saturday

garden armillary

epic sledding hill

sideyard

freshly powdered. love it when there is fresh snow and there is no wind, so the trees keep their frosted appearance. winter wonderland look. listening to a lively cello lesson in the next room. apricot oat bars just out of the oven. a cup of wonderful itoen black tea. most of the shoveling done last night. movie from netflix we really want to watch. plenty of firewood. cheerful and silent midterm preparations going on. cool projects underway in the studio. wonderful winter weekend. its all in the mix.

december light

have a great weekend. xo, g

friday photo

time for a friday photo. happy weekend, xo g

delicious breakfast

life is good when morning sustenance looks like this. fresh cherries. so sweet, so cold. so delicious. and with blenheim apricots! mmmm. i wish the rest of my day was going to be as wonderful as this. but i've got some complex tasks to accomplish, a lot of details to nail down, and just for good measure, a whole lot of impossible friday traffic to contend with. wish me luck and have yourself a great weekend. xo g

the greening of my front porch

more green i tell you. green everywhere. happy weekend to all you lovely people. my birthday is next week, so i will be celebrating the first of my two (shamelessly claimed) birthday weekends. though i guess i personally am not getting any greener am i? erg, whatever. xo, g

teen birthday

hi everyone. i am busy. really busy. with lots of shopping, wrapping, grocery shopping and cooking. crepes with caramelized apples are required for breakfast (before 7 am i might add, that's the tricky part), chinese chicken salad with homemade asian pickles and japanese rice for dinner, and chocolate souffle for dessert. all part of a special teenage birthday. good fun. enjoying the thaw today. thinking of spring (already). more color for you next week. happy weekend to you. xo, g

wonderful wintery day

2 inches of fresh snow to cover up the muck. and bunny tracks i think. happy weekend xo, g

Local Turkeys

a local gang came by last week looking for trouble (love to dig up my yard with their rather large feet). but they did let me take a few pictures. i caught one looking in my back door window staring into the house for a long time. they seem to think they own the property, and begrudgingly tolerate our presence. sorry turkeys, but for now our name is on the deed.

i hear the first thanksgiving, the real one, included geese and fish as the main course. only later was turkey on the menu. turkeys were abundant at the first one, but were not eaten as they were considered sacred. maybe that means too strange looking to eat. they look rather reptilian i think. but somehow majestic at the same time, with all that elaborate plumage. however you celebrate it, happy thanksgiving everyone. i am grateful for all my friends old and new and my wonderful family. cheers, xo, g

kabocha

today's friday photo and harbinger of autumn: the kabocha squash or japanese pumpkin. bright orange flesh, like a butternut, but with a rich creamy chestnut sort of texture. so delicious so many ways. simmered with a dashi-based sauce. roasted. in soba or udon soup. in japan, you can find them atop pastries and desserts and always with the skin intact, the green is so striking with the orange. don't know how i'll be using this one yet, but i am very much looking forward to it. it is great to have new ingredients to play with for inspiration, marvelous these seasons. have a lovely weekend.

around the garden

another weekend of wacky weather i'm afraid. no matter, lots to do. enjoy. xo, g

carneros inn, napa

rarely, a hotel is an incredible oasis with fruit trees, gorgeous rooms, great food, a relaxing and professional staff, no pretense, gorgeous grounds and amenities. you want to move in immediately and never leave. at the carneros inn you stay in these adorable cottages with back decks and outdoor showers. the gardens are full of wildly colored flowers not to mention fig, apple, pear trees bursting with ripening fruit. the beds so comfortable, the interior design so pleasing. oh my yes, it has everything. sounds like paradise right? but then paradise probably wasn't this nice. expensive, well yes of course, you can't stay long. that gavin newsom, hotel founder and san francisco mayor, is some kind of hotel genius. 

hot here in the east today. keeping cool. happy weekend. xo,g.

friday photos (on saturday)

whew. what a week. middle school finals. little league semifinals. elementary school graduation, middle school graduation. little league all star game. torrential downpours that would not stop. but neither would we. we were running around like crazy mad people in 100 directions. we ate simple meals. like red beans and rice (recipe on monday). we survived. we celebrated. 

