Stewart: "We Live in Hard Times, Not End Times"

One of the most amazing parts of the rally for me. I am so glad I made it to the Rally; so glad that I experienced this historical event; so cool that it also coincided with my 30th birthday. So glad!

nothing useful here

So, I return.

After two frustrating trips to Best Buy for a new hard drive I did what I should have done in the first place, and ordered the damn thing online. With help from my friends--N, who put in my new hard drive; roomie RugbyGirl, who helped me install a Linnux operating system; and TSO, who patiently helped show me where the internet connect/disconnect button is on this new operating system--I now have my computer up and running again. My silence in the blog world was mostly due to the fact that it is bloody ridiculous trying to post a blog from an iTouch.

So much has happened since last I wrote. But what? Errmmm...hmm...not really sure what, now that I think of it. Well, I guess, in a nutshell:

•  Farm food has changed. Mostly gone are the summer crops. Our fresh veggies coming from our garden include: kale (curly and dino), chard (rainbow, Swiss), leeks, Brussels sprouts (Thank God! I love Brussels sprouts!) cabbage (purple and green), fall squash (delicata, pink banana, butternut). Less frequently we've also been still getting scattered (and smaller) batches of broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. 
• Now that my computer is operational, my car is acting up. On my way out to Lexington/Concord to complete one of my 30 goals my car broke down. My friend Jay fixed the alleged problem only for my car to start acting up again. Now we're patiently watching and waiting, fairly certain my car will need more (and more expensive) work on my clutch and slave cylinder. Ergh. The best thing about having car problems in community is that many many people have been more than willing to let me borrow their cars, or have recently offered. Thanks TSO and Mummy Dearest!
• The most obvious change in New England is the color of the leaves; quickly fading from fierce and colorful fall bursts into the burnt and dying muted brown tones. 
• Still working on my 30 list, though I am only close to a third of the way done and have realized that I probably won't finish the entire list by the end of the year. Ah, well.
• Headed to D.C. This weekend for the Rally to Restore Sanity and the March to Keep Fear Alive! So excited! 

Also, lots of pictures to follow, once I get my computer all squared away. More substance soon.

toma...what?

I will be back soon. So much to say...just don't even get me started on stupid Best Buy and the damn hard drive debacle! Until I return let your mouth water...just a little.

Joe, a fellow Farmer, gave me a big bowl of tomatillos a week back and I finally turned them into tomatillo salsa this morning for the Community's 4pm tea snack. Unfortuantely I didn't make it back from an appointment, so I hope it was good. This recipe from Friend of the Farmer sounds good and most importantly, simple!

Friend of the Farmer's Tomatillo Salsa Verda

My Tomatillo Salsa was a mix of:

• Tomatillos
• Green Peppers
• Grape Tomatoes
• Red Onions
• Cucumber (seeds removed)
• Parsley (I HATE cilantro!)
• Red Wine Vinegar
• Lemon Juice
• Maple Syrup
• Ground Chipotle
• Ground Chili Powder
• Cumin
• Salt and Pepper

I don't always like measuring things, so everything was, "to taste."

Get some tomatillos and get creative!!

Image found here.

here somewhere

I am still here.

I LOVE this poem. We have this poem on our fridge and I have read it a million times and still love it and feel forced to think and feel something different every time I read it. So, until I can do some writing of my own, this will just have to do:

"Now I become myself"


Now I become myself. It's taken
Time, many years and places;
I have been dissolved and shaken,
Worn other people's faces,
Run madly, as if Time were there,
Terribly old, crying a warning,
"Hurry, you will be dead before--"
(What? Before you reach the morning?
Or the end of the poem is clear?
Or love safe in the walled city?)
Now to stand still, to be here,
Feel my own weight and density!
The black shadow on the paper
Is my hand; the shadow of a word
As thought shapes the shaper
Falls heavy on the page, is heard.
All fuses now, falls into place
From wish to action, word to silence,
My work, my love, my time, my face
Gathered into one intense
Gesture of growing like a plant.
As slowly as the ripening fruit
Fertile, detached, and always spent,
Falls but does not exhaust the root,
So all the poem is, can give,
Grows in me to become the song,
Made so and rooted by love.
Now there is time and Time is young.
O, in this single hour I live
All of myself and do not move.
I, the pursued, who madly ran,
Stand still, stand still, and stop the sun!


~ May Sarton

I think I am, I think I am

...going to D.C. to see Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity and Stephen Colbert's March to Keep Fear Alive, which both happen to be on my 30th birthday. Friend Toria, of ToriaFlies, a fellow Michigander, recently moved to VA and has kindly offered to host me that weekend, and now to plan the logistics. I can't wait! I have been meaning to go see the Daily Show in NY since I moved back out to N.E., but this will be much better! Look for me in the crowd, I will wear something sane/afraid/patriotic!

rain song

In honor and praise of the cold, run down the nape of your neck weather we've had this week, I share this gem:

A Drop fell on the Apple Tree -
Another - on the Roof -
A Half a Dozen kissed the Eaves -
And made the Gables laugh -
A few went out to help the Brook
That went to help the Sea -
Myself Conjectured were they Pearls -
What Necklaces could be -
The Dust replaced, in Hoisted Roads -
The Birds jocoser sung -
The Sunshine threw his Hat away -
The Bushes - spangles flung -
The Breezes brought dejected Lutes -
And bathed them in the Glee -
Then Orient showed a single Flag,
And signed the Fete away -

~ Emily Dickinson

Boston pub crawl

This past Thursday my friend Kelly and I headed east to Langwater Farm in North Easton, MA, where a friend of ours works. I awoke that morning to discover a gray, drizzly sky, promising a foggy drive to just south of BeanTown; and the weather did prove to be a bit of a nuisance, switching from hard rain to harder rain, with fog the whole time. Kelly is excellent company--the kind of friend you'd want accompanying you across the United States, or anywhere really--so, aside from the weather, the drive was rather pleasant.

