oh, the places we go

cosmo has seen the world.



disney world, that is. and he will never be the same again. before his papa in texas generously planned a trip for the whole family (cosmo's aunts, uncles, cousins) i am not even sure that cosmo KNEW about disney world, or disney land. he's watched some disney shows, and a couple of movies...he has even played on the playhouse disney website.



but i don't think he really had a notion of what an amusement park might be like, let alone the happiest place on earth.

so, in the months preceding the trip, we did a little prepping, to make sure that he would get maximum enjoyment out of what will most likely be his only trip to disney world. julie helped us find a kid's guide to disney world at the library book sale.



though it was from 2004, it was still relevant, and allowed cosmo to read about the place, and plan for some of what he wanted to do while he was there. he read that book backwards and forwards, studied the maps and made lists of rides he wanted to go on, and attractions he wanted to see.

nothing can really prepare you though. that place is somethin' else!

though i know cosmo had a blast, and will never forget it, it was also simply exhausting for him. the late night at the magic kingdom, fighting the crowds to see the parade and the fireworks show was difficult for him to recover from, even though we let him sleep in the next day.



he fell asleep in the middle of the day almost every day we were there. he was lucky that justin was willing to carry him around because i could not pick him up due to back trouble, and he is just too big for a stroller (though he did at one point find his way into his little cousin's stroller, and attempted to nap at the epcot)



he also enjoyed occasional breaks engaged in familiar pastimes such as arcades time, and bonding with the littlest cousin over itouch games.

the "wild rides" we went on (splash mountain, mission space, astro blaster) were just right for him, and not too scary.



his favorite ride (depending on when you ask him) was either splash mountain or spaceship earth (the one inside that big ball at epcot). what he liked about that one was the part where it opens up into a sort of planetarium at the top of the bucky ball, and you can see an image of the earth, as if you are in outer space. he was blown away by that.

the one thing that he really had his heart set on, more than anything at the major parks, was the miniature golf course. cosmo is obsessed with mini golf, and the options around here are pretty pathetic. i think this one is called mickey's fantasia gardens, and it is located near one of the resorts, but there is no bus that goes right to it.


we had to take a cab (also pretty exiting for cosmo). no one else in our party wanted to join us for the mini golf, which is too bad because it was awesome. no lines, no crowds, peaceful. and, because it's disney, cool things happen on the course--



like an elephant shoots water when you make it in the 5th hole, and when you walk under the brooms with buckets, you might get a little splash. it is all perfectly maintained, and well designed to be both challenging, and doable.



free passes were included in our packets, so we didn't even have to pay to play. it's the one part of the trip that cosmo is still talking about. i overheard him telling a friend about the squirting elephant just the other day.

two weeks ago, we headed out to columbus for a spontaneous sunday day trip. we haven't been to the children's museum there for a couple of years, and it is a nice drive.



we stopped in nashville for lunch and a game of scrabble. the museum was fun, especially the bubble room.



but after that we ventured across the street to the newly constructed commons. wow.
it's basically an indoor public park. high ceilings, flooded with natural light, and all the latest in indoor safe-but-fun playground equipment. there was one of those netted high climbing structures (like they have at wonderlab), and the whole floor was padded. the place was mobbed with kids of all ages running around screaming and having a blast.



cosmo jumped right into the fray, and seemed to have a smile pasted onto his face the whole time we were there. it was amazing for lots of reasons: the acoustics were perfect-- somehow all that screaming was not unbearable, though it was really crowded, it never seemed unsafe, and, most surprising, it was free, and there was nothing for sale inside. weird.

we'll be moving in july, and will have a whole new neighborhood to explore. other than a possible camping trip to the indiana dunes, and a trip to colorado in august, we'll probably stay fairly close to home this summer (oh, but did i just catch wind of a possible holiday world adventure for cosmo with justin and shawna?)

what exciting travel adventures do you have in store?

treasure hunting

fungal fever, morel madness, whatever you want to call it, we've got it! some of you may recall how i stumbled upon one solitary morel, at the end of mushroom season last year. that is the only morel i had ever found, and only the second time i've ever tasted one. the first one doesn't exactly count. my mom and stepfather gave me a bite of some they had found when i was about 13 or so. i wasn't sure i liked it, and they didn't exactly want me too, since they had found so few.

yesterday, cosmo took us out into the woods where his montessori class had taken their annual wildflower walk. he wanted to find a treasure hidden under a board in a bridge, that one of the kindergartners had told him about.



turns out it was a letterbox, and the first i'd heard of this charming pastime. after we checked that out, we continued walking on the trail, and i started thinking about morels, and mentioned to carl that sky had told me that the deer eat them. "sad, isn't it?" carl mused on the notion of the opposite of do animals feel pain? --can animals appreciate such distinguished culinary delights as morel mushrooms? approximately 2.5 minutes later, i saw one, right there, white stem glowing in the dappled sunlight, just on the edge of the trail! so, we wondered off the trail, looking for more (they say you never see just one).

i found a couple more, then carl found some. we gathered 16 total! it was all very exciting, though i wasn't completely sure they were morels. later, when we were enjoying our picnic lunch



(gawd! how i love purple sauerkraut on a sandwich!) we saw a couple of other folks exiting the woods with laden bags. carl stopped one of them and confirmed that what we had was indeed edible. a variety of morel commonly called "peckerheads" (lovely).

at home on the innernets, i found what i needed to reassure me that these were not false morels, and were known as some of the earliest morels of the season. sometimes they are called half-frees due to the way in which the cap attaches to the stem.

