Trash Pickin'

So, I tend to look in dumpsters, sometimes.  When I work on the living wall at Drexel there is still a construction dumpster on the site even though the construction has been over for quite awhile.  They are still apparently renting a hi-lift for forever.  The best part is that they have been throwing away excess brand new stuff.  Here is what I've picked so far:

An almost complete sink assembly.  Stainless steel, chrome, amazingness.  This thing sells for about $300 new.  What?

These are massive commercial plumbing ball-valves.  One 3", two 2", and a bunch of elbows and what not.  I think these sell for over $100.

I still have a few other things that I found, that I need to take photos of and research some more.  As most of these things are commercial style products I am thinking I will try to sell them on-line as there is no way I could use any of these things.  Well, hopefully I can find someone who needs these things.

Well beyond my turn.

We're supposed to keep this 50% Nash and 50% Adelphia, and by those rules it appears that I've been slacking. Sharon just left this morning to go back to Nashville and I of course remain behind in Philadelphia keeping the home fires (homefries) burning. I confess too that I did not document the weekend well with photos. Actually I only took one:

That's one of my parents' dogs coming out of the water at Lums Pond, DE, where they were participating in a dog agility trial. I recommend going to one if you ever have the chance. 

The non-photo-documented parts ofthe weekend included celebrating Courtney's birthday at the house where the fire department came, like clockwork, about 20 minutes after we lit a fire in the outdoor fireplace. The neighbors hate fires, but (as usual) the fire dept. has no problem with our setup. We also went to a soccer game at Villanova, went to a great chili and cornbread dinner party in West Philly, and met up with some of the old Morris interns to catch up with each other. The weekend went way too fast, but it was a lot of fun and worth every moment.

In other news:

- I'm still stressing out about applying to the Longwood Garden graduate program, but proceeding nonetheless.

- I'm feeling slightly strange about my standing in the US economy, and a blog I read regularly expressed how I feel really well:

This is a huge topic to tackle within the confines of this site, and I don't for a second take for granted the many good fortunes that I have, but at some points in my day I reflect on just how nice it would be to someday not go through life treading water financially. I think about how this is the only industrialized nation in the world whose residents can put themselves into a bottomless debt just paying for basic health care and education, and how I literally fist pump the air in celebration every time I get.... (the smallest bit of money)

I agree, and am a little tired of people telling me how "lucky" I should feel to be doing manual labor with no vacation/sick time and/or benefits of any sort. Really? I do feel fortunate to not be among the masses of the unemployed, but I don't really feel "lucky" either. Anyhow, enough of that.

- In other news, I just found two amazing jackets. Behold:

I like to call this my party sweater because it is that amazing.

- Lastly, on a day last week when I was searching for the silver lining to the gray cloud hanging over my head, I pedaled my way to Center City to ask Apple to somehow fix my ailing iPhone, which suddenly and inexplicably stopped working. After about 45 min of them telling me that my phone was pretty much just an iPod at that point, they decided to give me a new phone. Yes, for free. What? Hello silver lining, welcome home.

Betwixt.

Last weekend Bryan was in Nashville! See, look:

- Except that that's a picture of him in Louisville, KY. Did you know that the state line is a mere half-hour away by car? Oh, the places a rental car (even the tiniest Fiat) will take you...

 

 

It absolutely does not look like it from these photos, but Louisville is actually a city and a pretty great little city at that. We found it quite walkable, with commendable food diversity, neighborhoods, public art, thrift stores, and parks. The only real drawback is the name: as a friend pointed out, to say it correctly ("Louovul"?) feels a little like vomiting in your mouth.

This weekend I am back to the grind, eagerly awaiting my trip to Philadelphia (!) first thing Thursday morning. Yes indeed, Fall Break 2011 is upon us already. That means I'm scrambling to meet all of my routine academic obligations while casting an eye toward final papers -- and of course, interpreting the world through the lens of my PhD program application Statement of Purpose.

I did carve out an hour yesterday to swing by a handmade book fair at Watkins College of Art, Design, and Film yesterday. I attended a talk on "writing words worth preserving" and bumped into a few folks from the indigo-dying workshop I attended last fall. 

Here are a few of my favorites from the art show (and forgive the sloppy reportage; I didn't note the names of the artists...):

  

Magnetic Fields tribute, anyone?

  

 

  Nothing, but nothing, beats a harmonica-shaped book!

Okay, back to it...

