True North

Happy New Year

It has been wonderfully snowy and quiet these past few weeks. (Excepting some occasional yelling, and exuberant, top-of-the-lungs singing by a certain small, off-from-school person.) We had a lovely holiday.

 
Someone began walking in earnest...

We loved our chubby, friendly little tree. (And all those presents!)...

We had a beautiful Christmas breakfast...

We saw lots of family and a couple of far-flung friends whom we had been missing terribly... Chris smoked a ton (literally, it might have been one ton) of insanely delicious meat in the walk-in smoker he built in the backyard... Stella received the official title of Puzzle Princess after wowing us with her speed-puzzle skills... Lots of naps were taken, clementines were eaten, and episodes of Madmen were watched... And most exciting of all (to me): I got a new camera! I am still figuring it out and probably will be for a while, but so far I am very happy with it. (Thanks honey!)

Very little happened in a creative vein, other than figuring out that Irish cream poured atop cookie dough ice cream is ridiculously good. In place of anything of my own, therefore, I leave you with this link to the work of Bettina Hubby. She would be called a fashion designer, I suppose, although really she is an artist who happens to work in the medium of clothing design - each piece is one of a kind, and quite avant-garde although also seemingly workable in a real wardrobe. I am loving her eye right now, I keep going back to her site to flip through the pictures again. So good.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2009! I am looking forward to sharing it with you.

Bringing Outside In

Lest the pictures here at True North fool you, I've gotta cop to the fact that I'm not... actually... muchofanoutdoorsperson. There, I said it: my shameful little secret. I want to be. My husband is a genuine boyscout who enjoys building things out of wood in our backyard in the freezing rain, and my hodgepodge spiritual life basically pivots around the changing of the seasons. I want to be someone who goes for long hikes and takes her family camping and forages for wild mushrooms in her spare time. But what can you do? I spent my formative years in Manhattan. The deck is stacked against me.

Point is, while I really am loving all the gorgeous, burnished colors outside, I am also kind of thankful to the rain and the nip in the air for the excuse to stay inside. I love a rambling, cozy, inside day, with plenty of time to eat, read, do art projects, eat some more, watch a movie, do a puzzle, toodle around on the internet, eat again... Doesn't that just sound so pleasant? But staying inside does not mean living in a hermetically sealed box; one of my favorite ways to celebrate the seasons is to incorporate them into our home. The leaves we collect from the ground on our walks home from the school bus. The return to rich, comforting foods (and drinks!). The talking and reading we do about chillier days and their colors, longer nights and their creatures. Did I mention the drinks?

Dried leaves and family drawings of pumpkins hanging from the seasonal mobile in our kitchen.

 
The autumn section in The Circle of Seasons by Gerda Muller, a recent library discovery, with soft, beautiful illustrations (which are not actually as... jaundiced as they appear here, I assure you).

My grandmother's china owl perched on the table, reminding me of her.

Hearty autumnal brews. We're slightly obsessed with beer.

I know the time will come - probably too quickly - when, suffering from a vitamin D deficiency and too many Sleeping Beauty viewings, I will think back to this celebration of all things cozy and laugh bitterly. But I think the changing emotions are as much a part of the circle as the changing temperatures, and even the cold and boring winter darkness has something to teach. For now, I will enjoy my cozy fall home.

Window Box

Why we didn't think of this before is a mystery. Herbs in the window! We tried growing herbs last year in the back with the vegetables, but it was my job to take care of them and I... forgot. Those of you who know me well will not find this terribly surprising. We live in a two-family house and we are on the top floor, which makes the back garden two flights of stairs and a walk down the driveway away. It's far, I swear! Too far when the inspiration strikes for a sprinkling of home-grown thyme in your scrambled eggs, at least. But this year, Brilliant Husband and Even More Brilliant Mother-in-Law had this clever idea on a sojourn to Home Depot, and thus the window box was born.

I love seeing the flash of green-and-growing when I walk into the kitchen. And Stella is thrilled by the whole indoor/outdoor thing - she even set free some beetles she had been growing from meal worms (a school project) into the herbs, as you can see by the leftover oats she'd been feeding them. (Don't tell, but I am just relieved that something inspired her to get rid of them, scrooge that I am. Score one for the window box.)

The box itself is white cedar, so it will weather to a silvery gray color. Growing in it are thyme, oregano, basil, rosemary, mint and two kinds of sage. Yum.