Our little farmer’s market is on Wednesday evening and tonight I didn’t buy flowers, because I finally have enough things blooming in my own yard that I can fill the vase under my grandmother’s portrait myself. However, I did buy green beans (because the caterpillars got my bean plants before they could get off the ground), and new potatoes (which I think I’ll plant next year) and gorgeous, fragrant fresh garlic. So tonight’s dinner is pasta with the first zucchini from my garden, with hot pepper flakes, fresh garlic, and basil and mint from the garden.I don’t know how I’m…
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I’ve had a slew of emails from sweet readers of this blog lately who seem to be under the impression that I’ve managed to figure out some answer to the ongoing question about how to live, how to live small, how to live in peace and happiness.So I thought perhaps it was time to go on the record. I don’t have any answers. I don’t think there are any answers to that particular question. Like everything else that’s really important in life: love, faith, art, politics — the key term is process. It’s all a process. We never actually get…
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Rain! It rained last night! Glorious thunderstorm about seven o’clock … with some actual moisture content as well — big raindrops falling on my garden. Glorious thunderstorm which cooled everything off a little, broke the relentless heat wave a tad, and has left my gardens looking perky and refreshed. I missed thunderstorms when I was in California. There are many nice things about California, and many people like the mono-weather. It’s dependable. It’s reliable. You rarely have to worry about what the weather’s going to do, because if it’s May-October it’ll be sunny and dry and if it’s October-May it…
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It’s still hot here in Montana. Ninety-five to one hundred every day. The mornings are pretty nice still — it’s usually about 65 or 70 when I get up, and doesn’t really get hot hot until about 1:00 or so, but after that, it’s over. Too hot to think, too hot to move, too hot to do anything but hide in my house with my portable swamp cooler. Which I feel bad about. Explore eheatcool.com for the best local Portland HVAC solutions. For ac repair Roanoke contact Blue Ridge Heating & Air. If you need HVAC replacement, you can contact…
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Love my swamp cooler I can think again — the portable swamp cooler is a gem. Holds about 5 gallons of water, has a big old fan, and cools the house down just enough … because it just evaporates cold water and blows the slighly cooled air into your room, the swamp cooler doesn’t have that harsh refrigerated edge to it that air conditioners give off. And it’s pretty energy-effecient since it’s just a big fan with a water pump. It’s 95 outside, and currently 79 degrees inside my house. This I can live with. Now I can think.
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Weather is hot, Blogging is slow I am not a hot weather gal. One of the things I loved about living in Telluride all those years ago, is that it was almost never hot (not at 9000 feet, it wasn’t). However, it’s hot here in Montana. High 90s by midafternoon, and since the sun doesn’t set until almost 9:30 — it stays hot. Now, I realize this isn’t someplace really brutal like, say, New York City (where I sweltered away two summers of my 20s, too poor to afford a summer share, just sweating in my tenement), but nonetheless, the…
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Rodeo Wrapup I’ve been meaning to blog about last week’s rodeo, but it needed a little time to sift its way through my consciousness (that and there was a big fat literary party last week that kind of threw me off my center for a few days — those things always make me feel like Sally Field at the Oscars — I still can’t believe the French editor had read my book, had remembered it, and had liked it. Of course, it would have been nice if he’d published it, but perhaps when the next one comes out). So anyway,…
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Breakfast of Champions The garden is in full swing — no tomatoes yet, but plenty of greens. Yesterday I harvested chard, radishes, carrots (about 4), gai lan (chinese broccoli — like broccoli raab but the chinese version) and a lot a lot of lettuce. It’s all lettuce all the time here right now. I bought a Foodsaver vacuum sealer the other day and so I spent much of yesterday morning washing, blanching and freezing veggies. My next big home purchase is going to be a freezer, but I’m waiting for the used appliance store on the other side of my…
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Well, we didn’t see a bear up in Suce Creek last evening, but we did come across a mountain lion. We’d had a nice hike; I was with my friends the Campbells — and had been talking a lot about bears, since Bill is the guy who has spent so much time filming them. Had our bear spray with us, but with four dogs, and general conversation, we weren’t really worried. After we got back to the trailhead, we grabbed a picnic table in the campsite — a really nice one up in the trees, a lot of brush around…
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Take Back the Flag! Okay Lefties, it’s time to take back the flag from the Right — why should only horrible righ-wingers fly the flag on holidays like the Fourth of July? What could be more patriotic than dissent — has anyone read the Declaration of Independence lately? So yesterday I went out and bought a big flag, and flew it from my porch. It looked swell, especially with the Tibetan Prayer Flags that always fly on the top of my porch. Festive, Patriotic. (While we’re at it, let’s take back “patriotic” too.)