Misadventures of the Monster Librarian

Today I planted 75 cucumber seeds, 25 spaghetti squash seeds, 50 pumpkin seeds (Howden for carving, Baby Pam variety for pies) and more sunflowers. Day two of full sun for both the plants and I; the former is doing well, withstanding the sun and the breezes well enough, the latter has become tan overnight (with tinges of red--ouch). Night rituals now include rolling down pant legs before coming into the house, shaking the dirt out of clothes creases; stripping down in my coat room and leaving gardening clothes and mud packed shoes there; satisfying cool showers where rivulets of brown water are chased away by skin-rawing scrubbing; homestyle manicures for blistered and camouflage-stained hands, mud caked nails. There is something so satisfying about gardening. Life is good. Still too tired for long blog, must go nap. Will share a funny poem I read years ago and found again today: "Attack of the squash people" And thus the people every year in the valley of humid July d...

Ok, I am no where near enjoying my tomatoes yet, but since I spent the entire day in the garden hoeing and raking and weeding and planting over 60 tomato plants and 17 tomatillo plants I have tomatoes on the brain: BLTs with tons of tomatoes, tomatoes eaten like apples, tomatoes with salt, homemade tomato sauces and salsas and...Anyway, photos soon. "Ode to tomatoes" The street filled with tomatoes, midday, summer, light is halved like a tomato, its juice runs through the streets. In December, unabated, the tomato invades the kitchen, it enters at lunchtime, takes its ease on countertops, among glasses, butter dishes, blue saltcellars. It sheds its own light, benign majesty. Unfortunately, we must murder it: the knife sinks into living flesh, red viscera a cool sun, profound, inexhaustible, populates the salads of Chile, happily, it is wed to the clear onion, and to celebrate the union we pour oil, essential child o...

At the library tonight. So tired. One more day. I can't make it. Three day weekend ahead. Short sentence paragraph things. Ergh. Bestie Kim and her boyfriend Joe are currently camping in the Adirondacks and will be meeting up with me for dinner tomorrow night and staying at the Farm until Sunday! HOORAY! Tonight at the library, my boss asked us to look over a few trial databases to see if we should purchase them. Looking and looking until my eyes turned an even angrier shade of red. One database: Career Library had lots of fun assessment tests. See how I scored? Maybe I should go work at a Farm or something...a farm that deals in therapy...hmmm...

Dear Ray Lamontagne, even though I love Mumford & Sons, you will always be my favorite. This song makes me so happy.

Hot. This song is amazing. These boys are eye candy. And Ray, I love stripes. Ray Lamontagne & Damien Rice - To love somebody

This week was full of food wonders; lettuce, mustard greens and  asparagus--all Farm grown. And KTL, a fellow Kitchen worker has brought back to life the Kitchen's herb garden, bringing us fresh batches of rosemary and thyme for sauces. Mmmm! And to top it off, Steve S., a Farm legend and general life-loving busy-body, brought the Kitchen a couple of batches of morels which had been gathered in the woods. The mushrooms were sauteed in olive oil with a little salt and garlic and were honest to God, PERFECTION! It is probably good that they are hard to find because otherwise I would put them in every dish the Kitchen makes and then people wouldn't appreciate the morels enough! Such a good, earthy flavor, with a texture that is slightly chewy. Agh! So good! Doing some reading on morels and stumbled upon  this interview with Jean Fahey, president of the Central New York Mycological Society. ( Mycology is the "branch of biology dealing with fungi," accordi...

And this year's Caldecott medal (best illustration in a children's picture book) goes to: A sick day for Amos McGee;  Author: Philip Stead, Illustrator: Erin Stead.   ALA's 2011 Caldecott winner and honor winners here .

Still moving. Slowly my cabin is becoming my own again. *sigh of contentment* So nice to listen to the rain on the roof, in the cabin in the woods; to hear the brook pouring by (from all the extra rain we've gotten lately!); so nice to be home. Since the sun is actually out for the first time in many days, gotta go move the last two loads! More soon! These and more ridiculous pictures found here .

