I said it four years ago, and I’ll say it again today — as a progressive straight person, I’m beyond proud that my former home state of California has led the way and realized that gender shouldn’t have anything to do with the ability to love someone nor with the drive to build a family and a home. In memory of my uncle Jack, who lived with Geoffrey for 25 years, in memory of my friend Michael who died too young of AIDS, in memory of my great-great Aunt Marie, “The Duchess” who lived in a Boston Marriage with her…
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It took a while, but spring has finally arrived in my garden! Look! Green grass, sunshine, and actual vegetables growing in my garden! Here’s a better shot of the vegetables: It was a long weekend of puttering. I planted about a million pepper plants: cayenne, aci sivri, topepo rosso, cieliga, cieliga hot, corno di toro, and I think at least one other variety that I’m forgetting. I also planted some brussels sprouts, fennel, round eggplants, and long eggplants. I still have the tarragon, sage, lavender, and columbines in the cold frame because it got hot, and I lost my transplant…
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Here’s today’s lunch. There was a break in the rain and I ventured out into the garden to see if there was enough for lunch. A yummy salad of arugula, wild arugula, spinach, green onion, radishes, parsley, pickled mushrooms, and some delicious feta cheese that my Milk Lady brought me with today’s delivery. I toasted up a piece of flatbread that I made earlier in the week — I’m on a flatbread kick and tonight I”m going to try this recipe from the LA Times. And a glass of real milk from my milk lady — what can I say.…
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What is going on this year? According to Weather.com, the overnight low was 33 degrees — my thermometer tells me it was 30.3 in my backyard — and its now up to a whopping 44 windy, grey, rainy, horrible degrees out there. I realize that rain is good, and that we live in a desert, but I’m tired of being cold! I want to plant my peppers and eggplants. I want to build my new tomato trellis. I want to be warm and enjoy my backyard and invite people over for fun barbecues … I’m sure it has to get…
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We’ve been invaded by glorious Western Tanagers this spring. I think because it’s still so cold up high, we’ve got so many songbirds in town. These little guys have been all over the place — while I did the dishes tonight (after my fabulous plumbers stopped by on their way home from a whole bunch of other jobs and snaked out my clogged kitchen-and-laundry drain) I watched one sit on my bean trellis for probably five minutes. We also have a horde of yellow warblers, and the other night I watched a flock of cedar waxwings clean my two big…
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Well this is serendipitous — Poetry Magazine has an interview with Gary Snyder, by Alan Williamson! When I was at Davis, Gary taught a course about Zen in classical Chinese and Japanese poetry. Basically, he came in once a week and gave us a Dharma talk, then we looked at the poems. Alan also teaches at Davis, and he sat in on the course (along with a couple of other professors). Alan is one of the nicest people on the planet, and one day, as we were all happily bashing away at the English Romantics for being dualistic, he gently…
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The Dog Walk Sutra of a couple of weeks ago came out of my little project to finally memorize the Heart Sutra, and to dedicate at least a part of my morning dog walks to reciting it. Because that was such a success, I decided that maybe the morning dog walks might also be a good opportunity to memorize some poems. I’m not getting any younger, and my graduate work is fading farther and farther into the past, and although I am grateful for my day job at the Big Corporation, it’s not creative work at all. I had this…
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So, here we are, the last primary in the nation. Although I’ve been an Obama supporter for months, I’ve been lying to the campaign. They (quite rightly) have been encouraging people to vote early, especially since here in Montana you can register any time, including on election day, and you can vote right when you register. The Bozeman Chronicle had a photo on the front page this morning of a line of early voters snaking out the door of the courthouse over there yesterday. But I’ve written on this blog before about how I love to go to the polls…
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It was a busy weekend here in the backyard. The Mighty Hunter came over and banged together two new raised beds for me along the new privacy fence. Here’s a picture with the tomatoes in the new beds before I put the Walls o’Water up: This year I planted the following varieties: Principe Borghese, Milano Plum, Jaunne Flamme, Marglobe, Black Cherry, Sasha’s Altai and Galina. I planted one of each, in that order, in each bed … so we’ll see how they do. I’m a tiny bit anxious about the contents of the beds — the dirt was pretty good…
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It’s a little hard to see in this photo — but two weeks ago, when I was making a cake for a party, my KitchenAid beater sprung a sproing! It broke! Now, to be fair, this beater is at least 35 years old (I’ve written before about my heirloom KitchenAid), and thanks to the miracle of Amazon I have a replacement beater, but it seemed that a breakdown after all this time was something worth commemorating. And I’m really hoping that I’m just imagining that my elderly KitchenAid is beginning to sound a little sluggish. Since there’s no one left…