Shiva and Jim Morrison are...

...in the house! sort of.

"Shiva" (the destroyer) is what one calls oneself when wielding
a mighty hammer with this result:

Jim Morrison's "break on through to the other side" is what one sings while hammering.

the cottage has been off limits to innocent visitors as we've spent our stay-cation doing our annual holiday de/construction.

result pix are coming up soon.

Happy New Year Y'all!

may 2009 bring ever more deLIGHT.

besos,
quel

Gritty Knitty Revival

i lost my patagonia fleece headband in chicago earlier this month.

and have been F R E E Z I N G... until my woolly habits reawakened from a long dormancy.

YAY for wool and pointy sticks!

i started with me. under my fur hat is a...and the knitting moved on to the brothers.
and full(er) coverage for ollieMany thanks to the fine models!

Who's next? Tam? What can I knit for YOU?

sustainable ginger bread houses

The New York Times wrote an article about green-inspired gingerbread houses.

Such as this one:

And this one:
So clever and timely with their windmills and solar panels!

But, like a proud mum, i'm partial to the passive solar homestead i designed for Provo's candy windows.
with a raised bed winter garden, notice the coldframe.
dear reader, beware the effects of working with stale candy nonstop for a full week-- my mind is recreating everything i see into candy. it's like a trippy video game that doesn't stop when you close your eyes.

xo,
quel

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in a snow globe?

well, if you went to Provo's open-air Christmas Market you now know!

mother nature decided to shake the snow globe...vigorously
sideways
and upside down.

Thanks to all the hardy folk who braved the icy roads and came to the market!

xo,
quel

with the cool weather comes a shift in pace

and all i want are

s l o w n e s s,

simple beauty,

and a purple-topped turnip fresh from the winter garden.the garden looks spent but the truth is it's packed with
root vegetables such as carrots, parsnips, and turnips.

how ollie prepares turnips:

Dice and put in boiling salted water for 3-5 minutes. With slotted spoon transfer the turnips to a cast iron skillet and saute in butter until golden brown. Add beef or vegetable stock. Chop fresh parsley (from your kitchen window garden) and add to the stock while reducing.

So good.

dear blogoshere

i've got a case of stage fright.

meow.

i'm still kicking. just scared of

WHAT WILL I POST NEXT?

(and will i later take it back down.)




so i've decided to "consecrate everything to my own good". no regrets.

that's a good frame of mind to be in.

i like it!

am i talking to myself?

echo echo.

signed,
off to renew my costco membership so that i can decorate our booth at the farmers market manana. it's going to snow! YAY!

Provo's Farmers Market presents...

...an Open Air Christmas Market!

Here are the details:
We just got done with promoting the market at the downtown Christmas parade. So fun! Everyone's excited about next Saturday.

Also, when you come to the market be sure to tell Lori Stubbs (Stubbs Family Farms) "Happy Birthday!"

xo!

The Borrowed Garden

*Garden #4 in a series about local gardens. Click here for the Hip Garden, here for the Serving Time Garden, and here for the Well-Tended Garden.

Gardeners: the BYU Eco-Response Club
Size: 1/4 of an acre
Location: just off Center Street on the way to Utah Lake

(The Eco-response club helped w/our strawbale greenhouse)

These apartment dwelling students wanted a garden. So they borrowed some land from a generous local farmer named Shery Goodman. Shery owns Sunspring Ranch. Most of the students ride their bikes to get there.

Once you arrive you must greeeeeet the noisy goats. Theeeeey love it!

Here's the garden at dusk, which is appropriate since these busy students have to squeeze gardening time into their schedules. You go when you can, even when the light is fading fast.
Here's Chandler with some of the produce they grew.

To see pics of their canning marathon "Yes We Can...Carrots" click here!

primary

i looked in our windowand what did i see?
Note: food chaos reigned for a long while but these pumpkins and squashes have all cured and are now settled in the cellar.

halloween at the hayes'

Andi is the Halloween Queen.
yummy homemade soups & doughnuts.
group art projects.

here Andi and Sophie are holding my pin art up to the light.

Andi made this cool skirt.
wonderful folks...
being old & gray together...

i wouldn't miss halloween at the hayes' for the world!

sprouting wings

...from fallen feathers

beautiful birds.

pre-election tension

halloween.
seriously, our Harold & Maude costumes would have been much more convincing if Maude weren't so wound up about the elections. (though i did offer to force myself into channeling Maude by stealing a convertible...)

thinking ahead

don't miss this:the Beehive Bazaar is MAGICAL
plus buying local is VIRTUOUS
equals the happiest shopping around.

see y'all there!

xo!

