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dish towel Dan

When I started writing this blog in 2006, my office mate - our IT guy, completely made fun of me.  First he thought it was rediculous that I even was interested in embroidery and secondly, that I would tell anyone about it, let alone the whole world via the internet.  There was some comment made about Satan having sex on a tea towel.

He was joking, but he was a little bit serious as well.  So to pass the joke right back, I embroidered Satan on a tea towel and gave it to him for his birthday.   2007 rolled around and he got a sugar skull.  By 2008 he was much more encouraging and interested in my creative endeavors, and since our politics run the same, I made the VOTE tea towel that I posted on election day.  Last year, I highlighted one of his favorite movies, Vertigo.

And now it is his birthday yet again, and although he is no longer my office mate, I do miss him and our politically fueled coversations, our discussions of music, current events, technology and SNL digital shorts.  And after last Saturday's Rally to Restore Sanity, I was inspired.

  

Plus I know he's a Cat Stevens fan.

 
Happy Birthday, Dan.

every day

I did something I may regret.  I signed up for NaBloPoMo.  That's right.  I thought it might help me get back into the blogging groove after such a long absence.  So, for better or worse, you'll be getting my photos and/or my two cents worth every day this month.

Starting things off right, I put in my two cents worth today in the voting booth.

 
My mom always worked the election board when I was a kid.  It was a long day for her, but fun at the same time, and she felt like part of a community.  There were some neighbors that she only ever saw on election day.  She even made my Junior High yearbook one year when the civics class came in for a little explanation of the voting machines.

Despite my mom working each election, my parents are not political people.  I'm not sure how I turned out so politically opinionated, but I would suspect that four years of living abroad had something to do with it.   And not only am I passionate about our right and duty to vote, I drag my kids along to the polling place every year.  This year we had a new place in a new town and new batch of retired folks checking my name off the register, instructing me on the computerized ballot and handing out stickers.

Yep, new community.  Same rights and responsibilities.  Rights and responsibilities I am thankful for every day.

Happy Election Day! 

OLS - week 10!

Wow!  The summer is flying by.  We have gone from a glut of greens to tomatoes and potatoes.  This week I used some tomatoes from my CSA and a few left at my front door by my neighbor (thank you, Jeannie!) and some summer squash to make a summery pasta.

The basic recipe was from the Midwest Gardener's Cookbook.  I changed the proportions some.

Summer Pasta

2 cups diced summer squash

3 cups diced tomatoes

1/2 large onion

1 clove garlic

olive oil

basil

oregano

salt & pepper

I sauteed the onion and garlic in the olive oil, added the squash and tomatoes and cooked covered for about 20 minutes.  Added the herbs at the end.  Served it over pasta with some parmesan.

It needed something.  More garlic?  More basil?  Black olives, maybe?

And I was the only one in my family who liked it.

::sigh::

Maybe next week will be a winner. What are you making?

One Local Summer - week two

     

Our second OLS dinner was swiss chard omelets with Alma Cheese, swiss chard from my CSA bag and eggs from The Blossom Trail Bee Ranch.  The salad was entirely CSA produce, topped with Dorothy Lynch dressing. 

And I know, Dorothy Lynch dressing is made in Columbus, Nebraska, which is 276 miles away from me, but it is only 20 miles away from my Aunt Laura.  And my mom knew the actual Dorothy Lynch when she was a little girl and Dorothy ran a restaurant.  According to my mom, the blue cheese dressing is even better than the french.  So for me, that personal family connection makes it local.

If you wonder what other people taking the OLS challenge are eating, check the Farm to Philly website for weekly roundups by region.

It is already Thursday and I still have a lot of greens to get through, and more to pick up tomorrow.  I'm planning a bok choy salad from the current issue of Martha Stewart Living for tonight.  I still have the some chinese cabbage left after making stir fry on Sunday night and some spinach from the previous week.  I think I'll saute them up and freeze them for the hot weeks to come when I'll be wishing for some greens.

What are you eating this summer?

One Local Summer - week one

I am so up for the challenge of eating local.  In a lot of ways, we already are eating a good deal of local produce thanks to our CSA subscription.  (Thanks, Jill!) Our first entirely local meal (aside from a few spices, and one tablespoon each of flour and butter, which I'm working on) was steak from my brother's ranch:

 

(Look!  That meat was cut just for me! And rib eye is my favorite.)

curried turnips, made with CSA turnips and local milk:

 

 

and salad, featuring mixed greens, spinach, radishes, broccoli rabe, turnips and sugar snap peas, topped with local feta dressing.

 

Delish!  As Eliot says, "Bon Appetit, my sweet!  Let's eat!"

