Churches in Venice

I’m not a birder but I do have a “kitchen window” bird list that I started when I moved to this house and put feeders up. I love watching them while I’m cooking but it’s been several years since I’ve added a new one…until today when I saw a Brown-headed Nuthatch! I had to dig out the bird book to ID him and find the list so I could add him. He was a cute little guy, much smaller than the White-breasted Nuthatch that I see all the time.

I call my kitchen window “LuLu’s TV set” because she loves to sit there and watch the birds too. She’s very calm when it’s just birds but gets pretty riled up when a squirrel comes along.

I took this at a garden shop this past weekend. The mushrooms are glass but the daffodils are real. And now we have possible snow flurries in the forecast and it's going to be in the low 20's tonight. No matter, spring will be here soon.

I love visiting garden shops even though I don't garden as much as I used to. My current yard is mainly shade which isn't that inspiring for gardening. Plus I planted a bunch of stuff when I first moved here, and the deer came and ate almost everything. A few perennials have survived - some bearded iris, shasta daisies, an heirloom rose bush, daffodils - but they ate the rest. I've even had deer come on my porch and eat plants out of pots! They're virtually tame and don't even run when I come out to chase them off - they just slowly mosey off to go eat someone else's plants. Some neighbors built a very elaborate fence and one day when I was out walking, I saw a deer jump that fence and start eating the birdseed out of their feeder. I guess they are very hungry.

I do have one sunny spot inside a deer-proof fence that's for tomatoes, herbs, peppers, and zinnias. Maybe some sunflowers too. But it's about 6 weeks or so before it'll be safe to plant any of that.

We went to a big Southern folk art show last weekend and saw so much amazing and inspirational art. The best part was that all the artists were there too, and you could meet them and buy art directly from them.

I love art shows and will go look at anything, but these days there seems to be a lot of cynical and depressing modern art out there. Folk art is just the opposite – it’s innocent and much of it is hopeful and uplifting. Some of it is hilarious, and the sad works are poignant and moving rather than depressing.

Another name for folk art is “outsider” art – I’m not crazy about that term since it sounds kind of snobby. Self-taught or visionary art are better labels. One of my favorite museums in the world is the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore; it’s a branch of the Smithsonian that focuses on artists with vision and talent and inspiration, but no formal art training.

The Southern show had so much beautiful and/or funky art that I wanted to buy. I walked around the whole show twice trying to decide what I loved the most, and I ended up buying two paintings from an artist named Eric Legge.

And of course, one of them is a church! Not a church in Venice – this looks more like a church in the mountains of NC where I grew up. It’s beautiful. I’d never seen any work by Eric before; he’s a very nice young man and I really enjoyed meeting him. So when I got home I googled and found an interview with him with this incredibly wise quote:

“I don’t paint to sell. I sell so that I can paint.”

This nice pink animal was made by Clyde Jones, one of North Carolina’s most well-known folk artists. He calls his sculptures “critters,” and his home, Critter Crossing, is listed on Roadside America: Guide to Off-Beat Tourist Attractions. You can see his critters all over this area, in restaurants and in other people’s yards. I like his work a lot.

A few years ago, Clyde had a show at the NC Museum of Art in Raleigh, and there were about 50 of his critters in the woods behind the museum. I took my nephew (who was about 3 years old at the time) and we had a blast – it was completely magical to hike through the woods and see all these crazy colorful animals spread out over several acres of forest.

Clyde is a character and is known for being quirky about selling his art. Sometimes he will, mostly he won’t, and sometimes he just gives it away, especially to children. The most famous story is when he refused to sell a piece to Mikhail Baryshnikov who was in the area for a performance and went out to Clyde’s house to see the art. Clyde does lots of presentations in local schools and at the art show last weekend, he was in his booth surrounded by a bunch of happy kids. More photos below.

Our Farmer’s Market is still on its winter schedule (every other Saturday from 10-12) but goes back to the weekly schedule in April (every Saturday from 8-12). I went this morning and it was very crowded and fun – everyone has spring fever, I think, and it’s a beautiful warmish morning here. Not that many vendors were there but lots of buyers with their kids and dogs. A young girl was playing the banjo, and an Easter Egg Hunt was in the works in the daffodil-filled garden next to the market. I wish I’d taken my camera!

I’ve learned that you need to get to the market right when it opens because things like figs and asparagus sell out very quickly. Too early in the year for either of those but today’s hot item was rainbow chard. I bought a bag at 10 am and by the time I left at 10:30, all the chard was gone.

I also bought arugula, parsley, green onions and green garlic, radishes, and eggs. I love my egg man because a few years ago he told me that his chickens are not livestock, they are his pets with 15 acres to roam around in. His eggs are delicious – almost as good as those orange-yolked eggs in Italy.

I bought chocolate chip cookies for my nephews from Emma, who has one of several baked goods booths. I was tempted by her coconut pie but went with the cookies because they are the boys’ faves. I was surprised to see strawberries at one booth – they were beautiful but the man was honest and told me that they were greenhouse-grown and not as sweet as the field-grown ones will be, so I decided to wait.

