Ikebana, the Japanese art of floral arrangement, plays with the idea of nature in constant change, and the art of exploring that rhythm and order. Considered an art-form along the lines of painting or sculpture, it was more often practiced by men, and, in the past, “was considered an appropriate pastime for even the toughest […]
Happy six more weeks of winter, according to our favorite, favorite groundhog, Phil. But before we worried about more cold weather from the world’s wee, furry winter season soothsayer Punxsutawney Phil, there was the day the Celts called Imbolc, or St. Brigid’s Day, to determine whether the winter would continue six more weeks. Unlike the […]
Onions get such a bad rap, those tear-jerking balls of smelly-breath-makers. But what would a veggie pizza or tasty omelet be without them? Though it is hard to trace to their origin due to the fact that their tissues leave very little trace, it is known, according to The National Onion Association (that is a […]
I’ve used this blog to confess a few of my odd habits and/or stories, my coffee cravings and how the grounds help my garden grow, my sage-smudging blunders, my jonesing for fresh-squeezed-lemon in hot water before I can greet Facebook or the sun. And now I confess my proclivity to all things odd as I […]
I have been living a lie. I don’t remember when I heard that celery was a “negative calorie” food, that munching on the crunchy green stalk burned more calories than it provided as food. Looking up the history of celery on Wikipedia, I learned that is a lie. But celery is part of weight-loss diets, […]
Resolutions are SO 2014. So this year, instead of making new year’s resolutions, I set intentions. It’s probably no different, but I’m hoping that by embracing a different term I might make these intentions realities, ways of life. The dark winter days paired with the feeling of a fresh start and new intentions make this […]
‘Twas the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, and Portland Oregon was filled with strangers and cousins and visitors from foreign lands, looking for all that keeps Portland weird. Disgruntled teens returned gifts, tired shoppers sipped cappuccinos, a man dressed as Robin Hood in furry tights walked the downtown streets, collecting dollar bills from […]
It’s hour 23, you’re dressed for your boyfriend’s boss’s | sister-in-law’s | pet vet’s holiday dinner, and there’s no time for Prime to deliver a host gift. What to take? That magnet your kid made in 2nd grade? That block of Humboldt Fog you bought to savor by yourself in quiet after hours of small-talk? […]
Confession: I have a past of ignorant mis-smudging. Growing up in Eugene, I am oft called a hippie here in L.A., what with my car-free ways and belief in spirit animals. But even dropping that reference, I realize I am nowhere near knowledgeable about Native American traditions. So though I leapt at the idea to […]
“I’m not really a “desert” girl,” I’d explain when someone asked why I had never camped out in Joshua Tree National Park. I grew up in the lush green of Oregon’s rainy Willamette Valley. The desert just leaves me thirsty. “I may be a desert girl,” I said to the boyfriend while we sat on […]
There aren’t many opportunities for silence these days. Even a walk or jog requires a soundtrack streamed from my iPod to my earbuds, and if I choose to listen to the real soundtrack of my life, it’s usually a cacophony of car noises, the steady hum of a nearby freeway, or the rev of an […]
This Thanksgiving, are you going patriotic on your dinner party? Does your pilgrim menu hearken back to only that which the Native Americans served? That sounds fun! Educational! And limited! If your menu is missing some flavors, think bigger. Like Statue of Liberty big, this land is your land, big. There are a lot of […]
I was going to work on a “growing gratitude” post for Thanksgiving this last weekend, but then the accounting that I’d been working on all weekend vanished in the spinning (yet colorful!) pinwheel of frozen death. All is well now, but by the end of the experience, my brain was mushy from number-crunching and I […]
If you read my post on “’Little Women’ and the History of the Squash,” you know my love for the 1994 film adaptation of Alcott’s book, and my Christmas tradition that surrounds it, trimming a tree and watching the film with a friend over a bowl of popcorn and mugs of mulled wine. And thus […]
Having grown up in relatively mild climates, where fall = rain and winter was a rare snow day, celebrated with pancakes, hot chocolate, and a sad attempt to push an inch of snow into a squat snowman, I never really understood what it meant to winter. After moving from Oregon to Southern California, I now […]
Artist Sam Van Aken is making magic with agriculture (magriculture?), creating a tree that blooms in various colors and then produces over 40 different fruits. No, Van Aken is not trying to play God, though he was inspired by the Catholic rite of the priest transforming the wine and bread into the blood and body […]
I was shocked – as shocked as one can get about vegetables, which, frankly, runs pretty low on my shock-scale. But still, when my brother-in-law ordered a small plate of roasted cauliflower for the table, I didn’t think I’d be (softly) stabbing his hand with my fork in order to eat the last piece. That […]
It’s time for me to ‘fess up: I think vampires are real. Well, maybe not *real* real. But back in ’92, after watching the Luke Perry / Kristy Swanson cult classic “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer,” I began to seriously consider what it meant to invite some vampire err… someone into your house. And while it’s […]