A Day of Down-to-Earth Extravagance

It was full moon in Taurus last night, and we all know what that means (or you can guess if you don't): cooking, baking, harvesting, and other such autumnal and earthy delights.


Food from the Earth, the student group dedicated to sustainable food, of which I am a part, put on a harvest festival at the Yale Farm today. Last night we got to cook and bake for it, which was very fun and satisfying. We made many pumpkin pies, apple crisp, beet salad, baba ganouj (eggplant dip), butternut squash and apple bisque... This morning we loaded in all up and brought in to the farms. There was bread from a local bakery, and apple cider. TUIB, the student folk ensemble, performed. In the meantime, the regular Friday farm community workday was going on, with people helping harvest tomatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, and lots of other lovely things for the Farmers Market tomorrow. I helped thin radishes and clear some flower beds that were done for the season, as well as wash dishes from the foodstuffs. In the radish bed, we unearthed (or hardly unearthed---it was mostly above ground) and foot-and-a-half long daikon. By five there was farm pizza to enjoy as well.


Have I talked about farm pizza? I'm sure I have. Suffice it to say that they make the dough, use vegetables and herbs from the Yale farm, and bake in their wood-burning brick oven. It is wonderful.

The harvest festival was a lovely end to what felt like a very long few weeks. It was wonderful cool, cloudy fall weather, perfect with the smell of the woodsmoke in the air. Red and yellow leaves were strewn on the grass and the sidewalk, occasionally fluttering down to land beside you like reticent and curious birds. Now it is raining softly, and dark--a good evening for tea, and a book.

Sorry about the delay... I've had company!

Oh heavens! It's been a long time, and I'm sorry--I hope I haven't deterred everyone from reading this by not having updated it in so long... It's been a busy and fast two weeks.

Last weekend was Parent's Weekend, and my godmother Anita came out to see me, which was lovely. It was a great opportunity to check out restaurants and museums, as well as to play tour guide as best I could. Let's see: we ate at a pretty good Thai place, a very good vegetarian restaurant (my dished had been made to look like a volcano--very cute), and a tiny, delightful restaurant. I do love yuca and tostones. I would love to go to Cuba... We also got to check out the University Art Gallery, which has everything from Precolumbian art to Picasso and Pollack to installation pieces. We also went to the British Art Museum, where they had a show called "Jamaica and Emancipation." It was great going to see art with Anita, as she went to art school and can talk so much about it. One definitely thinks about such things differently when one is with someone who knows what they're talking about.

As usual, we went to the Farmer's Market on Saturday (10/6) which is always good fun. I also had a Slavs concert on Saturday, which was very fun. It was in one of the Dining halls, and was very well-attended.

Anita stayed until last Tuesday, and on Thursday Graham came to visit me, which was wonderful. We also went to the Art Gallery, and to the Farmer's Market on Saturday. Saturday afternoon (after what felt like much running in circles to get the key) I got to use the student kitchen in Morse (which is an acceptable kitchen) and I made scones! It was lovely. The scones came out well, and we also made lunch while we were there: fried green tomatoes, the tomatoes courtesy of Graham's neighbors, egglplant fritters, with eggplant from the market, fried rice with little peppers and sprate (sprecial seasoning courtesy of the Santa Fe Farmer's Market), and a salad with fresh greens from the Yale Farm. I do love to cook. I'm going to try to make a point of getting to the kitchen weekly to bake, at the very least. That will be good for me.


On Sunday Graham and I had dinner at Miya's Sushi, a short walk from here. I was delicious, and we had a $25 gift certificate, which made it even better. We had sushi with eggplant, cream cheese, and scallions, and another roll with papaya goat cheese, and some sort of fish (I can't recall what it was now), as well as a few more... normal things. It was a lovely treat. We also ate falafel a few times over the weekend at Mamouns, a funny little Syrian place across from Miya's. Can't complain about the restaurants, really, except that none of them serve chile, which is damnable, frankly.


