Horse shoes (Sam the farrier)

Recently I spent time with the horse and donkey and while I was there Sam the farrier stopped by to tend to their hooves. Sam is very friendly and has been shoeing horses for 18 years now. 

I loved to see him at work, feeling like I was a witness to a very old skill. I bet most of the tools and techniques have not changed in his trade for a long, long time. He did, however, have a fabulous modern trailer outfitted perfectly for his needs. You can see bits of it in the following photos. Sadly I did not take a full picture of it, but it looked pretty much like this one. 

Sam's wide smile.

Sam's trailer is outfitted with a furnace, and anvil and a radio that blasted classical music while he worked.

Sam's trailer is pulled by a wonderful truck from 1953.

Impending Harvest.

Lately there has been an increasingly louder buzz around Wine Country about the impending grape harvest. 

Apparently the first grapes are already being harvested in Carneros and Healdsburg.

The ones in our back yard look pretty close. 

Can you see the little green grapes? That is called "chicks and hens", an uneven growth of the cluster caused by cool and wet weather while the vines bloomed. The uneven ripening is an issue, since they will have to separate and toss away the green grapes so the resulting wine is just right.

On a different note, last night we went out to celebrate our wedding anniversary. The weather was incredible. We ended the night playing Bocce ball and had a great time even though we had no clue of the rules.

Spoonflower's free swatch day.

In my post about Rickshaw Bags I mentioned Spoonflower in passing. I have since meant to tell you a bit more about them, and could not do it on a better day than their free swatch day.

Spoonflower is a site where you can design and print your own custom fabric. How cool is that!

They also sell other people's designs in seven base fabric choices to choose from.

If you order between today and noon tomorrow you will be able to pick a free swatch of any of their fabrics... with free shipping!

They are doing so in Support of Heifer International, suggesting that you donate the $5 that the swatch would cost to them instead.

Here by, some of my favorite fabric designs:

Morel dilemma by helenklebesadel

Flock of birds by Sequingirlie

Acrobats by totallysevere

Pegs on the line in color by Ldj_design

Hornet moths fabric by gollybard

cactus by holli_zollinger

Arome by nadja_petremand

White anemones by pattysloniger

Conservatory of Flowers: Wicked Plants (Amy Stewart)

Last weekend J and I went to the Conservatory of Flowers to see their Wicked Plants exhibit based on Amy Stewart's book Wicked Plants: a book of botanical atrocities. I really like the book, so I was exited to finally visit.

While the exhibit was sweet, the best part of our visit for me were the building and the orchids, while for J (as always) was the dahlia garden.

If you want to meet Amy Stewart, she will be at the Conservatory of Flowers on October 6th at 7pm to talk about her Wicked Bugs book. 

The Wicked Plants exhibit will be on until October 30th.

Martian orchid

More martian orchids

Rickshaw bags.

Months and months ago I bought a coupon online (something I had never done before) for a messenger bag at a super duper discount, then totally forgot about it.

A couple of weeks ago they sent me a reminder e-mail because the coupon was about to expire. 

I called a good friend and made it an excuse to go to San Francisco and have fun together. We had lunch and a couple of Mezcal cocktails at my favorite Mexican restaurant (the one that brings me warm memories of food at home) and then we headed out to Rickshaw.

I had no idea they existed, and even less so that they are so amazing!

They are a small company that designs and sells the most incredible bicycle bags. The store is at their small factory, where a handful of super nice people make and sell the bags. It was a treat to see the friendly faces of the people who proudly manufacture their products, and the range of their collection blew my mind. 

I promise you they have just the bag for you! They also sell hats, laptop sleeves, binders and more.

Their prices are fair, even more so because you can customize your bag from hundreds of colors and fabric choices at no extra charge. 

Cannot find your ideal fabric or color? They event let you order fabric from Spoonflower to make your bag unique! If that is what you prefer, please call them so they let you know how much fabric to buy.

I ordered a customized Zero Messenger bag for Mr. J, who has had the same beat up bag since we met over a decade ago. 

I hope he likes it.

I can't wait for their call to say it's ready!

Customized bags waiting for their lucky owners.

Rickshaw Atelier in action.

Pencils.

This made me smile today. 

Hope it has the same effect on you!

Image found here.

Deep water wonder (Hydrothermal Worm).

Life is full of wonder and will always surpass our imagination. A good proof of that is this little guy recently discovered with the help of a FEI Quanta electron microscope.

You might be relieved to know he is one of the smallest multicellular living things (enhanced over 500 times his real size in the photo) and meanders underwater near hydrothermal vents.

Still, I would love to see him!

I bet Guillermo del Toro would agree.

Image by Philippe Crassous for FEI  found via Huffington Post