Books of the week: 

Fearlessness, Imre Kertesz

In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America, Eddie S. Glaude, Jr.

Women's Ways of Knowing: The Development of Self, Voice, and Mind, Belenky et al. 

On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent, Gustavo Gutierrez

Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life, Giorgio Agamben 

Films of the week:

A Serious Man

Sankofa

Aguirre: The Wrath of God

Beloved

Carnival of Souls

The Spirit of the Beehive

Life in brief.

What, you may ask, has been keeping me from this ole blog? A little of this and a little of that:

- I'm currently taking 4 classes, wrapping up work from my summer reading course, and auditing 1 class that meets 5 times a week. Two of these classes are film courses (i.e., homework involves reading plus watching movies), one is a class on the Book of Job held at our local maximum-security prison (i.e., half the students are from Vanderbilt and the other half are from Riverbend), and one is a class on women, psychology, and religion (we're clipping along at about a book/week). Lots and lots of coffee-drinking in these parts.

 - When do I find time to earn my keep? Not only do I work at the library two nights each week...

I picked up a morning gig at the Robert Penn Warren Center. I will confess that I have a weakness for working in historic homes previously occupied by wealthy families, and that, combined with the Warren Center's amazing programming lineup, pretty much convinced me it would be unwise to not work there. Finger on the pulse, folks.

- I am still sans auto in Nashville, so I take my daily exercise up and down hill, with the breeze and in the sunshine. Fortunately there hasn't been an overabundance of sunshine during the last few weeks: given the hills, I prefer cool and rainy days to humidity and oppressive heat.

- PhD program application season is upon us, so when I'm not occupied with all of the above, I'm busy pulling together papers and essays and asking professors to write letters of recommendation. Basically I'm doing everything I can to make my dream life come true.


- This is not to say that it's been all work and no play. I've found time to participate in multiple potlucks, see a few non-class-related movies, and attend the National Folk Festival:

I'm trying to talk Bryan into getting matching Hawaiian 

shirts and straw hats for us. Wouldn't that be tres chic?

I also spotted my dream home:

And I scored some fresh tumeric (!) in the farmers' market. I know, I know, this is not local at all, but since I so rarely see this stuff I couldn't resist. 

 
And best of all, Bryan is coming tomorrow for a long weekend!  Hooray!

On a hobby-life.

What with all my working hours now totally filled, I'm starting to feel like my hobbies are all being neglected. But indeed my interests are still budding (pun very intended), and one that I've been playing with for a little while now is terrarium-building. 

I started with moss from the woods, and some died and some lived depending on where I placed them and whether I left the lid on or not. So, it turns out that leaving the lid off is best (really, is it a big surprise that a plant living in the PA woods would not like being sealed up in a glass jar in the sun?). For my birthday I got a pitcher plant, Sarracenia purpurea, and planted that in a neat glass jar, and a few weeks later my parents bought me a succulent plant, Echeveria, that I wedged into an old cookie jar. It must like it in there, because it sent out a flower stalk and is blooming like crazy. Just today as I was  buying a dehumidifier for the basement (boo!), I saw little Venus flytraps for only a couple dollars and picked one up to put in with the pitcher plant.

The other, dare I say, hobby that I dabble in from time to time is photography. Now, I say that knowing full well that I'm not a photographer,but  I just enjoy it and like playing with it from time to time. I also know that it's complete heresy that the majority of my photos are from my iPhone, but what is better than always having a camera in your pocket? The other point of heresy is that the photos below were all taken with the instagram app, which seems to be all over the interwebs these days:

Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula)

Moss (don't know the species)

Will you look at that. So nice.

My little blooming beauty (Echeveria x "Topsy Turvy")

I also really want to learn how to/start pruning Japanese maples and evergreens in the Japanese pruning style method, Niwaki. Imagine Bonsai type trees but larger and in the ground. Some forms are called cloud pruning, but many others have Japanese names with no direct English translation.They are generally pruned heavily to make them look like older trees in specific locations (i.e., on a cliff, mountain top, or riverside). Not many people do this type of pruning because it is very labor-intensive, but there are small groups of people that enjoy it. I am thinking of going to the local Bonsai Club monthly meeting to ask around if they know of anyone that prunes trees in this method in the hopes I can tag along and learn a few things.

As a side note, I'm also thinking about applying to the Longwood Garden graduate program in Horticulture. They only choose 5-6 people a year for a fully-funded two-year program through the University of Delaware. I have a friend that is in the program now, and I've been reading the bios of the other students. Wow: they are all ridiculously amazing individuals that have amazing resumes and make applying really intimidating. 

