Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect

Hibernation

clad with radiance
the garden sleeps quietly
all winter to dream

Domaine Hudson

Last night the family enjoyed a delicious vegetarian dinner, served with a sip of Gilbert Cellars Allobroges (Yakima, WA). This fine meal was promptly followed by second [carnivorous] dinner at Domaine Hudson in Wilmington. Dynamite charcuterie platter with tasty Code Noir merlot (Rattlesnake Hills, WA).

The allobroges was return luggage from a trip to Washington earlier this year. They make good merlot - which suffers a bad reputation, apparently. One winery owner refused to not serve it. "What, you don't want to taste my merlot?"

Mmmm, pie

Butternut squash and apple pie

New York City

Abigail and I spent the day yesterday in New York City. Drove to Princeton Junction and took the train to Penn Station [33rd/8th Ave]. The weather was perfect for a walk up 5th Avenue to Rockefeller Center past the ice rink. We continued to the southern entrance of Central Park then reversed towards brunch.

"Bar Americain" by don't fence me in

Bar Americain [52nd/6-7th Ave] is Bobby Flay's restaurant, and despite some online reviewers grumbling about celebrity chef eateries I was excited to check it out. We were seated immediately in a mostly full dining room situated at street level. The first course was a trio of cold seafood cocktails including shrimp with cilantro-lime-purée!, lobster with avocado, and crab with mango and coconut. There was too much black pepper on the crab cocktail, otherwise everything was delicious.

Next came an order of frites with chipotle mayo and a couple of cocktails. Abigail had a Pimm's #1 with fresh lemonade and cucumber, I had a bloody mary. Both were as delicious as they were small and overpriced. I moved on to an Arcadia Rye Pale Ale (Battle Creek, MI) for the next course: poached eggs with charred tasso ham and spicy hollandaise. Top eggs benedict, and the potent sauce paired well with the crisp hoppy beer. Pocketed a mini-baguette and a few boxes of matches as we exited for the MoMA [53rd/5-6th Ave] to be inundated with the nihilistic screams of the contemporary art scene, an extensive abstract expressionism review, and a glance through the 20th-century ward.

After being ushered out of the museum we walked back to Penn Station, checked on the next Northeast Corridor train and popped across the street to Tir Na Nog for a Guinness before the return trip.


"Creativity and Imagination Shall be the Stability of Thy Time"
The LEGO Store appropriation of this, above the gate to 30 Rock

Playoffs

Photo: DVD

FIGHTIN'S
The New Big Red Machine takes on San Francisco tomorrow night. Roy Halladay threw a nearly perfect no-hitter in his previous start for the Phillies and Giants ace Tim Lincecum struck out fourteen in his last appearance. Meanwhile, former Philly pitcher Cliff Lee has brought the Texas Rangers to their first American League Championship Series to face the Evil Empire. Crunchy October action.

OCTOBER 21: LET'S TRY THIS AGAIN
Doc versus the Freak again tonight. Philadelphia is behind 3-1 to San Francisco in a series that has seen the team looking listless. Even last night, when they managed (finally) to score some runs, the mood was notably somber. When Jayson Werth followed Ryan Howard's double with one of his own to tie the game in the top of the eighth there was hardly a reaction. It didn't seem like they were planning on winning the game. That's been the feel for the last couple.

A victory tonight will bring the Phillies back to Citizens Bank Park, back to the fans, and maybe back to themselves.

Rescued

Thirty-three miners, trapped for more than two months two thousand feet underground, and a twenty-eight-inch wide precision drilled ray of hope.

Photo: Hugo Infante

Our time on this earth is a gift, is it not?

October

coffee goes cold fast
empty cove, tide is lower
the fish have gone south

All the old showstoppers

I was pleased to learn a few weeks ago that Calvin's Student Activities Office had booked the wonderful indie collaborative band The New Pornographers to perform on-campus this fall. Then dismayed (not entirely surprised) to see the show suddenly cancelled yesterday, hardly a month before the scheduled October 15th appearance. Speculation about donor politics aside, this is an embarrassing fiasco of reactionary ignorance. Turdburgers.