I also bought six red tulips. They are in a vase in the kitchen, and LuLu is in there now circling them and rubbing against them – she loves fresh flowers and it’s probably just a matter of time before she knocks the vase over. Only one of the tulips is open so I’m looking forward to seeing them bloom this week if my crazy cat doesn't destroy them.

It’s that time of year. Here in North Carolina, we are all in the “eat, breathe, sleep, dream, and talk about nothing but basketball” zone that overtakes our state like clockwork every March. To call it an obsession is no exaggeration at all. We’re hoops mad all the time but once the tournament begins, we get even crazier. Forget Easter or spring fever, for now it’s all hoops, all the time.

My team is the University of North Carolina Tar Heels, known affectionately as “the Heels.” The typical conversation starter these days is “How ‘bout those Heels?” and I hear that at work, in the grocery store, at the dentist, and from both friends and strangers pretty much everywhere I go. People carry their brackets around with them everywhere, and we compare notes about who we picked. I'm starting to get emails from old college buddies who want to talk about our chances. We pull out old “good luck” clothes or charms that helped us win previous championships in 1957 or 1982 or 1993 or 2005 and do various other things to try to please and appease the hoops gods (I have a very tattered but very lucky pompom that I build a shrine for).

I’m cautiously optimistic about our chances this year. We’re ranked Number One in the country, have the best player in the nation, have healed from some mid-season injuries, and are playing very very well. But winning it all in a “one-and-done” tournament like the NCAA is very difficult, and it only takes one giant killer playing the game of his life to knock a better team out. So while I’m trying to take it one game at a time (survive and advance), I can’t help but smile when I think about cutting the nets down on April 7. We’ll see what happens.

Here are a few photos. First is my nephew scoring a basket at the recently opened Carolina Basketball Museum. See all that light blue? That’s Carolina blue! One of our fight songs goes, “I’m Tar Heel born and I’m Tar Heel bred and when I die, I’ll be Tar Heel dead” and my nephews are being “bred” to carry on the tradition, just like my brother and I were.

Our star player was recently named National Player of the Year by Sports Illustrated. Some folks are concerned about an alleged SI cover jinx, but not me. I’m superstitious about other things but not that, and I’m happy for Tyler (aka Psycho T, what a cool nickname!).

I get asked that question all the time. Well, North Carolina is “The Tar Heel State” so everyone who lives here is a Tar Heel. And it’s also the nickname for the sports teams of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

There are several different legends about the origin of the name, and I usually go with the one that dates back to the Revolutionary War. In colonial times, one of North Carolina’s major products was tar from all the pine forests across the state. Some people think that originally "Tar Heels" was an insult, something along the lines of "redneck" or "white trash."

Then the war began and supposedly the troops from North Carolina were very brave (or foolhardy) and refused to retreat or back down, and some famous general said, “Those boys from North Carolina must have tar on their heels” to compliment their bravery. And after that, being called a "Tar Heel" was positive rather than insulting.

UNC-Chapel Hill (founded in 1789) is the oldest public university in the U.S. and “Tar Heels” became the nickname for all the sports teams at that school. So while every resident of NC is a Tar Heel, not every resident is a Tar Heel fan (there are other universities in the state and some people chose to pull for those other teams, though I don't understand why).

But here’s what really confuses people. Our mascot is a ram named Ramses. But we are NOT the UNC Rams, we’re the UNC Tar Heels. Even I don’t completely understand that. Maybe it was just too hard to make a furry suit that looks like a foot?

Our rivals like to point out that a Tar Heel is, in reality, nothing but a dirty foot, and they are right. But I love the name…there are lots of teams called lions or tigers or bears, but ours is unique.

The rivals also like to note that Carolina Blue is a wimpy color more suited to baby nurseries than to athletics, but that’s just sour grapes on their part. ;)

Well, my Tar Heels are still alive and have made it to the Final Four! Twelve days ago, there were 64 teams in the tournament and now there are only four (North Carolina, Kansas, Memphis, and UCLA).

To win the National Championship, you have to win six games in a row. Four down, two to go for the Heels, but the competition gets tougher with every game. And this year, for the first time in history, the Final Four teams are the four Number One seeds which means that the teams left are the best in the country (no Cinderellas this year).

We play Kansas on Saturday night which means a whole week for the excitement and anticipation to build. I’ll be bouncing off the walls by then. Go Heels!

Just to show that indeed, everything is connected...hoops in Venice! In December, I found this basketball court at the base of the campanile of the church of San Francesco della Vigna.

Well, my Tar Heels got hit by a runaway freight train called the Kansas Jayhawks last night. It was pretty ugly, to say the least. We were down by 28 points in the first half and looked like the proverbial deer in the headlights. We couldn’t do anything to stop them. A valiant rally in the second half and we cut their lead to 4 points and then ran out of steam. Sigh. Lots of seriously bummed-out UNC fans are now trying to figure out what in the heck happened. I feel bad for our players because they looked so sad on the TV news but overall, to me, it’s just the way college basketball goes - it was Kansas’ night and not ours. And we had an amazing season – won 36 games and only lost 3, who can complain about that?

I’m more sad about the fact that it will be 7 months until the next game. Now we enter the part of the year where we wait to see which, if any, of our players will leave college early and head for the NBA. I think all of our guys will be back but I’m an optimist and really, who can blame them for moving on to become instant millionaires instead of playing for free?

