oh vacation, i miss you already.

i've been back from vacation for over a week now, but considering i spent the majority of that week with the blankets pulled up over my snotty, fevery, flu riddled head, i'm just now getting back into the swing of things. and while i'm quite happy to welcome a whole new year, i wouldn't be giving due diligence to the end of this past lovely year without a quick nod to my good friend, vacation. i know i checked in from South Carolina (you remember, the week before xmas that i spent in a t-shirt and shorts at the beach?), and on from there I hopped the train up to Virginia to visit my bro, sis-in-law, and most lovely little potato niece. We hung out a few days, cooked, ate, slept in, watched bad movies, blew bubbles, and danced with the robot frosty-the-snowman. Then we piled in the car and headed up to my folks place in Delaware, for some more rest, cookies, wine, crazy dog, naps on the couch, knitting, more bad movies, good china, and time with friends and family. oh, and what trip wouldn't be complete with a little local seed saving and plant dividing? all the last minute 2008 catch up follows... i got good feelings for this new year and am so happy to share 2009 with you all! yipee!

train sunset


mini tree hug!


suburban homesteading


don't sweat my stellar friendship bracelets (thanks kristy!)


such patience


yay!

more from the beach

homemade vinegar

yes, yes. as you may know, i have deep and boundless love and respect for microorganisms (you know, the non-pathogenic kind), especially my two very good friends, the decomposers and the fermenters. really though, they're always working on something, making stuff, helping out, and in the end they come up with some of my favorite things... compost, and in turn nutrients and humus, and in turn delicious veggies. pickles and miso and yogurt and, you know, booze. yep, they're good guys to have in your corner, and once you get to know them, they might even be willing to help out with your xmas gifts.

i admittedly make vinegar (and a good handful of other ferments) all year long, but there's something that just feels right about reaching in the back of the cabinet around "holiday time" and pulling out a bunch of jars of stuff you've been making all year, packing it up and giving it to your loved ones. my fam this year opted for secret santa, but since i don't get to see everyone but twice a year, i bring homemade vinegar and jam, and local (to me) olive oil, butter (have i mentioned that i love butter?), and honey from the farmers market. i love food, and i love making food and sharing food, so why not share the love, right?

anyways, making vinegar is super simple, one of the easiest ferments because it's just not that particular. this year i'm giving out red wine and apple cider(ish) vinegar. to make the red wine vinegar, you just put your leftover slugs of red wine in a jar and put a cloth over it so it can breathe but no bugs or dust get in it. then you let it sit. and smell or taste it every now and again. til it's vinegar. yep. that's it. then you pour some out and bottle it, and save a little to add to, which becomes your vinegar "mother". the cider vinegar happens pretty much the same way. this current batch of mine came from apples that my lovely roomie gregory brought home from the lady he works for. i juiced them (rather than pressed them the way cider happens), left the juice in a cloth covered jar, and let it sit. i like to leave the sediment in the cider vinegar, but you can strain it out if it doesn't suit you. and that's it!

save and reuse some pretty jars, make cute labels, and voila! delicious and homemade gifts!

i could get used to this

hello from vacation, friends.

i am currently writing you from my wonderful and brilliant friend kinsley's couch in a delightful little house across the street from the beach in South Carolina. It was 74 degrees here today while i slept in til noon, and while i ate breakfast on the porch, and while i threw the ball into the ocean for the dog and collected shells, and while we decorated the xmas tree. It had probably cooled down to about 65 when kinsley took me on a tour of the island, the crabbin' spot, pink and george's farm stand, the piggly wiggly, and might have even gotten down to 60 while we made gingerbread and mashed potatoes with gravy AND sour cream. yes, vacation, i have missed you.





i'm about to head off to bed now, so i can sleep until i naturally wake up (sans my hateful, psychic clock radio), or until kinsley heads off to work and buddy the dog hops into my bed, gives me three thousand kisses and then rolls over on his back and falls asleep with his legs straight up in the air.

forlorn ghosts

i was cruising around with a new-ish friend the other day and flipped a u-turn mid-street and mid-sentence and explained that i needed to pick up chairs off the side of the road. that it was just a thing i needed to do and that these particular chairs looked like philipe starck 'louis ghost' knock-offs and that i loved designer knock-offs in this way that's definitely wrong for someone who is so dedicated to the handmade object to love designer knock-offs, but i just do. so i grabbed the filthy road side chairs, tossed them in the back of the wagon, and he didn't bat an eyelash, bless his little heart, and off we went.

later i got home, dragged said dirty chairs in the house and started to wipe the pond scum off of them, and much to my surprise, there was the 'kartell' stamp. they are the real deal!

my garbage picking luck even amazes me sometimes!

change is in the air

it's true. thick and swampy change, just dangling there off tail ends of the oxygen molecules (although in san francisco, it might very well be tangled up somewhere between the hydrogen and oxygen).

it feels good. nervous and a little frantic, but GOOD.

anyone who spends any time with me at all knows how enthusiastic i am about the coming of the rain. it's time for new growth, winter crops, big steps, hunkering down, brainstorming, making, appreciating what you have, shedding and amending. embracing change. i love this time of year when the rains come. love love love it.

i've already started my new years resolutions, and i am feeling dedicated. i've also started a list of things accomplish by new years and these lists are equally lofty my friends, but i am feeling perseverant and motivated, and well, willing to accept a 50% success rate on both, which i suppose means i'm feeling realistic in my idealism.

ah. well, not to get you all pumped up and then split, but it's my day off and i'm on my second cup of british breakfast, so i've got to be on the move. maybe more later, maybe not. no unsure promises... maybe i should add that to my resolution list?

antics of my soothsaying clock radio

i have this warped idea that the song that i wake up to when my clock radio goes off in the morning has something to say about my life or my day. it's really too much power to give to a clock radio, i admit, but it has been eerily accurate on more than one occasion, so i give it a little credit when it's due.

this morning i woke up to "i still haven't found what I'm looking for" a la U2. i hit the snooze. i woke again to fleetwood mac's 'landslide', and if that wasn't bad enough in general it was the "i'm getting older too" line that fuzzed in as the radio clicked on. It could have only been better if "can i handle the seasons of my life?" was creeping through the static.

geez louise.