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.

burst of color...

in the dead of winter.



i dug these carrots up from the garden yesterday, and i swear, they are actually growing under there! the ones i dug up a month ago were much smaller.
hard to believe really, when it's overcast and cold for weeks on end.
plants are amazing things.
i cannot get over how crisp and sweet these beauties are.

architecture as play thing

when it's this cold outside, some of the running around needs to happen indoors.



cosmo and one of his pals made good use of a double stairwell in the fine arts building at IU (just down the hall from the beloved friends of art bookshop).



one would wait at the top while the other went downstairs. the trick was to walk back up so quietly, that the one at the top would not know which stairway had been chosen--- SURPRISE!



and...repeat.

hard crack

we made lollipops!



making hard candy is pretty simple. just a few ingredients, brought to the "hard-crack" stage (300 degrees F) and then poured into a candy mold.



the trick is to avoid stirring the mixture, once it starts boiling (something do do with sugar crystals?). just let it sit there and bubble until it gets to 300. it does take a while. once you get there, remove from heat, add your flavoring (in our case, vanilla-cosmo's request) and then pour before it cools down.



homemade hard candy that looks, feels and tastes like store-bought, makes for one happy little boy!



certainly not nutritious, but tons of fun for everyone.

five

oh dear. the holidays are upon us, and i had really hoped to post something about cosmo's birthday before now. he turned five in november. that number always loomed, in my mind, as a huge milestone. it's the point where they move into official kid-ness. not a baby anymore, not a toddler anymore, and barely even a pre-schooler.



cosmo had a wonderful birthday. we had a nice after-school party for him, with 5 kids he chose to invite. it was hard to let go, and let him decide, but since he had opinions, and he doesn't always express preferences, i thought it was important to honor his choices...even if it meant some of my dear friends' children were not invited. gulp.



we had a low-key party, where the most exciting part turned out to be chasing each other around with blow-out noise-maker-party-favor-thingies. talk about cheap thrills! the next day, he came down with strep. the scarlet fever strain. poor little thing. he was mostly couch-ridden through thanksgiving, but was all better in time to go to TX, for an early xmas with nani and family.

this also marks the fifth year of this blog.
five years.
sigh.
'nuf said.

so far, my favorite thing about five-year-olds is the helpfulness. i was expecting this, or at least hoping for it, and, remarkably, it arrived, like clock work. cosmo has a new found interest in helping out, and the competence to actually BE helpful. i will savor this while it lasts.

bugs bummin' me out

the grey cabbage aphid is destroying all my brassicas! the kale was hit the hardest, but now they are going after the beloved brussel sprouts, the young cauliflower, and i even saw a few on the arugula! it makes no sense. i had never seen them until this fall, and they came on strong. my russian kale was lush just a month ago. they attack the young, tender, new leaves, which basically stunts the growth of the plant, and eventually kills it.



since i garden organically, i am used to hand-picking pests off of my plants. it is one of the benefits of having a small, back yard garden--a person can usually notice and keep up with pest problems. i started by removing these vile creatures with my bare hands, sort of sweeping the leaves with my thumb. but now i just blast them with a strong stream of water from the hose.



it gets them off the plants, but i have to keep doing it, every day. i finally gave up on the kale, and pulled it today. i hope to save the brussels sprouts and califlower, but i don't have a whole lot of hope.

in other bug related news, fruit flies have found my worm composting bins--both at home, and at work. again, this is a new phenomenon for me, and started in the fall. at home, they migrated to the kitchen, too. we have tried everything, including removing any possible food sources cleaning meticulously (and drying everything), plus trapping them with vinegar. we have reduced their population immensely. lately, we "vacuum" them up with the back of a hair dryer. it is strange, but effective (and secretly satisfying).

so far though, i'm not really finding any answers about the worm bin problem. experts say to bury the food scraps in the bedding, or to wrap them in newspaper to avoid attracting fruit flies. i always do one or both of those things, and have never had a problem. now, i still do those things, and i have a fruit fly infestation, and it is not going away. it is especially problematic at work, as i am trying to get the vermiculture system established, and this is a huge set back.

your suggestions and/or commiserations welcome.

for the love of brussel

this is what i was dreaming about on february 12, 2010.



that's when i planted the brussel sprout seeds, under a grow light in the basement.



we finally had some for dinner, two nights ago--almost 9 months later!
how they made it into those little tiny, tightly-packed cabbage balls, considering all the pests and drought the season thew at them, is a mystery to me.



i have a few wasps to thank, for keeping the cabbage caterpillar population under control (plant dill & fennel to attract them to your garden).



they are so yummy when they're fresh, and i've heard that the ones that come from california aren't as sweet, because they never go through a frost. ours have, and you can definitely tell.

NYC [in a day, on a shoe string]

my dear friend from grad school is getting married.
it's a big deal.
they live in brooklyn.
the wedding is in jersey.
we are flat broke.
we go to the wedding.
we drive.
we camp in the hills of western new jersey.
there is miniature golf and an arcade.
the wedding is lovely.
cosmo cuts a rug on the dance floor.





(not our campsite)

next day, we take a train to the city.
it rains.
there is a long elevator ride to a foggy view.

(like a seasoned commuter)






the MOMA is mobbed.
never mind, there is art all around.





and subway rides.
and hot dogs.
deli counters.
news stands.
a small dog in a rain coat.
a bike made of bamboo.
and a long car ride home.













(congratulations l + s)

(special thanks to alan, for loaning us the iphone, so cosmo could play doodle jump. it came in mighty handy.)