My daughter told me about Thug Kitchen. This shite is for real. Spinach to the mother f*cking rescue.
 SoapI wash my glass in Palmolive dish soap in the kitchen at work and it very sweetly catapults me back 28 years to where my babies are babies and I am washing dishes very sweetly in the kitchen in upstate New York. Any moment one of them might come around ... Where is it, this true home of yours?Your true home is where you live in your heart. The place where you are connected to love and the way it moves through the world, permeating everything, beaming out from toll booth ladies, impatient clerks, flat tires, cows mooing, people who interrupt you, redwood trees, sun setting on the ...![Kenny in that Grand Canyon [video]](http://www.thebeautythatiseverywhere.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Kenny-grand-canyon-singing-150x150.jpg) Kenny in that Grand Canyon [video]Here is a video of Kenny Crowley, beauty-walker, singer-songwriter, son of mine, singing his anthem to the Grand Canyon and to all of earth. Last summer he retrofitted his pickup truck so it would be a camper/home on wheels and did a big loop during July and August. He left ... Treat. Yo. Self.You know I have a Parks & Rec obsession, right? (It's my Pleasantville.) Anyway, here is one of the many, many reasons why: LatelyFor many years, whenever I've sat down and asked myself something along the lines of: "What does your divine right life look like?", something in me would flash back a vision of gorgeous walls of jars. Jars filled with beautiful food and lots and lots of dried herbs. Lovely colors. ... Airstreams are beautifulThey just seem to match out here, something glimmering back the color of everything as it drives through, just a little more saturated, just a little more certain of its light. Let the Mystery Be - Iris Dement (VIDEO)I could listen to this forever. "Everybody is wondering what and where they all came from. Everybody's worrying where they're going to go when the whole thing's done. No one knows for certain, so if it's all the same to me, I think I'll just let the mystery be." Diners Are PortalsLaundromats are portals, too. You know what I mean. You walk in, the color is different. The people have appeared there for each other, converged on the place to do ordinary things with great beauty, like drink coffee softly from a heavy mug or lift the lid to the Speed ... StoriesI have things to tell you, you know. It won't take long. Or it may take a hundred years. And I will be listening, because you have things to say, too. We have stories to put together like bubbles, bumping lazily into each other, fusing, popping, suddenly boundaryless, suddenly all ... On Grocery StoresTo me, the true test of an excellent grocery store is this: if you walked in smiling (and I hope you were), were you smiling when you came out? If you’re all frustrated when you come out then conjure up a lovely grocery store to go to. It will very likely ... What happens if the power goes out?Just pose the question to yourself, whether or not there's an impending weather event. What happens? Have you got excellent flashlights, fondue pots, Viewmaster sets and drawers full of good candles? Gallons of clean water, Sterno, batteries? It’s a comforting thing to have provisions. But still more comforting to know ... Being GratefulI've started to notice that there is something about being grateful that seems to change my way of being in the world. And it seems to me to be another aspect of this notion of having a choice. I can find something or someone to be grateful for. Even if it's ... Camper DreamIn the dream last night, the tri-level where I once lived was collapsing, much like -- you know -- the memories give way in the film "The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." At the ceiling on the ground level, you could see the floor above beginning to disintegrate, and ... Love Beams BackSomehow, I would pour the colors of this room where I sit, of the birds that sing outside my window, of the knockout pink roses which have begun to multiply in bloom, into this liquid page where I write. This page which goes to you, which beams all I would ... It was always about the danceYou know that, don't you, Scott Hastings? Maybe the Ballroom Dancing Federation doesn't have any new moves. And you're bored with the old ones. Aren't you, Scott? Wouldn't you rather dance your own dance now? Wherever your feet want to go? Oxygen"Breathe," someone said to me yesterday. Good idea. #survivaltactic. How is it I had forgotten about breathing? Taking in oxygen. Even when I have worked fourteen straight days and am doing little beyond working very hard, eating and sleeping. Or especially then. I can still breathe in and out. I can still ... The Mother of LanguageI was gradually coming to have a mysterious and shuddery reverence for this girl; nowadays whenever she pulled out from the station and got her train fairly started on one of those horizonless transcontinental sentences of hers, it was borne in upon me that I was standing in the awful ... Everyday Adventures in Beingness: Some IdeasHere are some things that might be fun. Or might not. You decide. Research