In happier news from North Carolina, it’s been raining here for about a week. For the past year, we’ve been in an emergency drought situation that’s been pretty scary – at one point, we had less than a month of water left – and it’s so good to get all this rain and see the lake levels rise. Keep it coming.

Here’s some stuff I bought from our local market a few Saturdays ago. Clockwise from the eggs, there is lettuce, asparagus, radishes, scallions, baby turnips (both white and red), and cabbage. The brown square to the left is suet for the bird feeder and above that is some locally produced goat cheese.

In the bottom right corner, you can see LuLu looking longingly at the scallions. She loves long skinny vegetables - she always tries to steal one so she can bat it onto the floor and chase it around. Maybe she’s pretending that it’s a snake? She like green beans a lot too.

I’ve read both of Michael Pollan’s books (The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food) which thoroughly explain all the many good and green reasons to buy locally grown food. But beyond all that, the food just tastes better plus it’s so much fun to shop at an outdoor market. Ours has only been in existence for a few years and people are so excited that it really has a festival atmosphere. And this year, it’s open on Wednesday afternoons in addition to Saturday morning, and it’s so convenient to be able to stop by on Wednesday after work.

But another thing I like is that you can find things you don’t see in a regular old grocery store, like these baby turnips. I’d never had them before (and I’m not a huge fan of “adult” turnips), and they are delicious.

You eat the whole thing – roots, stalks and leaves – and I cooked them like Italian spinach, in olive oil with garlic and red pepper flakes. Then I added a little bit of broth and let them simmer for about 10 minutes until the roots were tender. So good!

Our Farmer’s Market sends out a weekly email newsletter that gives a little preview of the Saturday market. The one I got today said that three of the market's farmers were completely wiped out by that hail storm I wrote about earlier this week, and they are going to have to replant all their summer crops. It’s a rough business – that’s another reason I like to shop there and support these people.

In cat and kitten news, I think we are making some progress. I was in the saferoom with Maria this morning, and LuLu pushed the door open and came in. She didn’t hiss at Maria, she meowed! Then she sniffed the room and left. I haven’t let them get too close to each other yet. And all I can say about Maria is that she is wild and rambunctious and hilarious! I’m really looking forward to this holiday weekend so I can spend more time with them. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "hanging."

Here are a few things that were hanging in the Magic Wings Butterfly House at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, NC.

Happy weekend folks!

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "cloud(s)." I'm going with a reflection of a cloud in this pond that used to be quarry but is now part of the "Explore the Wild" section of the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, NC.

Happy weekend!

“Turn It Blue” is a sports slogan/rally cry for my beloved UNC Tar Heels but during this election year, it has another meaning for me.

I’ve written before about how the state of North Carolina is absolutely basketball crazy and obsessed. Last week I went for a walk during lunch and saw this homemade campaign sign on the side of a vacant building, and I had to laugh. Only in North Carolina!?! Kudos to whoever made this:

Summer is probably my least favorite season for three reasons - heat, humidity, and bugs. It hasn't been too horribly hot this year and the drought is over, thank goodness, but the bugs have been particularly vicious this summer. But it's worth the sweat and bug bites to be able to eat summer vegetables like the ones in the photo above, which shows all the stuff I brought home from the Farmer's Market a couple weeks ago. What a haul: cukes, squash (green and yellow), peppers, eggplant, three kinds of beans (green, yellow wax, and Roma), figs, and tomatoes.

Not in the picture but something else I buy every week is cheese. Our farmer's market now has three local cheese makers who sell some truly delicious stuff that's almost as good as the cheese you get in Italy.

The October 2008 issue of Bon Appetit magazine has an article called "America's Foodiest Small Town" and it's all about my area (Durham - Chapel Hill) and has interviews with some of the farmers that I buy from every week. Pretty cool. I like this part:

"Durham and Chapel Hill—united by an eight-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 15-501—are best known for two things: tobacco and their utter hatred for one another's college basketball teams, the Duke Blue Devils and the North Carolina Tar Heels. But to many they are considered one and the same. And after spending several days meeting farmers like Stuart and Alice, visiting restaurants and farmers' markets, and eating up the wildly diverse culinary scene, I was beginning to think food—not hoops—was the area's outstanding asset."

It's pretty exciting that we've got such a great food scene with so much emphasis on local/organic/sustainable. I seldom go the supermarket any more - I buy pretty much everything I eat at the Farmer's Market and Costco.

Previous posts:

Farmer's Market Report #1
Spring at the Farmer's Market

Coming up soon: Fall! I'm ready to feel that autumn nip in the air but I sure will miss the tomatoes.

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "road."

These are photos from a road trip I took to a charming Roadside Attraction in Prospect Hill, NC.

This miniature stone village was built by North Carolina farmer Henry L. Warren (1883-1978) with help from his neighbor Junius Pennix. The village consists of 27 small buildings that include a church, a hospital, a hotel, and a mill with a waterwheel. Mr. Warren named his little village Shangri-la.

Mr. Warren began building Shangri-la in 1968 when he was 75 years old and worked on it for the next nine years until he died at age 84. The village is made of white quartz and other stone that Mr. Warren found on his farmland. I love this place so much! Happy weekend to all.

