catorse

Bread and Puppet Glover, VT






Bread and Puppet.

trese

up close and far away. Atlantic love

That's good stuff isn't it? bare feet in the sand and beachcombing. it's hard to beat that. Thank you Portsmouth. Thank you mom and Lance!

doce

Windows.




Gosh, i love the city when i don't live in the city. Shots of the fine city of Portland today on an outing.

Once

Things I love.

Roasting seeds in this pan

Agates collected on the beach in Oregon

This tea pot given to me by J. years ago and tea tray purchased last weekend

Mug collections

Bikes, of course, and coat racks. J and I 'built' that one.

diex

On Space

Beware! If you are thinking about taking up meditation be advised: There will be rewards. I experienced a tiny taste of them today. Upon finishing my short sit in the backyard, I found all my grand ideas and somewhat desperate desires to leave the house and seek out productivity and Vermont-type activities were gone! I opened my eyes after breathing in and drifting away, and breathing out and in again, and was so captivated by my backyard, I thought: 'why would i want to go anywhere?' So I didn't.

Instead i stayed right there a little longer, then happily made a list, organised the medicine cabinet, stored grains away into glass jars, made the bed and, no less happily or more happily than the others, I sat on my little back porch (cement slab) and did my homework. So much productivity without even leaving home and so much contentment in such mundane tasks. What gives? I'm telling you fellow meditators, watch out, you might just find glimpses of contentment in your every day life, just as it is.

Nueve.

No, it's not the stairway to heaven, it's the stairway to the Harris Hill ski jump!

Looking down from 'the top.' yes. that's a corn field down there.

Looking up from the bottom. The slope on the left is where the jumpers land and slow down... i guess? People really do this?

Brattleboro is famous for many things, and one of them happens to be a couple blocks from my house. The Harris Hill Ski Jump. I visited it today on a hike around the brattleboro retreat trails. -That's another thing Brattleboro is famous for: one of the counties oldest insane assylums.- Today, it is a world-class rehab center- but that's another story. Yes, there is a ski jump two blocks from my house. Looking at the pictures from the ski jump makes me excited for winter.

ocho

Just returned from the B.boro Co-op Where John and I are new shareholders and working members. I did my first shift of kitchen work. It was intense. I peeled a box of cucumbers and picked a box of parsley for two hours. The peeling and picking was mind-numbing and it was hot, but I was buzzing from being in an actual commercial kitchen. Theirs is incredible.

Incredibly small and cramped, for the huge amount of food they put out every day. Their chefs and other workers moved gracefully and efficiently around each other. I couldn't deny cooking as an art, watching them. I wanted to just stare and admire them chopping, tossing, peeling,mixing, pouring. wow. cooks are cool.

All of the quick, efficient, focused movements remind me of a musician- a drummer, i think. Sorry, i know, i am a romantic. Really, I think there is a connection there. Cooks and drummers often fit into the stereotype of being drug and alcohol abusers. The work is intense, stressful, competitive and keeps them up late. Anyway. Cooks (and drummers) are cool and food is good. and, i do, i love all three.

Made pesto last night. Instead of throwing it all together and tasting for doneness I actually followed a recipe from my new favorite book. The Splendid Table's How to Cook Supper
I have been listening to the Spledid Table's podcast for a few months and, I have to say I Idolize the host Lynne Rossetto Kasper. So I was super excited to finally get her new book. It is full of easy, quick, delicious recipe's, funny and interesting stories and is beautifully laid out. My favorite part is that Lynn's voice comes through clearly in all of the text. I pretend she's my pal. OK. The pesto came out pretty good. Good enough to spread on crackers today for a mid afternoon snack.

Seite

Walkers and Riders


A few shots from the day.

Seis

market day!



I have been looking forward to it all week! Its a party. It's also majorly tomato time apparently. How do you decide what variety to buy? Some farmers have out at least 10 varieties to choose from. We went with the organic-tasty-ones-$5 a box from the farmers that John and I liked. This is a very logical way of making decisions, don't you think? Seriously though if you want to study up before you hit your market this week here is an article from Cottage Living that lists some of the best tasters. l Also got lots of basil, garlic, dill and cucumbers for pesto making and pickle making. I need me some projects for the week.

Cinco

Fighting the Funk (I)
Isn't there a song about a woman who's moods are compared with the variability of the weather? Well, if there is, she is me. But today its all wrong. The weather of late has been more regular than my moods.

Having time off makes me reflect on myself. What gets reflected back is every other day I am in a little funk. Yesterday was a good day, for example, and today... is not. I battle the funk often.

I have come up with numerous strategies for winning these little battles. Today i will battled the funk by sitting in the sun on the porch reading this new little book (above). Its new to me. I was instructed to read it by the newest addition to the faculty at a private school nearby -John. He says, that if i do all my reading and the homework, I might be allowed go with him and his class of eighth graders to see the production of Of Mice and Men in October. So I am getting a head start and hoping to do well on my book report.

