A few of my favorite things

I love the pink veins on dark green leaves...


I'm one step closer to being called into the game in a freak emergency situation. Not that I want anyone to be injured! Also, the number wasn't picked because I'm a huge Jon Lester fan, but "for being 31."

Action shot of the soxs' terrible towel! We're "super dry"!


These are flowers that my boy can grow!


I bought this train in the mountains, where there are a lot of good metalcrafting places. I think it's cool since there are trains all over our town.


I've been wanting the space to put up these trains for quite awhile now. They used to belong to my Granddad. I might need to let my brother have a turn with them in a little while.


I always wanted to have fancy key hooks in my own house, and after looking for a year, found these. Fancy, and ironic!

Crafting

I've always enjoyed making crafts. This is an example of what I've been creating lately. It's even more fun because I joined a group that chats together while we work, and the people in the group are smart and funny. They are exactly the people I wanted to meet when we moved here.


I started making a rag rug a couple of years ago, before we moved into the second floor of the watertown house. We thought that place would be our home for a long time, and I was really excited to have a space that I could make my own. After we redid the floors and walls and ceiling in the whole apartment, I got some fabrics that matched our kitchen tiles and planned to make a rug and matching curtains. I didn't get that far. It's funny to think that I was braiding these strips of fabric a bunch of years ago, watching the superbowl at Ilya's house with Maks & Ale, when Victoria was not even an idea.

I finally got a lot of it braided in one long connecting braid. When I carry this monster around to the meetings, I have to use a huge bag.

And, I'm beginning to sew it up. Soon, it will be a real rug! The chapstick is there for size reference.

These are the things I work on when I should be writing or making my own applications. I'm also cooking a lot more and enjoying time outdoors. And, I'm happy. I guess I would be happier if I did the writing as well, but I never sit down at the computer to do it.

Farmer's Market

One of my favorite things to do on the weekends is go to a farmer's market. The produce is much more flavorful from anything you'd get in the supermarket. And most of the produce is picked that morning. One lady was running low on her ruby- colored strawberries, so she sent her kids to pick more. These are heirloom tomatoes.

Many people also sell baked goods, crafts, fresh farm cheeses, and desserts. Our favorite restaurants use foods from local farms, and we found their booths at the farmer's market. Jesse stocks up on ostrich meat and I stalk the people who make fresh goat cheese. However, you can't top puppies!

There's also a small fairgrounds at our favorite market and they have little festivals every saturday. On strawberry day, they served strawberry- topped waffles. On the day pictured here, there was a chili cookoff. We paid $3 to sample all the chili and vote for our favorite. The tent behind us got my vote because he topped mine with a whole jalepeno. Most of the chili- makers were grandpa- types who are doing this semi- pro, and they had come from all over the east coast. These guys were hillarious and had funny signs boasting about how hot their chili is. They could live out of these little tents, each one is so personalized.


There was also an alt- rock band, and a kettle- corn stand. I love kettle corn now. That metal thing beyond the table is the kettle. I could fit inside there, and, someday, I'm going to.


It's funny that buying big items like a car or a house doesn't make me feel rich or fulfilled at all, but going to the farmer's market does. For a dollar, a lady will stuff a bag full of dense, fragrant, bitter greens, and she keeps stuffing until you ask her to stop. When I pack the car full of fresh June tomatoes, crisp pickling cucumbers, sweet corn, peaches, and fresh Amish bread, it's hard for me to figure out how I became so fortunate. I feel like my car is overflowing with goodness and I'm rich! Like I have everything I could ever want.


Today at the market, it was dairy day, and there was a homemade ice cream contest for kids. They were running around with their ice and rock salt. There was a small calf there, too, for everyone to pet. He looked very soft.

Birds!

We had a lot of high winds a couple of weeks ago, and afterwards our lawn was covered with tree branches and a few birds' nests. We were worried about the hawks who live in our backyard, but they are still up there.