But here's to hobbies, optimism, acceptance to graduate programs, and a better economy so that we can all have jobs we enjoy.

Oh, economy.

This is more of a thinking-out-loud exercise, so bear with me as I do this.

I recently left my job as an arborist with Preservation Tree. I liked the job but wasn't getting as many hours as I would have liked, and with the winter quickly approaching (read: slow pruning season) I felt the need to jump ship to get in as many 40-hour weeks as I could. So I am now with another tree care company, which is fine.

The hard part is that my previous employer is very safe and has very high standards for tree care, where my current employer has slightly lower standards for both -- but does have months' worth of 40-hour weeks scheduled. So here I am compromising my standards (and possible safety) for a more consistent paycheck. What has the world come to? Here I sit, as I'm sure many other people in the U.S. and around the world are right now, not totally happy with my job but needing a steady paycheck, and a lot of people don't even have that right now.

The Morris Arboretum where I was an intern last year found me pruning trees, taking tree-care classes, teaching tree care to volunteers and members, visiting other arboreta, etc. My brain was stimulated, my body was tired, and I got to commute by bike every day. Life was good. Ever since then, the commercial tree-care world is only making me tired every day, and all the other things are gone. The other sad thing for me as a potential arborist is that I mostly enjoy ornamental pruning and tree health analysis, and I don't have a whole lot of interest in the tree work that most people need/want (like removing huge dead trees that are hanging over a $500,000 home).

Anyhow, taking these cues that I'm not very interested in the adrenaline rush/risky tree care business and missing the academic/education side of tree care, I think I will follow that and keep my ears open for opportunities to return to the environmental education field. My 9 years at a nature center and 2 years in Haiti (which was mostly an education position) all have me wired to enjoy sharing my knowledge about the environment. So, until I find that opportunity I'll be hanging out with the trees, hoping the economy rebounds, and looking for greener pastures.

Thanks for letting me vent -- and feel free to let me know of any education positions open!

And like that...summer is over

Well, maybe summer isn't officially over but with Sharon's return to Vanderbilt, my summer has officially ended. Last year at this time we both relied on being busy, her with a new school and city and me with my arboretum internship. Sharon has returned to her busy life but I on the other hand have much too much down time. Work is super slow, a half day here, a full day there and a few days totally off make for slim paychecks. Boo. I haven't been totally lazy, I picked up a part-time job working on a 73 foot tall green wall in Drexel's new science building which has been about 1 day a week for the past month or so. I've also been getting the sporadic side job here and there doing tree work and general gardening work. Last week I even managed to sell a brand new tent that I found at a thrift store for a nice little profit on craigslist, so as they say in Haiti "Degaje pa peche" or as I understand it, making it up as you go isn't a sin. Let's hope so.

The guy up on the wall is Andrew, we get to split the wall when we clean it out. I get to do the top down to about 30 feet because I'm a little faster, he finishes the rest because he is super detail oriented. Works out just fine. Those large swaths of brown are from a pretty bad die back of arboricola. Next week I get to replant about 300 of them.

In other news, the day before Sharon left we had an amazing Italian feast with a bunch of friends. We set aside almost the entire day with shopping at the Italian market around 11:00, where we took a coffee/espresso/cannoli break. We went back to the house and started making the sauce, opened a bottle of wine and proceeded to make spinach ravioli and fettucini from scratch, tiramisu, and a caprisi salad. Yum. People started arriving around 7:00 to dig in and so they did. We dined, laughed and had a great time making promises to repeat the event with a new cuisine to focus on....Greek anyone?

 


Sauce!

Tiramisu assembly

  Garden-fresh tomatoes

 

Flaming sambuca

 

fini

Denny Hilton

While researching a paper I'm writing for a course this summer, we met the folk artist behind the work that proliferates a mere 4 blocks from our house. (There are more sculptures and holiday-themed murals that change each season, but I'm looking at neighborhood memorials for this project.)

Nothing says summer like outdoor adventures

Seriously, who's been interested in indoor sports like blogging? Not us. We've been busy

Attending beekeeping talks in West Philly:


(Did you know that harmful hive-mites get helplessly lost just a few inches away from the comb? The strategy is to overcome the problem by cross-breeding all species of bees to carry the mites outdoors and dump them.)

