SF Bryant Street / The Mission 2012 - archive

When we lived on Bryant Street in the Mission in San Francisco

Birgit was visiting me, these were the days before she had a Greencard, and every day when I cam back from the Glass studio she had made another crochet neck warmer in response to the relatively chilly apartment we were subletting at the time. 

For a brief period we pondered turning this is not a side income but quickly realised that the yarn cost more to buy than people wanted to pay for the handmade product that took Birgit a whole day to make. This is why we import so much from places with lower labour costs. It's a shame. There is a quality of experience that we here simply don't have time for. The slow handmade crafts are relegated to whimsical hobby. 

Well, I think I look fun in this photo. How do you like me with facial hair? 

2023: almost July

Birgit and I are uncovering old photos from the archives of our life together and gathering them here, in no particular oder to create a trace of the life we have lived together so far. Remembering the places we have been, and the unconventional life we have lead.

See you in the next post. 

Jason in Liverpool: A video from the archive...

It's been quiet on these pages.. here are some news

A post for any family still sometimes checking in and wondering why there is only tumbleweed for news: Life has taken over and we are busy working our way through establishing Jason's glassblowing career, with the to be expected learning curves.

Apologies for the shortness of the update but here is at least a life-signal from us:

Jason is working a lot, creating some of his own glass and working for a new company (he started working with them in 2015) and giving a lot of glassblowing classes.

When not busy in the class studio he finally was able to return to his serious Tai Chi practice, which keeps us in the Bay Area as the teacher is sort of like Yoda but for Tai Chi. We do everything we can for Jason to be able to stay with his teacher as much as possible now. (We missed 3 full months of classes due to life interventions this summer, so much lost time, but we are focusing forward).

This autumn we have 2 pet- & house-sitting engagements lined up and are going to try and fill in the month of December, too, so that we can hopefully get Jason's work represented in Christmas and Seasonal retail...

We welcome suggestions of low cost craft sales with customers willing to spend between $30 - $300 on an heirloom gift item . And we also welcome suggestions for galleries and representation for Jason's high end work that we would love to focus on more.

Please DO check out

• Jason's glass website: www.jasonstropko.wordpress.com
• Jason's glassblowing classes: https://www.verlocal.com/vl/26442
• The high end glass shop: http://jasonstropko.bigcartel.com

Beautiful sunflower seed and pomegranate seeds made from glass. The pomegranate seeds are translucent and light shines through them beautifully, while the sunflower seed, just like a real seed: is solid, opaque and very life like! Incredible skillsmanship by Jason Stropko!

Clear Glass acorns are one of Jason's most affordable, entry level creations for those who love his work and want to start small with immediately supporting the arts and filling their home with such a symbolic heirloom as an acorn, the seed for an oak tree... These are beautiful gifts for anybody who faces a new stage in their lives, for anybody whom you would like to give a get-well gift to, or for example for couples who embark on a life together with their first home, engagement or wedding! We purposely keep the price on these gorgeous light-catching pieces of art in the low range. We really want everybody to be able to own an entry level piece of Jason's. 

At the moment we are renting an adorable garden cottage in El Cerrito and will be here until our pet-sitting employments start up in mid-October. 

While investing our whole beings into Jason's own business we are happy to be flexible with living arrangements and it is so much fun meeting people's pets, getting to know their little characters and caring for them while testing out life in all different parts of San Francisco ( we have been focusing our pet-sittings on San Francisco because then they double up as opportunities for Birgit to photograph the city and it's quirks more readily, without needing to leave the pets in our care for longer than a handful of hours at most. 

Many pets that we look after receive their own petsitter because they need & deserve the attention and company, they often are used to family life and not being alone and this generally is the main reason we get hired. We have been taking our commitments really serious and treated each animal with the same love as we would our own, even the single puppy who simply was annoyed with us the entire time we were there to look after her and the cat. It turned out that the cat's bad temper that we were warned about melted into kitty-cat, soft pawed love, but the puppy just looked at us with every look like as if to say "WHAT did you both do with my family? Bring them back now you horrid humans." We gave her love, walks, treats but to no avail. This must have been the most loyal family dog that we have ever met. We felt so sad for her, she was clearly very upset, but there just was nothing more we could do but keep on being lovely and help her bridge this period of missing her folks as best we could. 

I am super happy to be able to confirm that this was the only time we experienced such a level of sadness in a pet. All other animals so far just decided to love us right back and welcomed us to be their temporary custodians.

us, 2015 on my birthday.

 

Jason (Glassmaker) and Birgit (Artist, Photographer) are Houssitting in San Francisco and the East Bay

This post is quite dated (I add this note in May 2015)  but I will leave it up as it is until I have more time to work on Jason's blog again. 

This is from Autumn 2013, just before Jason returned to the San Francisco Bay Area for his job at the Glass Studio in Richmond (Cohn Stones Studios)

The picture below is yet more recent, from a ferry trip from Oakland to San Francisco, 2013.
Jason doesn't normally have a moustache, I think it was Movember and we all know that it is men's health awareness month, right? And to make all men think about their health (particularly prostrate health) somewhat more everybody should sport a moustache. Jason did his duties and now the world might be a better place.. We hope..

moustache - mustache ?

