New York, New York

This weekend I was in New York.  Unfortunately I wouldn't exactly call it a vacation because I couldn't escape from my work.  But such is life.  It was refreshing to have some truly crisp weather, and we walked the Brooklyn Bridge on the first evening right as the almost full moon was rising over the river behind the Manhattan Bridge.  It was so lovely.  (And advantageous because my homework for philosophy was to take a picture of the moon this weekend.)

And, as is tradition with my family, we gorged ourselves on delicious food.  The first night we had fabulous paella and sangria at a little Spanish restaurant that was very old world.  It was one of those places where the waiters were older and had clearly been working there for forever.  It was their occupation, their profession, not just their job.

We also saw a great exhibit on Messerschmidt at the Neue Galerie (which just so happens to be located in a splendid former house of Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt).  It was incredible.  This sculptor made incredibly realistic heads of people contorting their faces into strange expressions.  They were more lifelike than any other sculpture I have ever seen, perhaps because the artist created them for himself, and so they were far more truthful and heartfelt than anything created for commission or to be sold.  To me they showed true humanity - man at the most extreme of any emotion that exposed the truth.  No masks to hide behind, no trying to look pretty, just someone mid-yawn or mid-laugh.  In any case, they were spectacular.  

Ship Island Excursion

This weekend I went to Ship Island in Mississippi.  We left New Orleans on the back roads via Chef Menteur Highway and stopped at a Vietnamese bakery in New Orleans East to get some wonderful pasteries.  We had a French woman with us and she told us about how no one in New Orleans can make proper French baguettes because it is too humid, but that this bakery knows how to make them.  She was ecstatic about getting to buy some.  After that we went out the Rigolets which was a really neat experience.  There was a big flock of white herons flying right next to our bus across the creek at just about the same speed as us.  It was quite majestic.  

Once we finally made it onto the ferry, I saw more jellyfish than I've ever seen before in the sound!  There were tons!  For at least a mile (and I'd guess it was more like 2 or 3), everywhere you looked out at the water all you could see were millions of jellyfish!  It was something straight out of Avatar.  As soon as we approached the island and the water turned a brilliant crystal clear turquoise color.  It's as if you're in the Caribbean!  It was absolutely spectacular, and since I don't have much experience with tropical beaches I was totally amazed!  On a bit of a sadder note, we found some tar balls on the beach.  Really not too many of them, but a few.  I was equal parts excited and upset to find them.  On one hand it's sad that I had to find them at all, but on the other, it was nice to have concrete physical evidence in my hands to remind me of the spill because as the saying goes, out of sight out of mind.  I took a little video of the waves lapping at the sand that I'm sure I will watch on repeat in the dead of winter.

Jazz Land

This weekend I went with a friend to Jazz Land, an amusement park that was abandoned after Katrina.  It was equally eery and fascinating and it made me think of how for all his would-be control man is so easily put back in his place by nature.  It's very odd to be in a place that used to be so full of life, that was created purely for entertainment to be so lifeless.  It's very post-apocalyptic.  The more optimistic, environmental side of me was happy to see though how quickly nature bounces back and how much it doesn't respect these artificial boundaries that we create.  There were fish in ponds of the log flume ride, the parking lot was half covered in grass and flowers and there were more birds there then I see in the city.  It was lovely.  


There are more photos on flickr if anyone wants to see them.

Also, the zucchini bread was delicious.  I've never been a fan of zucchini, so I was a little disappointed that we got one in the produce box this weekend.  Never again will I be disappointed by zucchini.  

Experimental Cooking

This is one of my favorite houses. As much as I love the New Orleans spirit of brightly painted houses, I love the soothing color palate of this one and the really neat folding chairs out front.  Nothing is quite so New Orleans as sitting out on your front porch in the evening.  I know people do that everywhere, but here everybody does it.  All the time.  It's so quaint.  

This morning I juiced at the farmer's market for almost three hours.  I feel like I could open my own juice bar now!  We made apple and lime juice, and it was delicious.  Definitely one of the pros of juicing is that you just have to test out your product.  Needless to say I enjoyed my juice while everyone else bagged herbs or other things not quite so tasty raw. 

One of the things that I love best about getting produce boxes from farmers markets is that it really forces you to cook things you might not otherwise buy in the store, and turns the next few days into cooking fests.  I just took a squash and apple bake from the oven, and tomorrow I'll be cooking zucchini bread and mustard greens, and then on Monday I've got to use up the mushrooms and yellow squash.  This year I've branched out so much in my cooking simply because of the produce boxes.  It's really opened up the doors for me and I'm loving it.  I also seasoned one of my cast iron pots this afternoon and it looks beautiful now!  I'm so excited that tomorrow I plan to do the rest of them over the next week.  Today has been such an amazing day because I happily got to spend almost all day in the kitchen.   

On another note, has anyone ever had pink eyed peas?  Should I just cook them like black eyed peas?  

The Juggling Club Garden

The juggling club at school has their own community garden that's a really neat concept.  People can rent a plot for $1 a semester and grow whatever they want: vegetables, flowers, etc. and scattered around the garden there are kumquat trees, rosemary and scuppernong and muscadine grapes for everyone to enjoy.  It's a really great idea.  I was there a few weeks ago, and I really appreciated the creativity and beauty of some people's plots.  I would never have thought to use an old bike wheel for my bean plants or gourds, but it's an awesome idea!  Other found or reused objects that they used were old Mardi Gras beads and these strange golden baton-like things.  I like to think that it really adds some flair to the garden, and maybe I'll use their ideas in my own newly planted garden!  

