Farm City

I've jumped headlong into another great new book.  Written by one of the women who work/own at the biodiesel station where we buy our fuel, Biofuel Oasis, I had heard about its emergence and awaited it eagerly.  Farm City The Education of an Urban Farmer, by Novella Carpenter, is the account of the real life adventures of the author raising produce, honey, eggs, and meat in a vacant lot in downtown Oakland.  Compassionate, frank, witty, and detailed.  With Sealion having just scoped out the "perfect" designs for our near-future chicken coop, and picked up the second-hand lumber this afternoon, it feels relevant.  And just plain fascinating.  

Now back to the book!     

MyFarm

Remember my friend and fellow Three Stone Hearth apprentice, Trevor?  Well, check out how far his business, MyFarm, has come!  I am so impressed, and so psyched for them and San Francisco.
 

gratitude: for friends

Woo!

Landing pad, soundingboard, ear, shoulder, hand. 

(At the Coronado beach [right, woo?], San Diego.)

 

Buddy, girlfriend, sister, auntie.

Life doesn't feel right if I go too long without seeing my Woo-lie. 

(With Miles at The Linkery in San Diego.)

baby-loving interlude

gratitude: for friends

Today I'm giving thanks for our Family, Uncle Brian and Tita Arlene (known formerly on this blog with different names...)

We miss our family dinners with them so much, but that makes having dinners together nowadays even more special.

(Here we are enjoying a family dinner on our back deck.) 
With Family, you have full-on belly laughs like this.  I love this photo of Sealion because it is so genuine and full of joy. 
They're our partners in Good Food. 

(At Oliveto in Rockridge celebrating Arlene's birthday.)
And Tita enthusiastically comes to the rescue for a grumpy squirming Anjali.  (Here we're at the Big Kitchen in San Diego.)
Cheers!  To Family.  

gratitude: for friends

Well, I've been trying to articulate myself on this matter for weeks now and just not getting it to my liking.  Meanwhile, I don't have much time to write with many loved ones visiting.  This has  resulted in a blog that has been sadly sparse this month.  

Sealion and I are beside ourselves grateful for friends and loved ones these days.  And while I valued hermiting for years as I hashed and rehashed some inner work, I think it has served me and that I may be social now.  I'm sure it probably surprises some of you who know me well that visiting and having visitors for a solid month sounds just fine and even mostly awesome to me!  Who will be visiting next?  Come on out, y'all.

So for the next few posts I would like to give thanks for some dear friends.  We are so blessed. 

First I would like to send a heaping helping of gratitude out for my oldest dear friend Gemini Cricket.  I continue to be impressed with how we have allowed each other to evolve and change, and how our friendship weathers those evolutions and changes.   Gemini had a birthday recently, and a few nights beforehand, I had a dream in which I was giving him a big, warm birthday hug.  He is so much a part of who I am, even thousands of miles away and months between visits.  

Cricket papa with Firefly babe.  I love this photo!

Love to you, dear friend!    

baby's first bangles

Even if she weren't the daughter of a bellydancer, a girl named Anjali needs some bangles, don't you think?!

Thanks, Aunt TT!  

Food, Inc.

I haven't done an advertisement in a while (and I've been brewing up a soapbox speech about plastics, but haven't found the time. . ). 

 Here's one worth watching: the movie, Food, Inc., due in theaters tomorrow.  If you have been wondering what all the fuss is about organics, food safety/security, "local" foods, and why it is they expect you to pay several times more for the "same product" if it is labeled organic, this will be a high quality introduction for you.  Seeing a movie is a pretty painless form of education.  From this interview by CUESA, it sounds as if most of the information will not be shocking to those of us "in the know" about food issues.  But I think it's always wise to keep myself reminded about why it is I do what I do, and don't do what I don't do, and to support the folks who are putting forth the effort to get the information out, also so that when someone says, "Whatta you think about this?" I can have a fruitful conversation about it.  Because what we eat is so important for so many reasons.  It affects everything.  

crafty: wet bag for a friend

I made this wet bag ~ a bag to hold wet cloth diapers ~ for my friend, Jessica, and her little baby, Tor.  I didn't get to take a photo of it before I gave it to her, but I love this photo she took with her computer ~ her little smile above the bag, and Tor's sweet face behind.The bag is made of felted (washed and dried on hot) wool sweaters ~ blue ribbed on the back, brown-and-natural with multi-colored diamond stripes on the front, and orange flap, with a velcro closure on the flap, and a loop on either side for hanging.