memory. Or Joseph Campbell. Or the workings of the brain. Or the Shakers, or Diane Arbus, or Walker Evans. Wallpaper the bathroom with Bazooka bubblegum comics. Plan a weird ass party. Make yourself some paper mache birds and let them ... EverythingIn that Leonard Cohen film I posted last time, LC talks of being interested in going through his days in a state of grace. And if he is not in a state of grace, he goes back to bed. That he says this in response to a question from a ... Climbing the TorIt is early, early in the morning. It doesn't feel like it's late at night. I woke at 2 a.m. and I love that sometimes. The stillness. The poetry of middle of the night thoughts. Would I love it as much if every night some wakefulness awakened me, and my ... Magic Wands are RegularI love moving my car to a new spot every two hours. Because it means a small adventure, regularly scheduled. What will it be? Today it is a trip to the yoga studio to check it out and pick up a schedule, a little pink card I can hold in ... Angels in plain sightImagine that everywhere you go, there are angels in plain sight. Your waiter, for example. Here is what happened to me one day several years back when I sat in one of my favorite coffee shops, writing, brainstorming, considering what my next move in life would be. I looked up from ... Little PortalsSometimes I want to give you everything. Yes, you, reading this now. I sit in the morning darkened by the rain, listening to the tea pot work up to a whistle, making precise Morse code clicks on my iPad keyboard as I type this. I have just read this morning's ... Heck yeah, CaitlinI see I have some catching up to do. I'm only halfway through Caitlin Moran's "How to Be a Woman," which is HILarious and brilliant, and LITERALLY made me want to stand up on the chair at Elwood Thompson's one fine morning and shout out "I AM A FEMINIST!" just ... Believe meSome friends of mine started a writing group around the beginning of the last decade, and this is how I first met them. I am so deeply grateful that I did, as they are the loveliest people and writers: Leah, and Nathan, and Melanie. And RaasaLeela, who was in ... Stranger than FictionDo you ever feel as though your life is being narrated? Or as though you may want to turn to Dustin Hoffman for metaphysical advice? Then this little gem of a movie is one of your new best friends. The luminous beings that appear in this movie are: Will Farrell, ... Radio silence (Sedona/beauty/road trip)Here is a post from a few days ago I thought I had published... "Heading toward Sedona now. Just saw an elk jerky roadside stand. The sign said "really good." I believe them...." You will note the radio silence since just before entering Sedona. Meet me there, all my beloveds reading ... ChoicesI am at Silver Diner for the first time, having a delightful Saturday morning. I've helped my Dad shovel two truckloads of mulch and, after my Belgian waffles, Amish eggs and nitrate-free bacon, I am going over to lounge around with my beautiful sister and talk of anything/everything. A lovely young ... GoodwaterKenny told me once when he was little that he'd been drinking godwater from flowers. Goodwater/Godwater. Same/same. A Chromatic Typewriter: For Re-Writing HistoryMore loveliness from Making it Lovely. This is a conceptual art piece by Tyree Callahan. So dreamy. Image compilation by Making It Lovely. Art and Image by Tyree Callahan. Dance is a very powerful drug"Dance is a very powerful drug, Mr. Keane. If embraced judiciously, it can exorcise demons, access deep seated emotions and color your life in joyous shades of brilliant magenta that you never knew existed. But, one must shoulder its challenges with intrepid countenance if one is ever to reap its ... What if?What if no job or house or car or ideal weight or ideal husband is what is going to make you shine? What if there’s a bucket of magic in your secret heart and everything you witness stands transfixed, watching you, awaiting that moment when you smile and start flinging that sparkle everywhere. What if everything simply ... PurpleOh my goodness I am so in love with the lady in the truckstop where I just went in for ice and beef jerky. She has purple eyeshadow and pink lipstick and dark moviestar hair, staring off into the desert when I opened the glass door. This is going in the ... Take Polaroids of Your TV ScreenTake Polaroids of your tv screen while Lucas dances, black eyes, black hair, black turtleneck, lanky Lucas, while he dances, no tripod, no vertical hold, no pause, just you leaning sweet into Lucas. Make 1,000 copies on photo glossy, staple gun each glossy to a telephone pole every mile from ... Collect storiesWhen someone speaks to you, let everything slow down, and listen very closely. This is how you will get a glimpse of someone's true spirit, and maybe share a little of yours with them. You can practice this at first with people you already really like, and then as you ... Ordinary LifeA quote from Jan Frazier, "When Fear Falls Away: The Story of a Sudden Awakening" --What do I want for myself? I want to learn how to pare from my consciousness all that is not gratitude. I want to cease praying