official start of summer this weekend. ahhh. summertime, when the living is easy. grilled fruit and fresh ice cream. wonderful famer's market produce and scrumptious meals  from the fewest possible ingredients. high quality new england sea food readily available and local. really looking forward to another delicious summer.

vintage slate recycled reused blackboard

just in time. my vintage school blackboard slate arrived this morning. inhabited a schoolhouse over 100 years ago, where hard lessons were learned i'm sure. i love chalkboards, especially vintage slate ones. it is quite a presence in our family room. in our last house we had magnetic chalkboard front panels on the subzero, we could write and draw and doodle as much as we pleased. we've been missing it in our lives. i know you can just paint your wall with chalkboard paint, and this was a bit of a splurge and those scary delivery guys nearly killed my rug and wood floor this morning with their drill as they uncrated the thing, and dang it's heavy, but i go through it all for true love, me and my chalkboard. (apologies to cy twombly). happy weekend everybody in the whole world.

Pouring

it is pouring here this week. field day is cancelled ("a sad day in fifth grade history" someone said). nothing to do but make some galettes. what is a galette? isn't that really a tart? yes, well no, sort of. a galette is really more like a giant cookie, easier to work with, the pastry is not quite as richly satisfying as a well made pate sucre tart dough, but satisfying enough and so easy. anyway, it is the kind of thing you can easily fit in between doctor appointments, errands and blog posting on a busy weekday when you have ripening fruit sitting around. will let you know how they've turned out. have a great weekend. weather is supposed to turn lovely. xo, g

pretty enough to eat, but please wash hands

oh my what a week: science fair, orchestra field trip to massachusetts, baseball games, driving back and forth to the pharmacy to pick up new eye drop prescriptions as everyone in the household slowly came down with conjunctivitis, one by one, day after day. lovely. and so a gentle reminder, to myself, to please wash my hands 100 times a day. 

and aren't these gorgeous soaps from italy by nesti dante just the motivation i need? they look delicious. nesti dante soaps are available in florence, italy, where they are painstakingly produced by hand, in a giant stone cauldron or something and triple milled. they are sold at fine apothecaries all over the world, (as well as amazon and kew gardens' gift shop where i spied these). the flavors are wonderful (i guess that should be scents) and the florentine paper wrappers are beyond gorgeous. i want them all. all the ones that smell like food that is. tangerine and olive, fig and almond, pomegranate and black currant, tomato, cucumber, mmm.

i tell you, the upside of this pandemic flu business is the reminders for everyone to please wash their hands all over the place. even though it is a bit of a nuisance, i am a strong proponent of regular hand washing, especially before and during food preparation and dining. now if i could just get my children to do the same without my sounding like a broken record. actually they are good sports about it, but don't always remember. 

this week was a bit of a wash (irresistible pun, sorry). but lots and lots of cooking going on this weekend, much to share next week. anyway, a healthy, happy and safe weekend to you. xo, g

friday photo

this is my backyard. lots of rain. lots of leaves.  lots of spring green, my favorite color in the world. 

looking out the window at it sustained me this week while i was down with the flu. the flu, was it the flu? i don't know as we didn't get tested. but i did catch this bug from my daughter who goes to a school that has had confirmed cases of the flu for 2 weeks now. about 10% of her school was out. but it was very mild in any case. sore throat, low grade fever, congestion, headache, occasional nausea, light cough. crushing fatigue was the worst part of it for us. major inertia. feeling much better today. everything is bright and beautiful again. back to it.

friday photo

something wonderful underfoot. gorgeous day. perfect weather, actually. everything so clean from those incredible thunderstorms yesterday. high of 73, sun shining, it's friday, lovely weekend planned. (also not dead of plague or financial ruin just yet.) all good. great weekend everyone.

friday photo

weekend luncheon, spring 2009

have a great weekend. gorgeous weather predicted. 70s and 80s. lucky we are.

friday photo

kew royal botanic gardens, april 2009

it's over as of right now, this long cold gloomy winter, finally put to bed. just this morning i think i heard a collective sigh of relief. forecast for today and tomorrow: 70 and sunny. have a gorgeous weekend and see you next week. 

friday photo

kanagawa sea, japan, november 2008