The road by Shangri-la:

More photos below:

Anne (andasamo) asked me where Topsail Island is, so here's the answer! It’s on the coast of North Carolina, about two and a half hours from where I live, so it’s a quick and easy trip to go down there for a long weekend like I did last week.

I love the beach. When I was a kid, that was always the destination for our family vacations – we would spend a week or two at either a North or South Carolina beach every summer.

North Carolina has a lot of nice beaches but Topsail is my favorite because it reminds me the most of how the beach was when I was young. It’s not over-developed and there are no ugly high-rise hotels, it’s mainly just cottages. And there’s not much to do except commune with the ocean, swim, walk, fish, or just lay around and read, so it’s very relaxing and renewing. I love the salty smell of the beach and the sound of the waves crashing, and I love to go for long walks and look for seashells. Fall is a perfect time to go because it’s still plenty warm, but vacation season is over so there aren’t a lot of people there.

The day before I went to Topsail, an unnamed storm blew through and even though it wasn’t powerful enough to have a name, it did quite a bit of damage. Virtually every ocean-front home had lost its stairs and/or walkways, and there was some debris laying around on the beach. All along the island, there are public access stairways that take you over the sand dunes and many of these stairs were gone, but luckily the ones closest to our house were intact. The ocean was still churned up when we arrived but it got calmer each day, and there were some beautiful bands of stormy clouds moving through. And the storm washed up some great shells!

It's pretty common to see dolphins swimming by at Topsail although I didn't see any this time (and I didn't get to see the turtles either), but there were lots of nice birds. I don't have a photo of the best bird sighting...I was sitting on the upper deck of the house and a big group of pelicans flew over in formation, very cool!

There was a large flock of black birds hanging out on the beach - I don't remember ever seeing them there before. I think this guy is kinda cute:

A few photos from the Cookout for Change that I went to a few weeks ago. There was a bake sale for Obama and a lemonade stand and a bunch of very cute kids.

There is no doubt in my mind that Obama/Biden are the candidates who will do more to ensure that these kids have a bright future.

When and where to Vote in North Carolina on Nov. 4: Click Here to find your polling place

NC State Board of Elections: Tuesday, Nov. 4, polls open at 6:30 AM and close at 7:30 pm

Locations and Hours for Early Voting In North Carolina

I voted today! When I got to work this morning, the lines at the precinct were very long so I kept looking out the window and walked over there when it looked like they had gotten a little bit shorter. It wasn’t bad at all, only about a 15-minute wait, and it was a lot of fun to talk to the other people in line. The mood can only be described as jubilant. I shook hands with a very sweet older gentleman who was wearing a "Veterans for Obama" button. Everyone was clapping and cheering for the first-time voters. I got a little teary-eyed at one point. And then after I’d marked my ballot, I said a prayer for the safety and well-being of Obama, and for peace on earth and good will towards people, animals, and the environment. Then I turned my ballot in and got my sticker which says “I voted early” and “I made freedom count.”

Oh, and I got polled last night! About 10 minutes before the debate, I got a phone call, and I made the pollster laugh when we got to the part where you have to define how certain you are about your candidate (very certain, somewhat certain, etc.). I interrupted her and said “one hundred thousand percent certain that I’ll be voting for Barack Obama tomorrow.” I was glad they called me!

Turn It Blue, North Carolina!

Singer/songwriter James Taylor returned home to do five free “Change We Need” concerts here in North Carolina this week, and last night I went to the one on the UNC campus in Chapel Hill. Thousands of people gathered to hear JT, one of North Carolina’s favorite sons, and to join him in support of Barack Obama. James Taylor doesn’t live in NC anymore but he grew up in Chapel Hill and as he told us last night, he still considers himself a Tar Heel. He said that it's so wonderful for North Carolina to finally be a battleground state and that the fact that we are on the cusp of turning it blue is “truly miraculous.” I'm grateful to him for coming home to help "get out the vote." The message of the night was “vote early” so that the lines won’t be too long on Election Day (since long lines might impact people who have to get to work and don’t have time to wait in line).

JT opened with a lovely version of "America the Beautiful" and then sang many of his best and most famous songs (Fire and Rain, Sweet Baby James, You Got a Friend). He led the crowd in this cool Obama chant with a funky gospel vibe,which was lots of fun. He doesn't look quite the same as he did on the album cover above (which my parents bought in the late 60's and I actually still have) but his voice is just as sweet and beautiful as ever.

He saved the best for last: "Carolina in My Mind," the greatest song ever written about North Carolina, and just a perfect heartfelt song about that bittersweet yearning you can have for a place you love. I've alway loved that song and it's even the title of one of my blog categories!

So the whole evening was wonderful and inspiring, and I left feeling a lot of hope.

And then…

North Carolina doesn't have that many celebrities but one of the most iconic is actor Andy Griffith, who was born and raised here, went to UNC-Chapel Hill, and then starred in the classic TV show set in the fictional North Carolina town of Mayberry.

Well, yesterday Andy joined director Ron Howard (who played his son Opie on the show) in this video endorsing Barack Obama. It's getting lots of press here in NC in the papers and on the local TV news. One local writer wonders if the "Mayberry Miracle" will be the thing that pushes NC over into the blue!

