Mid-July and much of my work has sort of slowed. Being freelance, I can focus my attention to other things. Well, things that don’t require too much movement, too much exertion during a massive nationwide heatwave. A little over a year ago, I was trying to find ways to be creative as we crept toward a post-lockdown world in fits and starts. COVID waves kept coming and going, and every creative effort I tried to make felt forced or like wandering. I want to avoid going there again, so I use many of the tools outlined in Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way. Amazingly, I read it over 20 years ago and still utilize her very simple approaches to creativity: daily journaling (morning pages), artist dates, and later on she added regular walks.
I think summertime is made for a slight sense of boredom. In the midst of it all, the days are almost too long. The afternoons linger with a bit too much sun into golden hour. It try to be outside for that every day of summer. I’m happy to have a backyard and a grill that I can use so I don’t heat up the house unnecessarily.
It’s no secret that I love to cook. I do secretly love food writing. I think if I had the time and dedication, I’d pursue something in that realm. Indulge me in some of my food stuffs from this summer. Some grilling, some whole roasting, some pasta, some salads, some pink pickling red onions–all vegan, of course.
Like all things, I’m sure the world of food writing and photography has its downsides, its shadows. Anthony Bourdain comes to mind, while many of the food writers I follow today make it seem so easy. An endless stream of farmers markets with oversized produce (no mention ever of their prices), lovely evenings tending their kitchen gardens upstate, and oddly zen-like and immaculate kitchens. I cannot pretend that’s me. Sure I love to cook and shoot colorful, fresh foods, but my kitchen is constant chaos in need of constant cleaning. I’ll stick to the close ups on the kitchen table.
