Rain And Friendship

 The rainy season is winding down now, just a month or so less of this cooler time of year and I can already tell it is warming up. The flowers are starting to open here and there and the back yard edges are a riot of green weeds. I don't know what anything is because I am in such an unfamiliar world out here so every little lime green vine or fistfull of invasive plant material looks promising and exotic to me. This spring will be a wild bashing bar-fight of a gardening season. I am not pulling much of anything out and I am so excited to put my garden in that I am sure to follow my usual plan of putting more in the ground than is practical or diplomatic. It will be a wild, chaotic mess of growing and choking and overgrowing and learning. I'm so excited about it all. Here's to the weeds and the learning and the hilarious errors and the brilliance of knowing more about what in the world grows here.

 I am so excited about making friends. This is my current project for the month. I am pushing myself to make dates with people, to reply to emails, to set up playdates (how I hate the term!) for the kids and to go out on the weekends for little lady getaways in the evenings. I am hungry for the connections, the roots, the deeply tapped lines that pull us in when things are dicey and send up their macrame'd message of security and belonging and sense-of-self and sense-of-other. The boys are easy to tip into melancholic and self-pitying wallows about nobody liking them and how they've never had friends. We need to belong and to have "folks," we're all hungry for being missed and having people light up when they see up and for knowing there are people who we have to update about the latest exciting happenings in our day to day. Its a weird feeling to have a lot of people you can small talk with at anytime but no real spot for letting your hair down, talking deep or hearing true vulnerability with others.

 I am so glad I have family during this transition and that I have technology. I need to rely less on Facebook (refresh refresh refresh refresh) and more on my own energy to call people on the phone, actual letters and building the real relationships in brick and mortar here. I slide into the Internet when I feel lonely. I think it feels like a safe place to hide and it is a place where I can find people and connection. That's not all bad, its just that I use it for a shield instead of as a break or a spring-board. I have been eyeing up a women's book study and am not really connected enough to any church yet to find  a group to connect to but I decided to just order the book and try to bootstrap a group based on who I know right now. When you can't beat 'em, lead 'em! That's my technique this time. Never really tried anything like that before. We'll see how it goes.

Trying for Stable

Am home and it feels good. A bit overwhelming but good. I spent yesterday soaking in the company of a few friends after stocking up on local raw milk and good fresh eggs from a farmer friend. Family is good but they fill a different tank than my mommy-friend community. It was nice to be back. Had a lot of good discussion, shared some laughs and let our children run wild together in one big squirming heap in the wading pool in front of us.

After the visiting I promptly went home and had a great big panic about the state of the practical things in my home. I washed the dishes before leaving and did all the laundry but there are still 4,000 things that suddenly need doing. How does that happen?!? The tomatoes need tying up, the cucumbers are in desperate need of harvesting, the front of our house looks abandoned for want of string-trimming, there are clothes to sort and put away after all that laundry, suitcases to unpack, a fridge that needs cleaning etc. etc. etc. I am not sure if I feel more inspired and ultra-motivated or overwhelmed and snowed under. Tough to decide sometimes.

I am trying to take today and get my feet under me, make some parts of my home pretty again and begin an organization/sanity restoring plan. There is never time enough to get every little thing in my life in order but I am determined to do the very best I at making productive stabs in the windows of time I get. Life is so punctuated by nursing breaks and potty visits and diaper changes and naps these days that I find it very hard to work on anything very cohesively. I live a pixelated existence with any number of fragmented, mosaic-style goals on my current plate.

Am trying to be in the moment, live easily, speak love and also work ambitiously towards creating the kind of life I mean to live. "Let the standards slip only when you must!" I tell myself, "But never cheapen the standards to make them weak or anemic just because life is full of challenge." Its a tall order but its the path I'm on right now.  I lit a candle, I made a nice To Do List, and I'm hacking away over here. If you feel like bringing an understanding spirit, a load of inspiration and a giant mint-iced tea...feel free to drop by!

Munch, Munch...A Friend Lunch!

A visit from friends for an impromptu leftover lunch and mommy nosh session is sometimes exactly the cure for what ails you! 

I do love having friends just drop by. Am starting to mull over ways to restructure my life to allow a little more of this.

Turkey Day Mental Simmer

Just a busy Monday mish-mash of all the things in my mind today. Basically all I'm thinking about at this point is Thanksgiving Day planning, my mind is buzzing with ideas and lists and possibilities.