Enjoying birthday injera at our favorite Ethiopian restaurant:



Swimming in the Wissahickon with a friend:


Installing a green wall on Drexel's campus (guess which one of us did this):


Finding eggy evidence of happy vermicomposting worms:


Digging potatoes from the garden:


Making hot-weather suppers of delicious open-faced sandwiches and cold potato & bean salad:


Enjoying no less than 25 independent neighborhood fireworks shows from the roof of our house on the 4th:

(Why brave the crowds at the Art Museum when fireworks shows surround you?)

We've also been doing the usual berry picking, gardening, reading, cooking, and spending time with friends. And here's to more of the same.

New Rain Barrel

Just finished installing our new rain barrel this past week. I got the drum for free from work but all the PVC added up to almost $50 (youch!) anyhow, the best part of the photo is the guy in the background who is picking through the trash to get aluminum cans. Natch.

Tis the season for road trippin'

Last week we headed to the great white north, braving the frigid rain and downright cold climes of Boston for a birthday party. We packed up a our new little car and prayed that the EZPass would work smoothly on its inaugural voyage and that the car would not decide to surprise with anything (mostly breaking down). I freelanced on Saturday, so we headed out as soon as I got home/ cleaned up, around 4pm or so.

I-95 led us straight into the remnants of NYC rush hour (yes, on Saturday). We sat in traffic for about an hour until we reached the toll booth, where we zipped through with our properly functioning EZPass transponder. It was smooth sailing for a few more hours until the wintry skies opened and dumped torrents of icy rain upon us. We had the customary response to such weather: put the wipers on high speed, lean forward to the windshield, turn the radio off, and follow the tail lights of the car in front of you with 100% confidence that that driver knows where the road is. (She/he did.) We arrived in Bostonia a little after ten and slid into party mode. Good times -- and happy birthday, Maria!

On Sunday we set our sights on getting to know Mary Baker Eddy. She was the founder -- nay, discover -- of Christian Science. Yeah, not Scientology, but it's equally as fascinating. We went to the MBE Library which, along with a Hall of Ideas, houses a really big walk-in inverted stained glass globe that depicts the world as it was in 1935. See below for stock photography of the place because they don't allow mortals to take photos:


Amazing, yes? As you can see, it's pretty big and there is indeed a catwalk through the middle of it. A tour guide led us through this in a group of about 30 and instructed us to be quiet as the slightest sounds can be heard very easily. So, of course when you hear instructions like that you immediately look around for....children. And there he was, about 2 years old. The guide spoke quietly, and sure enough, we heard everything with great clarity: his voice, shuffling of feet, nervous rustling of paper, and oh yes -- "shriek! shriek! shriek! ha ha ha ha ha." A good time was had by all.

At the end the guide let us talk amongst ourselves while we looked around, and I felt like Bruce Almighty when all of a sudden Jim Carrey can hear the prayers of every person in the world all at once. Yes, 30 or so voices all sounding as if they are speaking directly into your ear...plus "shriek!"

Luckily the drive back to our balmy southern home was quick and uneventful, with mostly clear sailing home.

This weekend (aka tomorrow) we head further south to visit some folks we met in an airport in Miami about three years ago. Somehow this couple exceeds all standards of awesomeness and we're super stoked to spend some time with them. We had high hopes of visiting for 1 or 2 weeks and now it has been whittled down to one skimpy little weekend (dangit work, sometimes we hatecha!) but we'll take what we can get. Ben and Alexis, be prepared for a sleep-deprived coffee-fueled good time weekend. Waxhaw or bust!

So whatever happened to those strawberries?

Some of them ended up here:

This is our first attempt ever at making ice cream, and I was sold on making it because the recipe didn't require an ice-cream maker. Or rock salt.

Since it's delicious -- especially with homemade rhubarb pie -- I highly recommend that you try the recipe (found of course in Simply in Season).

Strawberry Ice Cream
2-3 c. strawberries, mashed
2 c. whipping cream, whipped to soft peaks
1 1/4 c. sweetened condensed milk
1 c. cold water
6 T. sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt

Chill all ingredients. In mixing bowl, beat all ingredients together with an electric mixer. Pour into a 9x13-inch pan and freeze until mushy, 3-4 hours. Remove from freezer and return to mixing bowl. Beat until smooth but not melted. Return to pan and freeze another 3 hours.

(Can substitute 6 peeled, crushed fresh peaches or blueberries for the strawberries and almond extract for the vanilla.)

Enjoy!