Art

A double espresso is 15 grams of uniformly ground bean, 9 bars of pressure at the group head, and a 30 second pull at 92ºC (±2º). If you have ever stood by my side as I pulled a shot, you have heard this stated as fact. I suspect on some Platonic level it is fact. I also freely admit a certain amount of pride in both knowing this magical formula and being able to extract espresso that tastes great by using this formula. It’s not surprising then that I have invested a certain amount of confidence in said numbers. Today that confidence was utterly and totally shattered by the owner of Ltd Espresso. ...

More than a year ago, when we had bought the boat but hadn’t moved aboard yet I found this print while reading Kind Over Matter. It says, “it is in all of us to defy expectations to go into the world and to be brave; and to want, to need, to hunger for adventures; to embrace change and chance and risk so that we may breathe and know what it is to be free.” I knew with certainty that we were on the right life path—about to live on our boat while we got ready to travel the world—but I took her message as a huge encouragement. Her prints and her original works are listed on her etsy store and I’ve gone back many times to look and wished that I had a wall for a print. Last week I decided to order an 8x10 print even if I was only going to tape it up on the hanging locker door. ...