Ansel Adams

The Ansel Adams exhibit at the MFA in Boston will end soon, so hie yourself up Huntington Avenue and take a look at his photos. What blew me away was the depth of focus. Details in the distance and details up close. And Yosemite in all seasons, plus some really cool photos of the Southwest and the little Penitente churches on the high road to Taos. Adams climbed around Yosemite lugging pounds and pounds of heavy camera equipment. His patience and creativity are truly awesome. The American west with the big sky, endless vistas and clouds is a photographer's dream. I do miss it still.

Artists of an age always find each other, and Adams found other photographers (Steichen) and he found Georgia O'Keefe and it must have been fun to hike around and photograph the world.

I found a really cool food blog today, that you should know about. This woman is a wonderful writer and has a nice sense of humor. But don't take my word, see for yourself.
http://www.murrayhill5.net/blog/inmykitchenblog/

Significant Other and I had a modest lunch of soup, wine and dessert at the museum cafe. I watched an interesting couple all through lunch. He seemed like an Ansel Adams type, a gentleman no longer young with a large turned up nose and innocent blue eyes. Dorky black sneakers. Hey, all old guys wear them. His partner (I think they were married) was a Georgia O'Keefe lookalike. Dark hair and didn't look dyed. Jeans and boots. Neither of them stylish, but interesting. She paid the bill. He had such an interesting face, so childlike somehow, but not in a dumb way, but a little wonderous. So unusual to see someone looking wondrous. I wondered (not the same thing at all) if they had just seen the exhibit and maybe he was a photographer just blown away by the photos. I make up little stories about people and I wonder (again that word) if any of them are ever close to the mark. Probably not. Doesn't matter.

Tonight, being in the middle of Christmas baking, I cooked a Campbell's soup recipe for dinner , and used white pepper instead of black and the whole thing was kind of yucky, although the ingredients were good. Pitched the recipe. Tomorrow is a spicy shrimp from the Journal. Who ever thought the Wall Street Journal would have such good recipes. I still make their potato pancakes. They are the best. Email me if you want the recipe. It is years old.

The cookies, bars actually, I made tonight were something I thought I had made last year. Wrong, but these are very good, rich, buttery and loaded with cranberries. I broke my old nutchopper two years ago and miss it terribly. Haven't found one to replace it. This was glass with a weird metal grinder that one fed a few nuts at a time into. Must really look again. Maybe on Ebay.

No news from editors, agents or anyone except in the Christmas cards which are a joy to get from old friends and neighbors.

I am having crazy dreams every night. Must be because in 10 days I am quitting my job. 5 1/2 more days of work. My office is bare, the files, both paper and electronic) are clean and organized, and most of my personal stuff is now home. I haven't written anything the last two weeks, although I have been researching what happens when the FBI raids an office. It ain't pretty folks. I'm already feeling so sorry for my characters who have to undergo this trauma. Every writer loves her characters. They're so real. Isn't that strange?

I think so.


Grapshot