New Gardens

The last few weeks have been very busy, with my busy season at work coming up, Lewis to tend to, and other things on my mind. I had my gum surgery and recovered from it so nicely that I am a teaching sample at Harvard Dental School! I joked with a few people that I hope I can use this to get an honorary degree and put it on my wall.

But this post isn't about teeth or kittens or being busy. It's about planning a new garden.

With the warm weather and all the snow melting, not to mention Crate and Barrel emailing me pretty things almost daily, my mind has been wandering to the Bistro and what plants I want to put there. The Bistro is our porch. A friend of Ricky's dubbed it The Bistro during a party, and it's stuck ever since. Right now it only has some patio furniture, empty pots, and the remnants of dead plants that have been covered with snow for about 4 months. It's time to pretty the space up!

MSL had an article about growing gardens in small spaces, which I learned a lot from. It's all about using what space you have, and knowing what plants to grow based on the limitations of space. Her pretty photos of porches with levels of potted plants also inspired me.

For sure, there will be basil and other herbs. Basil, rosemary, and dill are on my list. One thing I learned from the Salem Farmer's Market is that I never use all the herbs in their packaging. A few pieces of dill are nice, but a large clump of it doesn't work. And making pesto and basil-based desserts is always lovely in July.

For veggies, definitely a pepper plant or two. It was nice to add a fresh pepper to a stir fry dish. I'm also thinking of growing beans again. They're great raw, and with a nice piece of fish. Lettuce I'm on the fence on. I've had mixed results, though it's nice to make fresh salads. Martha Stewart wrote last month about miniature cucumbers, which I plan on trying. That and radishes.

I think in early April, before the craziness of work and the wedding season of 2011 starts I'll go to a garden store and get my supplies for this season. I got a pot from Crate and Barrel last week to repot my spider plant, and it definitely put me in the mood to get to gardening. (I'll post photos of my indoor plants soon... they look very pretty in my kitchen, especially with the nice lighting)

2010's best pics: #2

I find myself with some unexpected free time on a Sunday afternoon. Plans to knit fell through, Ricky is cashing in cans, and I decided I should write up #2 and (hopefully) #1 of this series.

#2: Marsha's Farm. Gloucester, MA.
One thing Ricky and his friends from high school (still his best friends, too, which I've always appreciated since I have a similar thing going with my best friends) love to do all year round is play bocce. This is not the "softly rolling balls on a beach" bocce, but more like golf where you traverse all over an area aiming to get points. This also includes throwing the bocce balls hard, climbing on rocks, and running to see who gets the points per round. I've played on ice, snow, In other words, this is not your grandmother's bocce.

This particular round was held at a farm in Gloucester in the spring. Jon and Megin were up from Philly (I can't remember why) and the weather was nice, so we got some bocce in. We managed to play all over this farm, which was hilly and beautiful. It was right out of an Austen novel. Part of the house rules of bocce is that right when the last person throws his/her ball, the rest of the players spring to the site to gauge who won that round. I loved seeing Ricky and all of his high school friends sprinting all over on the lush greens and in the blue skies, so I wanted to get a few pictures of it. The picture above is (l-r) Paulie, Leon, Emile, Ricky, and Jon. Their running styles were so perfect for them, and I think it's great seeing everyone in action. Also, how beautiful is this farm and this day? So perfect.

So why I love this picture is that it's a perfect spring day capturing a bunch of old friends hanging out together.

2010's best pics: #3

So I had good momentum going... then the weekend happened and work has been super busy. So my bad! I promise to finish this up over the next few days.

Soooo back at it and onto #3:

#3: Mum's Kitchen. Rockport, MA.
This may not be the best photo compositionally speaking, or even talent-wise. So 2010 was a big change in cats for my parents' house. Midnight passed away shy of 18, and my Mum decided to get two new cats. The first was Nicky, and then Coco a few months ago. Nicky, seen above, was a complete change from Midnight. While both ran the house like a little general, Nicky was a lot more vocal and open, whereas Midnight often shied from the public. She was like that Greta Garbo line "I wish to be left alone". Midnight was also small and slight, and Nicky is far larger and... well, girthier.

And yet, there are many similarities. Both cats have a interest in watching on the outdoors and breaking rules of where to go and not to go. Nicky is not allowed on the kitchen counters (for obvious reasons) but when I was visiting my parents one weekend, I came into the kitchen to see Nicky watching birds outside while sitting on the kitchen counter. Before shooing her away, I decided to snap a quick picture.