You don't really know Ollie...

...until you know that he's all about lacto-fermentation. Lacto-fermentation is a process whereby special bacteria transforms sugars and starches into beneficial acids.

Pickle, anyone?

Bounty

These are pics of a typical daily harvest. They are a thing of the past. Last night was the first hard frost in my area. All the summer crops, ripe or not, were brought in. And now you can barely walk in the kitchen and there's certainly no room on the counters. Because there is food EVERYWHERE.

And that is what cheers the soul.

The Hip Garden

*Garden #3 in a series about local gardens. Click here for the Serving Time Garden, and here for the Well-Tended Garden.

Gardeners: Scott & Katri
Size: .3 acres
Location: Maeser Neighborhood

Katri & Scott, both young artists, live in the grooviest-magazine-ready brick pioneer home. But it's their back garden that has captured my heart and held it ransom. "Back Garden, you had me at Hello." The entrance is a long gravel lane which leads to a two-story barn that they converted into beautiful studio space. There are courtyard areas with potted plants; arbors and patios define separate places to party (which they make use of a lot!)

and overlooking it all...

This 10-foot long rhino made by Scott is the coolest garden ornament EVER. It lights up at night.

My first visit to this amazing garden was years ago in the dead of winter. We were invited to sit in their sauna. Thanks Scott & Katri for having a sauna! p.s. Katri is from Finland, AKA saunaland.

The Haycocks have an orchard of fruit trees, and their veggie patch is HUGE. Momma Mia came with me to take pics and she was impressed. And motivated to grow even more.



Their entire property is wired with lights on a timer. At dusk when it all turns on it's a sort of Bellagio MAGICK, only much classier.
studios at night...
Last night at their Harvest Party they served food made from their garden's bounty! Laid out on the grass was extra produce and the Haycocks gave us bags to take home whatever we could use. We took beets and carrots.

Sneak peek inside the studios. Scott is part of "Puppet Grinder" which opens for the "Monkey Grinder" show every Halloween at Velour. Talking skeletons and much more.Short of seeing it with your own eyes, this place deserves a more thorough treatment. Andi Andi Andi, do you want to bring your camera? And pitch a piece to a magazine?

Thanks Scott & Katri! You're wonderful hosts!

Bartering 101

Sometimes i like holding a dollar bill and wondering about all the people who have touched it. It makes me feel closer to humankind to share germs.

but other times, like when i have a hankering for a Raw Melissa dessert and Real Foods Market is closed, who needs filthy lucre??? Not me!


hmmm...what else to trade...

Three Things

Some experts are warning that unless we bail out wallstreet our economy will "go Argentina on us." That's news that has my Argentine Momma Mia planting more fruit trees. (Ok, she would have planted them regardless, but uncertainty about the economy is the current excuse...)

Anyway, for what it's worth here's three random things about Argentina for you!

1-This recent picture of Tio Chiro reminds me of good times playing cards and drinking our yerba mate and of how there are NO cob webs hiding in those plants because almost everyone in Argentina has a maid. Even maids have maids. And even if you don't have a maid all floors are mopped every single day. Other people cleaning other people's dirt...it's a brilliant concept! 2-Houses are made of brick all the way around. I think they'd find it "curious" that in the USA houses often have brick only in the front. This is a typical wood front door.
3- Dear Fragrance Department, Argentina has a distinct scent; one that you can revel in. Is there a perfume out there that smells like leather, citrus, paraiso trees, jasmine, and yerba mate with an underlying hint of moth balls? I'm not kidding, is there?

BONUS: Below are fotos of Parana, Entre Rios (where Momma Mia is from and a place I dearly love.)

Up on the roof...

...planting strawberries. Growing space is at a premium and you can never have too many strawberries. Plus my LEED certified husband recommended it; plants and soil act as great insulation for the greenhouse.
The strawberries will send out tons of runners that will carpet the entire roof, holding the soil and gravel in place. Want to see pretty pics of roof planting around the world?

p.s. Props and a nod to this lady's mom who planted cantaloupe and corn on their shed's roof and no expert had to tell her if it was a good idea. =)