The first night that Jesse and I were in St. Lucia, years ago, I asked him in the middle of the night to turn off the radio. I thought someone had messed up the alarm, and big band music was playing in the middle of the night. We laugh about that, because it was birds. (Lee, look away!) I've been reminded of that a lot here, because there are so many birds. I see orioles, robins, and cardinals every day, all over the place!

the goodness is real

Last weekend, four awesome people were engaged, and one cherished baby, Alexa Ann Stewart, was born. I am so happy today, to be a part of the wellspring, of life moving in the right direction. I am so blessed to know these wonderful people.

Today I was able to use the bad experiences that Jesse and I have come through to help a couple who embodies so many Good things to me. I've been thinking about it for the past couple of hours. Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy to be away from the tough times that Jesse and I have come through, but I am seeing now, in a new way, how much I've learned, and that that the bad experiences have been a way for us to find the freedom to love more fully. In the pulverizing force of life, the husk falls away. I am very happy that I was able to share some experiences with another couple, and that they found them of use.

After attending that last basketball game, I got some tickets for the next round, and was pretty shocked to find myself sitting in the first row, at half court. I was sitting right behind the sportscasters! Doris Burke was just a few feet in front of me. I hope she enjoyed all my yelling.

The last weekend, Jesse and I went to the mountains. Asheville is a beautiful tiny city, with anything you could want, surrounded by mountains. There are lots of artists' communities there, particularly for metalworking.



I think Asheville has what I love about both New Hampshire and Cambridge, with a freedom I haven't found in either place. It's entirely unpretentious, yet everything is of great quality (and totally delicious!!!). One of their tiny breweries has live music every night. Another one shows movies for $2. It would be the perfect place for Mueller Bros Karaoke!

Jesse and I got to do a lot of hiking in the mountains, close to where "Last of the Mohicans" was filmed. Jesse played in the waterfall!



And I played on the rocks!

I am scheming right now to figure out when we can go again. I want to hike even farther out and up. It's only a 3- hour drive, so we can leave on a friday evening, and get there in time for dinner. Another wonderful thing -- Asheville is known for their spectacular fireworks, and they try to have them 6-8 times each year. I am very excited to see that!

I cheer for basketball!

Last weekend, we were overjoyed to be visited by Lee & Jordan, Allie & Nick. It was amazing to have close friends nearby, and Jesse and I both feel that they're always here. Lee & Jordan said exactly what Jesse & I always say, "it feels like we could just tell them, 'hey, we're grilling, come on over!' and they would be here with hugs and ideas of what to cook." I love our friends so much -- it's amazing how warm and welcoming and inspiring they are.


Today we got to see the womens' NCAA games in Greensboro -- Bowling Green vs Arizona St & Duke vs. Rutgers. Jesse thought that Arizona played the best game we saw today because they were well organized and ran some plays. They made it look easy to beat Bowling Green, which was a little sad because so many BG fans were there. The stadium was awash with orange shirts, bandanas, and face paint, a lot of it on tiny faces.

We were pretty thrown by that second game. Duke, the #1 seed, led the entire time. Rutgers had twice their quickness and got off about 1/3 more shots, but had terrible sinking percentages. In particular, #22 slayed me -- she has terrific ball handling and would work around 3 huge Duke players, only to take a crazy, off- balance shot, and miss. Rutgers played an erratic game, and Duke never made them pay for it. They could have picked off half their plays. Instead, it was Rutgers who got the free throws, and Rutgers who'd strip the ball. Duke had incredible accuracy, and if they were in position to shoot, you might as well count that two points. In the last 22 seconds. Rutgers was down by only one point because #22 finally made her 3- pointer. They sunk another 2 and left Duke with only a few seconds. Duke drove to the hole and was fouled. Let me tell you that the entire stadium was for Duke. On the way there, we saw school busses going to the stadium with Duke banners. I couldn't hear myself yell to Jesse, we just grinned at each other when Duke got the ball. With .1 second left, the Duke player was left to win, lose, or tie the game on foul shots. She made none, and Rutgers won. I can't believe Duke is out of it. Either team could have won. But Rutgers was on that ball like ants on honey (see it down here, and you'll believe me), and they wanted it more. So we went off to the pub for some delicious yummnables and discussion!

animals!

