A Seed Planted, Waiting for our New Addition

A "Blue Enchantment" morning glory seed packet, one variety of flower seeds Steve and I handed out to our guests after our garden themed wedding reception in our backyard in late September of 2012.

 

We have morning glory in our backyard, which came beautifully landscaped when we moved into our two family home. I snapped this photo the day after our wedding. I felt as "zen" as my garden fairy statue, and as snug as the two lovebirds. It was a very long road to get to our marriage and find our home. Everything in it's due time, I've learned as I've gotten older, and I appreciate my blessings so much more. It's tempting in life to focus on what we don't and didn't have instead of all that we do or did. It wasn't a sunny day like pictured here, but overcast with just a few moments of drizzling, but I'm grateful it didn't rain as it did the entire week leading up to the day. Without the rain, the garden wouldn't be so green.

I'm so glad we saved money not having a big wedding (we had about 30 guests) and held a party after the church at our home, saving for future security instead.

Gardens were a part of my world to follow - I think so warmly of our honeymoon in northern California: the Japanese gardens in San Francisco, lavender rosemary tea from Chinatown, the bounty of the California harvest and wine country, and our later trip to Washington state: blackberries everything, wildflowers on the road, lavender fields just starting to bloom. Even the red geraniums at the Wilder Homestead in Malone, New York, or the apples of autumn in Vermont. I'm so glad we took those times to travel when we could spend the time alone together, just us and the open road.

Over the summer Steve and I were planting some of the leftover seed packets. I'm humbled to admit it, but truthfully I'd never planted anything from seed before. It felt symbolic in a way since we were in the process of planting our own seed for the future.

I'm thrilled to tell you we are expecting our first child in just a few weeks time. I'll be a mom at 38. I'm so excited to be welcoming our new addition not long before the arrival of spring after this very long, harsh winter afflicting much of the nation. I can't even get to my birdfeeder on my patio since several feet of snow block the way. I cherish the four seasons, but even winter-loving me has had enough and is ready to greet the first robins and daffodils with a more happy heart than ever. Spring is when so much new life comes into the world, and rebirth is occurring everywhere.

We're having a girl. I still remember when we found out the baby's gender. We were just leaving Malone on our Northeast road trip. I've taken to reading more children's books the past few years. A bookstore owner asked me if I was a teacher when I expressed my interest in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books and Louise Erdrich's Birchbark House series. I hope to be a teacher at least to our daughter of many things, and can't wait to share story time with her, and for her to discover all the world has to offer. Frances Degen Horowitz, President of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, interviewing Barbara Goldsmith about her book "Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Madame Curie," said she believes "the only purely genetic moment in our life journeys is the moment of conception. Past conception, everything is an interaction."

As you can imagine, it's been an exciting time of anticipation, but also dealing with a slew of  appointments, determinations about tests (since I'm over 35, I've been broad-brushed into an "at risk" category), and asking the question often, "is this covered by insurance?" While I'm a history lover and enjoy time traveling into the past and don't love everything about modern life (no baby laptops for our daughter), I appreciate most today the advances in medical care. I've also been on disability for a few weeks. My harried days of commuting from New Jersey into New York City were put to an abrupt end by my doctor as my body and baby demanded rest before her arrival. So thankful for my books and some fun diversions like Downton Abbey and When Calls the Heart, more napping than I've ever done in my life, and the company of my two doggies Nikki and Jet (who are equally well rested and ready for spring). I've been telling them a new pack member will be joining our family soon, and no jealousy, as there's enough love for everyone.

I still remember when we took Nikki in - not long after, she had all those pups - witnessing the miracle of life with her maternal instincts kicking in (no reading up on What to Expect When Expecting for her), and how Jet was this young pup and now is a 20 pound happy girl and hopefully Nikki's other puppies are thriving in their forever homes. Isn't nature amazing? I keep telling myself if Nikki can give birth to eight puppies (and have to nurse and care for them all!), I can give birth once!

I'll let you know when she's here and her name when she arrives. I've never been so excited to meet someone in my life. I may or may not be doing some writing, depending on when she comes and how I feel. I have all this free time but my soul is anxious about the great change about to take place.  Like many of you may have, cabin fever is here.

I was looking at photos from our garden party, and came across this rosemary plant with the sign, "Love Grows Here." I want more than anything to provide a loving home to our daughter. We should all give thanks if we grew up in a household where love grew, and if we did or not (I think those of us who did might take it for granted), we should all strive to sow the seed of love in our families, friends and animals for current and future generations. We all need more love in this world.

 

Girl Blew West Diary: Seattle, and Lessons from the Garden

Stopping by a post office, gardens even seemed to be finding me on postage stamps.

