Sunday, April 29, 2012

Oh, Miss Apple

I may need to get Fiona Apple's upcoming album, if I can judge by this: "Every Single Night"


She's haunting. I think she shouldn't be American. She seems more closely related to Edith Piaf than anyone here in the States.

Before House

If the weather holds, I will garden today.  But the front of our house has looked terrible pretty much since we moved in over 5 years ago.  We've been working on it very very slowly--mostly because when we started working on it, I started having back trouble.  But this summer will be the start of the house having some bona fide curb appeal.  It will take a while for everything to grow in, of course, and I will tinker for years trying to get it right.

So, here is the house at the start of spring:


Sad. . . just wait until the picture at the end of the summer. . .

Ready for Summer


Chicagoans earn their summers. . . I guess we didn't really do that this year with the mild winter, but the instinct to enjoy every bit of the summer months is still deeply ingrained.  And I'm ready.  It's still cold now, but I've started to think about concerts at the Pritzker Pavilion and dinner picnicking in Millennium park after work.  Or walking back from the park to the car or the train and sliding into Dance Chicago--the orange light, the live bands, the romance of the tango just after nightfall, outdoors, in the garden and dark, the music echoing off the faces of sky scrapers, rolling down Michigan Avenue.

Chicago can feel like Europe in the summer.  That beautiful and cultured and alive.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Appealing

What?  What was that?


I got a sink full o' curb appeal.  
Astilbe, hollyhocks, 2 variety of peony, butterflybush, and echinacea.
Thanks, Burpees!

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Getting Ready for Spring


Hung out with my honey today--gardening and cleaning up around the outside of the house.  We raked leaves and hacked our apple trees and wisteria back to their very nubs.  We weeded and got rid of unwanted plants.  We divided hostas and sage and replanted to fill in in empty spots.



It was cold outside, but we treated the day like spring.  So, to celebrate, I'm making a strawberry/rhubarb crisp for dessert. . . after a springy dinner of quiche and salad.  Even the outdoors knows it's a party tonight.


Saturday, April 21, 2012

618 S. Michigan Ave

The Fashion Studies Department of Columbia College Chicago has moved fully into 618 S. Michigan Ave.  And not surprisingly that means that the storefront windows of that building are consistently filled with a revolving collection of awfully brilliant student fashion work.  Sometimes the work there is so far along the fine art spectrum that I just want to stare it as art, but often the work makes me covetous.  I want to buy it and wear it and make it my own.

But the windows are spectacular. Walking to meetings or to go get coffee in the morning, it's fun to watch passersby drawn in to get a closer look.  It's a wide sidewalk there and it's not hard to notice the beelining to the collections on display.

Most recently, there was a collection of historical designs made entirely out of paper.





Saturday, April 14, 2012

Hot Cross Buns

I don't do much to celebrate Easter. Usually, if weather permits, I like to go outside and garden. While I'm out there digging in the dirt, I get to see all of the church folks walking home after church in their Sunday best. Two different churches in my neighborhood this year sounded like they brought in high school marching bands to play at the end of the service. It's a fun day to listen to, if the sun is out, and I can be outside.

But the one thing I try to always do is make hot cross buns. My grandma always did, and I follow that tradition.

I used Ree Drummond's recipe this year.


It was tasty, but all of the bottoms burned. . . so either my oven is too hot, or you should cook these puppies on a silpat.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Toynbee or copycat?

Last month, I watched the Toynbee Tile documentary--Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles. It sounded interesting, and unbeknownst to me, the little robot guys I photographed both on Michigan Ave. in Chicago and in a rest area on the Turnpike in Ohio are part of the Toynbee Tile mystery.

I'm not going to go into what the Toynbee tiles are. . . there's a feature length documentary after all:



But today, taking a break from work and headed to 33 E. Congress to see a few student gallery shows, I walked across either a Toynbee tile or the tile of a copycat that's paying pretty great homage. . .


For you Toynbee fans--Wabash Ave. in the lefthand turn lane just north of Harrison.

Go, Devil Brushhogs, indeed!

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

My Anthem

This song--"Carry On" by Fun.--has been my anthem for the last month. I found Fun. in the midst of less appealing times and made a point of listening to this song at least once (okay, often 3 or 4 times) during my morning commute. And it totally buoyed me up.



Anyone else think the lead singer looks like Guy Pearce? Anyone? Anyone?

Sunday, April 1, 2012