here's a little photographic sampling of what my eyes have seen lately ....

(above: recent farmer's market flowers that i was arranging to put around my place)


below: at Thunder over Louisville in April ... biggest annual fireworks display/airshow in the country. i spent the day happily reading, knitting, and snacking on homemade goodness while keeping an eye on the entertainment.



here is some of what i was able to see:




front porch of friend's log cabin in lexington, where i stayed to do some classroom observation recently. great place for reading.



canada geese, making a hullaballoo on his garage at sunset.


another gorgeous kentucky sunset.



lexington is really, really pretty.


flowers, Foxhollow biodynamic farm. May.


this little skink showed up on my kitchen windowsill one morning. i was so flattered!



Zen Tea House in my neighborhood, where I can spend way too much time and money eating vegan cupcakes and drinking amazing organic tea if i'm not careful.



neighborhood friend maya's vintage laundry.



recent thrift finds (actually got three of the cups):




my homemade, vegan version of "philly steak and cheese" ... that's just what it tastes like! a ton of fresh grated ginger makes the dish.


new grater, i'm grating everything these days! also, notice how my former lifelong aversion to carrots is slowly changing ...



it just ain't spring without farmer's market local asparagus! (and i am FINALLY nearly done with that awesome book....)





i'm glad to be able to upload pictures again, apparently. i think perhaps the problem was that my new file had something like 900 photos on it that i'd stored up during the time i didn't have my computer. so it opens the photos very very slowly, each time. end result? i have many more recent photos to share ... so stay tuned for more pictorials in the coming days. slowly, my life will become brighter to you again ... for which i'm much-relieved, too!

be well, friends.

karen

test photo post.

This picture of me was taken recently in front of my friend's chicken run. I love it. Let's hope I can start getting some photos up on here again. not real sure what the issue has been. thanks for bearing with me while my blog has looked so boring!

the cheese/veganism thing...

i just may order this video ...

http://www.processedpeople.com/

i watched several of the trailers (they are also to be found on YouTube) and they are very good. it's funny, i've spent the last three to four days eating much more cheese than i'm used to (i've been halfheartedly trying to cut it from my diet completely, making me a very-near vegan with the exception of honey and eggs and when i dump a little half in half into my coffee at coffeeshops, some places are really ridiculous about meting out the soy) and even though most of the cheese i've eaten is organic and/or local (i.e. SAFE cheese), i still feel "sludgy" (to borrow a word from a macrobiotic cookbook i have) after enough of a glut of it backs up in my system. why? is part of it psychological, i know that the saturated fat is going straight to my arteries? probably? but the week after my best friend was here, when i indulged in mainly a raw vegan diet (due to her inspiration, she eats so amazingly well nearly 100 percent of the time), i had more get-up-and-go energy than i had in a very long time. i actually felt ... younger. my skin positively GLOWED. i'm convinced that cheese/dairy products are an energy drainer ... the argument could be made for moderation, but the more i think about eating the milk of another species (once a great yoga teacher brought it to my attention that we are the only species on the planet that drinks another animal's milk)the more even that argument slips out of my hands. it's the only "bad" food i still crave sometimes (okay, that and plain ruffles potato chips). i NEVER crave fast food, soda, processed products. but cheese? cheese, i crave. i stopped buying it many months ago, unless i was going to feed others, viewing it as a staple party food. now, i'm not so willing to buy cream for my guests' coffee just because they drink it, or cut up cheese into cubes just because i know they'll disappear. because what happens is i eat it, too. and after enough of it, i hate the way it's made me feel.

another thing that makes me feel sludgy is too much baked stuff, even the organic variety i buy/the homemade stuff i create. we're talking corn chips, tortillas, pasta, the vegan berry cobbler i made for my dinner party last night. i almost think i should try to cut all of this stuff out to once or twice a week, and stick to *true* grains like quinoa and oats (are oats a grain? i know they're amazing for you...especially in the morning) and brown rice.

i can't eat an entirely raw diet .. i like hot, hot food too much. but mainly veggie/fruit/whole grain based ... yeah, that's the way i think i'm going to end up eating for the long haul. and that is how i eat, mostly. i'm just not entirely cured of the "standard american diet" just yet. it's amazing how ingrained in us it is to eat both too unhealthily and too much.

thanks for listening, if you've made it this far. i'm not sure this post had a point, except maybe i'm wondering how you all handle your own issues with food, being as well read and educated and intelligent as you are, and how you make it work for yourself and for your family. or how your progress is going as far as food changes that you made when you began to live a simpler, downshifted life. because i'm convinced that with a simpler outlook on life as a whole, the diet is simplified, as well. often, that's for the healthier .... this at least i hope for you.

four words

an intention, for the next 11 or so days:

Beauty.

Friendship.

Rest.

Stillness.

It was amazing to slow to the pace of a child today. How much it taught me! How much it calmed me! How easily I was made happy by painting and lounging and picnicing and smelling flowers and laughing at bubbles in the bath.

Beauty.

Friendship.

Rest.

Stillness.

The intention, the goal, and the way. Present moment.