I saw an extra lot of animals last week because I got to visit my brother, who lives about 100 miles away, and to get to him, I drive through the countryside. This is a list of the animals I saw, just last week.

5 groups of deer! When it's warm and damp here, thick layers of fog form over the asphalt as high as the tree's leaf line, especially near the lakes and in dips in the road. I can see why people associate this area with pirates. Often in the midst of the fog, deer eyes would turn toward my headlights, and then necks and bodies emerge as I get closer. No deer were in the road this time.

A wolf. After I got out of the country, I passed into a desolate warehouse area of one of the abandoned downtowns near me. A tall, lean creature was loping along out of town, heading right for those deer I had passed 20 miles back. He was big and grey, moving quickly in the street on the other side. I thought he might be a coyote, but Josh says wolves are the tall ones.

a little brown bunny, bouncing through my backyard.

Hawks. I see these every day, and I think we have a hawk nest in our backyard. They have big beautiful wingspans that stand out in the bright sky. They cut way down on the usual backyard vermin. I had no idea this would delight Jesse like it does, but it's unusual to see a squirrel here, and we've yet to see a pigeon. Pigeons in Watertown can get together and rip off gutters and tear into roofs!

A gray blue crane. We have seen these at the lakes nearby, but this one was at my house! I face a large window while I work, and one afternoon a huge shadow passed in front, covering the whole window, about 5 feet from me. I looked up and saw the edge of a blue wing, so I ran out to the deck. The lake crane flew up very slowly and lighted on our neighbor's roof. These have the long, curved necks.

When I went out to get the mail today, it was warmer outside than in! I saw these flowers at my next- door neighbor's house -- spring has sprung!

the college down the road

Lately I'm excited about the weekend- long series of concerts that will be held at UNC - Greensboro to honor Laszlo Varga, former cellist for the NYPhilharmonic, and the local film fest to be held this week. I am excited to see Varga perform in some of the concerts. At the others, all- cello orchestras are playing pieces that he adapted. This is their schedule. This guy is cello- crazy! Apparently the director of music at UNCG is cello- crazy, too. He holds these "cellobrations" every couple of years and has contributed to UNCG's music library, which holds "the largest body of cello music in the world". I am glad that they are a bit cheezy about this ("Cello there!") because maybe Varga will be encouraged to mess around with the students and talk about working with Leonard Bernstein. I loved "West Side Story" as a kid, and still do.

I'll miss terribly the fun of getting to share these experiences with friends. I'd love to see these 10 minute short films with my friends and then have a beer at a fun pub afterwards and discuss it all. What little clip would make Melsie shut her eyes and laugh? What cinematic perspective would inspire Alejandra with new vision? Which ideas would have Paul scouring the internet, and coming up with 100 more, even more fascinating ideas? And I'm just pulling out the obvious things that tantalize me at this moment -- I miss EVERYONE. The delicious perspectives of my friends are so dear to me.

Yesterday it was so sunny that I decided to pick up lunch at the deli from the college, up the street, and snapped some pictures along my way.


This is Elon College, and I'm on W. College Ave heading toward West Lebanon Ave. Eerily familiar for the Dartmouth kids!


Elon just changed their mascot and team name from "the fighting Christians" to "the phoenixes." I love the pheonixes, and they'd be in close competition with tigers in my mind. But I used to get amused imagining the fighting christians taking on the blue devils of Duke in an apolocylptic smash-up. However, the blue devils are bigger and better at sports, so my imaginary outcome isn't much of a mystery.


I enjoyed my sunny little walk. Probably like any college, there are some kids here who think they are pretty cool. It's funny. A kid in an audi cluelessly stole my parking space, and I honked him. That was my first honk of NC!


In the picture below, right in front of the building, there is a yellow haze -- that's a volleyball net. There is a huge sandpit for it, also. I'm not sure if they have it up all year, or if people actually play in the winter.