It's a great video. I got a little choked up when I heard that "Andy Griffith Show" theme song! Kudos to Ron Howard for making this. And after Ron revisits Andy and Mayberry, he reprises his role as Ritchie Cunningham and gets The Fonz to endorse Obama too! Happy Days!

The photo at the top is the endorsement from the Raleigh News and Observer that was published last weekend.

And this endorsement is one that's really close to my heart since Coach Dean Smith is one of my heroes. Not just because he coached my Tar Heels for 36 years and is the greatest basketball coach of all time, but also because he's a kind and compassionate man who has done so much for North Carolina above and beyond giving us many years of excellent basketball. A few facts from his Wikipedia page:

"Smith is also known for running a clean program and having a high graduation rate for his players with 96.6% players going on to graduate. Smith is one of the most prominent liberals in North Carolina politics. Politically, he is best known for promoting desegregation...In 1964, Smith joined a local pastor and a black North Carolina theology student to integrate The Pines, a Chapel Hill restaurant. He also integrated the Tar Heels basketball team by recruiting Charlie Scott as the university's first black scholarship athlete.

While coach, he was recruited by some in the Democratic Party to run for the United States Senate against incumbent Jesse Helms. He declined. But in retirement, he has continued to speak out on issues such as the war in Iraq, death penalty and gay rights. In 2006, Smith became the spokesperson for Devout Democrats, an inter-faith, grassroots political action committee designed to convince religious Americans to vote for Democrats."

Here is the text of Coach Smith's endorsement:

It’s so interesting to see all the creativity inspired by Obama. It’s one thing to slap a bumper sticker on the car or put a pre-fab sign in the yard, but I continue to see hand-made signs and various other inspired ways that people are showing their support. It’s very cool that people are so enthusiastic that they take the time to create something personal and unique. It gives me a lot of hope!

Here are a few signs that I’ve seen here in NC...

That's what Obama said yesterday and I swear, I'm starting to believe him. We will know for sure next week!

I joined 28,000 of my fellow North Carolinians at the Obama rally in downtown Raleigh yesterday. It was so wonderful to get to hear him in person! Notice that I said "hear" not "see" because I was very far away from the stage! I took some photos and well, you gotta trust me on this, he’s in the photo below. LOL. The Raleigh News and Observer has a slide show here with some nice close-ups of him.

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "ruin(ed)."

I've got a couple this week, a shrine in Venice and a shed in North Carolina.

This little wayside shrine in Venice looks like it's melting into the wall. It's not completely ruined but it's on its way.

But even so, it's still serving its purpose as a devotional altar, as you can tell by the little San Antonio candle someone put in it.

This post is for Girasoli (world’s biggest Red Sox fan!). A while back, we were talking about baseball movies on her blog and of course, “Bull Durham” came up. Girasoli didn’t know that the Durham Bulls (the minor league team in the movie) were a real-life team, so I told her that I’d go by the ballpark and take some photos.

This ballpark (the Durham Athletic Park or the DAP) was built in 1939 and is where they filmed the movie in 1988. There have been a number of events to celebrate the movie’s 20th anniversary this year; the biggest was when Kevin Costner brought his rock-n-roll band to play at the city’s Fourth of July party this summer. That concert took place at the new ballpark (built in the mid-1990’s), not this old historic one. The Durham Bulls always had decent attendance at games, but the crowds grew even larger because of the movie and also because of the early 1990’s success of the Atlanta Braves (at that time, the Durham Bulls were a minor league team for the Braves). The old ballpark just couldn’t handle the crowds ( I remember one game where I missed three innings waiting in line for the ladies’ room!) so they built a new and larger stadium. It’s a very nice place but I kinda miss the old park.

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "reflection."

This was taken at Surf City beach on Topsail Island, NC.

You can find more Photo Hunters here.

Happy weekend!

It's still winter here in North Carolina as you can tell from all the bare branches on the oak trees in my yard:

BUT...today was a beautiful 70 degree February day. I actually worked in the yard for a while (I moved my compost bin from the side yard to the back), and I saw some signs of spring (daffodil buds!):

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "warm."

A warm morning sunrise on Topsail Island, NC. I'm looking forward to seeing some warm photos this weekend (it is NOT warm here right now!).

You can find more Photo Hunters and join the hunt here.

Have a great weekend everyone and Happy PhotoHunting!

This past year, I’ve done several blog posts about shopping at my local farmer’s market. Here are the previous posts in the series.

Farmer’s Market Report #1 (March 2008)
Spring at the Market (May 2008)
Summer at the Market (September 2008)

I just realized that I skipped the Autumn post (even though I took a photo for it) so I’m going to combine fall and winter in this one.

Here’s the Autumn photo – taken the weekend before Thanksgiving. As you can see, there were still plenty of good things to eat even though it was starting to get colder.

Spinach, scallions, Swiss chard, several colors of peppers, a turban-shaped pumpkin, and butterbeans in the bag. I made soup out of that pumpkin and it was awesome.

And here is winter, taken the last weekend in January. This time, I bought eggs, Italian parsley, radishes, Swiss chard, spinach, scallions, goat cheese, and a cabbage (Maria the kitten is partially blocking the view of the cabbage).

