Sunday, December 19, 2010
a good find
The Paris Review has hundreds of interviews of artists and authors dating back to the 50s online. Hemingway. Ellison. Ginsburg...so many amazing people!
Sunday, December 12, 2010
weekend weekend weekend
watch out.
I'm feeling the spirit of the season for the first time in...forever.
weekend= bike riding, coffee drinking, arizmendi pizza eating, and botanical garden wandering
weekend was also: organizing, and lots of sunday cooking.
Fire cider brewing to keep the winter sicknesses away. Hummus.
Rustic cabbage & white bean soup.
(shoulda gone for the gorgonzola, nothing like leftover cabbage soup over gorgonzola toast)
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Friday, December 10, 2010
rekindled
A magical wintry night had me walking the streets of my neighborhood last weekend--windows decked with holiday wishes, neighbors stringing christmas lights on tiny porches, the last of the drunken santas tired from a full day of SFs ritual santa con eating slices of greasy pizza on the street, teenagers preening for their Quinceañera celebration with manicures. Mission street glowing with bright the reds, greens, and golds of holiday consumables for a $1. Valencia street such a stark difference just a block away with people waiting outside restaurants for a fancy meal.
Photos from my stroll...
I decided to peek into one of my favorite used bookstores Dog Eared Books.
My life long love affair with books has been on a bit of a hiatus. My books still hold a coveted space in my tiny room--each old favorite a reminder of a time or place or emotion in my life, each unopened book the potential for a new adventure--but I haven't finished a book in I don't know how long. I check out stacks of books from the library, mostly of the gardening and non-fiction sort, but reading a book cover to cover, it's been too long. I spend too much time in front of the screen--my attention span dwindling to the length of half an article in a magazine. Since I made the switch to biking, my commute is no longer a refuge for reading.
Since the shocking self-revelation that I've been ignoring the printed word, I'm back on the sauce...and my visit to the aisles of Dog Eared rekindled my love. My wanderings brought me to the back of the store, where they were the feature story in that Sunday's New York Times travel story about the literary scene in SF. Serendipitous!
Photos from my stroll...
I decided to peek into one of my favorite used bookstores Dog Eared Books.
My life long love affair with books has been on a bit of a hiatus. My books still hold a coveted space in my tiny room--each old favorite a reminder of a time or place or emotion in my life, each unopened book the potential for a new adventure--but I haven't finished a book in I don't know how long. I check out stacks of books from the library, mostly of the gardening and non-fiction sort, but reading a book cover to cover, it's been too long. I spend too much time in front of the screen--my attention span dwindling to the length of half an article in a magazine. Since I made the switch to biking, my commute is no longer a refuge for reading.
Since the shocking self-revelation that I've been ignoring the printed word, I'm back on the sauce...and my visit to the aisles of Dog Eared rekindled my love. My wanderings brought me to the back of the store, where they were the feature story in that Sunday's New York Times travel story about the literary scene in SF. Serendipitous!
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Hard work
This spring I started working with an incredibly dedicated group of young urban farmers to focus on SF local food policy. Lately this work is seeing the light of day--sometimes for the worse, sometimes for the better....here are my latest thoughts.
We came together to make a mandate have some muscle. We came together to promote growing food in this little city by the sea. We came together because we all feel the importance of knowing where your food comes from. Because we should all have access to affordable, healthy, and chemical-free food.
Such hard work.
We spent hours around conference tables after our day jobs hashing out the question: how do we build a strong urban agricultural system in SF? and do it with no money. and put that on one page please.
But then, right out of the gate, our good idea was turned into the wrong idea in the wrong place. A little over a week ago the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Recycling Center / Native Plant Nursery received a 90-day eviction notice. Despite 3 hours of public testimony--when local food advocate after garden advocate after homeless advocate stood up in solid support for the Recycling Center. Instead, over 36 years of providing recycling services will be put to an end and 10 green jobs will be lost. All in the name of putting in a new community garden and resource center. The same type of center we recommended to the city--a place where residents can get mulch and compost and manure and other foundations for starting a garden. But this neighborhood already has access to one of my favorite SF garden resources, Garden for the Environment. There is a glimmer of hope that the recycling center will be saved. Good will come of this -- because as urban farming advocates this is a huge lesson to be more strategic and organized about our next steps. It's time to get active.
Today's Huffington Post article by SF Public Utilities Commission president Francesca Vietor provides some hope that SF food and farming policy will move forward for the better. She's continuing the PUC innovation of providing public land for public good--growing food.
We came together to make a mandate have some muscle. We came together to promote growing food in this little city by the sea. We came together because we all feel the importance of knowing where your food comes from. Because we should all have access to affordable, healthy, and chemical-free food.
Such hard work.
We spent hours around conference tables after our day jobs hashing out the question: how do we build a strong urban agricultural system in SF? and do it with no money. and put that on one page please.
But then, right out of the gate, our good idea was turned into the wrong idea in the wrong place. A little over a week ago the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Recycling Center / Native Plant Nursery received a 90-day eviction notice. Despite 3 hours of public testimony--when local food advocate after garden advocate after homeless advocate stood up in solid support for the Recycling Center. Instead, over 36 years of providing recycling services will be put to an end and 10 green jobs will be lost. All in the name of putting in a new community garden and resource center. The same type of center we recommended to the city--a place where residents can get mulch and compost and manure and other foundations for starting a garden. But this neighborhood already has access to one of my favorite SF garden resources, Garden for the Environment. There is a glimmer of hope that the recycling center will be saved. Good will come of this -- because as urban farming advocates this is a huge lesson to be more strategic and organized about our next steps. It's time to get active.
Today's Huffington Post article by SF Public Utilities Commission president Francesca Vietor provides some hope that SF food and farming policy will move forward for the better. She's continuing the PUC innovation of providing public land for public good--growing food.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
workin it.
Here's some rad photos and a blog post from a recent trip I took to the Sierra Meadows--the new focus of my day job :)
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