Coffee in Costa Rica /  by Becca White

Since starting graduate school my average consumption of coffee has significantly increased, and that is saying a lot since my job before graduate school was managing a coffee shop. After fall quarter ended, it was a really nice to take a break from 3D modeling, and Adobe suite and get my hands dirty on a product that I consume so much of on a daily basis. It is always rewarding to see the source of a product where it is grown, whether that is a garden in your backyard, and orchard, or in this case the coffee farm. 

When I returned to Costa Rica this year I was so happy to see the coffee bushes heavy with red and yellow cherries. This was the first real coffee harvest since the property was essentially abandoned for several years, leaving the coffee plants unhealthy and totally overgrown. Dan has also been making serious progress with the little house on the property including pouring a new concrete and stone slab floor, rehabilitating an outdoor stove and some general site clean up. It was also a huge treat to spend Christmas eve with Wilbreth's family picking coffee, and learning how to make tamales!

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Wedding Blanket /  by Becca White

So after 12 skeins of yarn, and about 9 months of working off and on, Ben and Katelyn's wedding afghan is finally completed! Just in time for the fall. I used 'Puffin' in egret from Quince yarn company in Maine, and a pattern from Jared Flood. 

Texture and Rhythm /  by Becca White

Walking around Stockholm it is impossible not to notice the richness of the city in the orange and yellows of the buildings, and the layers of styles through time. This creates such a wonderful richness, but what has fascinated me the most, is the Swedes well-crafted use of brick, and wood to create patterns, and graininess, almost like a woven textile. The use of pattern and texture can be found at the building, and city scale as well.

Picnic gazebo

Brick detail

Ceiling in the gardener's building at the Woodland Cemetery (Gunnar Asplund)

Brick and Birch at Sigurd Lewerentz's Church of St. Mark

Pavers outside City Hall

Nothing is random with Peter Celsing at St. Thomas Church

Circular cobblestones mark out the pedestrian dominated areas of the world's "first modern suburb" in Vällingby.

Shadows cast on the modern townhouses, built for the Stockholm exhibition in 1933. 

Seating at the outdoor theater in SOFO (South of Folkungagatan)

Midsommarsafton in Finland /  by Becca White

After a few nights in Helsinki getting acclimated to the time zone we made the trip up to Sulkava for some midsummer festivities. This included a feast made by Arya our hostess, nature crowns, aquavit toasts, saunas, bonfires and late night boat rides to islands. 

our feast

sweet nature crown

chilling by the bonfire

sunset canoe trip to the little island. (at about 11:45 pm)

Spring morel! /  by Becca White

After a morning of searching for the illusive morel with no luck. All it took was an evening walk around on some friends new property to stumble upon this gem!

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