  

Curried Turnips

adapted from a recipe for curried radishes, found in A Midwest Gardener's Cookbook.

5-6 turnips, cut in 1 inch cubes

3/4 cups milk

1 Tbsp. butter

1 Tbsp. flour

1/4 tsp. curry powder (okay, I used more like 1/2 tsp.)

1/2 tsp. cumin

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

dash of salt

Put turnips in a sauce pan with enough water to cover, boil until just tender.  Drain.

Melt butter in pan, add the flour and spices and mix to incorporate.  Add milk and simmer, stirring constantly, until mixture begins to thicken.  Add turnips back to the pot and heat through.

Tim and Eliot loved the turnips.  I would have liked them better if there had been more variety of vegetables added in and a little less sauce.  If you give it a try, let me know what you think.

I'm off to pick up this week's CSA bag tonight and in the morning Aidin and I head to Mother / Daughter camp with my mom and my niece.  Have a great weekend, friends! 

joy in the mailbox

Here are a few things that have arrived in the past few weeks.

I was ECSTATIC to win a Hillary Lang original in a giveaway on her blog.  Meet Christmas Bot, seen here terminating slugs on my tomatoes.

And early this week I received my custom berry bowl from Melissa. (Aunt Sherry, she lives in Memphis!)  ::sigh:: I LOVE it.  It has yet to see a berry, but it works well for turnips, snap peas and radishes, which we currently have in abundance.

 

And last, but definitely not least, some letters, which were forwarded to us from Kelli.  Way back in May of 2007, my Daisy Girl Scout troop packed goodie bags for children in Mozambique or South America.  These letters of thanks were sent through many hands from some of the recipients of our bags.  What a treasure!  Aidin is currently at summer camp with most of the girls from our Daisy troop, so she took the letters with her the other day and shared them at lunchtime. 

 

Aidin's first comment was "hey, I have stickers just like that!"  Uh, yeah, we sent them in the goodie bags. ;)  Further proof that the good you put out into the world eventually comes back to you.

Do good, Grasshopper.

Tomorrow, my first one local summer meal and a recipe.

community

 

Yesterday was a city and school board election our college town.  I don't always know if I'm making the right choices in these local elections, but I always make a point of going to vote.  And I usually drag at least one child along with me, because I think that is important, too.

Our little polling place is in a church.  For every election, our poll workers are always the same two little ladies and one man.  The first lady reminds me of a slightly younger version of my Grandma Jean.  Big tidy hairdo.  Drawn on eyebrows.  Lipstick.  Chatty.  And a very sweet smile.

The second lady is always knitting something.  Yesterday it was dishcloths.  By the time I voted at 4:00 she was half way through #4.

The man tries to read a book while the ladies gab with each other and anyone who comes in to vote and chat. 

I always chat.

And yesterday, in my chatting, with Aidin by my side, I discovered something.  

Lady #2, the knitter, is named Miss Ruth.  And she lives at the end of my block.  And she watches Aidin get on the bus most mornings. 

I have lived in my house for 10+ years, and I finally met the neighbor on the corner.  Community is a good thing.  So is waving to Miss Ruth as you get on the bus.

The good, the bad, and the cute

The good:  The city commission had an overwhelming response (I guess the mayor had 300+ e-mails) and they took our nature center off the chopping block.  Whew!

The bad - or not so good, shall we say:  They changed their mind with my grandma and are doing exploratory surgery today.  She has an intestinal blockage that they can't figure out.  She feels great, she looks great and she just wants to get it over with.  Thanks for keeping her in your prayers.

The cute:  Baby gifts.  In sock monkey flannel.  I was really pleased with how they came out.

 

Two "Bend The Rules Sewing" bibs, a burp cloth and a pair of soft baby shoes made from Joanna's pattern.  I have a second pair of shoes *nearly* finished, but they will have to wait until they baby boys - Andres and Santiago - arrive.

And here's something pretty cute, too.  My friend and mama-to-be, Maria.

   

Doesn't she look great at 34 weeks with twins?

  

Okay, enough cute.  Back to work. ~L

The nature deficit may get bigger

I was going to show you cute baby items today, but I felt the need to put this out there instead.  Thanks for bearing with my activism.

Here is the background:

Due to proposed funding cuts at the state level, the city commissioner of Lawrence has recommended the permanent closure of Prairie Park Nature Center.  