we had just seasoned our new wok, to a stunning shade of bronze, and decided the morels should be the inaugural dish prepared in the wok, even though cooking them required more of a saute than a stir fry.



it did the job beautifully, and we enjoyed our melt-in-your-mouth foraged feast with a gingered cauliflower dish (also prepared smashingly in the wok).

who would have guessed that the best woks (hand hammered, carbon steel) can also be among the least expensive. our dear friend, mr. kelty, tipped us off to that (thanks chris).

weirdest thing happened the next day...i was walking home from work, up an alley, off a busy street, and spotted a perfect specimen, of a different variety (one of the yellows, or creams?).



this one had popped up in the unlikely medium of of grass, weeds and gravel. i only found the one, then heard a few hours later that a neighbor had found one in her backyard! we headed back out to the woods that night and brought home 14 more!

what came to mind, when i was looking for them the second time, is that it seems i've been training my whole life for mushroom hunting. as a child, i looked down when walking, not because of low self esteem, i've just always been one to visually scour the ground, searching for overlooked treasures. I have been rewarded amply for this habit over the years; i've found cash, earrings, fossils, sea shells, beads, toys and various sorts of paraphernalia. my eyes want to scan a dappled landscape and find a slightly distinct dappled thing, camouflaged within that landscape. it is a great thrill, and i'm good at it.

i hear it's a good year for mushrooms. and a great year for amateurs.

p.s. even cosmo likes the taste of morels.

spring first

happy first day of spring! was the first thing out of cosmo's mouth this morning. then he dashed over to his calendar to check the date. he's been waiting for this day. we've been telling him that when spring arrives, we can go out in the yard and look for ants for the ant farm we picked up this winter at a swap. today was the day! luckily, the weather cooperated, and it really felt like a spring day. and (bonus!) there were ants!

he and carl set out some bait (honey) on a piece of paper, and after the ants gathered around it, they quickly, and carefully dumped them into the top of the farm. after that it was just a matter of feeding them some cracker crumbs, dropping water in, and watching them go. ants are endlessly entertaining to watch.

for carl and i, it's the new TV. cosmo is fascinated with them too, but then again, he's fascinated with a nearly deflated old balloon, so his gazing at the ant farm window comes and goes. but he's been interested in the habits of ant colonies for a couple of summers now, so i foresee much educational fun in the months ahead.

of course, spring means gardening. the cold frame managed to keep a number of lettuce and spinach plants alive all winter, plus one hearty chard.

they are nearly full sized now, and we enjoyed our first garden salad last weekend when carl's parents visited, along with the last of the fall carrots. i've transplanted some lettuce, spinach and brassica seedlings from the basement grow-light area to the cold frame, and scattered a few plants around the garden as well.

it is perhaps a bit early to expect much growth, but most of them are hanging on. arugula is up, and already making my mouth water! peas are in the ground, but not yet popping up. the garlic is looking good, as are the chives, and perennials and spring bulbs are coming into their own

on this vernal equinox, i turned the compost (the most back breaking chore of the organic garden), started weeding some perennial beds-- with the enthusiastic helping hands of a certain five year old, who triumphantly shouts oh yeah...johnson grass! when he successfully rips up a long trail of that pesky weed. it takes a little one to remind me that weeding can be extremely satisfying.

dinner was enjoyed on the porch (including fresh baked bread, and homemade butter), and we capped off the day with a symbolic torching of last year's christmas tree plus various other woody garden debris from the previous season.



at our little rented urban homestead, spring has officially been ushered in!

winter is for winter

it's safe to say that one of my pet peeves is people complaining about winter weather. especially in, well, winter! if it's spring, and you're getting winter weather, okay...i can see how that's disappointing. but in january? and february? in the midwest? it. is. winter.
and i, for one, want winter weather in wintertime.



i grew up in southern california, in the san bernardino valley. not even once, in the 12 years that i lived there, did it snow in my town. the white capped mountains towered over us all winter, and if we were lucky, once the roads were cleared, we might get to take a drive into the mountains, to play in the snow. but i didn't see snow falling from the sky until i was thirteen years old, and we had moved to the midwest. the first time i witnessed it, i was standing in an old, 3 story brick school house, looking out from large, wood-framed, double hung windows (the kind that operate on those sash cords). i remarked that it looked like angels were having a pillow fight.
as an adult, i happily spent a year in fargo, and lived many other places with proper winters.

then, there were those 7 years i spent in sub-tropical houston. while it was an intellectually, artistically, politically and socially exciting time in my life, i never appreciated the weather. there were about 2 months of the year when the air wasn't hot, thick, sticky and stifling.



i am the sort of person who needs four distinct seasons. there is something comforting, and ordering about that pattern for me. waiting for the last frost date to pass, before planting certain crops, is an exercise in patience and planning. those first crisp days in october, when the leaves begin to change, are a welcome relief from a sweltering summer. snow covered fields, and ice encrusted branches are visual delights that i relish. i like having routines disrupted by blizzards. keeps us in our place.



i enjoy the change in family life, too. finding things to do in the colder months can be challenging. but, we have those seasonal holidays to occupy us, and valentine crafting for 30 kids takes up a lot of time!



sledding, and snowball fights are always welcome outdoor activities. on christmas day, we took cosmo's new arrowcopter toys out to the park, and chased them down in the snow.



this doesn't mean that i don't look forward spring. i do. i have already begun sowing seeds down in the basement, under a grow light. by mid march, i'll be antsy to get out there and put my hands in the dirt.



a long cold winter makes the first signs of spring so sweet.
until then, winter is for winter.
i'll savor every snowflake and single-digit morning.