White Sage and Bees and our other sage friends

...last but not least is my culinary sage, tucked in with some thyme and mint, and beleaguered by the nasturtium. It’s not flashy, but its strong and knows what it’s about. It’s also indispensable in the bean pot. Do you have a favorite sage? Do you have any recommendations for my next round of planting? I’m thinking about adding at least two more to the grounds of our estate....

Read…

The Blue Bear

...s and 50/50 blend sheets. I think back on my groovy synthetic clothing, my bean bag, my Biggie comb, my Breyer Horses and my Barbies. It’s all buried somewhere now, part of the immortal treasures of the 2oth century, my own King Tut’s Tomb. My great-grandmother Caroline, on the other hand, was born into a world which did not know polyester or plastic. In fact, rayon and polyester don’t appear on the scene until the 194o’s, so she was over 50 when...

Read…

Saturday Linkages: #quarantinecats

...An overflowing pot of bean recipes Some guidelines for dealing with coronavirus in your home and community The Cloistered Garden Nassim Taleb on BBC4 on why this is not a “black swan” Some magazines I read: The Idler, The Baffler, Jacobin, Mortise and Tenon, Fine Woodworking, Fine Homebuilding ‘Honest Labour’ – the Column that Named the Book The Mystic And The Warrior Slavoj Zizek, Jordan Peterson and the Toilet Paper Candidate...

Read…

News From Nowhere

...d we can form meaningful communities. We can reject the utilitarianism and bean counting that define contemporary life. As former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams put it in his moving introduction to the Victoria and Albert Museum edition of this book, “to make a beautiful object is not to ice an otherwise dull and tasteless cake but to do something that is in its way as straightforwardly necessary to human beings as any machine-made conven...

Read…

Solar Oven Triumph: Fluffy Egg Strata

...that day. For instance, we have still not had success in cooking a pot of beans in the solar oven (more on that in a future post)–but we do at least know that bean cooking is an all day venture.You have to get the pot in the oven early, and the sun has to be out all day. But other dishes may only need two to three hours of cooking. Morning cooking is more of a “sure thing” while starting a dish at noon is risky, but possible. You learn to plan ac...

Read…