I love that, even though you can't see her face, you still get all of her personality. Intent, focused, slightly spoiled. I also like that the kitchen is a little more darkly lit, and so the outdoors pop with light. It makes the silhouette of Nicky more interesting and pronounced. And finally, I like that her tail is on a plate.

Again, not the best photo, but the personality behind it is big. Also, the fact that it was such a substantial changing of the guard in pets, it's a nice symbol of that.

2010's best pics: #5

A lot of my teacher friends have two days off in a row. While I am jealous of them now as I have to go back to work tomorrow, I am not jealous of them having to teach into July at this rate.

Anyways, onto #5. Top 5!

#5: Mum's Kitchen at Easter. Rockport, MA.
One of my top holidays is Easter. This is because of the message of rebirth and renewal, but also because less religiously-speaking, it's the end of winter, the beginning of Spring, and I like Sunrise Service and the big Easter Dinner my mom has.

Sunrise Service always produces beautiful pictures, as it's on Good Harbor Beach at Sunrise with a small group of people and a saxophonist, talking about the messages of Easter, but I wanted to make #5 a pic of my favorite part of the Easter dinner, along with my favorite picture of said meal.

For as long as I can remember, my Mum has been making something called Bunny Bread. It's a honey roll that's shaped like a bunny with raisin eyes. We joke that while they are cute before they go into the oven, sometimes they come out looking like a Picasso painting. They are truly delicious. I think they came from Gourmet Magazine (RIP and screw you, Conde Nast!).

So my mom was making her annual batch of Bunny Bread on her cart and they looked really nice in the light, so I was taking pictures of the process. I also wanted to get some of the bunny facial expressions, since they're always so cute. This one was my favorite, because of how off-sided his face was, but also the sadness to his "eyes". He seemed a little overwhelmed and confused. I also like that you can see in the background more bunnies, so you know he's part of a crew.

2010's best pics: #7

Let's keep plugging along, shall we? This one is a weird submission, but I swear it makes sense as to why it's in the list.

#7. The Commons. Salem, MA.
This is an odd submission, I'll admit to that. So this is the morning after a big wind storm in Salem this past spring and I was living in my old studio. Ricky spent the night, and we were up all night worried the house was going to blow over, because it was being shaken that much by very intense and scary winds. The next morning I walked to the train to go to work through the Commons, as I always did, and the roads were a mess. A funeral home up the street had a huge tree fall over, fortunately only on the drive and not on the fence or house itself. I remember feeling really relieved that my car or apartment didn't have any big damage, and that things didn't seem too bad the next morning.

I think what I really liked when taking this picture is not only the texture of the soft clouds in the background vs. the rough debris in the foreground, but also that the dark and shadowy debris may be in the front, but in the background shining through was the blue skies of a clearer day, and therefore something to look forward to.

A band, or a weird cartoon about a boy with a giant apparently evil dog trying to find his mum in the Pyrenees? You decide

For all sakes and purposes, this weekend was very weird. It had a weird vibe, many weird things happened from Friday onward, and so I am happy to be done with it at this point. I blame Pi and Brutus, clearly.

Before and after listening into NEP for the week, I was listening to some Belle and Sebastian. It definitely lifted my spirits. I only recently discovered this band, and really like their poppy sound and it reminds me of 60's pop in a great great way. I realize I'm late to the party, but it's a party I'm really glad I found and was invited to.

Here's one of my favorites from their album, The Life Pursuit. It's called Funny Little Frog:



I really like how fun they are. Not too heavy on the ears or mind. They have a great concert through NPR I have as a podcast, which is also great. Their cover of Poupee de Cire might also be better than Arcade Fire's, but I'm not sure and that is definitely debatable.


And for all those people wondering "what the hell is she talking about with Belle and Sebastian the cartoon?", well, when I was a kid there was this very weird anime cartoon we used to watch called Belle and Sebastian, about a little kid who has no mother and is trying to find her in the Pyrenees with this large mountain dog named Belle and this tiny fluffy dog named Poochie (that name may not translate well from the French...) and they have adventures avoiding the police and trying to find the long-lost mother. And everyone thinks Belle is "the big white monster" and she gets accused of all these crimes and bad behavior, so they have to keep running from the police. It's odd, but gives me a warm nostalgic feeling. I'm pretty sure only people who grew up in the 80's, in or around Canada, or knew the original books would have seen this. Or maybe it's more far reaching than i think.

So yeah, enjoy both, and here's to hoping that maybe this latest stretch of nice weather is why this weekend was so weird.