the ups and downs

Has it really only been one week since Hurricane Irene crossed into Vermont, devastating our little state? I can't believe how quickly the tides turned on my own life. There I was, expecting a full fall harvest from my garden, only to discover it all for naught under the epic deluge of the Winooski. While most of the plants survived, and thankfully, so did Mark's hand-crafted bean structures (those deserve their own picture post), I have been made aware that they could be incredibly toxic because of all of the sewage, leaking propane tanks, etc... that made their way down renegade streams and into the river. So I've felt a lot of emotional ups and downs over the last week...

Cue graduate school.

This semester, I am starting my master of education in Interdisciplinary Studies - meaning, I decide which courses I think are relevant out of all of the College of Education and Social Services offerings, and take only those that I choose. Lovely, right? Especially because I think of myself first as a student of life, always taking every opportunity to find a learning experience in whatever nature, people, or myself throws in my path. Or on top of my garden.


So I'm beginning with a class on Religion and Spirituality, where I can both learn to have moral and religious conversations in the most politically correct and attentive way possible, and so that I can embrace the spiritual side of myself with a conscious effort that has sort of been neglected since I've been flying by the seat of my pants in Vermont. The class is mainly readings, and here is the first book of the semester:

This is exactly what I need right now, positivity and thinking outside of myself. Especially given my feeling of anxiety and sadness over my garden, and not knowing what I should do with all of that time. And then I opened my book to the chapter entitled "Humility" today--and I think it perfectly details the way I've been feeling as I reflect on the destruction of my garden and the terrible loss of possessions, homes, and life that have occurred due to the storms last weekend. I hope to develop my sense of humility into something productive going forward, and I will start just the same way my garden is beginning anew. Plant a new seed, care for it daily, and always reach for the light. :)

futility

 

This road of water (some would call it a river) has swallowed my garden and countless others, several community farms, a flower patch, and even the home of some adorable chickens, completely whole.

The flooding from Irene has hit Vermont harder than we expected. While I can say with great thanks to the universe that all I lost was my garden and not my home, it still feels like I have lost a pet or some piece of my family to this disaster. When I went to the garden at 8 am yesterday, there was no water on this road yet, and I thought we had managed to escape the worst of it. So I left our beautiful hand-made trellises, the many ripe tomatoes and edamame that had been fattening up for weeks. I left the butternut squash and pumpkins to pick for later, and waved goodbye to the pea, radish, and bean sprouts to enjoy the beautiful sunny blue day. 

Driving out of the Intervale, I saw the water coming in. Now there is nothing to be done as it is under 3 feet of water. Let's hope and pray that something makes it through, without a ridiculous coating of mud or a camper landing on it. :( Sadness...

smiles on my toes

These Keds put smiles on my toes. Back in March, I begged my coworker and friend Jody to draw octopuses on these rather bright pink Keds that I picked up on a whim. I imagined black Sharpie-sketches, and about mid-July, he gifted me with these absolute works of art. They blew me away, and make me smile and skip whenever I get the privilege of wearing them!

Unfortunately, today is NOT one of those days, as Hurricane Irene stretches her rage out to Vermont. We've had rain since somewhere in the middle of the night, and even though I have octopuses on these shoes, I hate to admit that they don't know how to swim. I'll leave that for the trout and salmon and those people brave enough to go outside on a day like this. As for me, I'm enjoying the fact that I don't have to make any excuses to sit at home and use garden tomatoes in fresh soup (a recipe from Former Chef) and start planning some embroidery projects. !:)!

PS--Jody makes real art, not just shoe art, too. You can see his work at his Etsy shop, Scribble Factory, and buy some if it's up your alley. In return for my shoes, I'm gifting him with garden produce and home-made salsa every chance I get. Thankfully, he thinks it's a fair trade.

Earth to Matilda... hello Matilda?

Haven't blogged in awhile, wondering if you are still out there in the ether...

