This summer was full of so many weddings, picnics, rooftop parties, and trail rambles, and it whipped by especially fast this year. How is it over so quickly? It reminds me of when J.K. Rowling was still releasing new Harry Potter novels, and even though they kept getting thicker, they never seemed to take longer than a day or two to finish. For me, each installment could as well as been called, Harry Potter and the ... "Lost Weekend." (Yikes! How did Harry Potter crop into this photography blog? Well - we're trying out a new writing approach. In addition to the two of us blogging together, we're taking turns writing personal entries. We'll see how it works out, because, as you know, we are inseparable, and we do almost everything together - so hopefully we don't just end up just jabbering on about the same things. Of course, there are differences. I can nerd it up with a sci-fi book now and then while Ariel goes straight to the travel memoir/romance section in the bookstore (e.g. right now, she can't tear herself away from The Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger.)) But I digress. This is another example of how, just after sitting down at the desk, a paragraph is already written, and time has just flown.
What I really wanted to write about was how I love blackberries, and how I love summer the more for them. Although summer streaked by this year, we managed to find a few of these black jewels to enjoy. We picked a handful after a photo shoot with two sisters in Glen Park this summer. We found a few others (the last survivors on a withered vine) walking on the Tennessee Valley Trail, on assignment for a 3D magazine issue we're working on devoted to wild fennel. However, we never got the chance, as is our annual custom, to bring along our tubs and leather gloves, wrestle the prickly bushes down, and come home to celebrate our purple victory with friends by making fresh blackberry parfaits, pies, or ice cream. And that's ultimately why summer seems to have gone by so fast. No blackberry feast.
And that's when our clients saved the day. We recently went to Natalie and Tyler's home (congratulation again to the newlyweds!) to show them the layout for their fine art album, handmade in Italy, and they cooked us a lovely meal on their grill. They are the most wonderful couple, and we share so many of the same interests, in addition to being alumni of the same law school. We are lucky to have them as friends, and look forward to many more dinners parties together (we get to host next time :) In addition to cooking dinner for us, they also sent us home with something totally unexpected: a gift of homemade, organic blackberry jam - made in Bolinas. Check out this article on Creekside Gardens and Susan Martenelli, who picked and canned our jam.
Ariel and I have been cherishing Natalie and Tyler's gift of a little love of summer on toast and with tea these past few weeks. Blackberries hold such a wild charm, that even in a jar, the summer shines on through. We're preparing and gearing up right now to shoot another wedding tomorrow in the Santa Cruz mountains, and it seems like the perfect time to break out the jar, take a little break, and enjoy some blackberry goodness. Thanks Natalie and Tyler! You are the best!
Hope you all have a chance to savor summer this fall too. Enjoy this song (one of my favorites) by Greg Brown called "Canned Goods."
Taste a little love of summer in a jar. Image © Bowerbird Photography, 2012
With love,
Sam