§ Tuesday morning brought our first snow of the season. Well, technically a thick layer of freezing hail that stuck through til mid-afternoon. Still, an ominous reminder of the season to come.
§ All of this cold weather means that our figs are ripening all at once. We ate figs straight from the tree, we made fig ice cream, we cooked fig jam. Yum. It is quickly becoming my favorite plant of ours for how low-maintenance and productive it is.
§ I have two trips to San Francisco planned in 2025: one in late winter and another in early autumn. This will be my first time in the Bay Area and I can’t wait. The mix of technology and creativity, the environment, the weather. I wouldn’t be surprised if it becomes the first city since Chicago to really invade my daydreams.
§ I got the opportunity to have lunch with a Cleveland photography icon on Tuesday. It was so nice to speak with someone else that views the city—and, in particular, The Flats—as such an inspiring subject.
§ An insight into the unwelcome tech consumerist side of my psyche is the impulse, after noticing that I don’t get much value out of the Apple Watch Series 4(!) I’ve worn since 2019, to think maybe if I got a newer Apple Watch I would find it more useful.
This is bad on at least two levels: 1) why would I buy another version of something I don’t particularly enjoy and 2) I don’t actually want to spend more time fiddling with my watch.
If I really wanted to fight against this consumerist impulse I would just stick with what I already have. Instead, I bought a $30 Timex.
I’ve been happy with the switch. The only trouble has been the few times I’ve reflexively tried speaking Siri reminders into my wrist, a move which makes me look completely insane.
Right now I don’t know—or, more importantly, care—about the difference between manual, automatic, and quartz movements and I’m afraid if I ever find out this could become an expensive hobby.
§ I’ve found Aaron Hertzmann’s recent posts about how he approaches painting inspiring. I’m fascinated by the prospect of being able to capture a moment in a way that feels more real than is possible with photography.
§ Somewhere in my memory The Diplomat became just another season of Slow Horses. But no, The Diplomat is its own show! And it’s much better than Slow Horses. And its second season is coming out soon.
§ I still really want to try a pawpaw, the largest largest edible fruit indigenous to the United States that also happens to be native to my area of northeast Ohio. Until then, I found the next best thing: blueberry pawpaw jam. Unfortunately, the jam mostly tastes like blueberry but maybe the pawpaw adds a sort of tropical banana flavor?
§ In the evenings Caroline and I have been decorating our house for Halloween. We still have a ways to go before we become one of those houses in the neighborhood but each year our decorations get a little bit more elaborate.