 

 

There's so many lessons to learn from the garden, and visitors to our garden. A card I came across said, "If nothing ever changed, there would be no butterflies." - Author Unknown. Change is part of life, so much of it scary when it involves the unknown. So much of it welcome, like the four seasons: winter (for slowing down and rest), spring (for new life and rebirth), summer (for her bountiful fruits and vegetables), autumn (for harvest time).

 



 

Our last leg of our Seattle journey, we stayed at Jodi's "Urban Farmlette," our favorite of our Airbnb.com stays. We had such a richer experience here than we would have if we stayed at a hotel.

 

 

She does it all: beekeeping, raising animals, cultivating flowers, fruits and vegetables, composting.

 

 

Lining up for worms in the compost pile.

 

If I ever travel to Austin, Texas, I would love to visit the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Lady Bird Johnson used the word "joy" most often touring the gardens there. Steve and I signed up for a family membership at the New York Botanical Garden and other words I feel going there and spending time in gardens in general in addition to joy: awe, peace, happiness, and contentment.

I love this image from a Michael Pollan book and the saying, "A desk is not a table." I have been a repeat offender of this in my cubicle in New York City.

 

 Reflecting on her time as an exchange student in Paris, Jennifer L. Scott writes in her charming book: Lessons from Madame Chic: 20 Stylish Secrets I Learned While Living in Paris. "Attitude is extremely important if you are to enjoy your food and nourish your body. Famille Chic had a very healthy and positive attitude toward food. In the morning, Madame Chic would eagerly ask me which of her homemade jams I would prefer, "Fraise? Ou marmalade d'orange?" In the evening we would sit together a la table, we would often discuss the merits of the food we were eating. Did you know this wine came from this region? The key to this sauce is the heavy cream! Or, the apricots on this tart are very succulent; yes, we must have this tart again soon...

In America, people would groan when a decadent meal is served before them. "This must have a lot of cream in it! I'll have to hit the gym tomorrow!" or "How many calories do you think this has?" During the dinners I had in France with different people (not just Famille Chic), I never heard any references to calorie counting or thighs expanding."

 

My personal theory is that if people should feel guilty, we should feel guilty about issues like the appalling inhumane factory farm conditions animals are raised in or all the pesticides on much of our foods before we worry about our vanity concerns like our thighs. But marketers have worked hard to instill those values. I'm far from perfect, an unachievable standard. I don't eat organic everything, or get my teas and coffee fair trade, and while I don't eat meat I have animal byproducts in my diet. It's not about perfection, it's about awareness and doing the best you can as often as possible.

 

Back to the Urban Farmlette. Jodi leaves hot cereal in a crockpot overnight, and there's coffee and a French press, teas and fruit in the fridge and some pantry items available.

 Our DYI breakfast of banana pancakes.

A wise magnet on Jodi's refrigerator. I'm not sure I understand the obsession on home improvement shows with stainless steel appliances, especially after learning many can't hold magnets. Our refrigerator is white and was given to us for free by a colleague who didn't need it. Anthology Professor Anthony Graesch says, "The refrigerator space communicates a lot about what is important to the family." What's on your refrigerator? We have a lot of magnets and cards with uplifting sayings, like Omar Khayyam's "Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life" and a Sierra Club sticker of founder John Muir that simply says, "Hike."

A raspberry colored reusable tote.  A hallmark of a foodie is they see food everywhere, even when discussing colors! Jodi is striving to live a plastic free lifestyle as much as possible and reduce her waste. Kudos, Jodi! This topic is near and dear to my heart too, and I wrote this post: Disposable Nation: A Cautionary Essay on Waste.

My favorite character in Willa Cather's 1913 novel, O Pioneers!, set in Nebraska at the turn of the 20th century, is Ivar, seen as eccentric by many, but who embraced so much of the old ways, and had so much wisdom. I think of this passage when I see what people put on the curbside instead of bringing to a charity thrift shop, or how some treat our roads like personal landfills. "Ivar found contentment in the solitude he had sought out for himself. He disliked the litter of human dwellings: the broken food, the bits of broken china, the old wash-boilers and tea-kettles thrown into the sunflower patch. He preferred the cleanness and tidiness of the wild sod. He always said that the badgers had cleaner houses than people, and that when he took a housekeeper her name would be Mrs. Badger."

A New York Times article on the role of the First Lady in France talked about projects supported over the years by U.S. First Ladies. For Jacqueline Kennedy it was culture in form of music, photography, and the arts, showcasing American works and exposing people to foreign culture. Lady Bird Johnson beautified public spaces, including highways. Nancy Reagan fought against drug abuse and Barbara Bush aimed to eliminate illiteracy.

From this PBS page on Lady Bird Johnson, sharing her sentiments:

"Ugliness is so grim.  A little beauty, something that is lovely, I think, can help create harmony which will lessen tensions."

