Dark days, darker nights. You can’t escape this in Seattle, and the next 10 days aren’t looking any better rain-wise.

Since I’ve been thinking about the impact of turning back the clock last weekend, I wanted to respond to a “writer’s block” prompt I found on Hillary’s blog:

As the Northern hemisphere spins toward the shortest day of the year, it’s getting dark earlier and earlier. What comforts do you fall back on when the days are short and the nights are long?

For me, it’s warm drinks, especially coffee, chai, green tea, red tea, cocoa, and cider. I love cooking from fall’s bounty, too. I just made a spinach, fontina, pear, and chicken sausage pizza with some herb dough that fed my winter cravings. I love sweet potatoes and butternut squash, oatmeal, a hearty chili or stew, and anything with pumpkin or cranberries. I much prefer a blood-red pomegranate or a Honeycrisp apple to Halloween treats or stocking stuffers. The natural sweetness and beautiful colors of the foods of fall are what appeal to me most.

I love reading when the days get darker, as well. Since September, I have read quite a few books, and I’m working on two right now. On Halloween, I bought the complete works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but I’m not there yet. I enjoy reading in bed right before I fall asleep nestled in the comforter’s folds. There’s something about a good story to keep me going through the long, dark winter.

I also like light and fire this time of the year. Right now, I’m typing this accompanied by a candle on the table. Other times, I might turn on our gas fireplace while Justin and I (and Virgil, if we’re lucky) snuggle on the couch and watch a movie. Perhaps we’ll string up our twinkle lights before having people over for board games and snacks–anything to drench our home with the warmth of light.

Lastly, I like to take advantage of any clear, crisp days we have that might feature the SUN! Now, for Seattle, the next 10 days feature a rather high chance of rain. However, on a clear morning, if I can look out my classroom and see Mount Rainier shining in the distance, surrounded by fog at its feet, I know it will be a good day, albeit only 8 hours of sunlight. I love clear, crisp days, though I’m more likely to find them in Idaho at my in-law’s or in Arkansas with my family. I look forward to being there in a little more than a month :), because if there are more remedies to short days, they are travel, friends, family, and holidays.

Sunday I had pre-church breakfast at a home in Seattle where chickens take residence in the backyard. I have already expressed my fondness for the idea of urban chickens, but reading “A Delicious Revolution” by Celia Barbour made me want to don my overalls and purchase some laying hens. Barbour argues that every day we eat something–something that should connect us to our natural world, but in this day of over-processed and over-packaged food, she states, “the food that crosses your lips probably bears as much resemblance to its natural state as a chicken nugget does to a barnyard hen.” She states that a food revolution is going on, and she seems to say that this revolution is one in which anyone with money and taste buds can be involved. By buying organic and local, by frequenting farmer’s markets, by growing your own food, or by participating in Community Supported Agriculture, one can take a stand about the food they are eating.

How might our world be different if we took ownership of our food, especially for our children’s sake? What if all cities had a School Lunch Initiative that replaced over-processed, HFCS-infused mystery meats on a stick, made into fingers, or put on a bun with fresh, local, nutritious ingredients, as Alice Waters has done in Berkeley, California. Granted, Seattle Public Schools has made progress
with multigrain buns, seasonal fresh fruit, vegetarian options, and r-BST hormone free milk, but could we partner more with local farmers or p-patches for some of these meats, fruits, or veggies?

Last Friday, Justin and I celebrated our 8-year anniversary at a neighborhood restaurant that attempts to use as many local ingredients as possible, and I must say, it was delicious. What would it look like if more restaurants adopted seasonal ingredients and seasonal menu? Again, I think Seattle is ahead of the curve with such restaurants as Union, Dahlia Lounge, and La Medusa (all delicious!) that make it their mission to feature fresh, local, and seasonal ingredients. But should I have to pay almost $100 a meal for two people to enjoy the delights of fresh, local, seasonal, and organic foods? Right now, enjoying a slice of an heirloom tomato or a prairie-fed, pan-roasted organic chicken in a restaurant is an exclusive treat that few can enjoy, when it used to be a routine that most Americans What about the majority of our nation’s restaurants–can they, too, benefit from a partnership with local farmers? One might state, “But then the menus would be different from month to month! But then a meal in Santa Fe chain might be different from one in Vermont!” Yes. The towns in the US might just regain some of their regional distinctiveness again, perhaps at the expense of our all-important consistency and homogeneity in fast-food restaurants and sit-down chains. Americans might have to regain their sense of taste and seasonality in an effort to cut down on carbon emissions, support local farmers, and eat in a more healthy manner.