It's finally feeling fallish around here, which is wonderful (and about damn time, too). It really smelled like autumn yesterday evening. Unfortunately, it seems there's no way to regulate my heater, so I'm still sleeping with my window open, since it's going full-tilt. The dining halls have all been decorated with little pumpkins and squash and colored corn. It's a lovely season, and I'm very glad it's here.

Snippets of Enlightenment

The old boom-box man in the electric wheelchair rolled past me on the street again yesterday, R&B at full volume. He's great. He makes everyone around him smile.


As I was walking to my Aztecs class, I noticed something I hadn't before: Prayer flags hanging in the corner of the Saybrook courtyard. They looked well-worn, and lovely.


Walking down from a talk about sustainability at Wal Mart yestserday, there was an adorable tiny old Volvo parked on the street, a gaggle of Asian tourists nest to it. There are always large tour groups roaming about the campus. The talk itself was... interesting. He claimed that all Wal Mart customers had no real interest in anything sustainable or organic, only price, which I think is certainly an unfair generalization...

A man was sitting on Old Campus yesterday evening with a Red Flyer Wagon with a basket full of apple in it. "Courtesy of... [so-and-so]," it read. I helped myself.


This afternoon, as I was walking around running errands, I saw lamp-post signs down Elm Street painted with pictures of John Lennon and Yoko Ono and peace signs.

This weekend is parent's weekend, and my Godmother Anita is coming. She should be arriving shortly. It will be quite fun--there will be a lot going on.

My mother's hand balms are online! Check it out at www.organicbodyandsoul.com!

Long Week, Short Sweet Weekend

Sorry it's been so long! I had a few papers due last week, and I went home for a visit this weekend! It was lovely. Why, you might ask. And to that, I reply, why [the hell] not? I had a long weekend (as I always do, since I never have class on Friday), and I managed to find a cheap flight, and, as I recall, I vowed a few years ago never again to miss October in New Mexico--as I was there on the first, I have not gone back on my word.

I arrived in Albuquerque Friday night after a bizarrely easy flight. The terminals of both my incoming and outgoing flights were changed in Houston, and somehow they were both in the same one, which meant I didn't have to trek across that gargantuan airport, which was lovely; I got to have a cup of tea instead. We flew into Albuquerque over a thunderstorm, a surreal experience, the half-moon at our backs.

Saturday morning we went to the Farmers' Market, which was absolutely riotous with the bounty of the season. Everyone was selling apples, even if they weren't really apple growers. People kept whipping around when saw me, doing doiuble-takes: "What are you doing here?" They would demand. "Didn't you just leave?" Yes, but... autumn is autumn. How can you resist. The clouds moved quickly all morning, turning the air from cool to warm in an instant.


That afternoon it rained and I drove up to see my grandmothers. There was a strange and wonderful rainbow at three in the afternoon, very low to the ground, and one of at least three that day. In the backyard, the trees were dripping with apples, and the ground was carpeted with them. Grandma still had grapes, blue and green ones--those are incredible. On the way back into town to make dinner for Graham's family, I stopped outside Nana's gate. It must have been about 6:30, and the sunset was incredible, red to the east, golden to the west, then red there too. It was gorgeous.


Sunday dawned one of those days with unbelievably spectacular fall weather: literally cloudless, and cool enough only for something light, and only in the shade. We had planned to go to Taos to see the dancing for San Geronimo day, but decided that would be a bit too stressful, and drove up to the ski basin instead to see the aspens. Driving up there is one of my favorite things to do in the fall. That, and stealing--rescuing, that is, from neglect--apples. I got to do both. Got lovely pictures of the tress, and quite a few pounds of apples. Sunday night I made an apple pie, which was wonderful. It was wonderful to bake, that is, as I had been longing to do so for the past month. The pie turned out pretty well, too.


Sunday night was genuinely cold--I could see my breath outside. Lovely weather. Monday morning I had red chile for breakfast--who could ask for more? All you really need in life is red chile and apples, I'm convinced.

I got back last night, and it feels rather surreal. I'm already too busy to really give it much thought, though. It's much more fallish here now, though, which is nice. And my suitemates missed me. But it was wonderful being home--I'm very glad I went.