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Brain Cancer: Love in many forms
The business of helping the love of my life, my sculptor husband Richard Cabe wrap up a life well-lived takes up essentially all of my time and energy right now. My days are filled to bursting with...
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Brain Cancer: It won’t be long enough
A month ago, Richard and I were returning home from our last-minute, rushed trip to see his mother and family in northwest Arkansas. He was walking with a cane, dressing himself, and generally able to...
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Living Well, heart outstretched
A week ago yesterday the love of my life, Richard Cabe, died of brain cancer. After we sat in silence with his body, sending him on his way with mindful hearts, after we washed his body and consigned...
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What’s Cooking: I’m playing with my food again
Paris Market Mesclun, a gorgeous and delicious mix of lettuces, other greens and herbs, from Renee's Garden Seeds It’s been a while since I’ve written about my adventures with cooking and eating local...
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Changes ahead
My Wonder Woman silver bracelet, a gift from Salida artist and friend Susan Bethany A friend recently commented that I maintain a “relentlessly cheerful” front. The remark, tossed out in the thick of a...
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What’s cooking: strawberries and basil
Fresh-picked and fragrant! Well, not strawberries and basil together, though that would be interesting. Despite our continuing drought, July brought just enough rain to perk up my kitchen garden. I’ve...
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Books worth reading & a brag
Janisse Ray’s powerful call to preserve heritage crop seeds, our food inheritance. Last week I read two of the books in the “to review” stack on my desk: Janisse Ray’s The Seed Underground: A Growing...
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Leaving Home
The house from outside, looking across my native bunchgrass/wildflower front yard. I live in a house heated by the sun in winter, and cooled by the down-valley breezes in summer, a house designed to...
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That “Tool Girl” Thing? I get it now
Richard using the gantry he designed and fabricated to move a one-ton firepit into a client’s backyard, going up two steps and through a door with 1/2-inch clearance on the way. I’ve said before that I...
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Learning Tool Girl Humility: doors, locksets, trim
The big trim nailer, not nearly as cute or easy to use as the small one, but necessary to attach the trim securely to the studs. It’s official: I’ve gone Tool Girl. First clue: I told myself I would...
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New starts
Baby tomato plants, just putting out their first real leaves. My bedroom is alive with the fragrance of moist earth, as if spring has moved inside with me. In a way it has: The floor closest to the...
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What’s Growing: spring snow
Summer lettuce blend, mache, and arugula, all from Renee’s Garden Seeds. Monday evening at about six, in a break in my long work day, I went out to the kitchen garden, un-clipped one side of the row...
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Loving-my-own-earth Days
Fall planting of Monet’s Garden mix plus mache (corn salad), overwintered under row covers and now ready to eat. Yesterday, I planted spring and early summer seeds in my kitchen garden: Wasabi arugula...
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Progress report: the Red Queen and Rainbows
Pouring the slab, the floor of my tiny-house-to-be. (The blue walls in front are the foundation.) I feel like the Red Queen in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass: running and running just to...
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For Sale: Salida “Creative Complex”
The first page of the sale flyer for my house/cottage/historic studio. (Click the “sale flyer” link in the blog text to the left to download the actual flyer.) I’ve done it. After more than a week of...
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Habitat Heroes: making a positive change in the garden
Eastern black swallowtail emerges from its chrysalis on a fennel plant. Last week, I headed to Denver to speak at Plant Select Day at Denver Botanic Gardens. My talk, “Design By Nature,” explored...
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Clearing Out All But the Love
Treehouse, the garage plus with studio above (foreground), and Creek House, both with Craftsman details appearing. In a month and a day, I’ll hand the keys to Terraphilia to the buyers. Over the next...
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Whew!
Adirondack chair on the guest cottage porch. (The rock is a weight.) Eight days ago when I wrote the last post, the sale contract on Terraphilia had fallen apart. First thing Tuesday morning (after...
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Floors and Floods
reclaimed maple flooring Late this afternoon when I stepped out on the loading dock of Richard’s shop, my flooring guys, James Mayfield and his brother, called me over to the new studio above the...
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What’s Cooking: Smelter Stomp Red Sauce
One of three harvest baskets full! One windy evening two weeks ago, I raced darkness and plummeting temperatures to harvest the remaining tomatoes from the kitchen garden at Terraphilia. I picked both...
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