Photo meme answers, part 1

[rivka]

The meme: Ask me to take a picture of any aspect of my life that you're interested in/curious about - it can be anything from the house I live in to my favorite shoes. Leave your choice here as a comment, and I will reciprocate by taking the pictures and posting them as an LJ entry. That way you get to see a little bit about my life (within reason).



ailsaek: I'll give my usual answer for this one, then: your kitchen.

The kitchen and bathroom in this house are obviously late add-ons. Probably the house had an outdoor kitchen when it was first built in 1875; that was common in the South. Three words that describe our kitchen: tiny, cluttered, yellow. (Landlords picked the paint colors, and did a much better job of it elsewhere in the house.)

I went a little crazy adding notes to the kitchen pictures. I think you'll have to click through to the Flickr page to see them.





eeyorerin: 'Spectful the Otter. (And any other interesting stuffed toys you might have.)

Here are Michael and 'Spectful, reading in bed. I just came into the bedroom one evening and found them like this.



Alex's stuffed dachshund is also a vital member of the family.



And of course, it would be unwise to forget the most important stuffed animal in the house:



(There are others, including (as you might recall) an emperor penguin parent and chick, but I'll stop here.)

janetmiles: Would you take a picture of where the Great Vines used to be?

Ivy is tenacious stuff. The Great Ivy Disaster created a tremendous opportunity for young, up-and-coming shoots. (The entire wall used to be so deep in thick, dense, mostly-dead ivy that you could barely see the bricks.)



kalmn: backyard!

I was so pleased to get this request, because I had taken extensive pictures of the backyard just a few days before. Here's the main open area:



Here's the view:







And here's the back of the house. We put up some flimsy garden fencing to block off the parts where we don't want Alex to roam: the garbage cans, the grill, the storage area under the back steps, the deep and perilous window well for the downstairs apartment. We put a baby gate across the steps when she's out there playing, and then the yard is reasonably babyproofed.



hobbitbabe: Hmm, something about food. Your spices maybe.

I don't think I keep as many spices in the house as a lot of people do. They just seem to lose their savor, sitting in little jars on the countertop. But I still have enough to overflow my spice rack, which I bought at a flea market in Iowa for its cuteness rather than its capacity. Here's the rack, closed, with its miscellaneous surrounding stuff that didn't fit. (This picture is commented in flickr too, if you click through.)



Here's the inside of the spice rack, doors open so you can read the little jars. Sort of.

Comments

[dafna]

Very cool. We have similar kitchens, apparently.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Cinnamon with grinder! Nice! I think my microplane rasp is a slightly better solution for the fresh cinnamon problem at our house, but only because it's applicable to ginger and lemons too. (Did you also find out that the mortar and pestle are ineffective, or were you wise enough not to try?)

[windsea.livejournal.com]

What, besides The Sprog, and Michael, ais/re the utter basics in/where you live? What is there that roots you?

[perceval.livejournal.com]

I love the colour of your kitchen! And Alex looks gorgeous.

[kate_nepveu]

Here are Michael and 'Spectful, reading in bed. I just came into the bedroom one evening and found them like this.

Oh good, it's not just our household where things like this happen.

[ailsaek.livejournal.com]

Neat! The notes were very, very cool. I didn't know you could do that. We had baby gates like that, but I had to reture them cos David started being able to push them out of the door.

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

I had missed this post!

Thank you for the picture of the ivy.