Amber & Farm Share Week I've Lost Count

Corn, assorted potatoes, beans, eggplant, yellow peppers, beets and their greens, amazingly fragrant basil, leeks, lettuce and partially Ginger-chewed bok choy.  And?  Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes.

Did I mention tomatoes?

Amber & Looking Up

Sigh.

Amber & Fungus Among Us

I missed the giant fungus at the end of the road while it was still attached to the tree.  Now, it has fallen to the ground under its own weight.

Amber & Not Blogged, Now Blogged

Last week's farm share (week 6, although I missed one when I was on bed rest) was particularly scoopy.

My half included squashes of yellow and green, scallions, kale, cukes, broccoli, lettuce, green beans, tomatoes, turnips, cherries and eggs.  I imagine my sharer's share was pretty much the same.  Also, I got Diana & Kevin's flower share sunflowers for the week.

Most of this stuff is gone now.  And it was sure yummy.

Amber & Farm Share Week 3 (Visual Edition)

This is what it looks like when it gets home.

You'll note that the bread wasn't listed on the board.  That's my bread share for the week.  And the Ginger is bonus.  The arrival of farm share is a big moment for the boy.

Especially when there are pea pods!

Amber & Farm Share Week 3

This is how I know what to take.

Amber & CSA Week 2

I ate the veggies before I remembered to blog them last week. This week's verdant offerings include scapes, scallions, kale, bok choy, arugula, turnips, some incredibly lovely spinach, sweet peas and shoots, potted sage and strawberries. Mmmm.

Amber & Marco Polo

Earlier, CRD shared this Hitch quip about the importance of a lingua franca (but not my former employer) amongst friends.  Sassy slanged banter is a mainstay of my communications with my pals, but so is playing Private Joke Marco Polo.  One of us sets 'em up, and the other knocks 'em down.  With friends on other coasts and through the miracle of modern technology, this takes the form of visual Marco Polo.

For example, yesterday Kirk visited this site (which is some kind of viral marketing for a product not targeted to my demographic and therefore fully incomprehensible) and said, "Marco."

And then I made my own. "Polo!"

And then Emma both Marcoed and Poloed with these offerings.

Today, Emma sent this exhibit of her love of bananas. Marco!

I returned with evidence of my love of coffee.

Polo!

Etc.  Friendship rocks.

Amber & Catching Up

While I have been waging an inner battle, armed with mucous and coughs, against my arch allergy nemesis American Elm, so, so very much has been happening in the world.  Let me quickly try to recap.

1.  I got this pretty scarf from my favorite broken body person, Nick.

2.  And my hair color changed.  (See above.  It's darker.  One might even call it espresso.)

3.  Some incredibly smart and adorable marketing professionals over at everybody's favorite investigative news source, Mother Jones, launched a fundraising campaign featuring a Boat-o-meter to measure the campaign's success with the tagline "Sink the ship of fools."

Seriously genius--the kind of stuff we should be doing over at Mother Goose, Inc.  (I pronounce it "boat-oh-meter," but Kevin says "boat-om-etter."  Your choice.)

4.  The above fundraising campaign, to which you should give generously in order to help pay for, among other things, their Circulation Director's cat food (especially if you are getting a free sub from me) prompted me to remark that I wouldn't really be considered the captain of the Boat-o-meter but more of the navigator.  This caused a professional colleague to volunteer to be the ship's barkeep.

Completely amazing likeness, right?  Mobile technology is the absolute best.  I would say some boat stuff here, but really I confuse sailors with pirates all the time.  Arrgh!  That ship is yar!

5.  This caused me to hum the theme to my favorite Boat Show ever.

Did you see those guest stars?  Robert Vaughn and that hot reporter's mom?

6.  Lizzie, the best back seat road trip and tent companion ever, started a blog about her new macrobiotic diet.

Today's post is about allergies and diet and acupressure... which brings us back to the whole reason why I had all this saved up stuff to share with you, dear readers.

Damn you, American Elm.  Damn you and your seed, but thank you for your beauty and grandeur.

Amber & Autumnal Buds

It was a lovely November weekend, complete with fuzzy buds on this tree. Which reminded me of my kitties.

Amber & Vetiver

I know it's been the Plant of the Week before, but vetiver is totally my B.P.F.  (Best Plant Forever).

It's in the same family as my other close grass friends, palmarosa and lemongrass, but vetiver and I are so perfectly matched that it earns a special place in my pantheon of plants that yield essential oils.  It's cedary, musky, earthy smell is calming and grounding when mixed with oil and applied to my pulse points-- making it a wonderful match for my issue-laden first chakra.

