Common Ground Country Fair

We were at the fair this weekend.
Here's a photo essay of some of my special finds.

Fresh Maine Blueberries (which I had missed earlier in the season)













This Feta cheese from Long Fellow's Creamery was fabulous in my Chicken Feta Wonder





















And last but not least... meet Broodus.
He is my first angora bunny and will be my stud.
I got him from Beth at Akers Angora's

Sunday Sandwich

I am a proud Mom. My Tween is starting to cook - with interest!

Saturday Sandwich

A sandwich so good...

... that you can't wait to be done mowing to eat it!


Here's the link to the recipe!

http://merrymeetingmenu.blogspot.com/2010/08/cucumber-sandwiches.html

My new front door

The house is back on the market. We have worked really hard to make everything look perfect, including power washing and staining the porches, weeding and mulching all the garden beds, and buying lots of flower pots and plants to put in them. We used extra granite from the fireplace installation as stands for the pots on the front porch. I am pretty pleased - it looks great!

Patron Vases

This is a picture of one of my favorite examples of reusing.
I love flowers. I love fresh cut flowers in vases through out the house.
I love vases that have no risk of tipping over as the result of over zealous children.
These vases are such an example.

























I am NOT a big fan of tequila, but any friend who is, you are welcome to give me your empty bottles of Patron!

My dedicated SP

He's away from home ALL the time, but when he's home the man works REALLY hard. See this picture (blurry and all)?
It's POURING rain! And he's out there cleaning up the aftermath of yesterday's mulch extravaganza!
Talk about dedication! We love you SP!

Do you not understand the oil spill dangers?!

Seriously People!!!

Do you not understand the gravity of this situation!?

People on FB complaining about the humidity or applauding that it is Friday again, when the very thing we rely on for survival - the oceanic ecosystem - is being systematically destroyed day after day?

When are we going to wake up and smell the coffee?

Agitate to enact some change?

Decide that our selfish pursuits of oil and plastics and modern day convenience are allowing big money companies to act without appropriate safe guards?

Hallibuton, BP, Palin, all those damn money grubbing scoundrels that want to blame "extreme environmentalists" for causing the problem???
PSHAW!

This environmental disaster screams of one thing - HUBRIS!

Enough is enough!

So do something to be the change - PLEASE!

We Stained the Decks

Here's a little before and after photo:
and now I have two questions for you.

Doesn't it look great!?

Why on earth did we not do this sooner?

Cod freshly caught off the coast of Maine

Our dear friend Mark recently gifted us some cod he caught off the coast of Maine. We were so fortunate that he shared with us, and are planning a cod cake party soon. It reminded me of a conversation I had with Wendy Ward of Hannaford supermarkets about their efforts to carry only sustainably caught fish. I thought that this cod was the perfect example.


Oh how I miss those summers on Block Island tuna fishing in the canyons. I yearn to go off shore to fish again!

Tuning up Tillulah!

Winter really IS over.

The garage has been switched!

I guess considering the oppressive heat we are having this week it's a bit redundant to point this out. I just thought the picture was neat and a perfect example of how linear my dear SP can be.

Poor Bluejay

This poor beautiful bird flew into my car as I was driving to pick up Baby from preschool. It swooped out of the trees and dove right into my bumper, and had I not known better as I tried to avoid it, one might have thought it was committing Harri Kari. I knew it was a big bird but I thought it was a crow. I wasn't even positive I had actually killed it until I returned home from preschool and saw this beautiful bird in the road. I picked it up and brought it home so that the children could see it up close. Those stripes and bars are BEAUTIFUL! I called the cat over to show him the gift I brought him, since he is so wonderful at leaving me the heads and tails of his prizes at my door step. I was not surprised when Huckyman denied the gift, for it was already dead. So I left it right here where it laid as an experiment to the wonderful food chain I live among. Low and behold, this morning - no sign nor mark was left. Not one beautiful blue feather was left, which made me a bit sad because I wanted one. However, I was left a gift - an oh so obvious sign from an elusive, wily coyote - it's scat.
You are welcome you wild howling fiery beast!

