{harvest} Black Vernissage Tomatoes

The September garden this year is a little lackluster, but we are still harvest handfuls of tomatoes everyday.

I'm not fond of eating raw tomatoes, but Zach tells me the black vernissage tomatoes are perfect for a simple Caprese salad. Just add some mozarella cheese, some delicate Thai basil, salt, and a splash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar!

Wildflowers

All the wildflowers and monarch butterflies we saw while we were out at his parents' over the weekend,

inspired Zach to attempt this impressionistic version of the landscape on paper ...

Here are some close-ups:

I'm stealing this paper version for the house. It will be so nice to see some bright and cheery flowers during the cold and dreary winter months.

Zach also created a small series of the same painting on canvas ... If you're interested in purchasing these, they will be available for sale during our December studio open house!

Sunflower fields

We went to Portland today, making the same drive on the familiar roads we've taken thousands of times. The landscape this time of the year is always stunning: the mild brown of the dying corn, the golden yellow of the beans against that bright blue sky filled with fluffy white clouds. We thought we've seen everything this drive has to offer until today ...

Giant sunflower fields that lined both sides of the road! So impressive and so very unexpected!

We stopped on our way home to snap one last picture.

Last Gallery Walk of the Season

It's the last Gallery Walk of the season. If you're out and wandering about downtown, stop in ZMEDstudios to see us!

p.s. if you're in the mood to color, we have sheets of birds and cowboys that you are welcome to take with you!

'Say What!?'

'Say what!?' #studio #putabirdonit #streetart

Quickles!

After making a huge jar of sauerkraut this morning, Zach made quickles!

He chopped up some homegrown baby carrots, miniature white cucumbers, and shishito peppers, then added some cauliflower and pickling spices.

The brine is just a basic mixture of vinegar, water, and salt.

The results are beautiful.

And tasty.

We ate our way through Singapore ...

It's almost two weeks since we've been back from Singapore. And for the most part, we are nearly over our jet-lag and adjusting better to the local time (even if Zach is still running on less than 6 hours of sleep each night!). I've been making this trip annually for the last 17 years and I don't remember taking this long to get back into the groove of things. I suppose the jet-lag gets worse the older I get.

Still, the trip back home is worth every bit of the jet-lag we are suffering. It is always nice to be able to see family and to be able to spend time with the people we don't get to see too often. And in Singapore, there's always food. Glorious food. Zach and I did not do much sightseeing on this trip, but we did eat our way through Singapore. Most days, we'd stuff our bellies with two breakfasts, a modest lunch, and a big dinner. We ate a lot. And we tried taking pictures of what we ate. But more often than not, we'd only remember to do that after we we done eating. So these are all the pictures we have ...

Zach requested roti prata for breakfast one morning, so we ordered 8 pieces of different kinds of prata, yellow lentil curry, and mutton curry for dipping.

On the day we visited the Singapore Art Museum, we made a pit stop at Bras Brasah Complex to see the Sheryo and the Yok mural and have some yong tau foo for lunch.

Dinner with my aunts and cousins was an elaborate affair. 7 different dishes, that included the fish head curry that Zach and I love.

We had dinner at one of Zach's favorite places (from his last visit) one night. This place serves up the yummiest grilled seafood. I look at these pictures now and they still make me drool ... :) It's a pity the seafood selection is so limited here in Indiana. I'd do almost anything for Zach to grill me a piece of stingray for dinner tonight!


p.s. If you are visiting Singapore soon and would like to have an idea of what to eat, here's a post we wrote after our visit in 2012!

Pruning the Garden

Zach has had a really difficult time overcoming jet-lag. He's up way before the sun each morning. Today, he spent a couple of hours in the garden pruning and cleaning.

The berry plants that were previously covered in spider webs are looking nice once again. Zach also pulled up the cucumber plants, trimmed the tomatoes and peppers, and relocated the eggplants to a sunnier spot on the patio.

Some of our flowers are still going strong, so he left them alone. We have a pair of hummingbirds that visit the garden everyday. The salvia, nasturtiums, and the petunias they love are gone. Hopefully they'll still come see us for the sake of these pretty flowers.

The smiliest baby I know

My dad sent me this picture he took of me and my little nephew Axl. One of the best parts of the trip back to Singapore, is meeting this little boy. He is the smiliest baby I know. He stole my heart.

Vacation Photos: Singapore Street Art

mindy and i just returned from a 10 day trip to singapore.  we visited family, met new family members, ate everything the hawker centers had to offer, and searched out some street art.

singapore has come around a little bit on street art since the last time i was there in 2012, when SKLO was being arrested for spraying 'my grandfather road' at intersections and placing cheeky singlish stickers on crosswalk buttons and other spots. we found several works in the the touristy section of haji lane and arab st. and several murals from a mural campaign dedicated to singapore's 50th birthday.  all were, of course, commissioned works as graffiti in SG will still get you caned, fined, and jailed for a couple of years, but none the less the works were solid.  local crew RSCLS seems to be at the forefront of the movement in singapore along with local girl sheryo and her aussie counterpart the yok, and SKLO and her rebel daughters affiliates. good on them for putting some color back into a culture that seems to lack visual creativity and subculture propaganda, and the government is accepting their significance to the art world.

here are some pictures if you'd like to see:

@ Bras Basah Complex.

@ Queen Street.

@ Gillman Barracks.

@ Haji Lane, Arab Street, and Kampong Glam.

@ Taman Jurong Shopping Center.