At home in autumn

These lovely flowers graced my table last week, for a few fleeting days. With the cold, windy nights, and the crisp, biting mornings, the brief showers of rain, the few leaves turned gold, and the bright oranges and golds of squash and blossoms on my table, autumn seems all around. 

I think the moment at which I realize that autumn is truly here is that midnight waking in the frigid cold of a window left open, when the blankets piled up and the sweaters piled on are not enough a barrier between oneself and the icy air surrounding.

One slams the window shut and with fumbling fingers and bleary eyes, grasps for the switch on the small square box that marks the departure from the season of warmth and one's grand venture into this coming frost, the annual passage from summer towards winter.

And on this night, and from this night forth, the heater is on.

In my home, this night was Saturday. From now on, my friends, this is fall!

all photos by Kara Haberstock, all rights reserved

Sunflowers and Sunshine

The sun shines brightly this morning. The air, crisp and cool, imparts a slight chill and whispers that autumn has finally arrived. I gather my books and nudge the door shut behind me as I make my morning commute from my cozy apartment home to the campus coffeeshop affectionately known as my "office." A slight breeze ruffles the slender trees framed in the sunlight streaming through picture-glass windows. I sit with my coffee, open my book, search for my pencil, and get to work.

Days like these remind me to be thankful.

Fall is my favorite season. The creeping cold brings welcome respite from the summer's scorching heat, the plants spring back to life, and it becomes again possible to sleep with the windows cracked open, under a cool evening breeze. And for some reason, perhaps a telling mark of my American upbringing, fall seems to be a season of exceptional gratefulness. It offers a gentle reminder of the beauty of the city I call home, a chance to marvel at the wonder of changing trees, and the rediscovery of simple joys of hot drinks and curling up under a warm blanket. 

I finally caught up on my photo editing after weeks of being buried in other, more pressing tasks, and it was wonderful to stop, slow down, and remember some of the things I've seen and made in the past few months.

This morning I have a few photos of sunflowers to share-- the last remnants of summer that found their way to my table, a reminder to be grateful for passing beauty, a happy pop of color on a Monday morning. I am thankful for sunflowers and sunshine. And I now happily look forward to fall. 

All photos belong to Kara Haberstock, all rights reserved

Photos for Wednesday: Daffodils

I'm back!
I apologize for my prolonged absence-- the last week of classes are always crazy. But I'm done with regular classes, two papers and one final are finished, and I only have one more exam and one more paper to do.
So before I go back to studying, I thought I'd share some photos of a lovely bunch of daffodils that graced my kitchen table for a little while. Daffodils are always a cheerful addition to the kitchen, and in the first morning light they can be especially lovely:

All photos taken by Kara Haberstock, April 2012, all rights reserved

Photos for Wednesday: The Desert in Spring

Tucson really is a pretty place in the springtime. It's not as green as a lot of places, and it's still a desert and quite brown, but there are so many lovely, strange plants that explode with vibrant flowers and colors and a few lonely plants that do deck themselves in green. And in someways, the backdrop of brown makes that life all the more noticeable:

All photos taken by Kara Haberstock at Tucson Botanical Gardens, March 2012, all rights reserved

Photos for Wednesday: Madeo

A few yearsback, I had the opportunity to spend about two months teaching English in Kazakhstan. It was a fantastic summer, and I got to see all sorts of amazing places. If you ever have the chance to go to Central Asia, do it! It's an incredible place. Here are a few photos I took when we went hiking up in the Tien Shan mountains above Almaty:

All photos taken by Kara Haberstock, July 2010, all rights reserved

Photos for Wednesday: Callas in Pink (aka My Ode to Fresh Flowers)

Calla lilies might be my favorite flowers. These pink ones were especially pretty on my kitchen table:

I love flowers. I love that in the spring especially you can get all sort of fun, fresh flowers. I love going to Trader Joe's because right by the front door they have bunches and bunches of fresh flowers that won't completely empty out your wallet, and the flowers they have aren't just your stereotypical carnations and roses but rather a whole array of colorful, unusual, intriguing flowers, some of which I have never seen before and almost have a hard time believing that they actually come off a real plant.
Also, Trader Joe's sells calla lilies in the spring (and they're my favorite).

Are flowers practical? No, not really. They are cut parts of plant that you stick in water in hopes that they die more slowly. If you're lucky they might last for a week. But in some ways, I think that makes them even more beautiful. For a few days they grace your table or windowsill with the beauty of their presence, an extra-ordinary pop of color that you can't help but notice and smile.
In some ways they remind us of ourselves. Isaiah 40:6 reads,

All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. 

We are fleeting and frail creatures. We must enjoy the beauty of our presence here now. A few days on the table and we are gone.

Really, though, the philosophical reminder of my own impending demise is not the root of my love for fresh flowers, as poetic as that might be. Honestly, I think flowers are beautiful and that beauty brings a smile to my face and brings joy to others as well. A little life in the kitchen is always a good thing, a welcome distraction from what is distinctly un-beautiful in the world.
The summer after my junior year of high school, I finally obtained my driver's license and began to taste the freedom that a car and a set of keys can provide. That summer, my mum also fell ill again, and with her particular genetic disorder, coming back from an illness is quite a bit more difficult for her than most. My shiny new driver's license allowed me to take over the errands and the grocery shopping while she recovered at home, and the previously unspent allowances and babysitting earnings from prior years meant I had a bit of money saved up. So most weeks, when I made the errand circuit, or sometimes just on the way home from a friend's house or some event, I stopped in the Trader Joe's on the way home and picked out the most colorful bouquet I could find. Lilies were were her favorite. She always smiled when I brought them home.

So, I suppose I love flowers because they make hard days better, illness and pain a little bit more bearable, and generally bring a smile to the face of most who encounter them. Their beauty may be temporary and their life in the makeshift wine bottle vase not too long, but it is a bit of life where there wasn't any before.
I don't make too much of a habit of buying flowers (it's a bit too much for my poor-college-student-budget). But these came home with me on a particularly hard and overwhelming day when it was good to have something lively and uplifting to cheer up the kitchen table. They made me smile.

All photos taken by Kara Haberstock, February 2012, all rights reserved
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Photos for Wednesday: Spring

Spring has officially come to Arizona and it's lovely! I like to celebrate by bringing it indoor. My kitchen table has been bedecked in spring since last Wednesday:

PS: Don't you love my Trader Joe's vases? I've been collecting glass bottles for a year for some eventual awesome DIY project.


All photos taken by Kara Haberstock, February 2012, all rights reserved