"Getting on the subject of beautification is like picking up a tangled skein of wool," she wrote in her diary on January 27, 1965. "All the threads are interwoven -- recreation and pollution and mental health, and the crime rate, and rapid transit, and highway beautification, and the war on poverty, and parks -- national, state and local. It is hard to hitch the conversation into one straight line, because everything leads to something else."

Before we went out to dinner, I wanted to seek out the Secret Garden book shop, since I love visiting indie book stores. Which cover of The Secret Garden do you prefer? I love the older one on the right. My favorite garden book for children (and children at heart) is Julie Andrews Edwards' Mandy. It's just one of my favorite books, period.

Barbara Bush founded the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, whose vision is 100 percent literacy in America and helps families understand: "the child's first school is the home; the parent is the child's first teacher; the child's first subject is reading." Pay a visit to their inspirational Facebook page. Mrs. Bush says,

"The American Dream is about equal opportunity for everyone who works hard. If we don't give everyone the ability to simply read and write, then we aren't giving everyone an equal chance to succeed."

Wisdom to be found in Jodi's collection of books on farming.

We loved Jodi's recommendation for dinner: Local 360, where food comes from farms within a 360 mile radius. Farro, an ancient grain, with cheese and hazelnut pesto and a glass of rose. I haven't eaten beef, chicken or pork in over two decades and haven't missed it since. The garden's bounty is plentiful and satisfying.

Berry rhubarb bread pudding with strawberry ice cream and candied thyme.

 

Seed packets in Jodi's living room. I may have to steal this idea. Notes below from grateful guests. We should all have gratitude in our daily lives.

 

Renee's Garden seeds which all have a saying by Renee Shepherd. This one, "Flowers are treasures for the eye and heart." We handed out seed packets as a wedding favor for our intimate garden themed party. My mom planted hers, but I'm not sure if any of our guests did. I hope at least a few did. There's something about witnessing the elements transform seeds and the miracle of life itself.

 

 

One of my favorite initiatives of First Lady Michelle Obama is the garden she planted at the White House. During this extremely frigid January, spring is in my heart as I thumb through her book I picked up from the library, American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America. Seeds from Monticello were planted here. Thomas Jefferson asked his ambassadors to bring seeds back from other nations. I love the quote from him shared in this video, "the failure of one thing repaired by the success of another; and instead of one harvest, a continued one throughout the year."

 

 

The world learned this week of folk singer Pete Seeger's passing. He was a great champion of many causes, including fighting for our waterways. One of his songs I hold near and dear is "If I Had a Hammer," covered here by one of my favorites: Peter, Paul and Mary.

 

 

I love Mary Travers (and Peter and Paul of course), better role models than much of the pop culture fare today. Like the cook Mrs. Patmore on Downton Abbey, I don't feel like a futurist in many ways when viewing certain things (for her it was the introduction of electric devices into her kitchen). Looking at today's celebrities who dominate the headlines, I wish they'd issue a memo that transitioning from youth to adulthood has nothing to do with embarrassing rites of passage involving substance abuse or shedding your clothes, and everyone would have more class. Can anyone rely on talent anymore and not shock value? Shocking to me is how we treat our planet, animals, and our precious time here on Earth.

 

I think we all need to be hammers for change in our pockets of the world where we live. My blog is part of my hammer, and how I try to live my life.

 

I think of the First Ladies (all classy in my book for their initiatives) and the legacies they sought to leave for current and future generations. What do you want your legacy to be? I end my Washington state travel diary here, having felt a better person for the trip than if I hadn't taken it, for travel is not just about leisure time but about broadening my perspective and better figuring out my path. Even if it's armchair traveling through books, blogs, films or other means, let the adventure of this life continue, embracing each season in our own gardens to come.

Girl Blew West Diary: The Lavender Fields of Sequim and Washington State Cider Love

Sipping on my Jardin du Soleil lavender Earl Grey tea this morning, I was transported back to the lavender fields of Sequim, Washington. I've dreamt (and still do) of the lavender fields of France, but now think warmly of the fields of Washington state. In addition to visiting Jardin du Soleil, we stopped by a few other farms including Purple Haze Lavender Farm and Victor's Lavender. 

Lavender is one of my favorite scents. No expensive man made perfume can rival it for me. Our bedroom came painted with a soothing lavender color, and I feel calm just walking into the room.

We were making our way back to Seattle, but I want to linger in the lavender fields and breathe in the aromas. I feel like I can smell it just looking at these photos.

I go outside each morning to fill my bird feeder, whose visitors reward me with their birdsong, and put the compost in the bin, but that's the only moment I'm on my patio. I'm imaging my garden this spring and summer, for this harsh winter of "polar vortexes" and "arctic airs" will come to an end.

