garden, thinking locally

We have a robin nesting on top of our front door light. I've named her Martha.



Martha got very upset at us when we attached the monster trellis to the front porch. We're planning on growing hops all over the trellis and porch.



Later in the weekend, we went here....



....and managed to escape with only a few dozen more plants. :)

The front garden is alive with light and colour these days.



An anemone, close up.



The first tulip of the spring.



And yes, I do some fiber things.... here's the madder plants I hope to dye with this fall. Finally, I think, they'll be old enough. Madder roots need to be at least 3 years old to dye with.



Leif the Licky wasn't terribly happy at being on the other side of the gate for most of our working out in the front of the yard.



I've just finished reading a new book - The 100 Mile Diet: a year of eating locally, by Alisha Smith and James McKinnon.

It's quite thought-provoking. Did you know the average foodstuff travels 1,500 miles before reaching our local grocery store?

Did you know that it bugs me that the authors are Canadian and defined their local food circle in miles, and not kilometres? But I suppose that's just a petty digression...

Anyway, I've been thinking about this Eat Local thing ever since Liz ran the One Local Summer challenge at Pocket Farm last summer. Last year was a non-starter for me, but I might join in this year. It takes me awhile to get from growing awareness to doing. There's just so many questions to ask yet, and answer.

Let me give an example: there's a local butcher in town. But where does he get his meat? Where do the cows come from? What about the food that the cows ate while growing up?

Just how local is local?

The authors of "The 100 Mile Diet" took their definition right down to the ingredients. They didn't have any wheat products in their diet for eight months until they found a farmer growing wheat in their 100 mile circle.

I might be happy with locally made bread, even if the baker got his ingredients outside of the zone.

Food for thought indeed....

Karen

book meme

Cyndy at Riverrim tagged me with this meme (my first tag!).

Now, because I work in a library, I've added a bit of information so you can easily find these books. If you choose to go to your library rather then buy, the call number should be very similar there as well because most North American libraries use the Library of Congress call number system these days.

Name Five of your Favourite Books

1. Title: Fugitive information : essays from a feminist hothead
Author: Hagan, Kay Leigh.
Publisher: [San Francisco] : Pandora, c1993.
Subject(s): Feminism, Patriarchy
Call Number: HQ1150.H34 1993

Kay has a deeply poetical and personal way of writing, and I have an affinity with hotheaded feminists. :) One of the interesting things about her writing is that she passes it before a wide net of women, and includes some of their comments on the essays in this book as well. I've also met Kay several times at the Michigan Womyns' Music Festival.

2. Title: When the wind blew /
Author: Brown, Margaret Wise, 1910-1952.
Publisher: New York : Harper & Row, [1977],c1937.
Call Number: PZ102.R74W49 1977

This is a children's book - makes me tear up with warmth at the end.

3. Title: S.C.U.M. (Society for Cutting Up Men) manifesto, with an introduction by Vivian Gornick
Author: Solanas, Valerie.
Publisher: [New York] Olympia Press [c1970]
Subject(s): Women--History.
Call Number: HQ1420 .S64x 1970

This book is... challenging. Valerie Solanas is most famous for shooting Andy Warhol in the 60s and writing this book. I don't know enough about her life yet to set this book in it's proper context, but I'm exploring. The late 60s and early 70s were a time of deeply radical feminism that often resembled misandry, and this book is the most pronounced example of that time. If you can get past the reactionary rhetoric, the point that most of the radical feminists of the time were making is still valid today.

4. Title: Woman and nature : the roaring inside her /
Author: Griffin, Susan.
Publisher: New York : Harper & Row, c1978.
Description: 1st ed. -
xvii, 263 p. ; 24 cm.
Call Number: PS3557.R48913W6 1978

Susan writes a very moving, and poetic connection between the subjection of women and the environment under patriarchy.

5. The Dragonsword Trilogy
Dragonsword, Duel of Dragons, Dragon Death

and,

The Strands Series
Strands of Starlight, Maze of Moonlight, Shroud of Shadow, Strands of Sunlight, Spires of Spirit

Okay, I'm cheating. These are two series, not just one more book, but they really do bear mentioning. These two series are written by a lady named Gael Baudino, who has since described herself as having lost her faith. I found that revelation quite sad. The series are scifi/fantasy, and on the surface - good stories. But I find both series transformative and moving, about sacrifice and compassion and change. I don't have the words to describe the impact these series have had on my life.