My hopeful little invitation ended up being way more inviting than I ever dreamed...we won't have just our little nuclear family trying pathetically to down a turkey dinner. People are turning out in droves. Counting ourselves and the boys we will have between 25-30 people, give or take. I'm totally psyched!

Last night we solidfied the menu:

Roast Turkey
Honey Baked Spiral Glazed Ham
Giblet gravy
Fruit and Cheese Plate
Garlic mashed potatoes [1/2 batch made w/ olive oil and half with butter for the vegans in attendance]
Rolls or bread
Cranberry Sauce
Sweet Potatoes
Stuffing
Wild Rice with Wild Mushrooms
Curried Squash Soup
Green Beans w/ Olive Oil, Garlic and Toasted Almonds
Roasted Cauliflower
Cold Lentil, Persimmon, Pomegranate Salad

[Dessert]
Pumpkin Pie
Apple Pie
Poached Pears
Assorted Chocolate Truffles
Flourless Chocolate Torte
Whipped Cream

I realize this looks like proof of my certifiable insanity but I swear to you, most of these items can be made ahead, A is taking several of them and teaming with me to cook, I am delegating some dishes to guests and most importantly...even if it's crazy...I really want to be doing this and I'm excited to make it happen!

Now that the menu is all set, I'm collecting my recipes, making the big grocery list, drawing up a cooking schedule for the week beforehand and musing on other happy "Thanksgivingy" things.

Witness:

• A Thankful Paper Chain which could be a really fun activity to keep dinner guests occupied while the meal is being finished.
• Pretty decoration ideas from Better Homes and Gardens.
• The ever inspiring Martha. I especially like the leaf decorated glass jars with candles in them. I am imagining using any old recyclable glass jars we have in our bin. I think the boys would like helping make these.
• These ARGH! beautiful, beautiful harvesty floral arrangments by my floral designing idol Saipua.
• A very charming vintage card cover that makes me very happy. I may print it off just to prop in my kitchen window while I bake. Do you think I could pull off a little starched cap like that?
• This beautiful junk chair frame...turned autumn scene frame. Wish a stunning Queen Anne frame like that would get tossed in my neighborhood.
• Baby dormice, who are both British and alarmingly cute and autumnal...plus, they live in a pumpkin! What's not to love.
• Acorns so achingly beautiful that I want to go out and collect bucketfuls.

Related articles

• How Much Turkey Per Person? Use This Rule of Thumb (thekitchn.com)
• A Good Appetite: A Seven-Day Plan for Thanksgiving - A Good Appetite (dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com)
• 14 Great Examples of Thanksgiving Food Art (neatorama.com)
• What Are the Best Appetizers for Thanksgiving Day? Good Questions (thekitchn.com)
• Thanksgiving Menu Ideas (blogreader44.wordpress.com)

Poetry Friday: A Poem For Grace

A pile of Sungolds in my shirt

Happy Poetry Friday everyone! I hope that your weekend is beginning as sunshiney and full of promise as mine. We're packing the kids in the car tonight and hitting the road with a tent, a guitar, loads of good books, my paints and all the tomatoes we can manage to fit in. We're in the thick of it, tomato season that is, and what a beautiful season it has been this year.


I wrote about Sungold tomatoes this year, a variety that I really love, they're super sweet and a little bit tangy, very crisp skinned and just the most amazing orangey gold color. I wish I could send my dear sister-in-law a big box full of them. They were so fun to pick together last year at our CSA and it is such a really wonderful reminder to be gathering them here in my own yard and thinking of her. I hope that she gets to read this...I may have to send her a copy just to be sure.


Tomatoes for Grace

In December I ordered seeds for Sungolds
The only hybrid tomato I planned to plant.
All the rest were beefy, rippled heirlooms
Sungold, a golden marble of a cherry tomato
Was my one modern concession.
The seeds grew, in their little peat pockets
Drinking in the weak February sun,
There, on top of the sill-side radiator.
I bought another potted Sungold in May,
(When you think you can't have too many tomatoes)
There they were, so turgid and fuzz-leafed.
And so, I tucked it into bed, next to the one
I'd raised from seed and they grew up, twisting their
Arms together, embracing their round cages.
Now it is September and every day I walk
Out through the dewy grass and pick a handful
Of their shining school bus colored fruits.
They pop under my teeth just like they did in
Our toddler's hands when you visited last summer
I think of you, so far away across the ocean and
The way our laughter ran together down the rows
When we watched the baby totter after
A summer butterfly.

And this is last summer in the Sungold row, on the farm.

