take two

Last time, I left off with a trip to Hayes Valley. Macarons were purchased there at the newly (re)opened Chantal Guillon, but I already had plenty of options for the picture of the day. Therefore, I saved the macarons for Saturday, when I could devote a little more time to shooting them. Having taken several macaron pictures in the past, the challenge is in finding new ways to compose a shot. This time, I went with a variation on the usual "stack o' cookies" theme: three stacks of two, arranged in something of a rainbow order. From front to back there was lavender poppy with cassis, country strawberry, Persian rose, apricot marzipan, green tea, and Italian pistachio. They were all tasty, but the apricot marzipan was definitely my favorite—fresh and intensely apricoty. In general, though, most of them could have been just a touch less sweet to let the other flavors come through better.

239/365 return of the macarons

I was busy with trip planning on Sunday—San Sebastian, if I remember correctly—and my only photo idea was to shoot our Pennette alla Papalina for dinner. I already had a shot of it from last year, with the larger penne pasta, but I didn't mind the idea of a reshoot with pennette. I joined Steve for the walk to the store to get ingredients, just in case I found something to take a picture of on the way. Sure enough, the straw flowers in the park looked interesting behind their fence. The strong afternoon light made for a more contrasty shot than I might have hoped for, but I liked the composition itself. No need for pictures of dinner. (We were running out of pennette anyway and used penne instead.)

240/365 the escapee

Monday's big activity was a walk to Glen Park with Carmen and Elsa. As cute as that little neighborhood was, Elsa was cuter peaking out from under her too-big hat in her carrier.

241/365 undercover baby

While I was playing for a rehearsal that night, Steve was making brown butter and almond cakelets with huckleberries to use up some leftover egg whites. I had taken pictures of the rhubarb version when I made it at the end of May, but I never felt like posting the shots I took of Steve's first huckleberry ones not long after. So when I needed a picture for Tuesday, I got out the cakelets.

242/365 huckleberry hounds

Wednesday's picture of the day came during a short break from more trip planning. I went to Ritual for a wee mocha and took a quick shot of the bar. And that's about all there is to that story.

243/365 afternoon ritual

Yet more trip planning on Thursday—this time for Florence. It was also September 1, so I wanted to tie that into the picture somehow. My first idea was to use the September and October pages of my calendar, and then when that was boring me, I added in the Pinocchio that Dan and Carmen brought back for me from Florence two years ago. (Later, I tracked down the packaging with the address and added Pinocchio's shop to my map.) I still wasn't particularly excited about any of the compositions I was shooting, though, and that's usually the time that I start taking random pictures, trying different angles. This was one such picture. Good thing it was vaguely in focus, because I didn't take another one like it.

244/365 september first

A trip to Noe Valley was necessary on Friday afternoon to seek out and purchase a cardigan and some ballet flats to take with me to Europe. I found a cardigan wrap that I loved at Ambiance, but there were no shoes that I liked at Shoe Biz. And I was only slightly successful in finding a picture to take. Baby blanket with a monkey head in the window of Urban Nest? Well... okay.

245/365 monkey

And that makes two times that I've written this entry... The first attempt was much better, I'm afraid, but Blogger ate it. Hint: Don't hit Ctrl + Z too many times while editing a previously saved draft or it will erase your entire entry and immediately save your now-blank draft. And then, especially don't hit "back" to see if there's a way to restore your last draft. Just try "redo" first...

(The More You Know.)

So if this post sounded a little shorter and half-assed than usual, that's why. Blogger threw off my groove, yo.

Oh, and here's the August mosaic.