I just need to pop in because I want to start this up again. Mostly, I need a happy place to filter the events of my life, and to reflect on the changes occurring that I'm mostly responsible for, but entirely incapable of controlling. Starting next week, I'll be a grad student at UVM in Interdisciplinary Studies. And I have no idea if I'll have a job or an internship or some melding of the two, but I can only hope for some tuition assistance or financial aid or at least time to get back to baking and gardening.

Speaking of, I need to make some picture time for the garden. There is ZERO documentation of this year's fruits, and thankfully, we've managed to eke out many meals of the bounty. Despite blossom end rot on tomatoes, 75% of my home-grown squash eaten at the stalk by triangle devil beetles, and plenty of bean bugs. It's still more than enough for the pair of us in my home, and happily extras for Annie and the crew to enjoy some supplemental feasting. And a gift of tomatoes and basil and husk cherries to friends who might deserve some farm-share-love for the kindnesses they show me. :) I cannot express how much I love to share my garden food...I hope people feel it in return.

So to affirm the positive vibes that people have given me in the last week, and to appreciate the love I have discovered in an entirely new life, even if it falls on New England cold-hard-crusty-earthquake-enhancing-hearts (errr, crusts), I love where I find myself, and will keep on reflecting as I begin a new chapter in growing up, falling deeper in love, and exploring my intellectual capacity. :)

recession? NOT ANYMORE!

Words... I am struggling with them at the moment. I've had a busy and hugely eventful last few weeks! First, I was sort of whipped around with confusion starting a new job (with a 40-hour training week spent trying SO hard to focus, when I just wanted to play outside in the last snowstorm of the year!)...and then interviewing for a job, being told I was wanted, and then nevermind it wasn't working out...and then getting the same job just at a different location. CRAZY. So, then I had to quit the new job and then I had a birthday and then...oh gosh, I don't know. It's just been wild here! BUT, yes, I start my new new (final new, hopefully for at least three years!) job as a bank teller--LOVE the idea of permanency and stability and being paid a living wage, not to mention the intellectual challenges of counting all that money and calculating interest!--on Monday, and I am SO completely looking forward to it that I can't stop using UPPER CASES and EXCLAMATION POINTS and ellipses...

You get the idea. The birthday I had was splendid, one friend cooked me dinner the night before and we bonded majorly over our love for painting and scandalous Rumi poetry...on my actual birth date, I did some yoga and relaxed, while Mark had these MOST beautiful flowers delivered my way. Daffodils are my favorite!! Then we had lunch at an amazing local bakery, napped, and got fed the tastiest dinner of my last long time at my wonderful friend Annie's house. Her cooking is always perfect, that's why I'm always happy to go to her place and play with her and her daughter and "help" with dinner (by bringing all the veggies I can find in my fridge!)... And then Annie busted out an ice cream pie, which oh baby baby--even her husband couldn't stop eating it, and I don't think I've EVER seen him gorge on something sugary. I think he ate half of it, which was good, because I stuffed myself on the canneloni for dinner and didn't leave enough room for all that ice cream goodness!

Then we went to collect maple syrup at one of Mark's professors neighborhoods on Saturday. Annie has posted a much more interesting and photographically talented version of the occasion, so I'll just link you to her awesomeness. And they really do call me Annie 2.0.

I hope your weeks have been nearly half as fun and eventful, and if not, that you have had a sampling of the wonderful sunshine we've also been enjoying too! It's at least 50 degrees here today, and I. LOVE. SUN.

why I'm a slow blogger...and the tortoise won the race.

Because I attended an inspirational White Coat ceremony for my beloved husband, I was too busy to blog last week. GO MARK and the whole UVM COM 2013! This was a great chance to hang out with lots of people and their parents (and become absolutely OVERWHELMED by small-talk to the point of tears--please don't ask).