Joint Venture Knitting Needles

I love working with wood knitting needles. Some of my favorite knitting needles I found at a local store in town. These joint venture knitting needles are made from birch and maple milled in Maine, which are then pointed, assembled and painted by artisans in Russia. All of this is done in the name of peace. Started in Porter Maine, the local Peace Fleece yarn Company, is committed to helping historic enemies cooperate and prosper through trade.

The Peace Fleece offices are in a barn on a sheep and horse farm in the small, rural town of Porter in the foothills of southwestern Maine. Peter Hagerty and his wife Marty Tracy started buying wool from the Soviet Union back in 1985 in hopes that through trade they could help diffuse the threat of nuclear war. Since then Peter has journeyed through eastern Europe, central Asia and the Middle East in search of farmers and shepherds who are willing to set aside historic enmities in exchange for opportunities leading to mutual understanding and economic interdependence. I highly encourage you to check out their catalog. It is chock full of amazing, sustainable, peace oriented products that will make an impact on the world through your buying choices.

Green Bottles and 1% for the planet

I am looking into a group called Green Bottle online, and their use of 1% for the Planet, as a fund raiser for a non-profit organization I am involved with.

The Green Bottle™ was designed as a solution to the problems caused by the massive worldwide use of disposable plastic water bottles. In the USA alone, we waste nearly 2.5 million plastic water bottles per hour. These plastic water bottles are leeching harmful chemicals into our drinking water and causing a massive disposal problem in our landfills. Additionally the Green Bottle™ is a perfect replacement for those plastic sports bottles that may contain BPA.

The Green Bottle™ parent company is Pure & Simple Solutions, L.L.C. . Green Bottle™ has partnered with 1% for the Planet and has committed to donate a minimum of 1% of all proceeds to non-profit institutions that help protect and maintain our environment and our planet!

The Green Bottle™ is a refreshing alternative to pizza, wrapping paper, candy, cookie dough and other existing fundraisers. The Green Bottle™ is a profitable, healthy, reusable, eco-friendly product that your group will enjoy selling. Green Bottle™ appeals to all ages, will last a lifetime and truly makes a difference in all our lives. Fundraising with Green Bottle™ can also show your groups support for all green initatives in your community.

Green Bottle™ offers you a substantial profit margin of 50%. With no up front fees, no minimum order and no long term contract, we will provide you with a customized fundraiser kit that makes Green Bottle™ fundraising truly effortless.

Sewall's Orchard

This post hold's a special place in my heart. My brother's first name Sewall and I have spent a lot of the past two years working closely with him. In September, on a cold and rainy weekend at the Common Ground Fair, I went in search of a mulled cider and what did I find but this! We are all related! Sewall's Orchard is in Lincolnville, Maine - and I am wondering if my dear friend Yvonne learned her apple pruning skills at this orchard! I will have to try and remember to ask her when I see her next, but that might be at the next fair!
The Sewall's Philosophy, "

Our philosophy is based on an elemental idea of organics: Healthy soil produces healthy plants that create healthy people. Our farm is a place that welcomes all living organisms. Therefore, we use no substances that are toxic or that kill. Pest control is achieved via the use of bio-dynamic techniques. We also hand-remove pests when possible and practice good husbandry by pruning and mowing.Our next step is to work with the microorganisms in our soil in a more conscientious and direct way using soil amendments. Our desire is to have a complete and healthy biosphere."

For Christmas this year, I bought everyone in my family some of their apple cider vinegar! Well I just emailed them to get the ball rolling to see how we might be related. Their products are awesome and hope to stock them in my store when it opens! :D

Maine Sea Salt Company

Another Common Ground Find, my salt grinder is now full of local salt from the Maine Sea Salt Company! Maine Sea Salt Company was started in 1998 by owner Stephen C. Cook. Stephen's family has been in the lobstering businesses on Bailey Island, Maine all of his life.