The first four books have a greater library oriented description, because I copy/pasted from the library catalogue. :) The academic library that I work for doesn't tend to collect scifi/fantasy.

What was the last book that you bought?

To Light a Candle, by Mercedes Lackey

This is mind fluff of the most excellent calibre. Intelligent books are all well and good, but I have a secret passion for scifi/fantasy novels. :)

What was the last book that you read?

Title: Baghdad burning : girl blog from Iraq /
Author: Riverbend.
Publisher: New York : Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2005.
Subject(s): Iraq War, 2003--Personal narratives, Iraqi. Insurgency--Iraq--Weblogs.
Call Number: DS79.76 .R587 2005

This book publishes the first year of River's blog, called Baghdad Burning, which still continues today. This is just one ordinary voice of a young Iraqi woman living through her country's turmoil.

Five books that have been particularily meaningful to you?

Same as #1. It's because they've had some particular meaning to me that they are my favourites.

Five books that you're dying to read but just haven't gotten to?

I have a rather long list of books that I want to read someday, but I guess these few stand out. Although I can't really describe any of them as something I'm 'dying to read'. I've been rather focused on archaeological textiles for the past few years - more specifically the techniques then the end product.

1. North European Textiles until 1000 AD.
Lise Bender Jorgensen
ISBN: 8772884169

Originally published by the York Archaeological Trust, but now out of print:

2. Textiles, Cordage and Raw Fibre from 16-22 Coppergate
Penelope Walton (1989)
ISBN: 0 906780 79 9

and,

3. Textile Production at 16-22 Coppergate
Penelope Walton Rogers (1997)
ISBN: 1 872414 76 1

I think I want these two mostly because they are out of print and completely unfindable anymore, except through InterLibrary Loan, of course.

4. Schrödinger's kittens and the search for reality: solving the quantum mysteries
John Gribbin

I've had this book around for a few years, and just need to get through it. Quantum Physics fascinates me but I'm not really of a scientific enough mind to grasp it easily.

5. Book 7, as yet unnamed and unpublished, by JR Rowling.

Yep, I'm a Harry Potter fan. :)

Whew, that took a bit to figure out. If any of these resonate with you, please feel free to recommend similiar books or authors to me.

Cheers,

Karen

Arrrgh.

I don't suppose that there's anyone else out there that uses a warp-weighted loom to weave, eh?

Well on the off chance that you're reading this, and do weave on a warp-weighted loom, and you've tried to do a 2/2 twill on it, will you please contact me? I'm considering tossing the whole project into the nearest active firepit that I can find.

Except that I'm a tad stubborn and I know if I give up, it'll be a long long time before I ever try a 2/2 twill again. Or any twill.

And then the hubby would never get the blue cloak he needs to go off and kill someone. (It's a Viking Era thing - don't worry)

Sticky wool. Painfully narrow sheds (which I think is because of how I tied the weights to the warp, but no other configuration makes sense). A gore that just shouldn't be there - there's no logical reason for it.

And the bathroom is still unnaturally pink.

But at least I've finally finished the book. And I only have to wait another year and a half or so for the third volume in the series. I'm sure I'll find another one of some sort to occupy me in the meantime.

Like the newest North European Symposium on Archeological Textiles that is waiting for me in the InterLibrary Loans Office.

Or the Richter's herb catalogue.

Or any one of a million others in the ILL universe...

For the non warp-weighted loonies out there.... what's on your bookshelf these days?

Karen

Happy New Year! (belated)

Bathroom: It's still Pink. But I'm not doing it again any time soon. So I don't understand colour.... who will really notice?

Actually, I quite like the accent wall(s) we did in a deep rich colour called "mission wildflower". I splurged .. it's from the Ralph Lauren line of paints.

But the other walls, and ceiling that I did in a lighter colour.... I'm not at all sure about. I think I was imagining a sort of off-white with just a hint of pink, and instead got 'girly-girl' pink. I am most definitely not a 'girly-girl'. I think the hubby is a little disconcerted by the colour and is being very polite about it.

Well okay... centipides can turn me into a girly-girl for a few seconds, but really... just then. Freaky little fast and squiggly things ... they remind me of snakes. Snakes would probably turn me into a girly-girl real fast as well but fortunately, I've yet to encounter one unexpectedly. Just in zoos and on tv.

Have got a new book on the go, and I'm somewhat absorbed. "To Light a Candle" by Mercedes Lackey, in case anyone is wondering.

