Sunday, October 18, 2009

winter nesting





i know i'm predictable. every year around this time I check back in here and give my usual diatribe about how much I adore the rainy season.

oh, the rain. ah, yes. we had our first hard rain this past week and it has set me full force into nesting mode. i'm coming to realize that i may not be much for spring cleaning, that when the summer is about to break, my mind has already wandered outdoors and is climbing a plum tree or pitching a tent by the river. but the winter makes me want to purge all my stuff, to clean house, to make room to hunker down, flick on my desk lamp, and work and make and do and think.


And right this second, it makes me want to can all the last bits of summer deliciousness and squirrel them away so that when the winter chill sets in and my bones are damp and I'm putting on another wool sweater, I can crack open a jar of summer salsa or bartlett pears, and dig in to that sweet summer fruit, rejuvenated and ready to pull my fingerless gloves back on and set back to work.



Thursday, October 1, 2009

Produce to the People


This seems an appropriate time to breach the subject of what I've been up to in my gaping absence from this little account of my day to day.  I started a very small, very rough around the edges, non-profit that harvests backyard produce, works on community gardening projects, and creates green summer jobs for high school students.  





Produce to the People.  That's it.  It's been (and continues to be) a wholly amazing and wholly exhausting experience.  It's pushed my boundaries in all sorts of directions, and made me really check in with myself about what's important and what to let go.  I have met, worked with, and shared food with some of the most beautiful folks, hung out with some of the most brilliant and caring teenagers, and eaten some of the most delicious produce, grown within a 3 or 4 mile radius of my home.  I feel really lucky to be in this place right now, right here, and see where the road leads.




So right now, I can hardly believe it, but the road is taking me full circle to Produce to the People being featured on Studio Choo's "We like it Wild" section of Design Sponge.  It is surreal because I've been reading DS for years, since I was a materials librarian and much more deeply involved in the art and design world, and since my library cohort was the lovely Lia Thomas, who now works with Jill and Alethea of Studio Choo.  So serendipitous!    




A million thanks to Lia and Studio Choo and Design Sponge, and to all the readers who had such nice and generous comments. I'll be here, picking fruit, sewing seeds, making things, and thinking about stuff, so stay in touch!