Second Chance Farm

Catching up on some long put off blogging, I had the pleasure of tasting and buying some Longfellow's Serenade cheese at the Common Ground last fall. Second Chance Farm in Avon Maine is a small family farm that deserves a shout out from this blog! Their motto is a lot like mine: "Nourishing the body, sustaining the spirit and celebrating community“.

Saturday Sandwich

This was my sandwich this morning - it's Puckstopper's 12th birthday!

Imprinting

Baby has an incredible brain. I mean it. He has the memory of an elephant and has an incredible ability with people - two people in particular.

Baby has imprinted on these two people. One of them is Golfman, and he was Puckstoppers first hockey coach. The other one we will call, because it is one of his nicknames, Machoochoo.

Now Machoochoo lived with us during Baby's first year of life, so it would make sense that Baby imprinted on him, but it is unlike any other child I have had. It's beautiful. Baby only wants to be with Machoochoo when he is at our house, which these years is not very often.


Have you ever had this experience in your life?

I cherish the relationship between them.

It is special.

It is heartwarming, and I am so thankful that they have each other in their lives.

Lilac in Suspension

Do you ever wish that you could keep your lilacs blooming year round?
I just think that May should last forever - it's such a wonderful month! It's the onset of when I can pick home grown flowers outside and fill my house with them, which is exactly what I did with lilacs last Friday. I was sitting at the kitchen counter enjoying the aroma of the one above when I noticed something really cool.

One of my lilac flowers was suspended beautifully in the water.

See look closely:













































Isn't that just too cool!?

Dating myself

I was at this show!!!!

Name this Plant!

Seeing this wonderful native plant in flower makes me so happy and excited about the things to come. Leave a comment and name this plant!

Happy Mothers Day!

Flowers remind me of my mother. They would have even if she hadn't asked us to remember her with them. While I was in CT I saw some beautiful orchids.
This one reminded me of the colancho (sp?) I have that was Moms.




























But then there was THIS one! I have never seen anything like it! My sister collects orchids which is really great because I bought it for her.



























The really cool thing about it is that once I got it home the top bloom decided to open, and when it did it did so within the grasp of the flower below it. It was such a romantic, loving, sensual thing to watch - but then again maybe I was just anthropomorphizing a flower.



























Isn't that gorgeous!

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

They call me...

I found this for Puckstopper in CT. I had no idea they still made it! He loved it.

Non-Monogamous Knitting...

...creates the need for some reorganization in my life!
I lost the plastic bag and moved into a nice basket!

A Photo Essay

I have been absent from blogging for about a month and I'm sorry about it. There is so much that has happened, things that I found, new discoveries, eureka moments, and of course the incredible unfolding of spring. I was lucky enough to receive two springs this year. One in Connecticut, and another here in Maine. I decided that instead of multiple posts, I will do a photo essay of all my discoveries and musings.











The Merit Parkway Bridges are some of my favorite New England architecture.










The cherry's were in bloom!















This is a picture of volunteers at the hospital from years past.
My dear mother HiHo is the second woman from the left.













This bed of tulips was so heartwarming at the hospital during a difficult time.




































These were all flowers that I brought my brother.













This tree was one of the side effects of a the recent storms in Connecticut.










My breakfast at a friends restaurant in the East Villiage.












A blooming dogwood - one of my favorite trees.









Baby watching the trains come in as we wait to pick up Sloop. That Ascela astounded him!

Blooms!!!

My one and only forsythia. It didn't bloom last year for reasons unknown. Today it is at it's full beauty and I am in love with spring.
Forsythia.
What a beautiful word.

Spring is....

Busting

out

all

over!!!!








This is my one lilac tree. I love it!

