Back to School

I recently agreed to pick up one more shift at work each week. It'll free up one of my weekend nights, making it a little more likely that I can develop some kind of social life, but I'm going to be working on the nights that the Spinners and Weavers' Guild meets. So, as a little treat I decided to sign up for a spinning class (because what I really need, after buying a wheel and paying to fly to Maryland for the Sheep and Wool Festival where I will probably buy a bunch of shit, is to spend more money on a class).

I feel like I've got the basic gist of spinning, but I think there's a lot more about it that I'm not getting. I could learn from books, but it will help me to learn it from a real live person. It will also be a chance for me to get out and be social.

I need to steel myself, though. The class is with the owner of the local yarn shop, who has been really nice since she learned that I'm a spinner, but she's opinionated and frankly a little intimidating. When I signed up I told her that I had been spinning on my own for a little while, but wanted to learn more. She said "We'll see how many bad habits we get to break." Way to inspire confidence.

But maybe I'll emerge from this with better skills so that I can do justice to whatever lovely fibers I bring home from Maryland (because what I really need is to be more efficient at spinning yarn that I can toss in with the closet full of yarn that never sees the light of day).

Earth Day

While I loathe the idea that we should relegate caring for the earth to one day out of the year (or even to one month for things like Black history or women's history) rather than demonstrating that care in all of our actions and choices every day, there is one notable event taking place today - the release of a new book. Igniting a Revolution: Voices in Defense of the Earth is now available from AK Press, complete with contributions from our very own Maxwell. Read it. Read lots of books from them. They rock.

I'm off to check out the Sustainable Living, Arts and Music Festival before work.

Make It Useful

The blog juices just haven't been flowing lately. I think it's the weather. It's been beautiful for a few days here and I've been playing outside as much as I can. On my nights off, I've been knitting (I do still knit) but I'm still holding off on posting photos until the gift is given.

For all the work I've been doing outside, it really doesn't look any different. Well, there's a new little bed in the front where I ripped out a bunch of weedy stuff. I was happily planting things in it when my neighbor came over and told me that I was doing it wrong. Okay, not exactly. She was actually really nice and was offering what will probably turn out to be very good advice, but I had a plan that had kept me up most of the night and dammit, I was sticking to it. If my plants spread too much I'll just dig them up later. I'm trying to get over my perfectionist gardening hurdles (basically, I'm afraid to do anything because I don't know what I'm doing) and just go with the trial-and-error thing. It's not easy for me.

I've spent most of my time cleaning up. For such a small yard, there's an insane amount of debris, and even though I'm leaving some stuff on the ground to decompose on it's own, I'm still having to make new compost piles. This fall I'll try to be a little more on top of things so I won't have so much cleanup in the spring, but the winter winds will still make a mess.

As I clear things away, I keep discovering neat things. I'm pretty sure this is lemon balm.


The oregano was a pleasant surprise.


Ubiquitous mint.


There are other herbs, too. Chives, lavender, the rosemary bush the size of a washing machine.
I even discovered a blueberry bush. And there are our two apple trees. Sadly, I don't know when they were last pruned, so I don't know how much fruit we'll get this year. But the truly exciting part is that, without me planting a thing, we're well on our way to an edible landscape. I know we're not going to survive on apples and lemon balm, but it's a start. And now that I have started planting a few things, we're getting closer. It's going to be a real challenge to see how much food we can grow on a tiny lot with plenty of shade, and I don't expect that it will completely stock our pantry, but I'm excited to try.

And while I don't really have much patience for plants that aren't useful, I'm glad there are some purely ornamental ones already here. They make me happy, and it wouldn't have occurred to me to plant them myself. Some of my favorites right now:

Alien-looking fern babies


Unidentified small pink friends


A jade (Outdoors! How crazy is that?) It's looking a little sad. Perhaps that little snail has been nibbling.


