Goji

Four years ago, my friend Maria kept the seeds from a dried goji fruit that came in a bag shipped here from China and bought from a health store in a shopping mall. The seeds germinated and she planted them in the urban garden she created next to our building. The goji plant grew all these years but it never had flowers and it didn’t seem to thrive. It was just an ugly plant under our window, taking up space, but still a plant that grew out from something dry, travelling the seas to get to a shopping mall, part of a global system that usually does not let life perpetuate. So, my friend never had the heart to pull out the ugly goji plant.

This year it bloomed and this is the first berry.

 

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Summer

I have finally managed to finish a roll of very expired Kodak 400 film that I had exposed in my Olympus Mju -1 camera. I like using these very grainy, very bluish, not so nice expired films that I had bought in the flea market for very cheap in this sharp little camera. It is the only combination that can be somewhat interesting or at least acceptable with these films, that I wouldn’t want to waste even if I don’t really like them.

These are images from our neighborhood this summer. As relaxing as they seem, I didn’t have such a quiet summer till now, with some job related exams to take and other responsibilities. But tomorrow is the last exam and after that the real summer vacation may begin. We do have things to work on still, but only pleasant ones, like filming neighborhood gardens for a project and thinking about lessons for the ecologic education course I will continue to teach in fall.

Pink

Roses in our urban garden.

Antique buttons

These are the finds from this weekend at the flea market. I’m getting more and more selective with what I bring home. For example, this time I have left behind a vintage tiger plush and a doll from the fifties, which were very nice but I thought about the limited space I have at home. I don’t regret not buying them, I do have my mother’s childhood dolls from the fifties and those are enough for me :).

I’m very glad I have found these antique buttons, though. Even if I do have enough buttons, too, these are so small and they could be part of some jewelry project or some crafty thing in the future. They are tiny brass buttons with beautiful details. 

I have also found this long and heavy silver chain which I think is antique. The niello serpent is bought separately but I like how it looks on this chain.

I wanted worry beads from Greece for some time now. I was hoping to find bakelite ones at some point, but I like these mother of pearl ones, too. They were quite cheap also and the smooth, cool surface of the beads is very pleasant.

Linking up with Vintage Bliss Tuesdays.

Summer afternoon

It’s really nice to have Cici in our family.

Vegan baked veggie balls

My friend made these delicious veggie balls a few days ago. Without knowing the ingredients I would have been sure they contain the evil monoglutamate, so tasty and addictive but so bad for you. These veggie balls have that combination of sweet and salty, but they contain only healthy stuff (if you are not gluten intolerant, which we fortunately are not). Also they are baked not fried.

We don’t know the exact quantities, so this is not really a recipe, just something for us to remember how to make them again sometimes.

She blended diced onions with a little bit of water with garlic, cayenne pepper, curry, turmeric, pink Himalayan salt, nutritional yeast, diced carrots and diced uncooked potatoes, sunflower seeds, cilantro, a bit of smoked paprika powder. She mixed this with gluten flour, formed the balls and baked them on a tray greased with a bit of cooking oil.  After one side of the balls was cooked, she switched them on their other side to have a nice crunchy texture and also to be sure that the gluten flour is well cooked.

We ate them with tomatoes and they were great!

Scissors

I really like to collect vintage scissors for their nice shapes and of course for their function. This tiny vintage charm is so detailed that I can almost say that it is part of my scissors collection :).

Linking up with Vintage Bliss Tuesdays and Vintage Charm parties.