Agh! Been so busy lately! Feel like I am in this constant, awkward dance which is work, water plants/pull a few weeds, work, home, bed, repeat, trying to fit in time to also hang with friends. I have been working my normal schedule then also working 15 extra hours a week at the library. I haven't had a full day off in over three weeks and I am starting to feel that irritable tug. I keep deep breathing and reminding myself that I am off for a long weekend over Memorial Day weekend when best friend K and her boyfriend Joe visit! Until then, the extra time at the library has been great, since they've begun training me in the local history department, and am learning tons of cool researching options for genealogy. This week marks 3 months since the tree fell on my cabin and HUZZAH the construction men finished this past Friday! Such good news to come home to after work! The time definitely gave me two things: A. many, many, many reminders reminders of the bonds of friendship; fr...

Nearly a week!? Working: too much; gardening: not enough; reading: tons; sleeping: not enough. Strange week.

What I learned about Patience and Fortitude (the NYC Library Lions): Will be celebrating their 100th bday this month Made by sculptor Edward Clark Potter Patience and Fortitude are based on African lions The lions original names were Leo Astor and Leo Lenox (named after library founders John Jacob Astor and James Lenox). During the Depression Mayor LaGuardia renamed them Fortitude and Patience for qualities he said would get NYers through the bad times For these facts and more check out this NYTimes article . Photo found here . Dear Detroit Library , I am a little ashamed of you. Renovations I can understand, but the food budget!?

Horseradish...or maybe mandrakes...? Soaking off any excess dirt after the initial scrub. The finished product! On Saturday afternoon B2 and I were down in my garden plot putting up the cucumber trellis--the thing advertises that it's sturdy enough to hold up to 60 pounds...guess we'll see. After we drove 7 foot long wooden stakes into the ground, nearly 2 feet deep, and attached the nylon trellis across said stakes, I stepped back and admired B2's work (all I really did was hold the stakes as he pounded them into the ground; "don't look up," his only instructions as he swung the flat side of the shovel down onto the stakes, driving them into the ground, sending seismic waves through my body. Around the time we finished JL, a fellow farmer, showed up and somehow the three of us got to talking about and then digging up horseradish. And never having made, much less seen fresh horseradish, I volunteered to take the ginger-root-looking-thingys and make ...

I have been listening to a bunch of Florence and the Machine lately. This gem is called "My boy builds coffins." I picked this version because I didn't like the live versions I watched.

You might remember the porcupines of last summer --well, it seems like it's raining porcupines these days because I've been seeing them all over the place. This little fella was running alongside my car and then hopped into a meadow and ran for it when I tried to snap a photo. Enjoy!

Skit-tells.

It is finally spring around here; everything is green, the lawns need mowing, the daffodils are sturdy and no longer the new kids on the block, I was stung by a bee--all signs of spring. My boss is back from vacation, thank God, and I am off from work(at the Farm) until Sunday. My library hours have increased, as they have begun to train me for a new department (local history), but I look forward to the extra hours spent learning how to use tons of genealogical databases and assisting patrons in research. Plus, more hours=more money for vacation . I've been keeping myself busy lately, aside from work: gardening, reading, writing, catching up with friends, shopping for my two destination weddings (Jamaica in July; St. John, Virgin Islands in August). I spent $250 this weekend on clothes (dresses for tropical places--I wonder why I don't have stuff like that lying around...?), managing to get the dress which I will wear to my brother's wedding--I am pleased as punch abou...

April, the U.S.'s National Month of Poetry is over, but I just had to post this lovely poem by Keats to really wrap things up. You may remember the opening line of this poem is quoted in "Bridget Jones' Diary"--ah, Hugh Grant, you cad! "To Autumn" Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,    Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring Conspiring Working together; literally, to conspire is “to breathe together” ( OED ) with him how to load and bless Conspiring Working together; literally, to conspire is “to breathe together” ( OED )    With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves thatch-eves Thatch-eaves, the edge of thatched roofs run; thatch-eves Thatch-eaves, the edge of thatched roofs To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,    And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;       To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells    With a sweet kernel; to set budding ...