Updates, various, sort of

Radishes making headway in the pots on the deck, above.


Little lettuce mix, too.


Last Thursday, L and I went to Atlanta to see Junot Díaz and Anita Desai read. Plus we went out to dinner at a Thai restaurant and stayed overnight! A true splurge.



Here's a video of Junot:



A little of Anita Desai:



We also had TV with HBO in our room, where we watched something alarmingly fascinating called Taxi Cab Confessions.

We had planned to go to Knitch and various other shops in Virginia Highlands, but it was TEEMING so hard we scuttled up the highway home. After being honked at several times for being in the wrong lane. Sorry Atlantans!

Music Monday!!

Music Monday

i love this movie! i saw it with some of my friends and we all cried, along with everyone else in the theatre.
-L

sauerkraut

Just a very brief post on my success—yes, that's right, success—creating sauerkraut. All for only one dollar and nineteen cents.

Last Friday, I shredded a large head of cabbage, layered it in a giant Hellman's mayonnaise jar with salt, put a piece waxed paper over and a weight on top. Then a blue tea towel I received over all. We pressed on the weight whenever we happened by and added some water the second day because the cabbage hadn't exuded enough of its own juices.

We followed a combination of techniques (neither not much different from the other) from these two books:

Theme Thursday: Vegetable

This year, we are growing, or attempting to grow, vegetables from seed. Here the scheme is to keep the cats away by letting the seedlings start above their eye line. Tomatoes cherry and Rutgers, sweet peppers, basil, parsley, and dill started last weekend. Perhaps a bit late.

sewn in pots: beets, lettuce, carrots:

Radishes, planted two weeks ago; chicken wire scheme working like a charm so far. No squirrels or cats.



Lettuce mix appearing on cue:

Finally, plot 18 at the community garden a few weeks ago. D has turned in manure and mulch, and is planning on doing so again today. Some of the plants we started are to be transplanted here (or seedlings purchased, if the seeds don't sprout). D has already met several other gardeners here, and has had quite a convivial time. We were 7th on the waiting list for this 25 x 3 foot plot, so I was surprised to get a call in February saying we could claim it if we wanted. The CSA we had been sharing just got too expensive for us this year; we've had a downturn in our own economy, so we are looking forward to the sweat equity involved here. The result will be that much sweeter.



Two excellent sources of information and recipes. I recommend them both.

Music Monday!

This is a song that we found because we watched The Visitor the other day and loved the drumming. Looking on its website, we found that all the music was inspired by Fela Kuti

COOL!
-L

Saturday

Frank, coming home last summer.

Yesterday, our local animal shelter, to sweeten the deal, started offering black cat adoptions for only $13.00 per (to honor Friday the 13th and to dispel any phobias about black cats). I love my black and tuxie cats. They are without peer in the realm.

I was reading this Mary Oliver poem the other day; click to read it yourself, if you wish:


I do eat Marmite; here is my jar.


What D and I bustled around doing this afternoon. The outside looks pretty good, no? Baguettes are pretty pricey around here, so we thought we'd use our pizza stone and sweat equity to try our hand at homemade. Tempeh bar b cue in the pot.


i think my blogging deflation may be over; i've been working on a v. downbeat nursing manual, and it will be done tomorrow. yea. plus I received an award from E!

Music Monday!

Music Monday!

this is pretty, maybe a little too church-y though!!!
-L

Sunday

There is snow today, but temperatures in the seventies by the end of the week.

I am glad I have work to do, both inside and out. We spent the afternoon yesterday cleaning up the herb garden, pulling up spent seed heads, cutting back the butterfly bush.

Prayer
–Galway Kinnell

Whatever happens. Whatever
what is is is what
I want. Only that. But that.