terrariyums.

reading about seasonal affective disorder will cause you to have it. if you are careful, then you didn't read the preceding sentence, out of preventative principle.

whatever, i have a load of a list of things that are going to keep me from getting the wintertime blues.

building a terrarium with caitie is on the list, as is a thanksgiving land art project with amy.

if i posted the whole list here i would be embarrassed. no. i'll do it, for the record.

in no particular order:

watercolors, learn to knit, knit a big blanket, crochet the ongoing blanket, cook soups, quiche, tarts, snowshoeing, cross country skiing, birding, wishes project, thanksgiving art with amy, seattle, yoga, gym, homemade yogurt, honey, movies, madmen, the wire, breaking bad, tim and eric, duck club, the cabin, hot springs--diamond fork and meadow, yurt, lots of yoga, craft niche, cookies!, strength training, terrariums with caitie, succulent garden, cooking class, opera, ballet, telemark skiing (jord's going to teach me!!), hiking up neff's to find moss.

i'll add to this.

happening.

pardon me for seeming sowft.

i found this in the dustbin of blog drafts.

dear miss caitie,

you may not recall my gorgan(zola), but i met you at the snarly cocktail party given by our ripe friend, spencer. we had a hipstery talk about brazen mustachios dot coms, and i was impressed by your arabic conversation and your grasp of the manufactured situation. also, i was very much attracted by your oily eyes, your dusty little chin, and your racy teeth. if you'll pardon me for seeming sowft, i was fascinated by your blue walk and by your gregarious figure.

i hope i made a demonstrative impression, and that we can get together for a nice arbiter next week.

mysteriously yours,

tyler

to love the west

i've created another internet diversion!

this time, it highlights things to be loved about the west, especially my home state, utah.

here it is:

heartwest

no more pharting around.

most of last week sucked. i was too busy to be happy.

points of brightness, of course, were my boy, my family, my friends and zim.

pharts.

lest i only write when i'm happy, today sucks.

you win some, you don't win some.

i just got an empty, sealed classic series wrapper.

the new natural history museum of utah

you will learn. you will have fun. you will find something new to love about utah.

i am thrilled to be involved in the opening phase of nhmu. we're creating some kick-butt programs for y'all.

dust bunnies and pollen pee-wees

allergies are killing me.

fortunately i can go to intermountain allergy to see what is driving my histamines crazy.

unfortunately i can't do anything about it, except surrender more of my sense of smell to 6-hour (24-hour? yeah right?) allergy relief medication.

all is full of.

one thing i love about salt lake is that there is a sort of urgency that comes at the end of summer.



after yoga, jord and I headed to the avenues street fair. so many friends at the fair! alex p. was there with healutah, andrea s. was selling handmade rugs, nhmu people were spreading the news about the new museum, meaghan was manning the utah clean energy booth, and brittany and marcus, gavin, aaron and whitney were selling terrariums (the purple thumb), collages, papercrafts, buttons, magnets and cassette tapes (with walkmens). i bought black rose post earrings and a dinosaur bib from vintagefern. jord congratulated me for wearing 3-d earrings. we snacked on kettle corn and i got a porcelain peace magnet because i saved the magnets from crashing to the ground.

we headed to the grateful tomato garden (wasatch community garden) before our 12pm volunteering commitment. jord and i volunteered on the garden winter staff and it was nice to see how the garden has grown. the line for crumb-brothers-bread-fresh-garden-pesto-uber-fresh-heirloom-tomato sandwiches was long but moving quickly.

so many tomatoes of all sorts. i ate so many tomatoes. i was a slicer, so i noshed quite a bit. my favorites were the yellowy-pink-orangey ones. we went home with two bags of tomatoes and about a pound of sliced ones. jord bought some honey off a local dude. also, in between the plant sale and the free plants for volunteers, we ended up with sage, arugula and a mystery plant (dun dun DUN).

we got back to the apartment just as a big storm was rolling in. it was lovely. i put my honey in the honey jar and tried it with peanut butter and a cracker. so yum.

when the rain dissipated we went back to the street fair, where i bought a cross-stitch of (gasp!) an owl from whitney. jord bought several pieces of paper art (including a righteous eagle with fish prey), a couple buttons and a cassette tape from gav. we bolth wanted to buy a terrarium, but we're going to wait and make one with brit. down the street, there was a house filled with estate-sale items. i bought a small wooden jewelry box and a ladybug clip. tricia and her kids were there, and we talked about amy and todd.

when we got home, i pulled out the pastry dough i had made friday and beat the hell out of it. i used julia child's recipe. (i was going to make a "quick and easy" crust, but then decided if i was going to do it, i was going to do it right). i partially baked the crust and then poured the quiche lorraine (with added mushrooms) filling into the crust. it smelled like heaven was baking in the oven.

we ate the quiche for dinner. it was SO GOOD. i thought i was going to screw up julia's recipe, but i channeled her life force and BOOM. deliriously good quiche. also deliriously fattening and rich quiche. grum a yum.

thusly, we took zig for a night hike up in the foothills. we saw several ghostly nighthawks on the way up. the temperature was perfect and the city below was glimmering. on the way down we spotted a big buck and a doe. zig phreeked out and flew after them. it's a strange dog that's scared of a breeze but will charge animals five times his size.

then, this morning, we went to city creek for a run. we saw a hairy woodpecker. the end.

i don't know why i felt i needed to outline this weekend. it was just perfect. and now i'm sitting with the brlack cat. he makes me so happy.

what makes the classic series so classic?

courage. it doesn't get better than this. it just doesn't.

i got two classic series nobjules in one wrapper!!

buy them here:
http://www.southeastmarket.com/

(such a great little market. the grocers are friendly and helpful.)

ciruela

hard word to say, or hardest word to say?

it's funny when you find yourself.

homegrown tomatoes

the jaune flammes are rapturously good.

jord and i are volunteering at the annual tomato sandwich party and plant sale at the grateful tomato garden (800 south 600 east, slc) for wasatch community gardens, september 10, 11am-2pm.

it is FREE, and you should COME.

more info:
http://wasatchgardens.org/event/tomato-sandwich-party-and-fall-plant-sale/9/10/11

hummingbirds make zim tired.

moments ago, there was a veritable cloud of hummingbirds outside this fifth-story window.

maybe not a cloud. maybe more like 10 birds or so, but.

i stuck my head out the window to de-brownleaf the basil plant on the fire escape. this plant is finally doing a little better.

as i was doing this, a hummingbird flitted around the feeder, which was roughly ten inches or so from my head. i held still to see if he would land for a sip. land, he did. i got to see his tiny green head up close, his thin little tongue lick the last droplet of sugar water from his thin little beak, his beak open to make a peep, the vibration of his wings.

very pretty at dusk this late summer night.

rugged individual

i wish i could have seen pink floyd on the great salt lake. i love his story. he lived at tracy aviary but escaped to the shores of the gsl in 1988. he thrived on the brine shrimp, as evidenced by his strikingly deep pink color. he hasn't been heard of since the migration of 2005.

so it's storming on the lake
little waves our bodies break

http://www.utahbirds.org/featarts/2004/UtahsPinkFloyd.htm

cancel out.

is there a problem with running three miles while thinking about making quiche?

surprises are best.

don't want to jinx it, but every day in september has been a lovely surprise.

happy september first. september 1.

beautiful, simple day.