Insomnia

I guess being awake at 10:45 at night isn't *really* insomnia, but Rhonda conked out an hour ago, and I am left feeling wide awake while I should be sleeping. We have been working hard in preparation for Rhonda's departure: she heads to Lancaster tomorrow to help her dad build a shed. (For effect, and because I love exaggeration, I told a friend she was going home to build a barn. Lancaster, PA + barn raising invokes iconic images of Amish barn raising...) But really, its just a shed.

So, since she will be gone from the homestead for a week, we have been gardening, prepping our 3rd bedroom for painting, planning our radical lawn transformation (more on this in a future post), and generally working hard. I am theoretically exhausted, but sleep is elusive.

I'm sure I will be writing much more in the next week as Buddy and I sit and stare at each other in this big old farmhouse. In the meantime, I have some photos I have been meaning to post.





Buddy stares at me while I talk on the phone to Gaby.





Oyster mushrooms we are growing in our kitchen.







Inside the mushroom farm.

Tall grass against our garage.

generosity

I have recently been the recipient of an amazing gift. Gaby, whose work and photography projects can be glimpsed here, had an older digital camera sitting in her closet. As Gaby is an amazing artist/photographer, her equipment is quality, and even her older camera is pretty fabulous. Perhaps in response to my earlier complaints about trying to document our rural lives with a point and shoot (found here), my dear friend oh-so-kindly sent me her old camera.

It has been a funny thing to be the recipient of such a nice gift. I feel as though I am deeply indebted, and I am worried that I might not live up to my ability to "make photographs", as G would say. So, we are embarking on a photography course. As luck would have it, the entire content of a digital photography class Gaby taught at Berkeley is online. I have only gotten so far as reading the syllabus and reading about the first practices, and the textbook she used in that class is on its ways from another UW library. So, very soon, my dear friends, you will be subject to an onslaught of photos. However, for the time being, there is a smattering of new stuff on my flikr page, and I will show a few of my favorite new pics so far.

Best of East Coast Retrospective

Decided to condense this entry of photos from our winter break on the East Coast
(no offense to any of the removed subjects!)



shadows of 30th street
philadelphia, pa



Gaby in the bakery (old ladies ooh and
aah over a baby)
ny, ny



a sunny, sunny day
newport news, va



gabriel - learning about my peoples
philly

santa bling

10 minutes ago...

...& 20 minutes ago...

beauty

This morning we visited a neighborhood woman who keeps chickens. When she found out we are interested in having some chickens, she generously invited us over to see her operation (she has about thirty chickens of different varieties and six guinea fowl). we got to see how she built their coop, and witness the very cool free-range bird haven she's got going. The best part was being generously gifted with a dozen eggs. I know from experience that fresh eggs taste different than store bought. But these eggs--in their variety and color--are the most beautiful eggs I have ever come across. I spent a while photographing them this afternoon:

It is snowing, snowing, snowing right now (and has been for several hours). Finally, the first snow storm of the winter. The snow is dry and powdery and has blanketed everything.

Thanks

Our friend Lauren is in town between a trip to China and Thanksgiving with her family in Indiana. Her short layover is mostly about eating, walking in the woods, and making things for future eating. Later today we will eat a made-up holiday meal we will call Thankslauren. As the sweet potato rolls bake, let me regale you with a photographic list of things we've done.

We canned our own tomato sauce:



We cut down a Welcome Winter Tree (formerly known as Christmas Tree) in our own woods:

And we spent hours in front of the fire:




Most of these photos were taken by Lauren who is a professional photographer.

Autumn

Today Rhonda hung out several loads of wash, taking full advantage of the 70 degree sun. It was a remarkable day, and I felt the need to document (to the best of my ability) the colors and light.

I am suffering deeply from camera envy. Tricia brought their beautiful, new, Cannon SLR digital camera, and she let me try it out. It was so amazing. Suddenly my little Cybershot seems old and outdated. (This is the problem with technology, it accelerates the cycle of wants.)

I was able to catch a few interesting viewpoints, though i think it was mostly accidental.