And because I go to all of his numerous sporting events, which in the past week alone have included a broomball game (see above-yep, that's Mark in the sweet tight blue shirt) at 10:50 pm, 2 basketball games (which I didn't go to, sorry, I had work to attend), and 5 hours of ultimate frisbee tournamenting on Friday night. Wish I could share the drudgeryfun that was (Mark enjoyed it at least)...but, you can't know unless you were there. Let's just say, 5 hours of anything usually isn't a good thing (unless it's a LOTR extended-edition viewing, and then, by Thorin's beard, I'm entertained!~)

And finally, I haven't been blogging because at one point, I was doing all of these different crafts (so I could blog about them, naturally). Since I've completed a handful, and have several more I need some motivation on, I'll finally start showing them to you. First up, is this wonderful sweater for my teapot, The Butler. He makes Jeeves shiver with jealousy, don't you think? It was my very first knitting project since the two dish cloths I was forced to attempt at some young women's meetings at church back in 9th grade... ugh, now I shiver just thinking about how much more I wanted to be outside playing soccer than stuck knitting since some lady insisted it was a good skill for me to know to be a good wife someday... and I've made a 180 into thinking it's hip, cool, and like I'm left out without it, even! Oh boy. But I did this cute tea cozy with some fancy wool yoinked from my friend's stash, and it was all a basic cable stitch (because you know I knitted one giant piece of basic knit and thought I had that mastered, even though I just ripped it all apart to re-use the yarn for this!).

Now, I need a new sweet project. And I need to tell you that snowboarding at Smuggler's Notch on Saturday made me SO STINKING happy. First time since before heading out to Egypt over a year ago, and it *mostly* all came back to me. I never even slammed my face, despite riding pure moguls and tree runs all day. HOORAY, can't wait to go up again! (and yes, I wrote about snowboarding because Mark told me to, but mostly because I forget the fun things and start thinking about baking bread and knitting and such as soon as I get on my blog...LAME)

SO, I won't make any more promises on frequency, but I will guarantee that my blog will haunt me about my need to write one way or another.  And your comment will only help... ;) love you all, as always! ps--you also need to see Shutter Island, that is, if you want the greatest mind-trip of your life and if you want to use 2 hours to convince yourself that you will never feel sane again. Now THAT is fun!

Camel's Hump!

Hey ya'll! Been a long time again since I posted, but that's cuz I had to make sure there was something fun to write about. Right. :) Still applying for jobs left and right, while also enjoying my time at J.Crew consistently. I've gotten so many great pieces of clothing on sale in the last month...it's dangerously fun. Got a KILLER pair of shoes yesterday for $12.50!!!

Anyway, what I HAVE done besides shopping while working is finally get a bit of legitimate snowshoeing in. We hiked the 2nd highest peak in Vermont last weekend with some friends from the med school, Alex and Kathryn. 8 miles total, just over 3000 ft. at the peak, and let's just say that I have never been in such a fantastic winter wonderland! Proof is in the pictures:

 

I like to call these "Dr. Suess trees" because of the tops--which you can barely see, but they're leaning over like the mountaintop in The Grinch. Pretty sweet. :)

 

Have you ever SEEN so much snowy-iceness? This one on the right looked like a feather head-dress on top of the tree. All wind-blown and stoic, right below the peak of the mountain. SO cool!

Of course, it looks freezing cold, but we lucked out and headed up on a "warm" day--I think the high was 30 degrees. Sunny. Relatively cloudless (except for the fog blowing in and out on the mountain side). Fun times! Mark and I can't wait to hike a few more mountains out here while there's snow on everything. Our next plan is to do Mt. Mansfield, the highest peak in Vermont, and we had planned to do it today but guess what the temperature is? Oh, yeah, 6 degrees at the moment! NOT going out in that, even if it is sunny. My nose freezes in the 10 feet between my house and the car, I'm not brave enough for these temps. It was like -10 this morning, too...sheesh. 

Anywho, I'll be posting more soon, promise. I've got some cute Valentine crafts in the works, and I'm also going to head right on over to my friend Annie's house as SOON as I'm done with this post, cuz it's time for me to finish sewing up my very first throw-pillow for my very first married-life-apartment! whoot. :) I hope you all are doing SPLENDIDLY, and are getting outside to enjoy the winter a little bit too. Tata!