Once there C fed us homemade pumpkin soup (pumpkins grown at Langwater!)--YUM!--and gave us a tour of the Farm. I admired the farm stand, the colors of the foods there, pleased that I/the Farm grew the same varieties of tomatoes as those for sale at Langwater. We walked a path through slight woods; followed a tire-tracked, muddy road; felt my clothes cling uncomfortably in the humid, now rain-free day; tasted tomatoes in yellowy oranges and all shades of red; wandered further, coming upon flowers, a field full of peppers and pumpkins and other foods; kept on still across a field where C said hawks screamed and I imagined myself flying about, looking below. Finally we came uopn enormous trees, which stretch out and look wise and mysterious and old. It is lovely there. The whole farm is great, but I particularly could lie under those trees and wait for...for what? It doesn't matter, so long as I could lay there and look up from underneath those outstretched arms.

Then to Boston. We parked and headed to the Union Oyster House--a recommendation from C's friend--and somehow while C was talking to our neighbors at the bar Kelly and I decided we should turn the day into a pub crawl of sorts, stoping at various bars/restaurants for drinks and a sampling of local Boston fare. So, below is the list of where we went/what we ate/drank/what we learned/what I thought:

•  Union Oyster House:  Drinks: Bloody Marys and Rum and Coke. + points for the bar making it's own tomato juice for the Bloody Mary's, - points that the tomato juice mix tasted a little like thinned down cocktail sauce. + points because the drinks were strong, which is always appreciated. Food: C and I shared a platter of various fried seafoods. It wasn't bad, but it didn't blow me away either. Kelly ordered what she thought was oysters only to find it was raw clams. There is a difference. - points for not clearly stating what was what on the menu. - points because the clams (served with horseradish) tasted like they were pulled right from the ocean and not cleaned. Salty and gritty. History: Daniel Webster and J. F. Kennedy both dined here frequently.
• Bell in Hand Tavern: Drinks: Itty Bitty Bikini drink. It was fun and fruity (like an Elton John concert). Food: none here. History: The oldest continuously running tavern in the U.S. (1795). Apparently Daniel Webster also frequented here--I am seeing a pattern.
• Green Dragon: Drinks: Happy Juice-unexciting. Food: none here. History: It was at the Green Dragon where plans for the invasion of Lexington/Concorde were overhead. Leading to, anyone? Anyone? The famous ride of Paul Revere.
• Here we took a little detour to Hanover St.--the Italian section of Boston--over to Mike's Pastry: Food: Considering how many people were in line ahead of us, I couldn't believe that we still got our food and go out of there in less than five minutes! We moved over to the nearby park where the girls both got cannolis, these huge, luscious, amazing cannolis. They are ENORMOUS!!  I was never a big cannoli pesron so I tried some chocolate fudge cake, which was great, but I should have gotten a cannoli! Drinks: Coffee. The biggest mistake about ordering coffee there was only I bought one and then the three of us wound up sharing it since the pastries are so amazingly rich. Plan on one coffee per person here! History: Apparently when Bill Clinton is in Boston he stops by here.
• Purple Shamrock: Drinks: Coors was on special for a ridiculous price and that made sense when I tasted how flat it was. Kelly had a Key Lime martini which was ok. Food: none here. History: nothing exciting. If you google reviews of this place there are some funny negative ones to read.
• The Tap: Drinks: Rum and coke ok. Kelly had a limeadey thing with alcohol which was tasty. Food: We ate appetizer food: sweet potato fries and wings which was standard bar food. I wanted some veggies so I ordered the "fresh roasted asparagus." They should have called it "grilled to point of char, flavorless asparagus." Guess I should have known, it's a bar! History: none to speak of.
• Legal Sea Food: There are a million locations all over N.E. and the North Atlantic states (please put one in MI!!! I guess they want to be by the ocean...something about freshness...?) and somehow at our last stop we were over by the Boston Wharf (and Aquarium) and sat outside on that very, very windy evening. Drinks: Our last stop so water seemed the best bet; I was already tired and I thought another drink would make me fall asleep on my feet. Food: Awesome! I had a really good greek salad w grilled shrimp on top. I also had the jalapeño cheddar polenta, which was good, but definitely needed salt and pepper. The polenta actually wound up being a really good pairing with Kelly's sashimi! I definitely want to go back.

The next day I slept like a cat, stretching often and turning over in the sunlight coming through the windows. I showered and read and slept more. I didn't even feel too bad about that, considering Kelly and C had gotten up to pick vegetables at 7:15a.m. It felt nice to be away from the Farm and relax. And the day before, time spent in the city, was just as rejuvenating as the sleep.

stripping away

In my attempts to finish my 30 things for 30, I am working on lots of reading, and also reading poets outside my normal pool. I picked up a book of Alice Walker's poems (author of The Color Purple) at the town dump  and was pleasantly surprised at what I found. Here is one gem:

"On stripping bark from myself"
Because women are expected to keep silent abouttheir close escapes I will not keep silent
and if I am destroyed (naked tree) someone will
please
mark the spot
where I fall and know I could not live
hearing their "how nice she is!"
whose adoration of the retouched image
I so despise.

No. I am finished with living
for what my mother believes
for what my brother and father defend
for what my lover elevates
for what my sister, blushing, denies or rushes
to embrace.

I find my own
small person
a standing self
against the world
an equality of wills
I have lived to understand.

Besides:

My struggle was always against
an inner darkness: I carry within myself
the only known keys
to my death - to unlock life, or close it shut
forever. A woman who loves wood grains, the colour
yellow
and the sun, I am happy to fight
all outside murderers
as I see I must.