A new puppy, NYC &Thanksgiving

Since Sharon is neck-deep in schoolwork before the end of the semester next Friday (yay!), I will highlight a few of our moments from last week when Sharon was here on Thanksgiving break.

Meet Trevi, (named after the fountain), my parents' new pup:

 
So, he's pretty cute. He's all puppy and everyone is excited about his arrival, especially Mason (his big brother), as seen here:

He looks thrilled that a new sharp-toothed pup is running around. Anyhow...

Sharon and I decided to take a trip to Manhattan a few days before Thanksgiving. New York is always busy, and when I went there with the arbo-interns I thought it would be fun to go back and spend a night, so we did. We took the Bolt Bus up (which was a mistake, as a MegaBus stopped at the same location to pick up passengers and seemed to be running like clockwork -- Bolt, on the other hand, was 30 minutes late and when it finally did the driver blamed a cleaning person that didn't clean the bus). Buses these days do have wifi and electric outlets and tons of leg room, so hooray for that; MegaBus, though, is a double- decker which is simply incredible.

So we got off the bus, rounded the block and stepped into our hotel, which was about 50 feet away. We dropped off our bags, checked out the room, and resisted the urge to revert back to our Haiti days whereupon entering a hotel room we would immediately turn on the TV and get hot showers and enjoy flush toilets. To sum up our trip, I can use two words: We walked. A lot. From midtown to the High Line in Chelsea to Chinatown and back up to the Upper East Side to check out a few thrift stores, a coffee shop, Macy's parade preparations, and ice skating rink where we watched folks skate (poorly) and some delicious hot cocoa. The next day we walked a lot (shocking, l know) and filled the day with similar activities. It was relaxing and fun -- and we did check out the American Folk Art Museum, which was amazing. See below:

And we went into a pretty cool old (for the U.S.) church, though I can't remember its name:

We hot-footed it around the city and tried to get into the International Center of Photography, but we got there too late to be admitted without being rushed around. Instead we went into the bookshop and browsed a little and warmed up a bit too. We'll have to go back next time we are in NYC.

We went from NYC to Norfolk (that's Naw-fick to you), where we had the usual abundance of food to show our thankfulness for an abundance of stuff the previous year. Lots of good food which we enjoyed again and again the days following Thanksgiving (it's worth all the effort of cooking to only have to reheat the following 2-3 days, right?).

Somewhere during all of this some wigs were discovered, so they made the rounds.

After the wig finished a tour of the Nowak household we assembled ourselves for the customary photo whenever people are together.

(Judging by the darkness in some of these images, the changes I've made in Picasa are not making their way into the wonder web. Well, imagine everything brighter and sharper.)

Winston interlude

Despite no-fun November (papers and projects, anyone?), I was able to sneak away to North Carolina last weekend: one of my housemates was going to visit family and was looking for someone to help with the driving, so I signed up for a change of scenery.  It was relaxing and fun -- between the fall colors, silly talks, live music, thrift scores, yummy food, friendly dogs, and amazingly warm hospitality, a good time was had by all. 

 

Procrastination

So, I'm supposed to be reading right now for my Urban Studies class at U.Penn, which has been a challenge for me. So much theoretical/philosophical/critical thinking is verging on the limits of my brain power. The rest of the class is filled with Penn prodigies who can talk endlessly about the Marx dialectic of the fetishization of commodities. The other hard thing is that we're sitting in a classroom filled with relatively wealthy individuals and we're talking about the working class like we (collectively) are all on one big team. Somehow I miss the connection between most of the class and their socio-economic background compared to that of the rest of Philadelphia.
I'll get off of that track before I offend anyone.

So yesterday I had several first time events. First, I bought coffee from the corner store. Nice to know that's available. Second, I went to a class through Greensgrow on fermentation where we made sauerkraut, pickles and mead. Third, I went to the new South St. bridge which is now open and there was a pre-opening (to cars) free time for anyone to walk/bike around. Fourth, I had a Vietnamese hoagie. So good. Then my amazing day ending with the neighbor complaining about my campfire in the yard, so I retreated indoors to read/procrastinate reading for the rest of the night, which has continued on to this morning.

Here are some pics, didn't remember to check my ISO before I started snapping photos, so they're kind of grainy. Lesson learned.

Stuffing sauerkraut into jars and prepping mead in the background.

Ya Philly, new bridge for all the Penn folk, I'm sure a lot of people are happy about this. I almost never go this far south and need to go to W. Philly so not that big of a deal in my daily life, but, if it's good for Philly, it's good for me, somehow.

The best part was that the Bicycle Coalition invited people to play bridge on the bridge, here they are doing their thing.


Now that 12 noon will soon be upon me, I really should start reading for class. 100 pages and 12 hours until midnight is only 8 pages an hour (eek!) better get started that sounds like a lot of reading. The book, by the way is by Alex Callinicos, Social Theory.

Philly Bike Expo

This past weekend the planets aligned and the result was a bunch of bike geeks descended upon Philadelphia. I got to go and mingle with folks I've only read about in magazines and just soaked up bike geekdom. It was the whole weekend, with seminars, trade show, competitions, flea market and assorted other activities.

so, where to start?


Well, I chatted with Mike Flanigan from A.N.T. bikes for a little while, nothing much really just talked about bikes, amazing though, his bikes have always caught my eye as much as his general philosophy about bikes and biking.

Then I walked around the trade show floor admiring all of the framebuilders that were there. Really beautiful bikes were on display as well as lots of other handmade bags, clothes, alcohols. So I wandered and talked and sampled. Then outside for some fresh air and lo and behold there were cool kids on bikes doing tricks, so I pretended I was a photographer and snapped some photos.