If you are not familiar with this facility, it is a non-revenue generating educational program that provides environmental education and wildlife rescue and rehabilitation.  School age children visit from our local schools, Scouts are able to earn their badges through specialized programs, summer camps are offered each year, and we participate in outreach programs such as the recent Eagles' Day at Free State High School.  We have a number of permanent residents who cannot return to the wild due to various injuries.  Among them are Kansa (Bald Eagle), Lakota (Golden Eagle), Edgar Allen (Crow), Dumbledore (Great Horned Owl), Sophie (Barred Owl), Amelia (Red-Tailed Hawk), Thor (Turkey Vulture), Luna (Barn Owl), Strider (Kestrel), and Kyrie (Peregrine Falcon) to name just a few.  We also have rescued reptiles, amphibians, a caimain, mammals, and a snapping turtle who has an hourglass-shaped shell due to a rubber washer that was discarded inappropriately.  This just brushes the surface.

We are asking three simple things from our neighbors:

1. Make every effort to attend the next City Commission meeting on Tuesday, February 3rd at 6:35pm at Lawrence's City Hall.  If you cannot attend, at least try to contact your commissioners and state representatives via email or phone (contacts available at the bottom of this email).
2. Sign a petition regarding Saving Prairie Park Nature Center.
3. Tell everyone and anyone about our plight and encourage them to get involved!

Please, don't let Prairie Park Nature Center be closed!  Act Now!

 

 

Here is the letter I wrote to the city council:

 

Ladies and Gentlemen:

 My letter today is a plea to find a better solution to our city’s budget problems than to close Prairie Park Nature Center.

Prairie Park is a priceless resource to the community.   Our children already suffer from a huge nature deficit.  Prairie Park has been a haven – a place for children to see wild creatures and touch them, interact with them, learn about them and how we are all interconnected.  Interaction with the natural world at Prairie Park helps our children develop empathy and responsibility, character traits that are vanishing all too quickly in our world of ipods and video games.

My children (and every other child I know) never tire of visiting Prairie Park.  My daughter proudly proclaims that she has touched a hissing cockroach and a tarantula because of the wonderful programs that Prairie Park offers.  My Brownie Girl Scout troop has utilized the center to earn several badges while creating wonderful memories. 

When discussing the budget cuts and possible closure of the Nature Center with my children at the breakfast table, their distress was real.  I tried to explain that the city might not have enough money to keep Prairie Park open and still take care of roads and bridges and paying the police and fire departments.  In response, they instantly and without provocation volunteered up their Christmas money, their birthday money and a year’s worth of allowance.  The value of a nature center that is open to the public and our children, that offers places to hike and fish and just BE in the natural world, is worth that much to them.

 Isn’t it possible to find some sort of middle ground?  To institute a user fee of some sort?  We would happily pay to visit Prairie Park.  We would happily donate items to contribute to its running.  But to close the center outright, without searching for real alternatives, seems like a move that will have long reaching consequences for our children that we really can’t afford.

 I hope you will reconsider the proposal to permanently close Prairie Park Nature Center.

 Sincerely,

Lori Hanson

If you're local, here are the folks to bug.  If we don't do something, no one will.  My heart is nearly broken.

City Manager: Dave Corliss Email: [email protected] Phone: 785-832-3400

Mayor: Michael Dever  Email: [email protected]  Phone: 785-865-4202

Vice Mayor: Robert Chestnut Email: [email protected] Phone: 785-764-3220

City Commissioner: Mike Amyx  Email: [email protected] Phone: 785-842-9425

City Commissioner: Sue Hack Email: [email protected] Phone: 785-842-6608

City Commissioner: Boog Higberger Email: [email protected] Phone: 785-843-0995

 

Also- Contact your state representatives!

District 10: Tony Brown Email: [email protected]  Phone: 785-296-7885

District 2: Tom Sloan Email: [email protected] Phone: 785-296-7654

District 46: Paul Davis Email: [email protected] Phone: 785-296-7630

District 44: Barbara Ballard Email: [email protected] Phone: 785-296-7697

 

Back to normal tomorrow, I hope.

And an update, my grandma is (fingers crossed) doing much better - feels better than she has in 10 years - and will be released from the hospital this evening. Thanks for all your care and concern, thoughts and prayers.

New president, new year, new murder

Wow!  Yesterday was so great!  I couldn't tear myself away from the TV and watching history in the making.  Thank god for streaming video that allowed me to watch and work at the same time.  My hopes and good wishes go with the Obamas as we all undertake the work of re-building our country.  Brilliant!  I feel, for the first time in eight years, that I am allowed to be patriotic again.  Yesterday was quite a day to celebrate! 

New Year's was another celebration entirely.  Another murder mystery game was undertaken, this time set in a Texas bar.  I was not the murderer.  In 20+ years, I have NEVER been the murderer.  What are the odds?

Good times.  More pictures on flickr.  Click the link on the sidebar.