The other day Justin and I walked to Safeway in our neighborhood. On the end of an aisle, right next to the checkout, there was a display for 10 Little-Debbie boxed snacks for $10. Each box contained at least 1600 calories, meaning a person could buy most of a day’s worth of calories for $1. But is that the type of food that we want to encourage our American families to eat? Apparently someone close to home has thought about this, because Seattle’s Columbia City Farmer’s Market, according to the Rainier Valley Post, is doubling food stamps. This means the “money” will stretch a little further for these families at the sometimes-pricey farmer’s market. Sustainable, local food should be an option for low-income, urban apartment dwellers and middle-class suburbanites, not just a luxury that a few can afford due to lifestyle changes of neo-hippies who move to a coop, rural families that still sustain themselves through hunting, fishing, and growing their own food, or those with enough money during these hard economic times to spend on quality food. Now….who wants to help me figure out how to raise chickens?

I spent a few minutes this afternoon in my garden picking cherry tomatoes and green beans. I have mentioned before how satisfying this process of planting, tending, and harvesting my own food is, but this time, I want to approach it from an environmental angle, as well as from the perspective of gardening as an innate need.

Since reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma, I have run across two other articles about growing one’s own food in two magazines: Wired and O. Wired’s September 2008 article, written by Clive Thompson, is titled “Grow Your Own” and is about urban farming and microgardening. It seriously makes me want to buy chickens. Thompson argues that this movement is not just for health-conscious foodies and hipsters, but for those that would like to tackle our world’s food resource problems. Thompson states, “a massive increase in edible gardening could help solve them….the next president should throw down the gauntlet and demand Americans sow victory gardens once again.”

I would have no problem with that. I remember my own curiosity as I watched old cartoons that featured these patches of patriotism–these front yards filled with carrots and beans, a backdrop for the roundup of old tires and aluminum cans. I yearned for my own square of earth to tend, and now I have one. However, I doubt that mine is as prolific as the ones grown during the WWII era, which produced “roughly 40 percent of the fresh veggies consumed in the US in 1942 and 1943,” states Thompson. I sense that quite a bit of canning and preservation must have been happening, as well.

Thompson argues for urban gardening for the following reasons:
1) We are facing “a wave of obesity,” states Thompson. Growing fresh veggies might encourage families to eat the recommended 5-9 servings per day, although I think the preparation of these veggies as well as several other factors are going to make more of a difference.
2) The globalization and industrialization of our food poses health risks. If we grew our own food, would we have e. coli in our spinach and jalapenos? Globalization also means that our food is coming from further away, emitting tons of CO2 in its wake. Thompson states, “when you shop for dinner ingredients in and around your home, the carbon footprint nearly disappears.” He advocates for a 100-yard diet rather than a 100-mile diet (which, I argue, is far better than the 1,800 mile average that any given food product travels to most consumers). He states that growing our own food would establish our food independence, although I am not sure how much we truly rely on other countries for our food NEEDS versus our culinary wants.
3) Planting crops in rooftops will cool cities cheaply (and, I say, provide fewer impervious surfaces in our cities).

I will gloss over Thompson’s weak connection to gardening technology–a requirement for his ability to publish this very non-wired topic in Wired magazine–and skip to my favorite part. Thompson states, “Growing our own food again would reconnect us to this country’s languishing frontier spirit.” But is it the frontier spirit to which we need reconnecting? I argue that it is a connection to something more primal (and for that matter, less Eurocentric)–the Neolithic need for self-reliance, as discussed in The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

I cannot tell you the number of times I have felt the urge to build, create, knit, grow, sew, and preserve–skills that, unless stranded, are not necessary to my existence. Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, puts it this way:
“Isn’t it curious how in so many of our pasttimes and hobbies we play at supplying one or another of our fundamental creaturely needs–for food, shelter, even clothing? So some people knit, others build things or chop wood, and a great many of us “work” at feeding ourselves, by gardening or hunting, fishing or foraging…..something in us apparently seeks confirmation that we still have the skills needed to provide for ourselves. You know, just in case…..It may be little more than a conceit at this point, but we like to think of ourselves as self-reliant, even if only for a few hours on the weekend, even when growing the stuff yourself winds up costing twice as much as wit would to buy it at the store.” Well, we won’t even go into the cost of my knitting hobby or how little I have used my sewing machine in the last 8 years, but I agree with Pollan. Americans love to be self-reliant, but I think it’s more of a human need than an American need.

Perhaps I can relate to Pollan because I come from Arkansas, dubbed the Natural State, a land of green rolling hills where, in the southeast and southwest of the state, I have grandparents that tend successful gardens. Do folks from Los Angeles and New York feel the same tug to plant seeds indoors that I do when March rolls around? Would they get the same satisfaction from nurturing their need for self-reliance in the same way that I do when it comes time to can tomatoes or bake homemade cobbler from freshly picked blackberries? I don’t know, but from reading Thompson’s article, perhaps it would be better for planet Earth if everyone gave it a try.

