camp and quarry: making stuff and doing things in the pacific northwest

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Above you see what my neighbourhood looked like in 1890 and more or less what it looks like now. What change 120 years can bring! If you have access to your city or town's photo archives take a look sometime soon. It's amazing what you can learn about your part of the world by looking at a few photos from The Olden Times. I could spend hours digging through such files. 

I became interested in our neighbourhood history for two reasons: one being that I've been doing historical research for the design studio that I'm TA-ing after the February reading break and, two, because of the interesting history of our building. When I have more time I'm going to do some more searching and see what I can come up with. In the meantime, here are a few more photos from our place. I've decided to save the record collection for a post all its own some time in the future. What do you collect?

Looking at this I realize that we rarely buy new furniture. All of the above is stuff we've been given, found on Craig's List, or bought second (or fifth hand). Even Lola! Well...it's true. We got her from the Cochrane SPCA in Alberta. And just so you know she's just trying to look depressed so we'll give her another dinner.

Two parts of the same little shelving unit. Above is a photo I bought for Jeff at the Fort Langley antique mall last spring. Yup, that man is giving that deer a piggyback ride, except I think he also killed the deer, though it looks very animated in this photo. Specimens of desert rose, geodes, and quartz, some pine incense, and a loupe mark the beginnings of a growing cabinet of curiosities. Below you can see our travel books and nerdy nature reference manuals. We like to travel and look at birds and trees. The truth is out.

I miss being in NYC and have this little reminder of Brooklyn and the awesome time we had their last summer. There were some really good trees to look at there! Below are some old garden design books that my mom brought for me this time around and some vintage paperbacks that we're using for a special project later this year. Hope you have a great day!