During the weekend, Jesse and I found this park on one of the lakes near us. Since it was "cold" not many people were there, but there were some hard- core folks out walking and fishing. Apparently, they also have paddleboats at this park! I told one of my friends in Boston about it, and he said that I might make paddleboat friends! That sounds so wonderful that I wanted to share it. Making and deserving paddleboat friends will be a good aspiration.


We have been going on a lot of hikes recently, since there are great places to go here. I am renewing my love of the outdoors. Also, we usually see at least one other couple wearing some red sox or new england type garb. One of these times, I am going to let out the little "hi" inside. People say "Hi" here a lot. It's nice getting to walk outside -- makes up for the fact that, here, you can't walk anywhere as a part of your routine. You can't fight it. You need a car. It's a strange place that has good and bad differences from Boston. There are fee-less ATMs all over the place, but they are drive- ups.


More of the lovely lake park. It is so sunny here. I forgot how sunny it could be in the winter -- must be a fault of mine!


This is in our neighborhood. There's a little creek, and it goes through our backyard! Now, when I see creeks nearby, I wonder if our creek is part of what I see.

This is a great example of what you see here. I drove through, and Shamrock golf course is quite fancy, all the grass is a deep shade of green, even in the winter. And right next door, someone else is sellin' worms!

I miss my friends up north terribly. I have my identity partly because of you wonderful people, and it's because of what I've learned from you and seen of you in the past couple of years, that I'm able to let go of badness and be happy right now. I want to be a better friend and show you how wonderful I think you all are. Things are getting better each day as we all grow into even better versions of ourselves. I want to see that happening with all of you, and be able to share my own silly stories with you. Thank you for being the people that you are -- I am so enlivened and enriched to know you. I feel this way all the time.

with love,
cc

gotta go sell some worms.

some of my surroundings

Here's how things look near my little town!


The view from my door, going out to explore! It's extremely suburban where we are. People walk their dogs every night at dusk. In the summertime (and at Halloween) our small streets are often full of people walking.




Main St, USA. This is the "downtown" part of our neighboring town, which is a bit bigger.



Our town is right on a train line -- we are in a little whistle stop town! Now, people just take the highway that runs almost right along the train tracks, and the train is mostly used for freight. But we hear the whistle a couple of times each day. The town is doing a reconstruction project on this caboose, and letting people go inside to see how they used to look.

This was the old train station, now there are little concerts and Christmas celebrations here. They've made a tiny ampitheatre outside nearby.


A local "downtown" diner. I hope you guys in Boston are enjoying your sandwiches, because apparently, they are famous.



We have been going to a Quaker church, and last week we held some signs with them after the meeting. This area is historically Quaker! I don't really believe that seeing a sign will change anybody's mind, but I need to be a go- getter if I'm going to meet people, and I was curious about how people would react. I was really surprised at how many people waved and honked, and were positive toward us. No one was mean. (They held up thumbs, not fingers, Moens!) A lot of young people were positive, but really it was mostly the older crowd who were vocal about it. Anyway, we think we might like this church. We like the silent time and the sharing that they do in the Quaker service.



This is a random snapshot, less than 10 miles from our house. It's made of logs, and there is a shed behind it with a tin roof. This is really pretty country.

a day off in a small town

Today I did something that I've only managed once before, and that's given me the impetus to start my blog! I ran a mile without stopping. While this may seem like a small feat to most people, for me it's been fraught with fainting spells. My only other success was on a cruise after leaving Wellogic, when I was desperate to improve my circulation and feel better. My body feels wonderful right now, taut, but relaxed. I feel invincible, and not at all dizzy. I am so happy about it. The cool thing is that I didn't begin by trying to tackle that old challenge, but just started running and kept deciding not to stop. I have been able to conquer many of my old physical limitations lately, and I am probably the most comfortable and optimistic I've ever been.

Today, I also saw my second rainbow since moving here 6 mo ago. It's going to be fun living in a place where they happen with more frequency, because it's so damn sunny! I can see a lot more of the sky, all the time. I found out that "Last of the Mohichans" was filmed in my new state! I loved that movie as a kid and wanted to live there, minus the arrows and muskets.