Over the weekend I constructed myself a tiny travel watercolor kit and I’m pretty jazzed about it. I’ve been kicking around the idea of a year-long project like Justin’s poetry project, but with watercolors. The paintings would be small, and should take no longer than 20 minutes: a daily, meditative practice. A few years ago…
Category: nature
As is tradition in our collective family, we went camping for “birthday week.” I guess it has been a while since we’ve camped at Cape Cod, what with a global pandemic and high anxiety and all, but this year we were able to make it back for a visit. The campground we like to visit…
Categories
Fool’s Spring
At the end of every winter in New England there is a period of time we sometimes call “fool’s spring,” which starts with an unseasonably glorious and warm day which makes you think actual spring has started. Today was that day. It was a sunny, warm, and delightful 63F by 11am today. We took advantage…
Categories
Bayberries
Gosh, we’ve been so busy these past few weeks that I’m not even sure where to begin regarding our newfound obsession with bayberries. I guess it’s been about three weeks since my last post, so I’ll try to recap as best I can. A few weeks back we were exploring the woods that line the…
Categories
Rabbit Tobacco
In these very home-bound and isolated times, Justin and I have found the pastime of taking afternoon / early evening “nature baths” in our local wooded parks. We live within feet to a river that opens out into a bay a few miles south, so the landscape is part brackish swamp with an overtone of…
Categories
Tomato Powder
This year has been a lot of things, many of which have been a bummer, but I guess if there’s a lining somewhere, it’s in the tomato season. This year’s tomatoes have been straight fire, and there’s still more to come. September is the harvest month for tomatoes around these parts; at least, that’s how…
Categories
Chickpea Chronicles
In mid-May, I was just crazy about sprouting things. I was sprouting our regular spicy seed mix (sandwiches & salads) that we get at The Green Grocer, but also mung beans for nime chow, and chickpeas for hummus. Before we ground up the chickpeas into sprouted hummus and falafel (both delicious, by the way), I…
Categories
Kitchen Garden
The little cottage garden is starting to really come together. Justin & I have been collecting our pistachio & peanut shells since September. Originally, I had planned to use them as mulch for the garden beds, but then when I realized that the mulch for the ground around the sideyard area was worn and thin,…
Well, it was the first consistently nice day all week, so Justin and I decided to take a day trip out to the Book Barn in Niantic, CT, and meet up with Eggie, Darian & Aivar at the beach. We love the Book Barn all the time, but especially in Covid Times because much of…
There’s, like, eight feet of snow outside. We can’t even open the back door. I’ve been digging out the back door by harvesting snow to feed my carnivorous plants (they are fickle and don’t like city water). Meanwhile, INSIDE the apartment, it’s like some kind of freakshow blooming parade! An orchid that bloomed a couple weeks…
Oh. My. Stars. My friend, Petra, invited me to go with her, her husband and her sister to Niantic for their annual pilgrimage to the 30% off book sale at the Book Barn. So first of all: The Book Barn. My first visit to The Book Barn was with my dear friend Eggie a few…
Categories
The Storm Has Passed
Well, it is January, and we had a storm. It is New England, after all, and we’ve been pretty lucky with a reasonably warm winter thus far. I heard the total accumulation was only 18″ or something, but some of our drifts are waist-high, as you can see here: Really, it’s so pretty, that I’m…
I’m tending some chickens, and I hope to be great. A little side job came up for a backyard chicken / garden handyperson, and apparently, my boots fit the poops. Today was my first day, and it was supposed to rain, but never did. It was a bit more tha 50F, which was a welcomed…
Things are moving along smoothly as we make our transition from summer to autumn in New England. The nights and mornings are noticeably chillier; the sun is a bit weaker and sets earlier. I have started bringing my plants in as well as re-potted many indoor plants that had outgrown their homes over the summer.…
We started the sauerkraut today. One cabbage looks like it’s going to make a bit less than one half gallon. These are exciting times, my friends! The contraptions on top of the jars are called Kraut Kaps, and we got them from Amazon. I forgot to save a cabbage leaf for the weight, but I had…