Camellia



Lilacs. We had a lilac bush in New York that never grew an inch in four years and produced one flower. One. This one's obviously been here a long time and knows how to bloom. It doesn't seem to know how to smell like a lilac, though. Maybe it's just so tall that it all wafts over my head.


I am anxiously awaiting my garden consultation so I can identify the rest of what's out there!

Eating Local

Max and I have decided to pick up the gauntlet dropped by Liz and others and join the Eat Local Challenge. Last year's Challenge was in August, and I wanted to do it, but we were in the midst of moving. This year's Challenge takes place in May, so we're getting geared up and are eager to participate. I think that if we were still in New York it would be difficult - lots of peas and lettuce - but here in California we should have some good choices.

We're still discussing what our parameters for the challenge will be. Many people consider "local" to be a radius of about 100 miles. I don't know for sure if we'll stick to that, but I'd like to try. The tough part is that we can get lots of produce grown here in our own state, but from much more than 100 miles away, so I'll have to do my research. We're also discussing what exceptions we might make. A few of my favorite things are not grown locally, but can at least be produced locally. Coffee is one example. I'm not a full-blown addict, but I really enjoy it, especially at work. Fortunately the coffee we get at work is organic, fair trade, and roasted about five blocks away. The tough part will be finding something other than Silk Creamer to put in it. I also drink a lot of black tea, so I may at least try to get my hands on some Charleston Tea. It's not exactly local, but moreso than China or India. I do have a tea plant headed my way, but I don't expect great things from it this soon. I will probably also continue to eat bread from work. In that case, I know it's made locally because I'm the one who made it. The flour we use is from Utah, but almost all our other ingredients are local.

It'll help that we have great resources here. The primary one is the North Coast Co-Op. Even in May, the Co-op will have local, organic veggies. They usually list where things come from instead of just labelling it "local." They carry things I wouldn't have expected, like locally grown rice and olive oil, too. And one of the Farmers' Markets has started up. We checked it out on Saturday. Lots of greens, beets, and leeks, but the offerings should expand pretty quickly.

I wish I could say that we'll be relying on our own garden to furnish us with some treats, but that's laughable. Unless you count the spearmint that's taking over the side yard, this is the extent of our gardening efforts:





Just a few tender shoots of swiss chard as yet. It's all greens and a few carrots anyway, most of the seeds just planted on Sunday. I'm trying to make a coherent plan for the front yard before we dig it all up. I'm torn between wanting to just grow like crazy all over the place and wanting to keep it looking decent, since we live on a very small cul-de-sac with neighbors close by (one of whom is trying to sell his house). I'm not one for ornamentals, and I know nothing about garden design, so this is a challenge. The front yard plan also includes hazelnut bushes, raspberries, and strawberries, but none of these will be producing anything this May.

We still have a few more weeks to think about the Eat Local Challenge, but I'm getting excited. I think it will help me feel more connected to the area, which I really need, since it still feels so new to me. I hope a few others will think about joining, too!

Hey! I almost forgot. Kelly Gilliam just published an article at Suite101 on vegan knitting, featuring yours truly. It's short and sweet, but helps get the word out about alternatives to knitting with wool. Check it out.

Fun with Compost

I was too shell-shocked from the move last fall to deal with my outdoor environs, but now that spring is here, I'm ready to at least take a stab at taming the yard. I'm still unsure of what most of the plants are out there, although I recently learned that I can get a member of the California Native Plant Society to come do a consultation. They'll tell me what's what, what's invasive, and offer suggestions. I must call them. Meanwhile, I figured compost was a safe place to start.

There were a couple of free-range piles left by the previous owners that we had been haphazardly adding to.




