Don't Oversell Yourself

Need leftovers? Look no further! (Chillicothe, Ohio)



Or perhaps you'd like to browse a wider range of things?



Sadly the "This & That" doesn't appear to be in business anymore. Surprising, given that they seem to have covered all aspects of the market. (Nelsonville, Ohio)

Just what will 99¢ buy?

I've been collecting photos of stores with funny names for a few years now. Some of the best names are for independent dollar stores.

So, ever wondered what 99¢ will buy?



Power? Creation?



Dreams. Yes.



Wait for it...

Wait

for

it

...



Infinity.

(Locations: Sip Ave, Jersey City; W. 23rd St., NYC; JFK Blvd, Jersey City; Cleveland Ave, Columbus, Ohio)

Spring in Granville

Spring in Granville. Sometimes I think spring is prettier here than just about anywhere else I've been. So many flowering trees, daffodils, crocus.





Everything came weeks early this year because of the hot weather. Yes, eighty degree days in April are not normal here, nor should they be. Perhaps it's the warm weather or perhaps it was the heavy snow cover we had here this winter, but the flowering trees have been extraordinary this week. But, the asparagus came too early and now it keeps getting nipped by cold nights. Personally, I'm not convinced by the trade off. You can't eat crabapple blossoms...

I'm putting a new bed into the garden for tomatoes and herbs. Under the grow lights I've got four different kinds of tomatoes, tomatillo, peppers, and eggplants. Currently growing in the garden is garlic, rhubarb (amazing since I keep killing all the rhubarb I try to grow, spinach, radishes, bok choi, and snow peas.

And, while I'll admit that I'm not the most organized gardener or tool keeper, I'm secretly thrilled that my lack of attention to the pots outside the back door has meant that a house wren was able to build a nest there.





(Oboists might notice the pieces of warped oboe cane in the white pot. Bad for reeds but good for marking plants in the garden!)

It's always spring somewhere...

If it's true that it's always 5pm somewhere then it must be true that it's always spring somewhere.

Granville is a winter wonderland today.



But at the Franklin Conservatory, it's definitely spring.





I think we'll brave the snow and see if the Buxton is serving drinks tonight...

Coming up for air

Now that it's time to work on my syllabi for spring, I've suddenly decided to update my blog. It's been a busy fall of teaching (classes and private students, yay!) and taking care of business. Perhaps the reason I haven't been updating more frequently is that life has been relatively quiet lately. And that's probably a good thing, when you think about it.

I've put together a few photos to share what I've been up to since September.

The sauerkraut? After being a scary fermenting thing for several weeks, it actually turned out quite nicely. It's not kraut for the faint-hearted but it stands up very well to wurst with hot and spicy mustard, so it's probably exactly what I would've made if I'd felt like I had any control over the whole process.



In October we spent a weekend in Pittsburgh and visited the Phipps conservatory. Very nice. Although I don't have a picture of it, I liked the section on edible tropical plants the best. They had the usual suspects such as coffee, cacao, etc. but standing next to the strawberry guava tree was as close to what I imagine heaven to be like on a smell level.



Ferns are strange premordial things, aren't they?



In mid-November we traveled to Mexico City for the annual meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology. The weather was lovely and has spoiled us for the winter.

Outside of Diego Riviera's studio/house, with Frida Kahlo's adjoining house. Imagining scenes from Barbara Kingsolver's Lacuna . Bill asked to see the tiny kitchen in Kahlo's house but it wasn't open for public viewing. The book was great but we both enjoyed it more having a first-hand sense of the world in which it took place.



We found the Museum of Popular Art just by chance but it was one of my favorite places. Can I have a skull bicycle too?



At Teotihuacan we worshiped the sun and moon. We tried raw agave juice and then later we sampled it in its more exciting forms--as pulque and mezcal. It's hard to communicate scale here, but these agave were about six feet tall.



The sky was amazing that day. This is one of my favorite photos from the trip and it was taken looking up from the platform halfway up the pyramid of the moon.



This last photo is from a history of Mexico depicted in different vignettes and different artistic media but all using skeletons. The macabre in me loves this.



Wishing you all an auspicious 2010.

Autumn already?

Where does the time go? Suddenly August is gone and school has started. Where have I been? In the garden, growing a zillion cucumbers and huge tomatoes.





In the kitchen, canning pickles and tomato sauce.



These are my first tries at canning veggies. I've also got a crock of cabbage in the basement, fermenting into what I hope will become sauerkraut and not some nasty mess. No photos yet. Fermenting seems like a private process of becoming, not to be interrupted and captured on film. Rather like human adolescence.

And I've tried to spend less time inside on the computer and in books and more outside among the plants.



Now that the weather is cooler, the morning glories are staying open a little longer into the day. And the zinnias are regularly visited by monarch butterflies and hummingbirds.

Before and after

I've become addicted to Design*Sponge and all the pretty things and pretty places featured on the site. Inspired by many of their "before and after" posts featuring reclaimed furniture and redecorated rooms, I've been trying to see more potential in what other people discard or are otherwise done with.

I found this chair on the curb during Granville Clean-Up days when residents can get rid of large items and others can go curb shopping among the piles. Getting it home the four blocks was tricky because it's pretty heavy and it doesn't fit in the car (except in the passenger seat if you leave the door hanging open...).



And it cleans up real nice after four coats of primer.



The seat was made from a cabinet door from a neighbor who is currently ripping out a kitchen back to the studs (thanks James!). The fabric is from the local Granville designer Amy Butler. I made the cushions myself, even covering leftover buttons with fabric to make the matching buttons.