We are house sitting in San Francisco

So it is official: since Tuesday we are house sitting and looking after one lovely dog and two super soft cats, right in San Francisco, somewhere on California Street..

The animals need special attention and a certain amount of company which is why we have the opportunity to swap pet care (and basic home care) for a month of free accommodation somewhere not far from Golden Gate Park, the Golden Gate Bridge and even a glorious beach. It is quite a commitment that we took on, acting for animals can be a bit like caring for children, in as far as you really can't casually neglect them because you would like to go and follow some impromptu plans instead.

So our lives for the next four weeks will be planned very much around the animal needs. It's good practice for thinking about having pets again ourselves in the future ( or even small humans). So far the dog is the impersonification of well behaved and the cats, well we have a hard time stopping cuddling them, they are easily the most relaxed and welcome cats we have ever met.

Currently our plans for the next 3 months look like this:
4 weeks house sitting {June - July}
4 weeks paying rent at a friends's place in the Mission, also in San Francisco, a central location {July - August}
4 weeks house sitting for Jason's uncle and aunt {August - September}

Which takes us to September and it is somewhat crunch time to plan ahead. Jason harbours phantasies of continuing house sitting beyond the summer, but that is only practical if we find an opportunity in the Bay Area as Jason's boss will be back from holiday and the glass-making will start up again, erects much full time.

Unless Jason's own work starts selling, in which case our options open up somewhat.

We a celebrating our 5 year anniversary since we met this July, it's pretty exciting. Such a long time with such an amazing human being.

Posted with Blogsy

"Someone's" birthday

a rare photo of Jason & Birgit

at the Massage School

picknic

Yoga in the park with Birgit and Jason

actually there's no Birgit on the video, just Jason, but she was

definitely on her mat, doing much the same as Jason. The whole

practice takes us about 90 minutes to 2 hours. It doesn't feel that

long when you're doing it. Very relaxing and refreshing.

catching up ...

... on the events and things we did over the last week.

So saturday the 23rd was Birgit's birthday and below some of the day's itinerary:Jason made pancakes for breakfast on his camping stove, we waited for a replacement electric cooker to arrive (as Birgit's had given up the will to live and couldn't be fixed until after the weekend). Then dashed off to Princes Park, which is at the end of the road to see the Carnival parade of the week long Brouhaha Festival.

Then we got some veggy food in the park and saw the Hip Hop Circus (after much delay and waiting around).

This made the day great.. Then we went to Yoga class and at last had dinner, I forgot what dinner was but Jason made a wonderful tiramisu and is now ready and prepared to work in Italy as a tiramisu chef.

and Jason made coffee granita, too....

We watched a cooking program by Rick Stein, who is a well known TV chef in England and learnt about northern Spanish cooking. Jason was inspired to buy chorizo at the next best opportunity (monday). This sample video of Rick Stein cooking is actually from Morocco, so it's not what we saw, but if you want to know who Rick Stein is, this will do fine:

Sunday we cleaned the flat and as soon as we were done Birgit's friends swarmed in (in comemmoration of her birthday the day before) and we were a little surprised, it was probably obvious and to be expected that lots of people would come but somehow we were a little sleepy and had simply forgotten that people were invited..

A lentil dal saved the day. It was a lovely afternoon! And some friends also bought stuff from Birgit's 'house-shop' (we had to turn the bedroom into a EVERYTHING in HERE is FOR SALE ROOM.. ) And Alex took home one of Jason's glass works. We've been invited to visit her in Leeds where we can stay with her (in exchange for more glass - sounds like a great deal.)

Monday: we escaped from the flat before anybody could come and visit us and went to the beach. It's tough being loved and having friends.. ;)

We sat in the beech forest on our Yoga Mats and did a combined 108 rounds of OM. Jason may tell you more about that himself perhaps..

We walked along the beach and through the shallow water, collected more shells and left over homes of crabs and eventually were driven into town by hunger. So we took the train back to Liverpool Center and ordered Panini's at a Spanish tapas place. needless to say the flavour was good but our wallets got a little shock. So we do tend to stick to cooking lentils for pennies at home most days. Or at least many days. Eating out is almost always disappointing and to pay to be disappointed is just not right. But we had a nice time. Jason's chorizo panini was good and so was Birgit's (non chorizo - but veggy). We felt lazy so we just cycled to the train station and hopped on the train with our bicycles to ride the train the 3 stops home.

I bet we cooked lentils that evening.

p.s. Jason bought a chorizo, which makes him happy.

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PHOTOS COMING UP AFTER DINNER. - please return in an hour or two. or even tomorrow.x

Spending time with a holy cow

Jason discovered a wall to practice his spiderman moves on...

meeting (mad) people:

These pictures are a few weeks old:

befriending a penguin

teaching the penguin how to be cross eyed... ?

no comment

Manchester China Town

Jason took this photo! We spotted this lady in Manchester.

friends we lunch with (candid shot as they really don't like photos)

buttering a muffin..