Just thought that was something worthy of a share. Now I'm going to prepare enchilada sauce for tomorrow night.

peace,

karen

some lovely summer activities.

sunday:

spent SIX hours on a blanket in the park under the shade of a very nice-sized tree. started a knitting project that's been sitting around too long, read some of my book, ate leftover monster noodles (see bread and honey's blog) and fruit and bean dip with tortilla chips. laid down and basked in the sun, which never got too hot but was always warm enough. not a cloud in the sky.

my subletter had moved in when i returned. i was so happy to feed someone some of the leftover monster noodles and i also cooked him homemade french fries. i hope he feels comfortable in my home. i am always happy to have an excuse to cook for someone else!

monday:

spent the day babysitting a marvelous three-year-old i know! what fun we had! painting in the backyard, picknicking on a tinkerbell blanket with cheese and fruit and crackers arranged on a platter and a big bowl of "butter" noodles (actually butter and olive oil, walking around the neighborhood smelling flowers, reading a story, playing "store," listening to her play the piano. it takes a lot of energy, but i could do the stay-at-home mom thing ... it feels natural to me.

i promise to try and be able to post pictures soon!

tomorrow night i'm inviting two friends over for veggie/vegan enchiladas (using bread and honey's homemade sauce...)!

tonight's plans: a long walk in the beautiful park, and some more knitting.

did i mention that i'm buying a friend's beautiful guitar? <3

this weekend i'll attend two music events, one atop the roof of a local glassblowing factory. and perhaps help out at a new farmer's market in a low-income neighborhood.

summer is good, and so is involvement and engagement and living wholly within your community/with friends. it's a good life ....

at last ....

*sorry, pictures are still having technical difficulties. gar ... ; P

after spending three hours cleaning my kitchen, living room and bathroom (my subletter moves in tomorrow), and a lunch of sauteed green beans, I feel calm and collected in my sunny living room. the wind is blowing a beautiful cool breeze here, and things are lovely.

what a good time to catch up.

where to begin? it's been so long, nearly a month, perhaps, since the last meaningful post. well, for starters our school year is finished so i'm on "summer vacation." the quotes are because i leave for st. louis in 2 weeks to do my Montessori training. I'll be gone 8 weeks from home. That will be hard.

My life has been interesting lately. My best friend visited for a week from Connecticut, I spent some really nice time with a lovely gentleman friend of mine (it won't develop because he's moving to another city), I have been buying too many vintage and thrift store dresses, and I've been yard-sale-ing .... great deals to be had! I've been making an effort to see friends more, and I'm trying to keep up with learning the guitar and with improving/continuing my knitting. I've been reading more, and taking nice long walks either in the park here or around my neighborhood. I also had a day working on a local biodynamic farm, and loved it! The weather has been unbelievably beautiful. There have been bluegrass jams, free music at the waterfront, backyard potlucks, amazingly busy and fruitful farmer's markets brimming over with asparagus and strawberries. I'm so lucky to live in Kentucky, this beautiful, friendly place with such a long growing season!

I've also dealt with trying to get my computer fixed, and after several weeks it appears to be okay for now. My fingers are crossed.

As you can see, I've been very busy ... not much time for being at home and curling up with a good book, but spring fever has been infectious and calling me out of doors to become more social. It's not a bad thing, especially because I've really been working hard on my new friendships (if you don't cultivate them you'll often lose out on how incredible they can be) but I know what I'm going to crave come fall ... now that the apartment has had most of its tiny corners settled into/painted/organized (there are still a few piles of stuff, there always seems to be piles of stuff) ... I envision days of friends coming by for a big pot of chunky homemade soup, and curling up indeed with many a literary friend ... knitting ... and ... learning to sew! My dad has a brand-new sewing machine to give me, and I've been collecting fabric at yard sales and thrift shops. I'm going to try and take a class somewhere in town.

I haven't exactly been frugal lately. Money is running through my hands like water. Lots of it is just the excitement of being out and about all the time, getting coffee here and tea there and a glass of wine at the next stop. eating on the go a lot more than i did all winter ... and when sarah was here we went very very crazy on the thrift/vintage circuit. It's a frivolous time, but I want to be more vigilant about things. not starting sometime in the future, starting now. I probably won't need new clothes, appliances, dishes, books, etc. for well over a year, at LEAST. I've spent a very long time in what feels like a gathering, transformative phase (not surprising, according to some friends i have who are very well-versed in astrology, and are saying how things like the return of Saturn in my age group and some kind of "Mercury retrograde" are causing things such as upheaval, new beginnings, unsettledness....). So, I've gathered what i "need" (more or less) about me, and I kind of feel that coming to a close. I've taken two years to build a life here, in this completely new place, and I've been successful. Overall, I'm very happy. I have made many great friends and acquaintances, I can't complain about the home environment I've created, I have everything I need and more around me. I'm healthy and overall feel pretty calm about where life is and where it's headed. Now, of course, I would like to fall in love with someone very special ... but I still feel hopeful that time will come for me. ; )

When one door closes, another opens. The door I feel opening for me is a time, as summer winds down in August, to settle into what I've created. Take a big, long break from gathering, readying, preparing, just "sit in the middle" of it all. I don't know that I've ever actually done that - been this grounded, this ready to constantly welcome friends into my warm and loving home (despite the fact that it's "just an apartment"), curl up with a hobby (reading, knitting, sewing) during time off from work, and really really find serenity in stillness on a constant basis. Of course, there will be times when I'll have to buy food and cat supplies and get an oil change. But I feel a slowness coming that I've long anticipated, a real peaceful time, I time I can take to gather not material things around myself, but to harvest and bring inward the more sustaining elements: peace, love, serenity. And be able to share them with others. I can't wait to cook and bake for people, to really listen to their conversations and offer up understanding and guidance. To make useful things with my own hands, for the benefit of myself and others. To travel to many great places through the world of a book!