The other thing that I am about to do, but may not really help in fighting the funk: eating some of that homemade lemon-lime sorbet made last night. wow! Yum.(also above) In other words, cooking to fight the funk has been know to work at times. But today is too nice to stay in and cook, so I will 'flee to the wilderness.'

That's Molly Stark

This may be the most affective way to fight off the funk. I will drive out to Molly Stark state park and take a hike up to the fire tower. I want to go there just because of the name. I don't know anything about Molly Stark, (do you?) but I like that she is a she. So I will go there. Maybe the funk will get lost somewhere amongst the sugar maples and ferns.


(I am happy to report, that it did.)

quatro

La luz




Ever wonder about the connection between light and love? Me neither... Seriously, it would be hard not to fall in love, fall into the moment, that those moments of wonderful light and shadow create in life, wouldn't it. I am grateful for the grace they bring.

3:

Hump day it was. Middle of the week. Whatever that means. I continue my struggle with vacationing and enjoying and trying to appreciate, relax, take it in, enjoy summer, enjoy my new home, enjoy life. That was not such a success today. After dropping John at work at the very early hour of 7am, I made the mistake of allowing myself to climb back into our comfy bed until 9am. when i awoke i felt groggy and foggy and out of it. i did some reading and walked down town for coffee and then...
I made scones. What a recipe! oh boy. if i hadn't added too much flour they would have been very fluffy and scone looking but that did not mess with their flavor. Yum. As JOhn said they were like a cookie and a scone mixed together. When John and I were in san fran in the spring we happened upon the Cheese Board Collective in down town Berkeley. I fell in love right away and bought their cook book. They have 12 wonderful versions of their hevenly scones there. I tried out the lemon blueberrie recepie, of course. http://cheeseboardcollective.coop



It was the wednesday farmers market today. I guess that it apple time already? best part of the day was afternoon yoga in the living room- its amazing to discover that i do not HAVE to be in a class to do yoga and taking an evening walk with John. I feel like we are getting very domesticated already. He wants us to take a walk every night like that together. awww. So far it has be mostly fun 'playing house' again.

Tuesday

When will I ever learn? why are there these basic facts of life that i just never seem to get? These important truths about the universe, like the fact that everything changes, that I always seem to forget. Today I relearned that everything, even bad things eventually change. Today I found myself being productive, enjoying myself and actually feeling happy. This all started this morning with something way out of the ordinary for me, after I dropped my sweetie at his job i went and had coffee, read the paper at the coop before my new member orientation. Lesson learned: Llora, get out of the house early! The new member orientation also got me feeling really excited about brattleboro and how cool it is and i even relearned another thing: get involved!

href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_FfOT3fhOqgI/SKt3TJIMGfI/AAAAAAAAAHQ/2Fst3t7gEr4/s1600-h/IMG_1723.JPG">

So it was a good day. I have many dreams, or rather ideas, that tend to stay just like that, as ideas. With this whole 'beginning a new life thing' i have started to experience a bit of anxiety around all the fab. ideas i have but don't get around to doing. so it was a very good day today because one actually came into being. I have been telling john since we moved that I wanted to go blue berry picking. today we did it! mmmmmm. I love Vermont. six pounds of the plumpest most blue blue berries for $12.



We also discovered another wonderful vermont town today. Since John's car is in the shop and he has yet to learn to drive a stick, i have become his driver. today after work we had to drive to Bellows Falls. We loved bellows falls. this tiny town is complete with its top notch coffee shop, numerous galleries, book stores, old theatre/movie hall, music shop, vegetarian restaurants, the falls of course, and lots of other things I find charming like falling apart buildings mixed in with new one. These towns are a mystery to me. How can all these specialty shops survive and how can there be so many cool towns in such a relatively small radius? I will say it again. I love Vermont-- and all its mysterious ways.

monday.

href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_FfOT3fhOqgI/SKmIW7xjOXI/AAAAAAAAAGg/sBXKWHQU1BU/s1600-h/IMG_1661.JPG">

Monday. The question is, what to do? oh, i am so blessed with this free time, all of this free time. so much free leisure time in between now and September 4th when I begin my graduate program that I am paralyzed by it. Oh, don't get me wrong, there are things to be done: furnace John and i's new house, do my homework, excersise, buy groceries, explore, write letters, clean out my car, make dinner... But where to begin?

