by Maureen | Jul 11, 2011 | Burien, Featured Articles, Food!, Incredible Locations, Introspection, Journal, Meals, Seattle
Part of what makes this feel like home is having my dear neighbors show up at my door with a fresh harvest of arugula – rucola in Italian – and radishes. I did have sweet people in Italy (over)feeding me, but the friendships and interconnections here in my Burien neighborhood, south of Seattle, make me feel more deeply rooted and appreciated.
Added to my neighbors are crab feeds, bike rides and brunches with family, and it makes it easy to say “There’s no place like home”.
For my lunch today I took the whole harvest of rucola, shaved the radishes, added some raspberries from my berry patch and some parmesan and fresh mozzarella bocconcini. I drizzled it all with a homemade roasted red pepper vinaigrette, Sicilian olive oil and crema balsamica.
by Maureen | Jun 27, 2011 | Burien, Incredible Locations, Introspection, Journal, Quips, Seattle
Journal Entry: June 27, 7:00 a.m.
Jet black crow in the Stewartia tree, and other morning birds singing. The Olympic range makes a ragged, still-snowy horizon to the west. My surroundings are verdant and nearly luminous. It’s a cool, fresh morning… and I’m home.
It’s easier this time to leave behind dear Italy, for whom I have such a range of feelings. I didn’t invest myself as I did before. Though I wasn’t just a typical two-week traveler, at two months, I was still a “short-timer”. I had warm reunions with the dear folks I had met before, and I met more people that extended themselves to me with new, treasured bonds. I moved about with an open heart, but it was touched by the reserve borne of a known departure.
I’m ready to be home now. To unpack my things and nestle back in, something I didn’t fully do when I returned a year ago after a long year in Italy. I now have a better inkling of what that country is – and isn’t – for me.
by Maureen | Jun 8, 2009 | Discoveries, Graffiti & Street Art, Photo of the Day
Taking a shortcut through an alley way in Burien on a recent hot day, I saw this perfect red onion sitting alongside a painted backside wall. I swooned and had to shoot it. The colors. The textures. And the unlikelihood of finding such a thing! It still makes me laugh.