Karen

Long, full weekend

I'm getting somewhat tired of feeding Ginger through her tube, but she is getting better. She's drinking on her own, and holding down her food, for the most part. And there was even the tiniest bit of poop - woohoo! The things one gets excited about, eh?



Started working on the new deck, designed and implemented by the man himself - my very own hubby. Those are my toes. :)



I stained my new deck chair, and started on the deck pieces, but there's no pics. The chair was a first-date anniversary present. :)

On saturday, we went out for dinner and a movie, and ended up doing dinner and an hour or so of browsing in Chapters instead. I'd mentioned to Neil awhile ago that I had been wanting to spend some more time then our usual 'magazines and sci-fi' trips, browsing other sections carefully. And *sigh*, after a very thorough trip around the store.....all I ended up with was one magazine.

I want to find - on the shelves - books on herbs that include growing, harvesting and using them for natural dyeing, medicinal purposes, and the kitchen. I want to find books on spinning, dyeing, weaving that aren't all about the modern versions thereof, without a lot of technobabble. I want stories of why people do what they do in the fiber crafts. I want to find something new and thoughtful and intelligent in the pagan sections - right now, it all seems so cheesy and cheap. And I want to find books whose information I can trust. Especially about health issues - I support alternative medicines, in theory, but it's so understudied, and overwritten. Everyone and their grandmother with a theory that knows a publisher....

I can find many books online, even on the Chapters website, and I'm less resistant to online shopping then I used to be, but still.... I want to find them on the shelves! The damned stores are certainly big enough.

Feel free to make recommendations, by the way. :)

And of course, did more weeding and flower shots and watching season 3 of Babylon 5. We tried to finish the mulching project but the place where we've been getting the mulch decided to close for the holiday weekend.

Brown-eyed Susan. I prefer the brown eyes to the black eyes.


And two shots of the echineacha.




I think I'm out of words now. :)

Karen

Harry Potter

Oh my god, I can't believe that Rowling killed that particular character.

It's so not fair that everyone that Harry looks to as a parental figure dies.

And I liked him!

Karen

Ginger, and garden pics

Ginger cat went into the Cat Hospital on thursday. She hasn't been eating or pooping for a few days, and apparently she was very dehydrated. Poor kitty.

I'm of mixed feelings - some of which aren't so happy-making. I miss her and I know she's in good hands, but my allergies are better without her, and it's nice to not have to yell at her for scratching the carpet and curtains in the middle of the night, or to have to carefully watch the door while loading in groceries.

Her prognosis seems to be good, we'll learn more today when we vist, but at 17, she won't be with us all that much longer. 20 is the average age for most cats. I honestly don't know whether I'll get another when she does pass on.

On another note 'though, it may not have been the wisest idea to visit Chapters after dropping her off at the Cat Hospital. 4 books, 2 magazines** and a Godiva bar later - only 2 days before the Harry Potter release - I might have been working off some empty space anxiety. Ya think?

Anyway, it's been a few days since I threw ya a few pics of the garden.


This is the Calendula, my current favourite. What a wonderful collection of bright orange flowers! You can dye with this plant, but the colours are insignificant. More important is it's medicinal use as an antiseptic for burns, cuts and bruises. Not that I know how to get from plant to medicine just yet.



Now, the Golden Marguerite, aka Dyer's Chamomille, is an excellent dye plant. And I have more then enough of it this year to experiment with. I'll start collecting in a few days when the blooms start to dye off. It's also just plain stunning in it's abundance, spread and beauty.



I'm also enjoying the Yarrow this year. I think this is the original variety, but there are apparently many new cultivars on the market this year and some of those colours are quite pretty as well. Yarrow is also a medicinal plant - a quick Google search lists liver, digestive, menstrual and antispasmodic uses. Again, I'm no expert.

** Tanya Huff's "Valor's Choice" and "The Better Part of Valor" - hmmph, she's a Canadian author and she allowed the publisher to spell "Valour" in the American. I just noticed. How annoying. But's she's an excellent author, nonetheless. I'd just been putting off these two books because I tend to like fantasy better then military sci-fi.

Julie Czerneda's "Survival" and "A Thousand Words for Stranger". Both are first volumes of trilogies. So if I like them, I'll need to go get the rest of the set. She's a new author to me.

Bitch mag and Canadian Gardening, which is where I found out about the new varieties of Yarrow.

Karen