I officially checked out of my room, turned in my grades, and completed district-directed professional development yesterday at 4 p.m. To celebrate, I went to Starbucks on that lovely, sunny, warm afternoon and then got my nails done. This time, I even got a design on my big toes just for the heck of it. Afterward, Justin and I went to Jalisco, a Mexican restaurant we like close to the theater. We ordered fajitas and enchiladas, but they charged us for two fajitas and one enchilada plate. After notifying them of the mistake, they just charged us for one entree! We walked several blocks to Intiman and went to Namaste Man, a monologue by a man who grew up in Nepal and a variety of other locations when growing up. He artfully and hilariously describes his experiences in international school and of his lack of belonging in Nepali culture and American culture.

Today is a room-temperature, yet cloudy, Saturday. We slept in (and I’ve been getting plenty of sleep lately!!) after leaving the bedroom windows open all night. I made raisin toast, eggs, and bacon for breakfast while we listened to This American Life. I worked in my garden; Justin went to Lowe’s. Today is laundry, de-clutter, vacuum, dishes, and all-around chores day. Tonight: a bridal shower (read: Mexican food and Wii games). Tomorrow, I anticipate reading and going to Ohana Project. Perhaps I shall even watch a movie (I’d love to go to Get Smart with Justin!). No grading or lesson planning awaits.

Monday (and for two weeks thereafter) I shall be attending a “Summer Institute for Biology Teaching” from 8:30-3:30 at the UW. I expect I will enjoy it, although I will be missing the home visit training and the AP Bio institute.

Well–it’s time to de-clutter. Hopefully I will blog again before two more months pass!

Each day–the weather, the light, the feel of it–has a certain color and flavor associated with it for me. For example, today is cool and cloudy with no rain, so I might associate it with the color green and the vegetable broccoli. A day like today with more moisture I would probably call a watercress or lettuce day–bland and pale green. Seattle rarely has hot and steamy days (red and tomato) or hot and dry days (orange and rosemary /basil), but the days I do appreciate are warm and sunny (yellow and peaches/cherries) in late summer. I also like stormy days (eggplant/violet and dark grey), as well as exciting winter weather days (peppermint/frost white). I haven’t thought about this much, but I am sure other people may make these associations as well. Anyone? Bueller?

This weekend (and most of this month) has been rainy, but we managed to have a good bit of fun anyway. Justin and I went out for Thai food, went to a photography show in a coffee shop, went for a walk around Ballard, got some tea, and caught a movie on Thursday night. Saturday, after a big breakfast, we went to see Twelfe Night (the first folio spelling) at Seattle Rep and then got ready to have another couple over for bread, homemade potato soup, salad, and homemade plum-peach cobbler. We had fun just talking with our company for about four hours–something we rarely get to do. Today after church we drove up to Capitol Hill and went to the bike store so Justin’s tires could work again, and then we went for a walk in Volunteer Park in the rain. I could have walked for longer, but we were expecting a Craigslister to drop by. Knowing that I had grading to do, I did what I always do in the face of grading–procrasti-baking. Now I am procrastiblogging, but earlier I made pumpkin muffins, which were quite tasty. This weekend I’ve also been knitting quite a bit on my niece’s baby kimono. Who knows when I will be finished with it. The process is quite fun.

This week is going to be extra-crazy, as I have school- or education-related events every night but Monday this week–including Saturday and Friday. While I’m not doing that, I’ll be reading The Great Divorce for the C.S. Lewis book group I’m in.

It looks like the owner of the MacBook Pro I happen to be typing on needs his computer back (*ahem* Justin) so this mini-blog will have to do.

Today has been a busy day already, and it started with the smell of baking bread. This time of year–when the days get a little shorter and the nights get a bit cooler–is great for baking bread. I use a bread machine for this task, which allows me to dump everything for a delicious loaf of bread into the machine and set the timer. I could smell bread at 5:30 this morning, which, on a cool day, is quite a motivator for getting out of bed. My school colleague at our meeting this morning asked if I liked the smell of bacon and if I knew of such a device that could cook bacon each day like my machine does for bread….excellent idea! At any rate, my delicious, fluffy, warm white bread was a filling breakfast after the addition of butter and honey on the thick slices. I had a glass of milk along with it to add some more protein, too.

After breakfast and my morning meeting, I had a lab with my AP students and a lab with my Biology students. My Daphnia finally came in, and students were able to observe them under the microscope and carry out their self-designed experiments with them today. The ones that were left over got added to my aquarium–and so did the beautiful male betta that a student bought for me over his lunch break!