There was tons of lettuce at the market in January too as well as collards and other greens. And lots of potatoes, both white and sweet.

Not pictured is the potato, lemon, and farmer’s cheese empanada that I bought at the market and ate immediately!

Last summer, my nephew Davis spent the weekend with me, and one of the things we did was go to the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, NC. I’ve been taking the boys to this museum for years – they love it and so do I. It’s a very large museum with both indoor and outdoor exhibits, and is a great place to hike around and take pictures!

Davis had just gotten a camera for his sixth birthday, so we were both snapping lots of shots that day.

We arrived right when the museum opened and decided to do the outdoor stuff first, and then go inside later when it got hot. First we walked through the “Farmyard” and saw all those animals, and next went to the “Explore the Wild” section where we were very lucky to see one of the four black bears taking a morning swim. We also visited the wolves and the lemurs.

Davis was very patient about posing for me. :)

What a great surprise! We don't get that much snow where I live, and it's especially unusual to get any this late in the season. It rained all day yesterday and then when I went to bed, it had just turned to snow. I woke up this morning to a Winter Wonderland, and the roads are so bad that I can't go to work (yay!). I love Snow Days and we get so few of them that it's really exciting when it happens.

It was 70 degrees here last week and we've already got daffodils blooming.

Kathy (Trekcapri) asked me how my cats like the snow. Well, they are indoor cats so they don't have to go out and get cold feet but when I woke up this morning, they were both in the window checking it all out. The first thing I did was go outside and fill up the bird feeders, so both cats sat in the window watching the birds for an hour or so. Cat TV! Now LuLu is in her bed taking a nap but Maria is still sitting in the kitchen window chirping at the birds.

March Madness is in full force here in North Carolina and everyone is talking about their brackets and office pools, and Tar Heel fans like me are fretting about our point guard Ty Lawson's hurt toe and trying to figure out how to leave work early for the Heels' first game on Thursday afternoon.

I have to say, seeing President Obama's bracket makes me very happy! I haven't finished filling my bracket out yet but I'm going to pick UNC to go all the way too. :)

Go Heels!

Presidential Pick 'Em At the White House (story and photo from ESPN)

"The most powerful person in the world is like many of you: He predicts the Tar Heels will be cutting down the nets in Detroit.

"Now, for the Tar Heels who are watching, I picked you all last year -- you let me down. This year, don't embarrass me in front of the nation, all right? I'm counting on you. I still got those sneakers you guys gave me."

I love his little pep talk! I guess the Tar Heels gave him some sneakers when he played ball with them during the campaign. His bracket looks pretty good!

Obama's Bracket

And in other Hoops news, Forbes Magazine also ranks the Tar Heels Number One: The Most Valuable College Basketball Team

If you're scratching your head about what I'm talking about, here you go: :)

What is a Tar Heel?

March Madness

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Hands."

A large street mural on a building in downtown Durham, NC. I don't know who the artist is but there are lots of hands (and hand holding) in the painting.

A sweet little painting and message on the back of the car that belongs to North Carolina folk artist Sam "The Dot Man" McMillan.

And here's the artist Sam "The Dot Man" with his hand in his pocket. :)

You can find more Photo Hunters and join the hunt here.

Have a great weekend everyone. Happy PhotoHunting!

I had to laugh when I went to the grocery store this weekend and saw the cover of this week’s Sports Illustrated. I had just mentioned to Trek Capri that the Marvin Gaye song “Lets Get It On” will always remind me of Venice because when I walked into the church of Santo Stefano in December, that song was playing over the loudspeaker before the Joy Singers concert, and it was so funny that I'll never forget it.

And here it shows up again, this time connected to the Heels. As for the dreaded Sports Illustrated cover jinx…...many sports fans worry about it, but I don’t. For one, Michael Jordan was on the cover of SI a record 49 times and it didn’t seem to hurt him too much. :) Plus, it's sports which means there's gonna be a winner and a loser, and SI isn't going to always predict it right.

But enough sports fans believe in the cover jinx that Sports Illustrated published an issue about it with a black cat on the cover!

The Tar Heels have been on the cover of SI many times over the years, and I’ve got copies of all the magazines they were on. Here are a few of my favorites:

I stayed in Chapel Hill after Saturday night's game and yesterday morning, I went and walked around campus and town for a while before I drove home. I'll be heading back over there after work today (and this day is dragging!). Thanks everyone for all the well wishes for my Heels!

Here are a few photos I took yesterday. The UNC- Chapel Hill campus is so beautiful, especially in spring.

Lots of Hoopla downtown on Franklin Street

There's a building downtown with all these gargoyles on the roof, flying the Tar Heel flag

Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina when the Heels WIN IT ALL!

And it was so great that instead of a nail-biter, we got a nice relaxing old fashioned BLOW OUT of a game! What an awesome team. I'm so happy for those players.

Dancing in the Streets of Chapel Hill last night with 40,000 fellow Tar Heel fans

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Purple."

A few of the purples of Spring time.

A couple of crocus:

A spring sunset in my backyard:

Wisteria

Even though this vine borders on being a noxious weed, I love it, and it's blooming like mad right now. So beautiful and it smells amazing!