To quote the folks over at Ananda Apothecary...

Vetiver essential oil is used for emotional grounding and stabilizing the emotions. It is considered relaxing to an overheated, hyperactive mind an nurturing to an insecure self-identity. The oil may then be suited to the type of individual who constantly strives for perfection, but who loses touch with the ability to absorb and replenish, not letting things just be.

I sure let things be on my walk to the 168th Street station this morning.  A normal 10 minute walk mysteriously took me about a half hour.  Oh well, that's just the way it is.  Sigh.

Amber & Tiggy Oddities

Tiggy faces some challenges in her life.  Being the only girl (besides me) in a house with three boys can be tough.  I would never begrudge her any of her coping mechanisms, no matter how strange they are.

(Photo from the geniuses over at CuteOverload.com)

Tiggy has a shoe thing.  She likes to rub her face in a loving way on the outsides of suede shoes.  She also likes to rub her face on the insides of any shoes.  I'm not sure if it's about drowning out the smell of my feet with her cheek scent or maybe the opposite-- putting my feet smell on her face?  I do use a foot cream that has St. John'swort in it which does treat depression.  (Look an internal possessive, CRD!)

Amber & She Is At The River House So I Took This Picture Of The Vegetables

[CRD actually remote blogged this. Haul this week included: cabbage, potatoes, garlic, slicing cucumbers, lettuce, tomato tease, summer squash, red Russian kale, bok choy, basil to pot, peaches, eggs, orange flowers. Thanks for remote blogging, CRD!]

Amber & Woodland Adventures

Me and the kitties took a little nature hike today. Well, not all of the kitties. Woody stayed under the bed in Mary's room, resting from his night of galloping the full length of the apartment. And Pickles remained on the very edge of the house, watching the adventure but close enough to the front door to run back in should danger appear.

Ginger and Tiggy fed off of each others' bravery and ventured onto the steps behind the house, with Tiggy stopping to graze along the way.


But Ginger soon proved himself an off-road kitty and took to exploring the bush.


It seemed like he deliberately took the path through the thickest weeds. Luckily, his white fur and yellow name tag don't camouflage very well.

Amber & Every Reading = Valid

Vacation can mean different things to different people and kitties. For some people, it can mean sitting on a porch watching the river roll by, listening to the breeze in the trees, and eating a mid-day pickle snack.
For some kitties, it can mean chasing ants, lying in the sun on cool wood floors, and exploring under beds and emerging covered in dust bunnies.

And there are things we share about vacation that some people and some kitties share. Like: eating salad.

Amber & Summer Fridays

Today feels so, so hard. My neck hurts from hauling around 26 lbs of meat yesterday. It's really, really humid out. I have a TON of work to do. Vacation is just out of reach, but close enough to distract me. And, I forgot to bring the salad I assembled this morning to eat for lunch.

But really, it's almost the weekend, I have some lovely lovey kitties waiting for me at home along with a salad I forgot to bring to work, vacation is right around the corner, and I have a jungle growing on my desk.

Sigh.

Amber & Dirty Floors

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that, although I had vacuumed and Swiffered wet the floors last night, they were even more dirty this morning. And, really, really dirt-y.


The boys seemed just as curious about the dirt pile as I was. In fact, they called my attention to it first thing I woke up. Pickles coincidentally wanted to lie down just where the dirt pile was.

In other unrelated news, the dill plant mysteriously disappeared from its pot. I guess it ran away from home.

What a morning of mysterious coincidences!

Amber & Farm Share Week 2

Cucumbers, broccoli, baby Japanese turnips, strawberries, romaine
lettuce, basil plant, radishes, red chard, scallions and scapes. Plus,
flowers, eggs, tortillas, foccaccia, lavash crackers, and a loaf of
bread. Plus, extras: sheep milk yogurt, honey, maple syrup, and
granola. Oh my f'ing stomach!

Amber & Nature's Bounty

First farm share of the season! Strawberries, scapes, lettuce, potted
herbs, snap peas, bok choy, red and green kholrabi, scallions, red
kale, green chard, a weird half dozen of eight eggs, and a lovely
bouquet of calendula. I am so excited.

Amber & The Woods

I had a delightful weekend upstate with some delightful people in a
delightful place called Pumpkin Hollow. Only, there was no cell
service to live blog it. More later. Now is Kitty Reaquaint Time.