centacentacenta

Everyday I wake up and open my blinds to these palm fronds. 

A piece from a new series I’ve started. Working title: HAIR, FUR

(Photo by Centa Schumacher)

Growing up I was fascinated by the manuka, I short shrub with rose-like flowers. I would pick them and put them in my little ponies’ hair. 

This plant is from New Zealand, where Captain Cook once used the flowers to make tea. 

(photos by Centa Schumacher)

Hibiscus flowers are beautiful and make a righteous tea, but to be honest they weren’t really among my favorite flowers until my honeymoon in Mexico. One of the guys working at the hotel where were were staying showed us that iguanas love to snack on the flowers. 

Now every time I see them I think of this little dude, who I must have given almost 10 flowers to over the week I was there. 

(photos by Centa Schumacher)

Carnations don’t get enough love. They are delicate looking and come in a wide variety of colors, and they last forever when cut. Plus, they’re really inexpensive. 

That’s not why I like them though. I had a dream about them: I was in a lab with a scientist in a white lab coat. She asked me if I wanted to know how she figured out the answers to her scientific questions, and when I nodded she led me into a dim room with a vase of carnation buds at the center. “I’ve programmed these flowers to help me solve equations. They don’t always make sense, you have to know how to interpet them.” Then she pressed a button and the carnations began to bloom. In the petals were small symbols and letters. “I think I get it,” I said. 

(Btw, I’m baaaack)

Do you remember the massive developing chart up in the darkroom at school? And running back desperately to see how long you needed to push Tri-X and thinking, “Dear god please let me not have let it go on too long,”? 

Good, great, excellent news for you: Digital Truth Photo has made both an iPhone and Android app that has all of the dev times you’ll ever need. The full app ($8.99) is kept up to date and has a timer included, but the free version has enough data for me and my occasional film developing. 

Upon reading this back it totally looks like I’m shilling for this company but I just think this would be pretty handy to anyone who develops their own film. 

I used to have a guinea pig named Daisy. She was an albino, with pink eyes and ears. These flowers remind me of her. 

This giant raven lives near SFSU’s art department and I feed him chips every once in a while. He tolerates me. 

Marigolds are easy to grow and make any garden cheerful. They’re also edible. I know this because when my little sister was a toddler she often used to eat the marigolds out of my mother’s garden. 

These were some of the biggest marigolds I had ever seen, so I scooped them up at wholefoods and took them home. They’re African Marigolds, I later learned, and one website I read claimed that their fresh petals tasted great over roasted broccoli. I’ll have to tell my sister. 

(photograph by Centa Schumacher)

It’s that time of year again. 

As soon as the light lessens and the temperature begins to chill a little, the spiders come. There must be over 20 orb weavers in the plants in front of my apartment right now, all patiently waiting for their prey. 

Say what you want about spiders, but there aren’t any flies in my kitchen right now. I think they’re pretty cool. 

(photograph by Centa Schumacher)