You can find more Photo Hunters and join the hunt here.

Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend!

Earth Day 2009: The Green Generation

A few photos from the Earth Day parade that I went to this past weekend at Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance in Silk Hope, NC. It's such a wonderful festival in beautiful rural North Carolina - I heard lots of great music but this parade was my favorite part. Puppets created by NC artists/activists Paperhand Puppet Intervention whose mission statement includes:

Our vision is inspired by our love for the earth and its creatures (including humans) as well as our belief in justice, equality, and peace.

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Walking."

Walking with a book on your head is supposed to help you learn good posture or at least that's what they told us in grade school when I was a kid.

When I saw this sculpture on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus, I flashed back to Health Class when all of us kids would walk around like this with books crashing to the ground. It's not that easy to do!

You can find more Photo Hunters and join the hunt here.

Thanks for visiting and have a nice weekend. Happy May Day!

If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking.

-- Buddhist saying

The National Champion Tar Heels went to the White House yesterday where President Obama praised them in a speech, and they gave him his very own Tar Heel jersey. This was all over the local news last night and it was fun to hear Obama's speech; he was really funny.

He thanked the Heels for "salvaging my bracket and vindicating me before the entire nation" and remembered that he had played ball with them in Chapel Hill last year during his campaign.

"I'm not sure whose luck rubbed off on who. There was just a good vibe going on there, because they're now national champions and I'm now president," Obama said. :) And after they gave him the jersey and an autographed picture, he said, "Now, if somebody could just present me a jump shot. I need one of those."

Over Memorial Day weekend, I went to an art show at this most wonderful place: the Goathouse Gallery, Gardens, and Refuge. An Italian artist named Siglinda Scarpa lives and works there, and her gardens have been featured in magazines and on HGTV and are just amazingly beautiful with fig trees and arbors and trellises and lots of fish ponds with her artwork scattered throughout - it’s a magical place. It was like a little trip to Tuscany except that it’s in rural North Carolina.

But the main reason I went was because the art show was a benefit for the "Refuge" – a cage-free sanctuary for about 200 homeless cats. Just incredible. The cats have a house where they sleep at night, and they also have three acres of fenced-in woodland where they can roam and play.

Most of these cats came from public shelters where they had run out of time and were on the verge of being euthanized. They are such friendly, healthy, and happy cats and are available for adoption. I took so many photos that I’m going to do several posts about this place so without further ado, here are some of the cats!

This was the first cat I met. As I was walking from my car to the gallery and the refuge, I could see cats playing in the fenced-in area and when I pulled my camera out, this one ran right over and posed. What great eyes!

This photo cracks me up! To visit the cats, you first go into their house. Some of the cats were outside playing, but this crowd chose to hang out inside on their day bed. It's kind of hard to tell but there are 10 cats in this photo!

I'm so enchanted by this little girl. What unusual and beautiful markings! I've never seen a cat quite like this before.

This cat was super friendly and followed me around for a while. Very sweet.

Part two about my visit to the Goathouse Refuge...

When I saw these goats, I thought of Nancy and her sweet post about her Goatboys. I like how goats always look like they are smiling!

Part three about my visit to the Goathouse Refuge...

Doesn't this one just melt your heart?

All these cats have names and the volunteers seemed to know every single cat! So many unique and beautiful cats - it was a lot of fun to take photos of them.

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Advertisement."

Two vintage ads plus one modern one, all found here in NC. And I didn't notice this until a few minutes ago, but all of these are ads for products made with lots of sugar. :)

Remember Chiclets (that dainty mint-covered, candy-coated chewing gum)?

Iconic Coca-Cola ads on an old country store:

And a modern ad on a truck. I've never had anything from this bakery but I like their ad:

You can find more Photo Hunters and join the hunt here.

Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend.

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Lock."

This is a roadside stand where I stop and shop sometimes. Nice stuff for sale but what's unusual about this place is that there is never anyone there. You shop on the honor system.

They do have a lock on the money box but still, they trust people to put money in the box (and not grab the box and run off with it). There used to be more stands like this when I was a kid; it made me happy to find this one.

You can find more Photo Hunters and join the hunt here.

Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend.

I didn’t participate in Slow Scoopers last summer but they inspired me to buy an ice cream maker which has been in winter storage but is now out and cranking! This amazing sorbet is the first thing I’ve made this year and also, this was my first ever experience of foraging in the wild for ingredients. :)

There are a few things I’ve eaten in my life that were so good they almost made me swoon and this sorbet is one of them. It’s a cult classic dessert here in North Carolina and every spring, people flock to my favorite local restaurant, Crook’s Corner in Chapel Hill, to eat this stuff. Bill Smith (the chef at Crooks’ and a 2009 James Beard finalist for best regional chef) created this recipe after doing research into medieval Arabic and Sicilian recipes for flower ices.

Pretty much every Southern kid learns how to pluck a honeysuckle blossom, pull the stamen out, and then eat the tiny drop of honey inside the flower. Well, this sorbet tastes like a combination of that honey droplet and the aroma of honeysuckle when it’s in bloom.

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Flags."

Various and sundry flags seen at Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival. The first photo shows Buddhist prayer flags in a tree.

You can find more Photo Hunters and join the hunt here.

