How Could I?

How could I possibly have missed this, World Wide Knit in Public day, are you kidding me. I would have donned my red rain coat and brought some water resistant fibers and sat out in the pouring rain and knit a soggy mess. Or I suppose I could have found a shelter to stick myself under. Alas, I'll have to jump on the bandwagon next year...

Boc Choy, Books, and Beaches

I have been reading Eco Geography by Andreas Suchankte. I finally made it through the introduction, slightly scathed by some intellectual late night reading, and happy to move on to the true meat of the book! It is a good book on perspective, using your creativity and imagination when looking at the world and the human mind. Some of it is based on Rudolf Steiner's writings and on anthroposphy. It is very thought provoking which I like!

This photograph is from Memorial day when I went with my family to the beach. I'm not sure whose feet those are but I know the small ones are of a gull, probably a lot of sea gulls. It was a pretty overcast day to start but the sun broke through and I managed to get myself into a suit and into the water for about ten seconds. Of course the proclamations of people who were out in it (the three people in the water mind you) were wafting across the water to the tune of "It's really not that bad once you get in" but I knew how bad it would be! There is no fooling when it comes to the temperature of water anymore, there is no kidding you into it after about the first time your toes hit the water when your a year old, and the frigid winter water bites your toes. This sensation is not forgotten, so don't try to fool us!

Today on the farm I harvested peas and squash and broccolli, weeded in several areas and planted five varieties of lettuce (romaine, black seeded simpson, red sails, green oak leaf, and another green lettuce!) and turnips. We also worked in the greenhouse planting some beets. pac choi and scallions. I found out today that the reason there is a spelling difference between "Pac Choi" and "Bok Choi" is that the B spelling is Chinese and more commonly used here in the states and that the P spelling is Taiwanese. I did however just find this article that better describes the misunderstandings of why this vegetable has held all of these names: Bok choy, bok choi, pak choi, pak choy

So hopefully this has been an enjoyable post about books, beaches and Bok Choy!

Fathers and Words.

This is a lovely picture from Apartment Therapy, a website in which I go to to fantasize about what sort of house I might have one day and how it would be decorated! These bottles come from an apartment in Milan. They must be filled with food coloring or some kind of dye as I'm sitting and thinking about it here, the glass is probably not colored.

Lots has been happening since I wrote here last, the farms thhat I work on are in full growing season swing, I finished my farming training in Spring Valley NY, I've been performing and booking more gigs in my guitar playing life, and I am currently eating a marvelous piece of blueberry pie!

For fathers day today I got my dad a book on words thats called "There's a Word for it!" which has the origins and funny stories behind lots of words that we use and lots of words that you've never heard of. My father is the most avid user of the dictionary and of words out of anyone I've ever met, and I think it's turned into a somewhat healthy obsession, accept for the fact that I think I've inhereted this trate, and now I cannot find a word that I don't know and not look it up! I also picked a bouquet of wildflowers that I tied with twine.

We also went to the Book Barn in Niantic CT which is probably my alltime favorite place to get books and look at books and spend too much money on books! There are multiple buildings filled with every topic you can imagine, cats that roam the grounds looking for a pet or a treat, and sign posts that are posted  throughout the grounds, old village style that lead you to your desired topic. I got a book on Junk in NYC, and my  mother found a book on medicinal mushrooms and one on making skirts that she got for me. 

We went to the Ashford Farmers market where we have some friends that are starting out in their growing and selling pursuits and wanted to go and support them (thats where I got the blueberry pie) and we got some flowers (which have now majorly upstaged the bouquet of flowers that I picked for my dad earlier this morning) and some lovely smelling patchouli scented lotion. Man am I a serious sucker for patchouli. I'm very sensitive to smells but that is the one sort of perfumey scent that I can always deal with.

Hopefully I can do some more writing here, as I think most blogs are for people it is sort of theraputic and helpful to have your life documented to look back on and to track what one thinks about as the days go by and by. I had to do a project for my farming training and I decided to do a bit of writing as my project, and I proceeded to write and eight page paper or manifesto if you will, and I thoroughly enjoyed the process. I may start adding to that as time goes by, just keeping track of my thoughts and ideas on farming, the natural world, peoples relation to it and to other people, all of that kind of thing. In the meantime though this blog at least keeps my fingers limber to the keyboard, as it uses different muscles than a fretboard or a hoe...