truly to the beat, like the symphony

today was random. sun tea, weird exchange at HEB, pretty flowers and some glitz.

i wake up this morning, walk to the kitchen with hair standing up in every direction and find a note from maj on a whole sheet of paper that says 'make sun tea' in sharpie with a pitcher on top. i don't know why i always thought you needed special tea/one of those containers with a spigot at the bottom to make sun tea.

apparently all you need is tea, water and sun. it took about an hour to get to this point.

the weirdest part of my day was at HEB in the checkout line, once again. last week we had republican checker of doom, this week we have small woman, her daughter and grandson. they were buying sweet tea in a gallon jug, a lot of frozen stuff and some candy. so i'm unloading my veggies, yogurt, etc.. and at first she's friendly. "look at all that healthy food! you must cook a lot. i cook for christmas and that's it." she's asking what simply apple is, we're chatting. everything is good.

all of the sudden, she decides she's finished. she looks at the checker and exclaims "i've HAD IT with this girl and her health food!" and not in a funny way. in a mean way. it was bizarre.

[totally unrelated.] when we moved into this house, there was a giant metal hula hoop at the end of the lawn with the mailbox attached to it.. swimming within this unruly bush. the mailbox has since been replaced, and the unruly bush is doing its best to fit in with the new house. it is so pretty this week.
every little clump of flowers is like its own little bouquet.
it looks like it would be related to baby's breath, doesn't it? now if it would only smell as good as the asian jasmine that used to be up the walkway to the old house.

and finally: i ordered a pair of earrings while i was in dc and haven't gotten a chance to mention them, but i am loving them. every girl needs a bit of sparkle every once in a while. i used to wear my prom earrings whenever i felt the need for some glitz, but they make my ears infected by the end of the day. so far, these have been great though.

i wear the same necklace every day, but her pendants are pretty too.

wouldn't it be nice

today was a whirlwind. had coffee with my favorite english teacher from high school. funny how you can pick up where you left off 7 years ago. i guess if i chatted with any of the kids i actually formed any kind of relationship when i taught them, we could have a conversation. some days i do miss those babies so much.

andy and i went to thai fresh for lunch and it was delicious. now i can compare it with real thai food! and it measured up.

the rest of the day just flew by. this week i'm going to do some serious research on places to volunteer in austin. creative things. we'll see.

and it goes all clear

spent today reading up on vegetable gardens and chickens so i have nothing to report so i'm just going to add pictures from yesterday.

jeff took some cool ones from sitting on top of the fence. that's his little house.

the ones that have many to a container are the hardest. pony something. pony tray?

bluebonnets at the lake! they are so pretty all over the highways right now. hopefully i'll get a picture of them before they go away.

watch my corn pop up in rows

farmer meg and farmer maj planted a vegetable garden today around the patio.

they gave mom $75 worth of funny money at the marble falls garden show as a thank you for being a speaker, so she spent it on a bunch of vegetable starts.

squash, peas, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, sweet potato vine, cucumbers, cauliflower..

..oregano, lemon balm, cat thyme, basil, purple sage. marigolds.

lots of dirt.

ta-da! now we water and wait.
we also started a compost heap. that's a story for another day.

turnin' into the light

kitty's girlfriend was back again today.

proof!
ripley and i spent a considerable amount of time sleeping in the shade on the back porch on my yoga mat with a quilt and a pillow. i can't think of a better way to spend an 83 degree day. it was lovely until it got a liiiittle too toasty on the bottom of my feet.

then i decided to box up all of my winter clothes and hang up the summer clothes.. which required emptying my closet.. so i just decided to organize it by color while i was at it. i like it, but i'm not sure how long it will last. kind of nice though when you have no door on your closet.
patrick and i went to a truly austin fab party tonight. it was in east austin which is slowly being gentrified by whole foods shoppers and soy milk buying 20somethings. the house had a garden that's tended by a woman who leaves the land owners a bag of veggies every week to let her use the space. there's a chicken coop, a handmade shed for fixing bikes, two buses that were converted into houses, and a fire pit. and a giant clothesline.

..i was pretty proud of myself just for being a super recycler. but these people took it to the extreme. not sure if i'm capable of that. we hung up our clothes in taiwan and i decided it was worth a dollar to dry them in the machine so they come out fluffy and warm. but i guess everyone makes their own mark (or decreases their mark) in their own way.

p.s. majjy gave a 'must see' seminar at the marble falls home and garden show today

friday part 2

when i got home from the park, i drove up to find jeff and ripley hanging out in the back yard. that's the new path to jeff's house

after an hour or so of listening to everything from george carlin, to hendrix, to nat king cole on jeff's record player.. we moved out front which has gotten slightly more interesting in the last few days thanks to the bouncy house in the yard across the street. we're not sure what the deal is. it's been there for 4 days now.
found some glasses in a box of random stuff.
ripley wanted to get in on the action
can't say she loved it.

and the big news of the day was kitty's girlfriend. i saw this white cat on the front porch right up by the windows and wondered where kitty was.. he usually doesn't stand for other cats in his territory. but when i went to inspect the scene, kitty was in his pot as usual, with the other cat just feet away.

so we think it must be his girlfriend. i've never seen her before. but jeff and i keep breaking into "who's that ladddyy?" as we made shrimp scampi and watched jamie oliver's food revolution. (if you haven't seen it, you need to.)

bootsay

perfect day for a picnic!

andy and kelly took a break from work for lunch in the park


central market has such good picnic food. little containers.

me & patrick.. and andy looking cute.

you should be free of me

first of all. is there anything better on a rainy day in texas than mexican hot chocolate? no. it's like cinnamony, peppery hot chocolate. not too sweet. so yummy.

well today i decided on a few recipes and bought a million things at HEB. had an interesting experience in the checkout..

checker: did you know President Obama is trying to make it legal for illegal immigrants.. i mean prisoners.. to vote?

me: ...

it was bizarre. maybe my request for paper bags and purchasing organic eggs tipped him off.

i made butternut squash risotto for the first time and it turned out very nicely. you have to stir, stir, stir it for a long time though. i always thought that was a little unnecessary when i read the recipes in the past. not so. if you leave it for more than a minute, a thick sludge builds up on the bottom and it all starts to stick while the top bubbles away.
it's one of ina garten's recipes. i adore her. the haircut. the laugh. her no nonsense demeanor. she is so fun to watch. and everything she makes looks so tasty.
we had thunderstorms and lightning tonight. what a perfect night for risotto. even majjy came around to it in the end. she didn't think she liked the texture.. though i don't think she had ever had risotto.

new skirt! new haircut.
this is my sunburn/little spot i put sunscreen on. not sure what happened to my ankle.
and..