Such a beautiful plant.

And Grace herself. (often call her Penny here on the blog)

Well, I'm off to Michigan...I hope you all have a great week and that time somehow managed to hold still so I don't miss anything during my sojourn in the northland. Much poetic beauty can be found today at The Miss Rumphius Effect, the host blog for Poetry Friday. Drop on over, take a little browse through the offerings and maybe you'll be inspired to pen a few lines yourself.

Take care of yourselves, I'll see you all again soon!

Why People Matter.

Had a good friend from my elementary years (believe it or not!) stop by to visit for just a little the other day. Am so honored that she thought of me when making her way out here...and that she persisted even when I was hard to communicate with and then of course that it all worked out and we saw each other. I am so pleased to have people in my life who feel like old friends matter and are of value. I can't really find the right words here to say what I mean so I'll share this poem by Brian Jones instead because he says it so much better than I can.

So, here's to you Angela! Thanks for stopping! You made me feel really....yeah.

About Friends

The good thing about friends
is not having to finish sentences.

I sat a whole summer afternoon with my friend once
on a river bank, bashing heels on the baked mud
and watching the small chunks slide into the water
and listening to them - plop plop plop.
He said, 'I like the twigs when they...you know...
like that.' I said, 'There's that branch...'
We both said, 'Mmmm'. The river flowed and flowed
and there were lots of butterflies, that afternoon.

I first thought there was a sad thing about friends
when we met twenty years later.
We both talked hundreds of sentences,
taking care to finish all we said,
and explain it all very carefully,
as if we'd been discovered in places
we should not be, and were somehow ashamed.

I understood then what the river meant by flowing. 

 

Picnicking in Earnest

It was one of those idyllic days with perfect weather. Just exactly perfect. 75 degrees, brilliantly sunny, poofs of clouds, blazing blue sky, light breeze, and as many happy children as you can possibly cram into one minivan. Its crazy at our house lately but, its that good kind of crazy that leaves you collapsing into a droopy, smiley puddle at the end of the day.

This is ideal, dreamy summer. We had a picnic lunch today with Penny, my good friend Nutmeg and also Painterly, another good chum and of course our grand tumble of children. Amazing experience really...the kind of thing that happens in books. There was a big pitcher of ice water, lots of fresh fruit, quilts on the grass, multiple hampers of goods, potato chips, chicken salad, fresh garden greens, goldfish in quantity and a bar of chocolate to share all around, not to mention plenty of babies to pass to any open lap.

All this sunshine has my brain desperately hung up on lemon. Somehow, even though they are ripe in winter and cheapest then and freshest then my mind craves the flavor right about now. To go along with the theme I have this song stuck in my head pretty much perpetually these days. Wish I could share Mason Jennings playing it with you but instead you get to hear this happy little ukulele dude cover it.

Dreaming of making a grand and floaty lemon meringue pie in July...and satiating myself by heading downstairs to mix up the dry portion of these for breakfast. I do so love muffins. And lemon poppyseed is my top, all-time favorite...I think. I also really love blueberry. I had lemon poppyseed muffins for the very first time, made from a really exciting Jiffy mix (mixes were verboten in our house) when I was a little girl by my very artistic and glamorous aunt with the corkscrew curls and the face splitting grin. She was an amazing aunt to have in your back pocket. She knew all kinds of fabulous people, collected black beach rocks, told breath-taking stories and loved chocolate intensely. I was somewhat adoring. And she made lemon poppyseed muffins for me and I was smitten and have loved them ever since.

And while we're on the lemon theme...what about this? Doesn't that look like fun? Can just imagine drizzling it over the fresh ravioli I'm going to make with herbs from my garden in July! Yay summer!

Pie and Company

FINALLY....made that blueberry pie this morning. And since, we also have blueberry cheesecake ice-cream to use up I put this in the freezer to pull out and bake later on a cool day when we're running low on sweets.

I love pie. Did I ever tell you that? *sigh* I really love pie.

And look who we collected today! We have cousins! In-house. A's brother Miq (of previously featured video fame) is off in Iraq and although we aren't going to be able to have him visit with us we have his sweet short girls and his wife, Penny. (much joy! yay!)

              I think they'll fit right in. Two minutes in the door and we're already effortlessly manifesting idyllic scenes like this.

Today Was Really Beautiful

Lots to savor tonight as I slip off to dreamland....it was a wonderful last day for my oldest boy to be three. Sometimes life feels impossibly lovely. Sweet dreams Ru!