I've always loved sunflowers, especially the really enormous ones with blooms bigger than your head that just seem so amazingly cheerful somehow.  I'm also a fan of sunflower seeds, but I never really thought twice about where they come from.  I never knew that sunflower seeds came from the inside, black part of the flower itself!  Isn't nature kind of amazing?  I wonder how delicious home grown, home roasted sunflower seeds would be?  Maybe this will be my gardening endeavor next spring.

Hansen's Sno-Bliz

Hansen's Sno-Bliz Shop is quite an institution in New Orleans, and for good reason.  You've never had shaved ice in your snow ball that's so fine.  It's the best.  Absolutely the best.  I know that I wrote earlier about how much I loved Plum Street, and I'm not going back on my word here - I still adore Plum Street.  Orchid Cream Vanilla will forever be my favorite flavor...but Hansen's ice is just amazing!  At Plum Street earlier this season I heard the girl next to me saying to her friend, "I like the flavors here better, but Hansen's has the best ice."  I'm in agreement 100% and I've decided that now I'll just have to split my time in between the two (maybe even eat twice as many snowballs?).  

  

This last picture is the reason that you simply have to carry your camera with you wherever you go - after Hansen's the sun was just spilling it's golden, orange and blood red glow over the whole sky above Tchopitoulas, and it was stunning.  

Beauty, Comfort, and the Illusion of Fear

As I was driving down the road today I saw these trees (there were three huge ones that seemed to dwarf the whole block.  They were absolutely stunning) and I thought to myself, 'That would be a great picture.  I wish I had my camera on me.'  And then I remembered that I did have my camera with me, so on the way home I stopped and took a picture.  It's amazing how this little blog that no one reads has made me see the world in a whole new way.  Everywhere I go I see photographs.  

Not only is this project (hopefully) making me into a better photographer, but it is really transforming the way I look at the world.  I see beauty in absolutely everything and it's a wonderful way to see the world. I highly encourage it.  Not only has it made me see my immediate environment differently, but I have also become more creative with other aspects of my life.  As I've mentioned before, I feel that creativity breeds creativity.  I've seen this happening in my own life recently and it's such a wonderful feeling.  Creation is truly an amazing process.

Something else I've come to believe lately is that being slightly uncomfortable is good for you.  For example, it's been getting cold at night here, so with our AC off when you wake up in the morning it's a little too cold.  But I have enjoyed this slight level of discomfort.  I think it has become too easy to simply change the thermostat when we're too hot or too cold, or grab something from the fridge when we're a little peckish.  We forget that slight levels of discomfort build character.  And I believe they inspire creativity as well.  In order to get to the heart of life you need to peel back the layers that cloud it over, including the multitude of quotidian tasks that we've assigned ourselves to keep comfortable.  Pull a Thoreau à la Walden Pond, or an Alexander Supertramp.  

I hate to reference pop culture (and any of my friends would attest to the fact that I'm actually embarrassingly ignorant of anything to do with pop culture) but I do absolutely love The Buried Life.  Those boys go out and do what they want to do.  They live life to the absolute fullest, and even when they're so nervous they make themselves sick they still do it because they know that without making themselves uncomfortable, without putting themselves on the line, without chasing their dreams they would never be able to say they had truly lived.  In this week's episode Duncan is explaining the project and says, "It's about eliminating the what if."  You couldn't get better life advice if you asked for it.  So!  Just go out and live your life!  And remember, don't let your fear hold you back.  Fear is an illusion.  

P.S. - If anyone knows what kind of trees those are, I would love to know!

Quote of the Day

"Once upon a time I wanted to know what love was. Love is there if you want it to be. You just have to see that its wrapped in beauty and hidden away between the seconds of your life. If you don't stop for a minute you might miss it."
-Ben Willis, Cashback

Beautiful, Indulgent Ways to Love Mother Earth

*photo credit: Oodles and Oodles blog.

Over the summer I read the book Sleeping Naked is Green by Vanessa Farquharson. I am, at heart, an environmentalist, so naturally I loved this book, but she is also quite an inspiration to all the non-environmentalists out there.  The premise of the book is that she started a project in which she was to implement one “green” thing in her life every day for a year.  While some of her green initiatives were very extreme (she lived without her fridge for about 8 months), others were very simple measures that everyone can integrate into their own lives. 

Some of my favorites that include: always getting ice cream in a cone instead of a cup (no waste – you eat your container!), buying loose-leaf teas and reusable tea bags (I think I would prefer tea infusers), and using handkerchiefs instead of tissues. 

I’ve always been an ice cream cone kind of person (I just don’t get the appeal of eating ice cream out of a bowl – you can do that at home!), so that one isn’t really a change for me. 

I have, however, started to use hankies instead of tissues.  I like this a lot because hankies are much softer than tissue, and also if you happen to be carrying one around and you, say, spill your water all over yourself (a frequent occurrence in my life), you can use it as a napkin instead.  Also, I enjoy how pretty they are.  Hankies used to be a very integral part of everyone’s daily lives, but they’ve mostly disappeared.  I say lets bring them back!  Another related thing that I do is to use cloth napkins for meals.  It seems so fancy, yet you’re really being thrifty by using them.  I’d happily never use another paper napkin again for the rest of my life. 

I really like the idea of reusable tea bags or tea infusers.  Loose-leaf tea has always had a bit of a mystique to it.  I’ve only really had it at fancy tea places, so switching to this on a daily basis would seem like such a luxury! 

So why don’t we all do our part and be more luxurious to ourselves – ice cream cones, cloth hankies and napkins and reusable tea bags.  Who doesn’t want to be an environmentalist if we can save the world by following simple steps like these?!



*photo credit: buy these at Custom Cozies