Never Forget

If you're reading this today, on September 11, 2008, and you haven't already, please pause for a minute to remember those who lost their lives seven years ago today.

The Pentagon memorial was dedicated today, the first major memorial to be completed at any of the 9/11 sites. It opens to the public tonight at 7pm. I think we'll wait a few days to let the crowds die down, but Brad and I are both eager to get over there and see it. I hear it's beautiful.

Farmer's Market

Saturday morning when we were in Barbados, we got up ridiculously early (seriously - 5:45am) and drove out to this farmer's market which was plop in the middle of nowhere. It was filled with fruits (which were, unfortunately, being sold prewrapped in bags, which didn't make for great pictures), vendors and Pilebucks, a fake Starbucks which had the best coffee I've had in quite a while. Given my other experiences on the island, the thing that struck me most was that the farmer's market was filled with Americans, Brits, Europeans and Caucasian Barbadians (Bajans, the correct term is apparently debateable) - it was definitely a different mix of people than are usual!

Two vendors particularly interested me: Stephen Bishop, who made these beautiful, textured paintings, and Luna Designs, a jewelry place which makes all their jewelry out of dyed seeds. We bought one of Stephen's pieces to hang in our bathroom and I'm kind of regretting not buying anything from Luna Designs, because their pieces were beautiful! Check it out below:

Down the street where you live

Thought I'd take a break in Barbados pictures for a minute to post some pictures I took a few weeks ago of our neighborhood. I'm hopefully going to be showing sometime this fall at a new restaurant in our area and the owner wanted more shots of our neighborhood, Del Ray. So I got up super early one Saturday morning (ok, I guess 7:00am isn't super early) and walked around for two hours to get some shots.

taken at the Del Ray Farmer's Market

this row of houses (the next two pictures) is right at the end of my street. I love how they are match!

Del Ray veterans memorial

St. Nicholas Abbey, Barbados

St.Nicholas Abbey, located in the parish of St.Peter, was built in 1660 and is one of only three genuine Jacobean mansions in the Western Hemisphere. This beautiful home, and surrounding buildings, were built, apparently, only 30 years after Barbados was discovered and is one of the only standing structures from the 1600's in the world (I read that on the Internet, so who knows if it's true!). Regardless, it was still a beautiful place. I wish I had a picture of it from the front, but it started raining right at the end of our tour. So I stole the picture above from Google :)

metal rings used to make barrels to store the rum made on sight

I just had to take the picture below because it reminded me so much...
... of this shot I took in Villefranche!

Barbados sneak peak!

Obsessed? Probably.

with my new macro filters for my camera that is! I am LOVING these things! And such a bargain, costing roughly $600 less than an actual macro lens. Am I now going to post too many boring pictures of a red dahlia that I bought at a farmer's market a few weeks ago? Most definitely!

I don't usually do much Photoshopping on my photos, but I couldn't resist on this one!





Note: NO Photoshop on this one, all done with crazy lighting!
doesn't it look like the petals are sugar coated?

We're back, we're back

We're back from Barbados... it was AMAZING! AMAZING folks! Not only did I get to hang out with my Daddy (an occurance that happens far to often***), we got to explore new places on the island (my favorite may have been Harrison's Cave - fantastic!)

I, of course, took loads and loads of pictures, all of which I need to upload, sort and edit. But I promise to post a few pictures this weekend.

In the mean time, feel free to spend a few hours (literally) looking at my pictures from our February trip:

Port St. Charles

Bathsheba

Speightstown

The Gap (no, not the store, St. Lawrence Gap... but all the cool people just call it "The Gap")

***Editor's Note: Clearly I was drunk, or tired, or trying to multitask when I wrote this (I'm going with the last one). Obviously what I was trying to say was that I don't get to spend nearly enough time with my Dad :)

How do you spell relief?

B-A-R-B-A-D-O-S

We leave tomorrow!!!

Man, I love him

Ain't he cute?!

(all photos taken last night at dinner as we sat outside on a patio, sipping beverages and enjoying the amazing weather which has taken over our city the last few weeks)