But now, after some twisting of chicken wire, a trip to the recycling center, and a couple of hours of labor, we have this:




The theory is that the black bin holds the fresh stuff while I'm waiting for the pile in the chicken wire bin to cook. I had a similar system in New York that worked well, although there I also had a huge bin to hold autumn leaves that I could use to make a well-balanced pile. Here we have no deciduous trees to speak of, just lots of redwood branches. I had to make another whole pile of brush that was too big to compost. (It makes me want one of these, or at least makes me curious about renting one.) Fortunately, there is no shortage of slugs and bugs around here ready to break this stuff down, so I have high composting hopes. Here's one of the locals checking out the new digs:


My favorite part is seeing what other people consider "compostable." The pile at our last house, whose previous owners had a young son, swallowed many a plastic soldier and the occasional matchbox car. This pile was harboring some interesting items. Lipstick? A steak knife? And I love that broken mirror. Good thing I was wearing gloves.


I did make a good discovery. I was counting out how many paving stones I might need to make a path when my digging fork hit one of these:

Looks like there is a path, or there was, until it got completely overgrown. Now I just have to dig these out and reposition them, but that's a job for another day.

Another Year Older

Things have been busy around here. Last weekend was the visit from my mom and her husband. We had a lot of fun, and I was more relaxed than I expected to be while having them stay with us. A kind stranger photographed us in Trinidad (a town in which my mom declared she could live if she could have a view of the ocean and the crab boats).

Spending time with my mom is always an experience and a half. Of course there's the family gossip to catch up on, but then there are the challenges that come with living a very different lifestyle from the one in which I was raised.

We worked out the food issues reasonably well with some mutual compromises and lots of eating out. (Let's just say that I've had my fill of veggie burgers and the tried-and-true french fries and a salad.)

I knew they both like to watch TV, but figured they would be fine with watching DVDs or reading in the evenings. The thing I hadn't anticipated was March Madness. Both my mom and Robert are huge UConn Huskies fans. We managed to find a radio broadcast over the internet of the Friday night game, and on Sunday we ate lunch at a brewpub that had the game on TV. After a couple of Downtown Brown Ales, even I found the game a little exciting. I like to see underdogs win, even if it means the Huskies of my home state have to lose.

We also did a great deal of shopping. I think it frustrates my mom that I don't want to buy more stuff. She wanted to buy me a birthday present - something I wouldn't necessarily buy for myself - and while I was very taken with a couple of amazing art quilts, they were way too much money, so I settled on a new pair of work shoes (Crocs - comfy, vegan, washable, made in Canada. Everyone seems to be wearing them, but don't let that stop you) and a pair of khakis. Boring, perhaps, but useful.

They flew home on Monday, and Tuesday was my birthday. I got some nice phone calls, and some local, organic tulips. There was also delicious Indian food and a showing of Transamerica. And while I really, truly feel very good about being 34, I did cave to one little bit of vanity. I went to the health food store and bought myself some nice skin care stuff. I'm not afraid of a few wrinkles, but my skin is changing in new ways, and it seems that my routine of plain old all-natural soap and any old moisturizer doesn't hold up as well as it used to. Hey, at least I'm not signing up for microdermabrasion. (How can that be good? Doesn't it just sound terrifying?)

Since then I've been doing some garden planning. I'm late, but I finally ordered a few seeds. We're starting small, since the climate is so funky. I'd hate to invest a ton of time, energy and money into plants that just won't grow here. We'll be doing most of our planting in containers with small versions of a few favorites, but we're doing one raised bed to try something new - potatoes. They're said to do well on the coast. We'll see.

I've also been doing a little spinning. I finally tried the soy silk I bought a few weeks back. Once you get over the feeling that you're spinning the hair of little Aryan children, and get used to the slipperiness and shedding, it's very nice. I'm not sure the photo shows it off well.

I also have a small amount of bamboo to try. My Valentine gave me a gift certificate to the yarn store last month that I have yet to spend. I'm trying to decide if I want more of this type of fiber, like enough for a sizeable knitting project, or if I want something else. I could get cards or combs, or books, or needles. Decisions, decisions. Good thing I just learned that gift certificates don't expire in California.