).

Weekend Links #18

Weekend Links is a collection of the interesting bits and pieces that I’ve come across on the streets and online. The weekly post is my chance to share with you a few things from the week, in a list compiled during the weekend. I hope you enjoy them as well.

A few things I enjoyed LAST week: 1. Dreaming of a summer holiday in Fethiye in the Turkish Riviera (pictured above) 2. Browsing the collection of photos from New York Fashion Week on The Big Picture 3. Listening to Joan as Police Woman live (finally!) at Paradiso 4. Looking at how others enjoy my favorite moment of the day with this fantastic blog (pictured below, via @kfar53) 5. Watching the Vice Guide to Narco Cinema, the Mexican film genre that has exploded in popularity. Crazy.

stories of the past

A few days ago my sister posted this photo of my mom, at 18, having caught a big fish like a true Oregonian. I have seen this photo dozens of times throughout my life, but I can't seem to recall the details. Did she catch the fish herself? Was she fishing with my dad (an avid outdoorsman)? I think they had met by the time she was 18, but I can't recall specifically. Was she holding his catch? Was she flirting with him in her nonchalance?

Inspired to dig into my small archive of scanned photos from the past, I came up with these great photos: my Dad in his hometown Chicago, my parents on a road trip across the US, my parents by a lake, and a photo of me hanging out in a backpack while on a hike with my Dad. I love these glimpses from the past, but they're not enough for me. I want to know the stories of each photo, the details, emotions, and a description of what happened before and after. Maybe it's time for my dad to start writing the biography that my siblings and I have been trying to convince him of for years.

travels in siberia

In Russian, the word–Sibir'–is pure onomatopoeia. A shiver begins with the first letter and concludes with the palatalized r at the end, which, combined with the bi preceding it, amounts to brrr. Only a cosmic Dickens of place-naming would have chosen a name with such a chilly and mysterious sound. And yet Sibir', so resonant in Russian, is not of Russian provenance, but whispers of deepest Asia.

Currently reading Ian Frazier's Travels in Siberia, the stories of travelers past and Frazier's own experience exploring the vast region (image via).

a taste of turnip

This unassuming vegetable has become an object of my fascination in the past weeks. About a month ago I tried a turnip for my first (!) time. Fresh and crisp with a hint of spice, I was sold. Not unlike my discovery of figs last year, I can't quite explain how I had lived so long without having tasted this vegetable. At the end of the growing season here in Holland, I'll enjoy it fully until the next time around (first image via, second image via).

in the west

Just a few pictures from a Sunday morning walk through west Amsterdam, which led to the discovery of this beautiful piece of graffiti, a bicycle floating in the canal and a close-up look at my favorite empty construction site. A nice step away from the cute scene in the center of Amsterdam, towards something a bit dirtier and familiar. I guess that what keeps me going back to Berlin time and again.

 

two valentines

For the humorous side, a fantastic Valentine's Day cards made by NPR (via constantwanderlust).

For the romantic side, the letter from Captain Frederick Wentworth to Anne Elliott in my favorite Jane Austen book, Persuasion:

I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others. Too good, too excellent creature! You do us justice, indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating in.

F. W. (via hila-lumiere)

a photo and a quote

Two things I love: poetic language and a string of lights.

"So avoid using the word 'very' because it's lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don't use very sad, use morose. Language was invented for one reason, boys – to woo women. And, in that endeavor, laziness will not do. It also won't do in your essays."

– John Keating, Dead Poet's Society (via unicornology)

Weekend Links #17

Weekend Links is a collection of the interesting bits and pieces that I’ve come across on the streets and online. The weekly post is my chance to share with you a few things from the week, in a list compiled during the weekend. I hope you enjoy them as well.

A few things I enjoyed this week: 1. Seeing the winners of the annual World Press Photo contest http://bit.ly/gYoXnh 2. Listening to an NPR interview with Over the Rhine (pictured above), a band whose music brings back memories of a Boston winter and a corner room 3. Tasting Afghan food for the first time at Mantoe 4. Watching the Chinese New Year celebrations in this short video (via wearethedigitalkids) 5. Browsing the collection at La Rosa Curiosa, a little vintage clothing store that is quickly becoming a favorite in Amsterdam (pictured below, image via bheart) 6. Watching this video of the celebrations in Egypt

photo echo

I've been following the photography of the two sisters behind Photo Echo for a while now. The concept is the 'call and response' of an image taken by Kelly and Erin each in their own location: one in Portland, Oregon and one in La Rioja, Spain.

Beautiful, simple and I always get a touch of home in the images from Oregon. This is probably my favorite photo diptych so far, the image on the right of a sign bearing my family name in front of an old stone wall. And the image on the left showing signs in an Oregon forest, one pointing towards the library, the other pointing towards the trail (perfect!).

smorrebrod

Last week a potential collaborator flew from Denmark for an all-day meeting at our office in Amsterdam. Lunchtime raised the topic of the Dutch tradition of broodjes, simple sandwiches, and how they compared with Danish smorrebrod. A Scandinavian colleague informed me that he believed smorrebrod would be the next global delicacy, along the lines of sushi.

Following this conversation, I was delighted to see an article about 'butter bread' on NPR. It reminds me a lot of the German tradition of bread with toppings that Marcus introduced me to, which we have dubbed 'cheese bread'. We start with a hearty bread, toasted then buttered, and apply a mixture of ingredients, some favorites being goat cheese, mushroom and dill; brie and jam or sliced avocado and red pesto.

Photo by Lynda Balslev