Window Farms

Just hard this awesome project on NPR so I must repost it as I just did on Facebook! :D

Window Farming: A Do-It-Yourself Veggie Venture
by Jon Kalish
April 4, 2010

Julia Makarova
Homegrown Harvest: Britta Riley and Rebecca Bray tend to Brooklyn's first window farm. This form of urban agriculture is catching on in cities around the world, as downtown farmers go online to share techniques for growing greens indoors.

If you have a green thumb, a window and a serious Do-It-Yourself ethic, you too, can be a farmer ... even in your downtown apartment building. Spring is here, and for urban dwellers with no access to soil, hydroponic gardening is a way to grow fresh veggies indoors.
"Window farming," as it is called, is catching on in New York City and beyond. Window farmers use recycled Window farmers use recycled 1.5 liter water bottles, clay pellets, plastic tubing and inexpensive fish tank air pumps to create their indoor gardens. There are now 4,000 registered users at windowfarms.org. Farmers are tending to their greens everywhere from the U.S. to Italy, Israel and Hong Kong.
A simple window farm system is a column of upside down water bottles, with plants growing out of holes cut into the sides. An air pump is used to circulate liquid nutrients.

Last year in Brooklyn, N.Y., Britta Riley, 33, raised $27,000 for her window farms project through an online micro-donation web site. She's a true Do-It-Yourselfer.
"I grew up on a ranch in Texas," Riley says. "So we always had to hack together what we needed to fix fences and so forth."
Riley's project partner is Maya Nayak, 29, a professional gardener. Nayak has been growing herbs in her own window farm in her ground floor apartment. A sign in her window advertises windowfarms.org — and plenty of people have paused to check it out.
"We had to put up a curtain," she explains, "because people come up and look. And you're, like, 'Wow, this is my living room.'"
The people staring in from the street see a window filled with vertical columns of plants. Vegetables and herbs grow with the help of sunlight and a little electricity — but no soil.
The window farms Web site provides instructions on how to put together a system that grows three plants. The materials will cost about $30 — and not all of them are traditional gardening supplies: water bottles, an aquarium air pump, air valve needles (like the kind you use to pump up a basketball), and a hanging system designed for displaying art.
Riley says that putting recycled consumer goods to use is an important part of the DIY ethic.
"We're kind of showing that we can actually get really, really far using things that we already have available to us as consumers," she says.

The simplest window farm system is a column of upside-down water bottles connected to one another. Plants grow out of holes cut into the sides. An air pump is used to circulate liquid nutrients that trickle down from the top of the column and make their way to the plant roots.
Window farms have been used to grow strawberries, cherry tomatoes and peppers. Riley's favorite is bok choi.
"Buttercrunch lettuce grows great and lots of herbs," Nayak says. "Anything leafy and green, essentially. You can't grow carrots. I mean, you can't grow root vegetables. Potatoes, garlic. Those things don't work."
Urban farmers use the Internet to exchange ideas for improving the window farms technology. It's a process Riley calls "R&D-I-Y" or Research and Develop It Yourself. One window farmer figured out a way to silence the gurgling sounds these window farm systems make — and he shared his solution with the rest of the indoor gardening community.
"He just drilled a few holes into a vitamin bottle and stuck it over the end and all of a sudden it completely silenced the system," Riley explains. "And then he posted that for everybody else and all of a sudden we have a new solution that's cheap and that other people can replicate somewhere else."

In the coming months, Riley and her colleagues will focus on how much energy it takes to run the air pumps and compact fluorescent light bulbs that are turned on when access to sunlight is a problem. Riley says that in addition to the environmental benefits of growing your own food at home, there are aesthetic wins as well.

"It's just fun to have food growing in your own apartment," Riley says. "Especially during the winter months you've got this lush bunch of green lettuce that's growing in the window and kind of freshening the air in your apartment and it actually just looks pretty."

And it's about to get easier. For people who are excited about window farming but not so gung-ho about starting from scratch, Riley says her group will soon begin selling window farming kits