I hope to have a more low-key day after all of the labs today. I got some more new students, which makes it hard for them to participate in lab on their first day. My language arts students are going with me to see Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan woman who won the Nobel Peace Prize and the Woman of the Year award for her reforestation of parts of Africa and for helping the rural poor in east Africa. We were able to get free tickets through a writers program, so I’ll be going to that and then to Lukas’ birthday party.

Before all of that, however, I am going to enjoy a hot cup of tea–a variety Bethany gave me when she was visiting. Here’s to 20 minutes of relaxed lesson planning.

Today begins the start of our 6,000 mile road trip. It’s beginning kind of late because of our procrastination in getting things packed, cleaned, and ready to go, but hey–that’s why we’re taking a car and not scheduled for a flight.

Tonight we hope to end up somewhere in Montana–as far as we can drive in 10-12 hours, at least. Our car is ridiculously full of everything we’ve packed, but I hope to spend very little on eating fast food, hence the cooler and 2 bags of food we’ve stashed in the car.

Some tasks I’d like to accomplish while Justin is driving include:
read the rest of Love in the Time of Cholera
knit baby bibs and washcloths for Joanna’s baby
work on AP Biology curriculum
grade papers and notebooks from Upward Bound Summer School
read lots of other delicious books

The weather here has been ridiculously cool, so I hope we get some not-scorching weather in Arkansas, although the last I checked, it was going to be over 100F each day we’re there. Better swimming weather, I suppose.

We’ve had an excellent visit with my friend Bethany since she’s been out here from Missouri. We’ve gone blackberry picking, we played soccer with my team, we went to my book club with Dawn and Erin, and we went to the Farmers’ Market and Pike Place Market, the Elliot Bay Book Company, Andaluz, Fireworks, and Cafe Ladro. She got to come to my classes with me and went to the UB summer banquet and picnic. We’ve had an excellent time and I’m sad to leave her here, but I know she’s going to have a great time with Dawn and the rest of the gang here in Seattle.

Oh goodness! We’ve got to go! Hopefully I’ll be able to make some updates from the road.

I posted more photos to flickr recently–they are of wildlife from when I went with my students to Northwest Trek. I tried to link there but my site got switched to a different server and well, it didn’t work. Anyway, check those out!

Right now I’m just enjoying summer (or what’s left of it). We’re cleaning the house today, or at least doing all those de-cluttering and purging things that people do when it’s summer. We’re getting rid of lots of tech stuff we’ve been keeping for no real reason and I’ve started some new filing systems. All in all, I’m feeling more organized, even if it feels like we’re moving and a million boxes are still in the hall.

On a more fun note, I’ll probably work on one or more books this evening and possibly lesson plan a little for this week. I recently started Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s book Love in the Time of Cholera, and I’m almost finished with Eat, Pray, Love. I’m reading so much more this summer than I usually do, and I hope to be finished with 10 books by the end of summer (I’m only at almost-4 right now).

Other plans for this week include:
Wii game night (and chicken curry dinner) Monday
Bela Fleck concert at the Zoo Wednesday
New Soccer Season starts Thursday
Film night Friday at Daniel’s

I want to start knitting again, as this stopped for me in April. I have plans for a baby kimono for Joanna’s little girl, but I think I need yarn for it. This will be a perfect project for our road trip.

I also want to start running again, which is not perfect for a road trip…I haven’t really run since last fall. I’ve been relying on indoor bikes, 10 lb weights, exercise videos, and soccer to serve as my workouts, but there’s nothing like a good run. We’ll see how that goes.

Well…until my next post…adieu!

This is because I can cook on a whim (biscuits and gravy at 9 p.m., anyone?), go to free museum nights without the guilt of not grading papers, sit outside in the SUN, read books for long stretches of time, nap at the drop of a hat, tend my verdant garden, and…did I mention the sun yet?

I am obviously enjoying my summer off. By off, I mean not full-time teaching. My part-time job still requires work, but it’s SO much fun to teach these students. I’m also finished by 11 each day, which means I take the bus home and can take my time if I want to. Or stop at the Bubble Tea place nearby. Or get my nails done at the South Seattle Community College training salon. Or….do anything I want :).

Upcoming Events: Film night Saturday, Camping for 2 nights with students of Upward Bound, travel to Arkansas for my cousin’s wedding, host book club, and more.

Recent Activities: Free night at Seattle Art Museum. More on this to come when I feel inspired. Walked to movie (Ratatouille) and dinner (Tutta Bella) with Justin in Columbia City for birthday (movie was a grand total of $7 for both of us!). Uneventful, yet productive, 4th of July. Recovered from food poisoning Monday. Watched Volver.

That is all. More summer deliciousness to come.