The Breakfast of Girly-Men

I got a fabulous little package in the mail, sent to me from the Vancouver Gransville Farmer's Market, via Jaja in StLu. Wild rose petal jelly (ingredients are wild rose petals, organic sugar, spring water and lemon juice). For reals.



I've been eating it with raw pumpkin seeds, raw sunflower kernels, ground flax seeds, milk and steel cut oats (using this recipe from knitsquirrel).



Also, I'M GOING TO THE PHILADELPHIA FLOWER SHOW TODAY!!!! Ahem.

Morning on Osage Ave

Something's Peeking

My first crop! I got these silly little grow-your-own-chives kits as an impulse buy at the counter of the CVS for 50 cents each. Each one comes with a small terracotta pot, a peat pellet, and a packet of chives seeds. Peat begins to dry out almost immediately after you water it so I secluded the whole thing in this makeshift tupperware greenhouse.



I put it on the windowsill by the kitchen sink, next to my coffee plant. Do you like the view we have of the alley and apartment building behind us? It makes me think of these lines from the e. e. cummings poem I posted a little while back:

dead's fine like hands do you see that water flowerpots in windows but/ they live higher in their house than you so that's all you see but you/ don't want to



Lo and behold! Something green this way comes. I have since learned that chives are very difficult to start from seed, which might be why the seedlings (after almost a month and a half now) are weak little things that are still too small to harvest.



But they will have to do for now. I will get my seed order in soon and then I will spend hours dreaming up my garden design for the fast-approaching spring. I've come to the realization that I don't have enough sun exposure to grow food in my "front yard," boo. But the community garden project is a GO!!! (More on that later). So hopefully I will be growing food in my own little plot in the neighborhood soon, ack!

Late afternoon on the south side

Spring in a bottle

The weather has been all over the place lately. Several days last week I didn't even wear my jacket outside! And today it snowed. Ah March, you are coming in like a lion after all.



In these cold days I wish I had a terrarium on my bedside table, like these that I photographed at Zoey's house over the holidays. A little slice of the forest floor. They were all over the house and ranged in size from the one above to an aquarium-sized one in the study.



When I was at the Missouri Botanical Garden in November I picked up a little fact sheet on how to make terrariums (which have only plants) and vivariums (which can have animals too, usually amphibians). You can find the fact sheet online here. I will do it one day, I even have several old aquariums sitting on my front porch waiting (and they will probably wait forever).



Last winter I was visiting Providence with M and we went to an old historic estate and garden outside the city with a gorgeous restored greenhouse out back. When we knocked on the door to the greenhouse and requested to see the inside (it was in an employees only section of the grounds, whoops) we found a gardener in there who was making little terrariums for her friends and family for the holidays. Watch out, friends and family, guess what you're getting for Christmas next year!



And lastly Jaja found this, which has been inhabiting my dreams ever since.

Phila Street Art: 32nd and Spring Garden

"Tuscan Landscape" (restoration)



This was completed in 1999 by Tish Ingersoll, sponsored by the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network (which is run by the City of Philadelphia).

The Moosh

Time for some gratuitous pup pictures. My sister Allison has nicknamed her Moosh for jowl-flap reasons.



Gracie seems to think that she is a smaller dog than she is, a lap dog if you will. The moment you sit on the floor she makes your lap her space. She will even do the circle thing, while standing on top of you with those little paws digging into your thigh.







She also loves the car and she will fall asleep and stay asleep in the most awkward positions.





PUPPY!!!!

Take that, California!

It's been two years since I experienced a snowfall. Driving up to the mountains to play in the snow is not the same as walking in your neighborhood with your honey at midnight while it's falling all around you.



Perfectly wet and crunchy underfoot snow. Big fat snowflakes landing on my eyelids snow. Snow balls practically make themselves in this type of snow.

Wearing layers and feeling like the Michelin Man snow. Perfect warmth and cosy-ness except for the tip of your nose type of snow. Lay down in a snow bank and feel your heart beat snow.



Wake up in the morning with excited eyes and sense the muffled sounds of several inches of snow and a SNOW DAY, type of snow. Rip the curtains apart and lean on your elbows staring type of snow.

Lining every twig and leaf; Nature's highlighter type of snow.



(Going to work anyway because you're a nanny and the kids have a SNOW DAY but that means you DO NOT type of snow). I loved you anyway snow. And now you're gone.

Phila Street Art: 45th and Baltimore

This was in the alley behind my old house (the one I lived in before moving to CA) and I was pleased to find it still there. And someone found another one in Chinatown.

V Day approacheth

I love valentines day, and a big BOO to all of you sour pusses. For me, valentines day is about showing the love to my friends (and eating chocolate). And it comes at a perfect time because I always leave Christmas and the New Year feeling like I couldn't see, give things to, or call everyone I love and V Day is my time to make up for it. So this year I started early. Behold, the craftiness:



I'm making felt conversation hearts. The sayings crack me up; TXT ME, CLOUD NINE, and SWEET TALK are my favorites. I've been working on them for weeks, and my preparedness is only rivaled by Nicole, who made these amazing cards. I won her giveaway and got an amazing little bundle in the mail!



She has been posting many other wonderful valentine's day-themed things on her blog and she will be selling her stuff in Sacramento soon, so go fill up on beautifully drawn cards for your loved ones! (Or just order them from her etsy shop).

I also found this silly project when I was researching my own V-day conversation heart project.

Phila Street Art: 20th and Arch

"Reach High and You Will Go Far"



This amazing mural can be found right outside the headquarters of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's building. Appropriate, no? Painted in 2000 by Josh Sarantitis and PDRMAP with assistance from Veronica Werckmeister and Jay Slovik. Sponsored by CMS Companies.