Off to the seminars after the tricksters, where I listened to the Exec. Dir. of the bicycle coalition of greater philadelphia (BCOGP ? Am I back in Haiti?) area speak. It was amazing, Philadelphia is doing it, we are improving, actually more so than any other city, really! It almost brought tears to my eyes watching someone get excited about our little crappy city, that I care for deeply. We're getting better and there are smart people doing it. Like that.

Then I stayed in my seat for the next speaker, Bike Snob. The room filled, there were people everywhere and rightly so B.S. was really funny and a total smart-alek (sp?), I laughed a bunch as did the whole room.

That's pretty much it, I did hang out for the post trade show fashion show. Not too bad, I was mostly tempted there because of the Root and Snap that was being poured for free. Good stuff. Overall I had a good time, went back on Sunday for the bike flea market and bought some goodies, like a new light and some chain lube. Exciting. Hopefully it happens again next year.

These are a few

Along with 25-cent day-old bagels from a local coffee roaster and a worker-owned and operated bicycle shop, the other thing I really, really like about Nashville is the monthly Tennessee flea market. I've mentioned it here before, but last weekend two of my roommates and I had a few hours to spend at the biggest version of the whole year.

It was ginormous, overwhelming, and completely recommended. We didn't end up buying very much stuff but had a great time people-watchin' and stuff-seein'.  And C. got a lot of attention for her Mason jar of coffee: "What's that, moonshine?" "Little early for moonshine, dontcha think?" (I guess that expectation is what makes this the South.)

Shofuso

So, I got to visit a new place in Philadelphia today:  Shofuso, a Japanese house. We walked around in our socks (or paper slippers) and enjoyed learning about the Japanese traditional styles of architecture, gardening, tea and more. Definitely check it out if you have not already; it's worth it.

The aforementioned paper slippers

Not a fountain, but a really nice water feature.

Ommmmmmmm Ommmmmmmmm

Looks so pleasant, doesn't it?

This is painted onto the paper room divider doors and was inspired by a waterfall.

So, that's it for now. I'm still playing with the camera and having fun - I just discovered that the computer here in the house has Photoshop on it, score!

Old friends and fire

So, when Sharon was back in Philadelphia (which was amazing) we found out that a few of our old co-workers from Haiti were going to be in town for a training. So, we borrowed D&C's car and made our way down to South Philadelphia and hung out at the airport waiting for our old work pals and after only a few minutes they emerged, and here they are:



That's Meleck the office administrator, Margot (not sure what her current position is), Nahomie an environmental educator and Frantzo an environmental educator. Me, of course, arborist intern and Sharon, graduate student at Vanderbilt. A fine looking bunch.

On to somewhat exciting and scary events, take a look at what happened a few blocks over from the house last night.



What?!!! Ya I know, crazy fire......I couldn't stop taking photos:

And with my new found camera skills, I just kept taking more and more:

and then I got worried it may go out before I take the perfect photo, so I took more:



and then I realized that thing is not going out soon, so I then leisurely sat around on the roof looking for amazing fire photos:


and then I got the perfect photo:



Well, maybe not, but it was a good ending to the story 'eh?

Developing an eye.

So I've been taking advantage of free classes at the Arboretum, and right now I'm in the midst of a 6-session photo class. It's meant for beginners who have digital cameras who want to take a little more control over the photos they take and stop relying on the automatic settings.

I finally feel like I'm getting an eye for how to look at something and know the steps to take to get the photo of it to where I want it to be. It took a while, honestly. Yesterday we had an opportunity to walk around with the instructor and take photos at the arb, and it was nice to have time devoted to taking photos.

Anyhow, here are some of my (beginner) shots. None were taken with the auto setting, and despite a few people telling me where the "good shot" was I did my own thing and took my own photos. So, here are some that are interesting to me. Enjoy.

All of these were taken with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3

Field learnin'

My roommate/schoolmate Marie and I decided to take a break from the books this weekend to attend a fiber-and-natural dye workshop at Sulphur Creek Farm organized by Ask Apparel, one of two natural dye houses in the U.S. The weather was clear and warm and the workshop was filled with amazing women. We had just as much fun sitting around and talking as we did learning how to do make beautiful things with indigo and kudzu.

The workshop followed the indigo dye process from the plants in the field through a fresh vat of ready-to-go dye, and we also harvested kudzu and learned how to turn it into a fibrous thread. (We didn't get to work as much with the kudzu because the plants harvested in preparation for the course weren't quite usable, so we got the gist of it but not as much hands-on experience.)

Rows of indigo, ready to harvest:

This vat had about 120 pounds of plants soaking in it:

Creating usable dye involves adding an alkaline substance and agitating to add oxygen. Look at how blue it was!

A sample was decanted so we could see how quickly the dye sediment was settling:

Because this process will create a dye that can be caked and saved for later, we made a fresh vat with soda ash to use for the weekend:

Indigo dyeing requires oxidation, which means fabric isn't immersed but is instead dipped and aired until the color reaches the desired shade:

Kudzu is another wonder plant that can be eaten (it's high in protein), used to create herbal medications, and of course turned into a fiber. It is best harvested at certain times of year, and goes through a process of soaking and drying and resoaking to remove the outer skin and make the vine pliable:

Did you know it's illegal to work with kudzu in Pennsylvania? Apparently the State Dept. of Agriculture is super-worried about aiding and abetting kudzu's northward migration. (I know this because the gals teaching this part of the program had come all the way from Philadelphia and have a really terrific project going there.)

Success.

Sigh. It's hard to go back to the books after a weekend like that, but there's a ton of work to be done before I go to Philadelphia on Wednesday for a much-anticipated long weekend (!).