The sad story: Calvin College, Pitchfork, Grand Rapids Press

Stacking stones

This year I'm adding perforated pipe to the dry stack stone retaining wall construction process (pictured wrapped in white filter fabric). The pipe's purported purpose is to provide a passage for water to flow through the wall, thus alleviating potential hydrostatic pressure that could cause rotation and failure. I'm fairly certain based on the performance of the previous installations that a good amount of crushed stone behind the wall ensures ample drainage, but we had extra pipe and filter material so I decided to give it a shot.

Portable Peaks

After spending another glorious long weekend on Peaks Island, a question emerges and remains. How to emanate whenceward the way-of-living that comes so easily there? Can the good aesthetic, social, and ecological vibes of the island be transmitted?

Photo: DTVD

Aesthetic: This is art and craft. It is an aesthetic of place, not contrived and kitschy but homegrown and authentic. It is on display in the gardens and front porches; the look of wholeness and unity.

Social: Being on a small island promotes a spirit of community. We wave to every car and pedestrian, and they wave back. Generations who return and return are bound by their mutual appreciation of what they've shared.

Ecological: The proximity to nature and the inherent awareness of island ecosystem drives a strong sense of eco-logic. The tide rises, waves crash, fog rolls, rain falls. Creation is eminent, it demands awe and responsibility.

The clues are there. Locality. Community. Place. Apprectiation. It is easy to forget about these things amongst the daily drudgery of congested roadways, monolithic megamarts, a sea of "development" that drowns ideas of vigor and beauty from our lives. In the face of a daunting challenge, small tacks in the right direction are victories. I'm starting by waving to neighbors from the car.

Bonus tracks word cloud

Powered by Wordle

haiku

hand leans into wind
hold two up for the future
hope peace victory

"objects in mirror..." [are closer than they appear] by vanessa mae

Garden goods, frankenmato, gyro burrito

lettuce, tomatoes, jalapeño peppers, green beans, carrots, beets

it's alive

braised beef, feta/sour cream/yogurt, cucumber, green pepper, olive, tomato, cilantro

Morning in the garden

Bacon, lettuce, tomato

Microwaved two thin strips of bacon between paper towels for a couple minutes (to crispy perfection - wish I'd known bacon is microwaveable when I was in college). Picked a small ripe Yellow Brandywine and a handful of bitter greens (a sprig of mint found its way in there, too). Chopped the arugula/lettuce/mint and folded into mayo, toasted one side of two pieces of wheat bread, smeared the greens-mayo on both untoasted sides. Stacked, sliced, and consumed alongside Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Whole Hop Harvest Ale. Tomato sandwich version three, we have a winner.

It's raining again

Rains, pours.

Of course, living is water. Water and sun...
Ice don't live. Cold is dead. Life is warmth.

Equilibrium is the end - Keep going!
Do it again, again is good. Again is life.

Let it rain.

Let it pour.

Let it grow.

Again

The wall, cont'd.

This summer we ordered two more skids of "Laurel Hill" Pennsylvania fieldstone for yet another dry-stacked retaining wall. This installment will repeat the gesture of last year's side yard project (visible in background), creating a new tier of plantable space under and away from an existing thicket of forsythia hedge. The red flag on the lower left marks the center line of the view from the front yard to a focal oak tree in the back.

Tomato sandwich, version two

Click image to view slideshow

Fried green tomato sandwich with Souther Tier Un*earthly Imperial IPA (New York, 11%ABV, fantastic - I dug this beer more than Dogfish Head 90 Minute). Had to substitute panko breadcrumbs for cornmeal and added some cayenne pepper to the dredge, otherwise straight from recipe in Garden & Gun June/July issue. Breadcrumbs got kind of clumpy in the dredging process, not a good replacement. The end result was tangy and tasty on whole grain toast with mayo, but I think I'll wait for the rest of the tomatoes ripen, maybe after one or two more fried greenie attempts.

Tomato sandwich time