for anything I do not already have, but pray ... World Exploded Into Love All Around MeAnd now, I sit, with my hand on my heart, full of love for Bob Dylan, that wondrous, mighty seer who has decided the time has come for the story of the Titanic TO BE SUNG. Christomighty, and amen, brother. You are, for sure, the fiddler I want fiddling whilst ... Station WagonsJust came across this gorgeous post called "Station Wagon Living" on English Muse. Makes me real happy. Here's a photo of my little sister sitting in front of one of the many station wagons of our childhoods. We would, like every American family, load them up in the summer with coolers ... The RoadThere is something about a road trip, with its vast changing panoramas of field, sky, city, flowers, truck wheels, with its swooping birds and deep possibilities, that lets me hold life a little looser, more delicately, giving it room to breathe. Wyoming, furtherThe land flattens out, stretches further. Yarrow grows at the roadside. Treeless, here where you'd have to go so deep for water. Scattered cattle ranches, the continental divide. Ethereal, butter-colored place. Tap hereTap here to begin writing, someone whispered, and she realized it had already begun. It had started somewhere after her telephone call with a friend from her early life, from when she was some inconsequential, flimsy thing unrecognizable to her now and it had fluttered, birdlike, when she began her ... The Kool-Aid Wino, and other storiesThese short stories are continually luminous to me, and when I read them -- or when I breathed them in and out later, after they'd become a part of me -- I was so pleased to be in a world where they had appeared. They warm up the place considerably. The ... IllinoisThis was a very different sunrise over corn. First it started flashing me its color behind the St. Louis arch. Then over the Missouri River and into Illinois where the colors of the sun spreading across the enormous sky and the fields and the road were all I wanted in the ... BubblesIn the writing group last night, we wrote. I kept turning on the porch light, walking out to meet the things that would be written, but I just saw them glimmering off in the backstreets, holding still when I paused to listen. They are on their way to dance parties, to ... SunsetSunset Boulevard to the water, then up the coast to Santa Barbara as the sun moves spectacularly from our sight. Image by Corie Crowley, Coriedoesmyhair.com. Yesterday On the RiverMy darling son Kenny was in town this weekend and we went to the James River, by way of what's known in these parts as Texas Beach. You depart ordinary reality slowly, via a path from a park near Maymont which seems initially rather, well, ordinary. This is, ... Being Tree-likeYou may not seem to be doing anything much in the way of production, like clocking work hours or acquiring goods, or writing Pulitzer Prize winning books. Imagine, though, that there are qualities in you that are very tree-like. You stand with roots deep in the ground, soaking up water, ... |
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So this morning I woke, and got out all the jars of herbs that have been patiently waiting for me, and started blending an enormous batch of Richmondy Momma Love Tea. And the beauty that was everywhere! The colors, my hands communing with the herbs, filling my heart with light. Kenny said he has been brewing the tea in the french press, and he is able to extract several pots full from each brew. As I think (and hope) that said french press must be the one I left there when I headed back east, I am going to go hunt down another french press today and get brewing. And listen to this. Dana has brewed up some kombucha and mixed it with some Momma Love Tea and added oranges to it, and Kenny said it is seriously the most amazing concoction ever. So, perhaps time to start another kombucha mother and get back to that, too.
Here is what goes in Momma Love Tea: Xoxoxo P.S. I also made a batch of a cleansing and strengthening tea using some things from the garden and some dried herbs I got from Elwood Thompson’s, which is a healthy grocery store here. The herbs from the store, lovely as they are, do not have nearly as much chi as they have probably been sitting around a while. I will have to get seeds to grow this stuff my own self. (we are just now beginning to plan the garden, OMG.). Here is what’s in it:  Photograph by http://www.derekolsonphotography.com/ Patty Griffin’s singing me up to the mountain as I head to Asheville for the holy days. Ahhhh, beauty. I am beaming you love from the deepest part of my heart. Merry everything and everywhere. Xoxo
The next thoughtsicle I’d like to share is that our Thanksgiving turkeys are being ordered this Saturday, free-range from a farm in Amelia. And SFO to RIC plane tickets have been acquired by and for my west coast beloveds. And that is all the planning I am doing for our family gathering of 22 minus 2 (Tommy and Stephanie are going to South America for the holiday this year). I kind of lost my mind for the family beach trip this past June with excitement and planning and logistics. I am keeping it in the road this time.