So after driving John to his first day of training at his new teaching job (!) I decided to stick to my old faithful routine and see what inspiration came out of it. that routine being: yoga, sit, eat. This routine can take all morning if I have the time, and it seems that I do. So this morning the routine took around two and a half hours. Am I wasting my life away? Its a beautiful sunny day and there are things to be done. its nearly 11:00 and I haven't brushed my hair yet. things to be done, things to be done. soon I will be swamped with school and time will seem squeezed and fleeting. now, now is my opportunity to get it all done, to be really productive. I could practice my recorder, do a sewing project, build a garden, brush up on my spanish, can tomatoes and make pesto. I could, I should I keep telling myself, but I seem to not be that ambitious. Is that ok? Today I will get as far as making a call to my nephew who is turning 7. Happy birthday Quinn! cleaning up my dishes from breakfast, writing this entry, walking down town to do some reading for my upcoming classes and picking up John from work. Just a day. Nothing special. That will be have to be good enough. That will have to be my beautiful life. (maybe tomorrow I can be ambitious?)

llegamos

day 12
hours driven: 8
state lines crossed 2

its good to be back! My mom and I rolled into Portsmouth NH around 6:30pm last evening. and much to her relief i told her 'ok, fine, mom, we don't have to go and touch the Atlantic ocean tonight.'

If i was patriotic or nostalgic about my home town, i probably would have cried when my stepfather gave us this news when we got home. they had postponed the fireworks on the fourth, due to weather, and were having them that evening. But since i am not either of those things, i did not cry. I was pretty excited though. As we where standing on the edge of the mill pond with the thousand of other people, the fire works reflecting with the brick middle school building and the thin sliver of a moon in the sky,  i certainly felt grateful to have grown up in this beautiful place and very happy to be standing there now.

Today I awoke and found a perfect Portsmouth day. Sunny, not too too hot and the air filled with saltiness and whispers of sea creatures. I took a deep breath and then another and another. its safe to say i missed that smell. The pacific just doesn't smell like that. Now i am contenting myself with unpacking and happily putting laundry up in my parents urbane back yard. i love how it looks. hanging laundry out to dry can feel so subversive here!

And as if life couldn't get any better than that, thanks to my pack-rat of a stepfather, i have a beautiful new bike! well, its not 'new' at all. but its new to me, and its in the new style i discovered i loved when i was in Bloomington with Adam and Ginelle. 10 speed. I will be taking some much smaller trips on it. and staying out of my car for as long as i can manage. viva la bici!

So thanks to all of you for reading. And thanks for all the prayers and well wishes along the way. I made it almost free of incident. The 'almost' was yesterday. 20 minutes after driving into New Hampshire, i got pulled over! go figure. but it didn't drain my excitement. It just made me laugh.

cinco

day #ers 5,6,7,8
Hours driven: 4
States lines crossed:1

From chicago I made my way south to rendezvous with some more family: My two bestest friends from college, Ginelle and Erin. Ginelle has been living in Bloomington for the past two years working and studying, while her sweetie, Adam (also a good friend) works on his Ph.D. in English. Impressed? Erin drove up from Asheville with her sweetie, jose. Erin has been working in various avenues to promote immigrant rights and human rights in North Carolina. I call them my smart friends.

There we are doing one of the things we do best, besides talking and salsa dancing: feasting. Erin, Ginelle, Jose and Adam are all excellent cooks and when we get together its one elaborate meal after another. This was breakfast numero uno: silver dollar blueberry applesauce pancakes, scrabbled eggs w/ veggies, warm tortillas, fried 'taters w/ more veggies and coffee, of course. I do dishes, and eat, those are my gifts :-)
I spent the weekend here and enjoyed catching up and resting up after my three, 12-13 hour drives. We did lots of eating, drinking, hiking and biking. Hooray for biking. Bloomington is a great city to bike not only was it a super fun way to see the neighborhoods and the beautiful IU campus, it was also imperative after all that feasting of food and drink. Thanks Gine and Adam!

quatro

hours driven: 0
States crossed: 0
hot

Day four found me nestled in the warm hospitality of my mother's cousin Jenny and her family. I am especially grateful for family when there is an instant bond and many things in common, besides family gossip. There was much in common, indeed, and much laughing and sharing done. Every time i visit these Holman's i am overwhelmed and inspired by their warmth and their talents. Jenny is an accomplished artist, Molly is an animal trainer, Jim is a fine woodworker and Andy is a musician and chef.

Andy and I headed into Chicago for the day in search of Chicago things like: deep dish pizza, hot-dogs, chocolate cake and art. We found them all but chocolate cake. for chocolate we did get a whiff of Chicago's chocolate factory as we pulled into the amrtrak station. The dog we had at Potillos which was the best hot dog i have had since Gillies in Portsmouth when i was a kid. My dog came with mustard, ketchup, relish hot peppers, pickles, and sliced tomatoes. yum. For art we went into the Chicago Institute of Art which was free thanks to it being Thursday evening. Maybe what was better than the Picassos and Monets were the people busking out front.