"Urban Garden" - by J.J. Brown, from the poetry collection Natural Supernatural Love.

"scratching the packed earth

in the abandoned garden

I rake and dig and hope

urban creatures hear me

and they watch and wait

scoffing or aloof or shy

but then while I sleep

the scent of lavender roots

calls each of them to visit

and imagine a garden

and in the early morning

songs emerge from memory."

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am not a beer drinker, but enjoy hard ciders as an alternative. We loved finnriver Farm and Cidery. If I lived nearby I'd be here regularly.

We did a cider tasting. Lavender black currant cider.

Apple brandy in flavors of black currant and pear. As much as I can in this life, I want to breathe in, drink and eat from the garden and savor Mother Nature's gifts to us.

They were having an event for the June weekend, so they had food for sale. A garlic greens hand pie with kale, sweet onion, fresh garlic, herb d'Provence and grapefruit butter, enjoyed with their cider on a picnic bench.

 



 

They were inspired by the monk Dom Perignon's quote in 1688, "Come quickly, I am tasting stars!"

Consideration for the environment and salmon. Why doesn't everyone have this respect for our precious life-giving watersheds?

We also stopped by Eaglemount Wine and Cider. I loved all the interesting flavors of cider here too like ginger. My favorite was their rhubarb cider. We bought a bottle to take to our last destination, an urban farmlette in Seattle, where we found more garden and farm love.

Girl Blew West Diary: Port Angeles and Olympic National Park

Port Angeles was more of a bustling city after our tranquil time in our cabin in Ashford, but I was so pleased with our Airbnb stay with Lewis. The room was just around $60 a night and we had breakfast basics like English muffins, cereal, coffee, tea, and orange juice to start the day. The room is attached to his house (built by Lewis himself!) and the property is tucked away from busy roads.

 

I loved the cheery flowers that greeted us. The simple touches make such a difference.

 

 

When reviewing dinner choices, Italian sounded very inviting. Bella Italia.

 

I had no idea they were mentioned in Stephanie Meyer's Twilight book.

 

 

I adore vegetarian ravioli, so happened to order what Bella ate on her first date with Edward: the mushroom ravioli with Olympic forest mushrooms. I paired it with a glass of Eve chardonnay wine. Steve had the Dungeness crab, and we realized here this was the area Dungeness crabs come from.

 

 

On the dessert special: strawberry panna cotta with strawberries from Graymarsh Farm. I wondered why restaurants in New Jersey don't showcase our wonderful blueberries or peaches and specific local farms when they're in season. New Jersey is named the Garden State, but I think Washington may deserve that name more than we do.

 

 

We were lucky enough to be here for the farmers' market. I know I'm supposed to be savoring the delights of winter, but I really miss the bounty of summer and visiting farmers' markets and farms. In the northern New Jersey area where I live, malls are everywhere. When I tried to remember the last time I was in one, I couldn't. Give me a farmers' market or farm any day.

 

 

 

 

 

Sharing a coffee, pear tart and champagne raspberries.

 

 

Watermelon lemonade.

Some local treats to go: lavender infused chocolate and hazelnuts.

Our magical day at Olympic National Park. As with our Southwest trip, we purchased the annual national parks pass for $80. It's one of my favorite places and causes to support.

 

I loved this saying inspired by Chief Seattle, "If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts soon happens to man. All things are connected." We couldn't believe in one day we were in the mountains sipping Washington state apple cider, then hiking in a forest climate, and ending the day walking along rocky Rialto Beach, watching the sunset, listening to a woman play soothing Native American flute music. Respect and being awestruck by nature was the tone of the day here.

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since the restaurants were closed by the time our park day was over, the next day we treated ourselves to a leisurely breakfast at Granny's Café. I always love these Americana restaurants. 

 

Oatmeal with strawberries, toast, and a pot of English tea with lemon. They have kitschy salt and pepper shakers at each. Adore our pigs.

Lincoln Street Coffee Pot. These indie, small coffee and tea spots that dotted Washington state are so much more charming then Dunkin Donuts in New Jersey!

A blackberry scone with an Oregon chai soy latte with lots of cinnamon.

 

 

Hiking the Dungeness Spit. The entire hike would have been 11 miles, which we didn't have time for and had unfavorable weather, but enjoyed our magical time here in the eerie, calm landscape.

 

 

 

 

Dinner at Kokopelli Grill. After a house salad with prickly pear dressing, I savored linguine with Southwestern cream sauce with sundried tomatoes, black beans, mushrooms, spinach and cotija cheese. I love Southwestern cuisine but never think to incorporate it into pasta dishes. Do try this at home.