The cause was not within the instructions, but within the instructed. I did not take seriously enough the directions to weigh down the pickles with a plate and a rock to keep them strictly submerged in the brine for the duration. I thought if I had them wedged in pretty nicely that it would suffice but such is not the case. They floated and, once in contact with the air, began the inevitable decomposition process. So I will try again, though not — alas — with cucumbers from my own garden. Those are through. The second batch of kombucha is coming along nicely. Just a few more days. I used sencha green tea and organic sucanat and I think it is going to be nice. Three dear friends are patiently awaiting their promised jars containing the kombucha mother and enough kombucha to get their own batches started. More kombucha for me and my [wo]men!! Meanwhile, the herbs I harvested last weekend are drying and I think will take another week. Last Sunday was a doozy with all the projects under way; I was tuckered out by the time the week began. That is okay, though. Because upstairs drying there are: mint, tarragon, rose petals, rosemary, lovage, basil, chrysantheums, marigolds, sweet annie, stevia, jo pie, lemon balm and more that do not leap to mind. I also dried some ginger, lemon peel and burdock root in the food dehydrator. Medicinal and/or delicious tea blends to come. This week I have been reading “As Always, Julia,” the letters between Julia Childs and her dear friend and confidant Avis DeSoto. So lovely. My mother is reading it with me, and my little sister immediately jumped in and downloaded it when I mentioned it to her. How fun it is to read books together. So, in reading it, I have a better sense now, I think, of the art, the art, the art of preparing food. I am in awe of the focus and the faith and the devotion that went into those books of hers. And I am going to enjoy paddling around the first volume at least in the coming colder months. Plans for this week: try making a batch of vinegar. The question is, what kind of fruit peelings? Might wait until deeper into fall to use apples. Right now…plums? Or, now I know…figs! Fresh from the backyard. My friends and I are planning homemade holidays and I thought some herbed vinegars would be nice. I heart my friends. We will get together and do some projects and, obviously, jars will feature heavily. Jess and Julie and I are making a field trip to a town west of here which Jess tells us has a hardware store with an excellent selection of jars. Ahh, bliss. The other big event this week is the purchase of my BIKE. Cream colored and beautiful, to match my car. Julie is going with me to pick it up on Thursday and we already have plans to sail around her pretty neighborhood that very evening. La la la. It’s a good year. I am hereby attesting to the fact that the combination of figs, mango, dandelion leaves, protein powder and tahini makes for a very strange smoothie. In that one can’t sip it mindlessly; it requires some attention to slip into the dissonance of random bitter twangs of dandelion and the odd melding of figs and sesame. I am not saying I recommend it. And I’m not saying I don’t. So, today is the day. The first batch of kombucha is ready and I’ve filled up six bottles that I’d saved when I bought the commercial kind. Ahh, fermentation. Is it my imagination, or do I get just the slightest, warmest buzz when I take a sip? How grand the next six days are looking from here! The scobi mother is resting quietly. I will go get another gallon jar today or tomorrow and divide the scobi and make two batches the next time. Maybe with black tea instead of green? Or perhaps not. Either way I could end up with twelve bottles in a week’s time — I can see how this could get out of hand very quickly. Which is, of course, just the thing.
So. Lately. I have been harvesting the herbs and the flowers in the garden and hanging them up to dry. Then, a couple of weeks later, they go in beautiful jars so I can make medicinal teas with them. Here’s what I’ve dried so far: pink roses, spearmint, yarrow, echinacea flowers, dill, lemon balm, tarragon, marigolds, St. John’s Wort, chrysanthemums, rosemary, lavender, bronze fennel, savory and milk thistle seeds. And I’m learning from my garden and the different plants about what they need, and how I might do things differently next year. And I am keeping seeds. Probably, I will crack open Behaving As If the God in All Things Mattered once again, and read it for a fifth or sixth time with a deeper understanding. (That’s how it often is with wondrous books, yes?) The Martha Stewart organic cucumber seeds have produced a bumper crop of cucumbers which have wanted to take over the garden. Next year, I will let them. This year, I have tried to leave room for the yellow squash, the winter squash, and the zucchini — every morning, going out and guiding the cucumbers vines back to its trellis. But now the cucumber is too crowded and can’t feed enough water to its roots. But it’s given me lots of cucumbers and from them, for the first time ever, I’m making pickles. The fermented kind — which I learned about from WildFermentation.com. (Do you know how thrilling it is to find that you need grape leaves for a recipe and be able to walk out into your own yard and harvest them?) The pickles are fermenting away and should be ready to eat in a few weeks. The other fermenting that’s going on at my house is a batch of Kombucha. I grew the mother scoby following these instructions from BonzaiAphrodite.com, which took a few weeks. And now the first batch from that mother is fermenting on the counter in the laundry room alongside a couple of big old jars of pickles. Lovely! The next thing I want to try is making my own vinegar, and then from that making herbed vinegars. And I start to wonder, just how easy might it be to make SOAP? And how about doing some sprouting? I seriously need to start buying those Foxfire books, one at a time. It seems I am becoming a suburban homesteader. And I wonder if this is where we’re all going: we seem to be preparing for some sort of geological event or financial breakdown, or both. And in the preparations, in the taking back of self-sufficiency, in the seeking of knowledge that is passed down from generation to generation on how to grow food, how to dry it and preserve it, how to keep seeds, we are finding something more. The planet will evolve. And when we connect with the love and support that comes at us from every direction, we will, too.
And here’s a hilarious little article from Grist on the same subject. Not upsetting at all! Though, the more I read, the more I want to spend 100% of my grocery dollars supporting organic farmers and producers.
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