We’ve been having a little dispute here in Livingston with a local developer — he accused those of us who disagree with him of being victims of “class envy” — oh, and he called us stupid too. We were a little pissed off, and I wrote a letter to the editor of our local paper. Looks like it’s been picked up out there on the internets — go have a look: “Class Envy” in Montana: The Ameya Preserve Saga
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Look what I found yesterday? One perfect little porcini. It was just off the trail, it’s little brown cap barely poking through the duff. We’ve had a few afternoon thunderstorms lately, and on a whim, I went up to the trail where I’ve sometimes found boletes … this was the only one I found, but look how beautiful it was. Here’s the cross section: Not one single bug. A perfect porcini. I ate it sautéed with butter and a little olive oil, with some garlic, and parsley from the garden. It was delicious. Perfect.
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If you’re like me, most travel involves investigation of grocery stores. The Guardian UK asks, “What do you stuff in your suitcase?” Last trip I took was to Seattle — I returned with the following: Paella pan from The Spanish Table spices from World Spice Market cooler full of oysters from Mutual Fish Asian vegetable seeds from Umajiwaya Question for you readers — what did you stuff in your suitcase last trip?
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It’s lovely today — the heat has broken a little bit and so when I took Raymond off for his morning dog walk, we ran into the whole gang down in the creek behind the dog park. We were yakking away when suddenly Bob said “Hey … look at that!” And there on a dead branch not 20 feet of the ground on the far side of the creek was a great big fluffy owl. At first I thought it might be a great gray, but then we saw its little horns — it was a Great Horned Owl. So…
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… to console themselves after a breakup, and some women buy the complete Tales of Chekhov. Because Katherine asked in the comments below, and because he’s been a semi-regular character here on LivingSmall, it seems only fair to mention that the Mighty Hunter will not be making such regular appearances in the future. We hope that the friendship will continue, and that perhaps there might be some game coming our way in the fall, but alas, it looks like I’m going to have a little more time to catch up on my reading, and my blogging, in the near future.…
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Hot. It’s hot hot hot here. We’re going into another week of 100 degree weather, and with the crazy pace my day job at the Big Corporation lately, I took the opportunity to prep some cold food in advance. I roasted a baby chicken one night last week when it wasn’t so brutal out, and so this afternoon I pulled the breasts off. I was going to make some chicken salad, but I decided that cold roasted chicken breasts by themselves would give me a wider variety of options (that’s how hot it was last week, pulling the chicken breasts…
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It rained yesterday — we even got a big fat thunderstorm/downpour in the afternoon. It’s the biggest adjustment when one grows up east of the high plains where it actually rains on a regular basis — living out here where we average only about 14 inches of rain a year — well, that quarter inch that drenched my yard the old-fashioned way yesterday afternoon was more welcome than I can describe. This morning everything is still damp and cool. It’s supposed to be another scorcher today — high 90s — but that we’re starting out ahead of the game is…
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The Fourth of July is a three-day-event here in Livingston, although this year things kicked off a day early with the unbelievably great concert called “A Song Runs Through It”. It was worth the three hours in the blazing sun to see my beloved Rosanne Cash sing four songs off Black Cadillac“, acoustic, backed up by her friends JD Souther, Victoria Shaw (who was *so* much fun) and Jim Photoglo, friends she then backed up on a selection of their songs. I really love listening to these songwriters talk about their work — there was a lot of talk about…
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Yes — that’s my dad, happy — hard to believe from the grumpy look on his face — and he’s happy because I sent him a big box of mac-and-cheese for his birthday. Dad lives in the Czech Republic and he too has a blog, PragueWriter.com From Dad: Post lady stopped by yesterday morning with your birthday gift. Wow, all that comfort food. Your chef friends would crack up if they knew what you sent your dad for his birthday. The really amazing thing is that the box hasn’t changed a bit in 60 years–still all that great Dow Chemical…
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I went out last night, and when I came home — Raymond was missing! He wasn’t in the basement, or in his crate, or in the yard. He was gone! Owen was home, wagging his butt and licking my leg as though to say “I don’t know where he went! He’s gone!” I’m not sure how he got out of the yard — sometimes the front gate doesn’t close properly, but it was closed when I got home. And the back gate was also latched. My hunch is it was the front gate, and then Owen somehow closed it by…