Thanks for visiting and have a happy weekend.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the best tomato I’ve ever had is of Italian descent.

I grow lots of different kinds of tomatoes every summer and like to try new varieties, especially heirlooms. Even though my success with heirloom tomatoes has been mixed, I have found that they are much tastier than more common workhorse hybrids like Better Boy, Big Boy etc. Heirloom plants don’t usually yield as much but still, they are worth planting if you’re obsessed with tomatoes like most Southerners are.

When I was buying tomato plants at the Farmer’s Market this spring, a vendor pointed out the Costoluto Genovese plants and told me that it was the best tomato she’d ever had. And I have to agree with her. This Italian heirloom (the one in the photo was the first on my plant to ripen) is absolutely delicious with intense tomato flavor and the perfect mix of sweet and acid. I ate about half of it plain (sliced with salt) and used the rest to make tomato sandwiches on multigrain bread with mayo, salt, and pepper.

It’s kind of a funky looking tomato with those deep ridges on top. I’ve read that most Italians use it for sauce (it’s a fleshy tomato inside without a lot of water or seeds) but it was truly awesome raw. Homegrown tomatoes are one of the best things about summer here in NC and make me much more tolerant of the heat, humidity, and the awful bugs.

Here's some cool art that I saw at the mall in Chapel Hill a couple of weekends ago. It's called Our Stories, in Focus and over 1,000 members of the community contributed images to this project.

From the website:

"This spring members of the Chapel Hill, Carrboro and University of North Carolina communities were invited to share personal stories and family mementos as part of the 2009 Community Art and History Project.

Participants were asked to look more closely at their personal and community histories by considering these questions: What brought you or your family to this place? and What is the legacy you want to leave in your community? Participants brought pieces of their history (photos, letters, etc.) to community workshops.....where local artists Leah Sobsey and Lynn Bregman Blass scanned and photographed the mementos. The artists then created a community portrait out of these collected images..."

From a distance, it looks like a giant windsock but when you get closer, you see the collection of memories. It's a lot of fun to look at it all, plus I love the whole concept of a community artwork. There was also an oral history part of this project that recorded people's stories about the images they contributed. We tend to think of a lone artist in the studio communing with his/her muse, but group projects like this are such a great idea. I love this one.

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Low."

Low tide at Surf City, NC, and the beach is wide.

At high tide, the waves come all the way up to the dunes, and there is barely any beach at all.

You can find more Photo Hunters and join the hunt here.

Thanks for visiting and have a good weekend.

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Artificial."

Artificial flowers, artificial vanilla flavoring, and artificial Christmas trees all came to mind but I don't have photos of any of those.

The dictionary defines artificial as "made by humans as opposed to nature" and that made me think of these creatures from the brand-new Dinosaur Trail at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, NC. They are very cool-looking but they aren't real. :)

You can find more Photo Hunters and join the hunt here.

Thanks for visiting and have a good weekend.

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Surprise."

There's a section of the Museum of Life and Science in Durham that has several carnivorous bug-eating plants including this one, the pitcher plant. Insects get trapped in the pitchers and the plant eats them. My nephews LOVE looking for bugs inside the pitchers.

The last time we were there, we were surprised to see a little face peering out at us from inside one of the pitchers! We thought it was a lizard but then it jumped out and we saw that it was a frog. Cute little guy. Maybe he was trying to steal some bugs from the plant, but we wondered if the plant might be trying to eat him too.

You can find more Photo Hunters and join the hunt here.

Thanks for visiting and have a good weekend.

The first day of autumn - I can't believe it! It sure doesn't feel like fall here in NC today - it's warm and muggy. While I love fall and its colors and the cooler temperatures, I sure am going to miss the tomatoes. They're not completely gone yet though - my tomato plants have slowed down but I'm still getting a few cherry tomatoes, and there are plenty of tomatoes at the market. I'm trying to eat as many as I can before the first frost. Love the colors in the photo above.

One good thing about buying from the people who actually grow your food is that they can tell you how to cook things you've never tried before. Here's a meal I made a couple of weekends ago using two brand-new (to me) ingredients.

First are padron peppers. When I saw the sign that said "Spanish tapas peppers," I knew I had to try them. The farmer told me to saute them over medium high heat for about 10 minutes and then put some coarse salt on them. He also told me that these are sometimes called roulette peppers since every once in a while, you get one that's really spicy! These are so tender that you don't have to remove the seeds and stems, you can just cook and eat them whole. Delicious (and I didn't get a super hot one this time).

Here's a case where you can't judge a bean by its cover (or shell). I was familiar with Christmas lima beans because they are pictured on the cover of "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver (a great book!) and I was excited to find them for sale at the market. The farmer told me to shell them and then simmer for 10-15 minutes until tender. They are easy to shell because the beans are so big and as you can see, the beans inside are absolutely beautiful.

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Sports."

I've got a couple of sports-related signs from here in North Carolina.

First is this eye-catching warning sign at the historic Durham Athletic Park baseball stadium:

And this one is in a shop window in Chapel Hill. Translation: I love the UNC Tar Heel basketball team (2009 NCAA Champions). And I do. Go Heels!

You can find more Photo Hunters and join the hunt here.

Thanks for visiting and have a good weekend.