fivetrees additions

New softies making their way to the fivetrees etsy shop this weekend and probably into next week.  I'm working on a new project--a simple sweet project to be revealed soon--but in the meantime, I need to get completed work into the shop.

Yesterday, I did a little photoshoot out in the garden. The air is so crisp and clear and downright autumnal this summer (good and bad. . . like summer never even happened), that it has been really nice to take photos outdoors.

So, the weather cooperated, but my helper kept sneaking into the photos:

He sneaks in all nonchalant, slowly filling the viewfinder. He doesn't make eye contact and makes it all look like it's not intentional.  And when I laugh and tell him to get out, he looks at me with surprise as if to say, "Oh, sorry, I didn't see you there!"

Oh, L.P., you're simultaneously the best and the worst.

It's Like All He Does Is Sleep

. . . and I pretend not to be jealous

No one could ever claim that our L.P. is not a handsome wee dog. He is small and cute and good looking.

But many also know that he is an obsessive little guy. Tenacious and mostly interested in chasing things, all things. . . any thing. Today, he pulled this runner bean from the bottom of a vine in the back yard and brought it to me to play fetch.


Not surprisingly, once thrown, that bean was pretty hard to find. . .

Beautiful Day + Log

This spring has been a cold and rainy one in Chicago. But last weekend we had a sunny day and again today, a sunny day. And it was in the low 70's. So, I took my bad back outside into the sun and did a little yard work (emphasis on the "little"). One thing I did do? Cut a few non-magnolia stumps out of our pretty magnolia bush.



And then L.P. went to town on the tiny stumpy logs.





L.P. had the best day of any dog in town today. No contest. Don't even try, other dogs, because L.P. loved that log. . .

Why Doesn't He Care?

Trying to take pictures of L.P. outside in the snow is a little like trying solve a problem like Maria. He's not having it. He's too busy playing and digging it to be cute for the camera.

Dan joked today at the Lawrence dog beach that L.P. just doesn't care about his web presence.

So true. He's too cool for friendface and so refuses to try to understand why I might want cute pictures of him either for posterity or for my blog.



He's too cool for school.



He's also obviously pretty mouthy. What can we say? We forgot to pack a tennis ball for the beach, and L.P. was sorely vexed in between meeting other dogs, running about and eating snow.

Snowmaggedon

Our little house. . . Can't wait to get rid of those two crazy trees. . .

and L.P. looooooooooovees this weather. I let him out of the yard and he super geeked out on getting to run in places he doesn't usually get to go off leash. Pretty fun.

Snowtorious B.I.G.

Yesterday, all Chicagoans--maybe during their early commutes home--seemed to be competing to come up with the best name of the impending blizzard. The title of this post was my favorite, but others included: snowgasm, snowpocalypse, snO.M.G, Blizzaster, "Snow you di'int!", snowverkill, snowmaggedon, Snobel Prize. . . you get the picture.

Chicagoans usually laugh in the face of snow. We don't take it very seriously. . . we scoff at southern towns that screech to a halt and make mad stampedes on the Piggly Wiggly for a dusting of a few inches. We're hardy folks up here and are offended by the notion of taking snow days.

But this time is different. This is a bona fide blizzard. Impossible to measure the snowfall because it blew around in 60 mph winds last night, so that in some spots, the snow is 2" deep, but the drift right next to that is 4 feet tall. Everything is closed today as far as I can tell--schools, colleges, businesses. It's a mess out there.

2 PM on Tuesday--no blizzard in sight yet, but I was still sent home early from work. That was maybe the oddest thing about yesterday. . . a town that usually mocks snow and weather, took the blizzard really seriously and cleared out of the city before the heaviest snow had even started. The folks who got stuck on Lake Shore Drive later in the evening were either idiots or had terrible bosses who made them stay later than they should have.

Took a while for the blizzard to ramp up. Tiny snow filled the air, but the most impressive thing was the wind and the lightning/thundersnow. Accumulation was slow. Before going to bed, after 8 hours of blizzard, L.P. was only up to his knees in the snow.

by morning, though, it was clear that the blizzard had continued its work overnight.

for folks unfamiliar with my house. . . this snow covered bush is about 4.5 feet tall. The snow is adding another 12" to its height, which means the snow drift around it is about 4 feet high. Dan has to shovel that some time today.

and it's still snowing as of 9:30 AM.

This final picture just to give you a sense of the kind of wind involved in this blizzard. This is a picture of snow lodged in the southwest corner of our front porch. Snow rarely even gets on the floor of the porch, much less lodged into the most protected ceiling corner. But how do you measure snowfall if some decent portion of it is stuck to walls and windows and doors?

Wings

Dan has been going through a buffalo wing craving phase. Who knows why. . . this is a first in our eight happy years together. But all of the wings he's ordered from local restaurants have been pretty bad, and it's hard for me to watch him eat frozen TGIFriday's wings.

So, a big football game today and I thought I should probably try my hand at spicy wing cooking.


I don't deep fry food, so I baked them. Coated them in flour, then egg, then panko. Once cooked, I doused them in a sauce made of butter, Louisiana hot sauce, cayenne pepper, honey, worchestershire sauce, paprika, garlic powder and a tiny bit of salt. And they were awesome.


It was oddly satisfying to make. . .


and L.P. sure wished he could have some. I love the desperate, sort of haunted look in his eye here. He would have been sorry if we had shared, though. Dogs and spicy are never a great mix.

My heart fills with joy and compost

I love the spring. All I want to do is garden and enjoy worms and green things and eat asparagus and new potatoes and spring onions and wear full knee-length skirts with woolen sweaters and flats.

I know I am an utterly spoiled American and so it's unlikely that I can fully commit to seasonal eating, but man, am I excited about eating all the stuff I've been eating all year round when it actually tastes like itself. Fresh berries and sweet sweet onions and the end of summer glory of tomatoes.

But, not much to be done outside yet. . . Despite the warm/hot weather this April, I know it could snow at the end of the month. So, I won't jump the gun. But there's no rule against seeing what all the cold frame Dan made for me can get done in this unseasonably warm weather. . .

L.P. helps me pick what to grow in the cold frame (or possibly, is just ripping the yard apart looking for the tiniest stick he can find to play with. . . using this photo evidence, you be the judge. . . )

There's bona fide Stewart/Phillips compost mixed into the potting soil in these seed starts. I'm hoping the seeds find that terrifically yummy. But you're looking at squash and artichokes and nasturtiums and beans and zinnias. . .

L.P. v Bacon

Getting Out of the House II

Yesterday, in the late afternoon, I decided I needed fixins for Curry Laksa. But there's no purveyor of lemon grass or fried tofu puffs on the westside, so in to town we went. And it wouldn't have been fair to go that close to the dog beach and not take the schnoodle with us for a little fun by the lake.

But it was just as cold as this picture makes it look. A wind so biting and mean, that even with silk long underwear (tops and bottoms) and several layers over that, the cold just sliced right through. We lasted a scant 30 minutes.

It was a beautiful day, despite the cold. The sky looked like a sky from a Georgia O-Keefe painting. It doesn't show up perfectly in these photos, but it was really striking.

The sun came out for just a sec and lit up an old apartment highrise upshore. Proof that everything is beautiful in the right light.

All in all, we were pretty lucky that no lemongrass could be found near our house. We would have missed all of this loveliness.