If I have such a fall and winter time, I'll no doubt have a good amount of money saved (as a side benefit, of course). I'll also be able to enter another season of spring frivolity with a head squarely on regarding money, and as summer comes and I face only 4 more weeks of school, I'm actually hoping to do some travel with what I've saved, and have a real vacation away.

Thank you all for continuing to read my blog. I know I tend to get pretty introspective when I'm around, and while I'd love to make straightforward posts about cooking or gardening or knitting, etc. (which you all do marvelously, and thank goodness, I've learned/am learning so many valuable things!), I do remind myself that the shift into a more "simple life" mindset has a lot to do with what's going on internally as well as in your cleaning cabinet or in the oven or in the pantry. And it's okay to write about the changes that occur there, because then that change becomes eventually manifest in everything else you do. When I write my thoughts and feelings here, I take more responsibility for them. I realize that I own them and care for them. I tend them carefully, as a gardener tends her plants, always on the lookout for weeds. Slowly, slowly, they grow into visible, fragrant buds, and then, I'm assuming, in time, blossoms.

Here are just a few more things I'd like to write down here:

in the fall, move my fridge away from my stove to save energy.

make breakfasts ahead for a week (scones, hard-boiled eggs, etc.) due to the fact that I'll be leaving for school much earlier this year and it's hard for me to get up, it's always so hard for me in the mornings

take the bus to and from work once a week

volunteer at an organization which cooks and serves homeless people in a poorer section of Louisville, and possibly log a few more farm hours.

take a sewing class

pay off the last of my credit card debt, reduce 403b contribution temporarily, and put this plus the increase i would have made to it into my own personal savings

And finally, I wonder if I'm crazy to think that in 10 more years, I might not have to work full-time ever again .....

Hope you all are enjoying a lovely spring (and for you friends down under, fall) and that you are remembering to breathe in and then breathe out consciously as needed. I'm planning to picnic in the park tomorrow, just spend a few hours out there with a lunch and a book and take plenty of those breaths.

Love and light,

karen <3

until tomorrow!!

Hello, dear readers!

I have spent about the last three hours combing through all of your beautiful blogs, and was going to post myself ... but alas, after attempting to download over 900 photos i've stored up (!!), the camera died and what is a good long catch-up post without good blogging photos, anyhow?

If you haven't guessed it by now, I have gotten my computer back from the shop. Hopefully the problems it had are completely gone. Tomorrow I'll try to get my antivirus program back up and running. I'm going to be very careful this time around, though I know this stuff is not always preventable, despite best intentions.

I think I need some quiet time to sit and write some notes that have been dancing/tiptoeing/marching through my head at times in recent weeks. A kind of collective, gathering-of-thoughts and putting forth of energies before putting them down here, and before fleeing the city I love for my second summer-of-montessori-training in st. louis. I also may turn on my yoga video for some quiet, meditative inspiration. I haven't had much "rest" time during this spring season, not nearly as much as I would have liked. But according to some dear friends who are well-versed in astrological phenomena, this is a time of great transformation/upheaval/new beginnings for most people. I've certainly felt lately that my runnings-around/goings on in life have been reflective of this solar/planetary movement (at the risk of sounding too new-agey, which of course i am anyway). It shall be a very good fall/winter indeed, having already made my home about 98 percent just how i want it. I want to really "settle down" into it. Reading, knitting, maybe sewing!, having people over for soup and conversations. But that will likely be a part of tomorrow's post-to-come ... so, stay tuned.

for tonight, simply planned is making a cold bean/corn salad for a friend's potluck (a going-away party for someone i know but not well), maybe phoning a good friend for a bit, and turning on that yoga video for some quiet moments that i need.

glad to see that you all are busy in your own way, but still taking time to remember just how to want to truly live ... and then just *doing* it. you are amazing people, and a constant source of inspiration. i will persevere, as well.

love and light and peace,

karen

still on the mend ...

Hello, all!

well, small update on the computer woes: the viruses had worked their way into my operating system, so i had to order a disk from Dell which i'll pick up at UPS here thursday (a week after it was actually attempted to be delivered to me, don't ask why the truck doesn't leave stuff for me) and bring over to best buy. hopefully, once the operating system is reinstalled, all will be well.

you have no idea how much i've missed all of you, both reading your blogs and posting my own! you bet i'll have tons of recent pictures to share when i'm back here! thanks very much to heather and libby for your sweet comments. i don't want to be forgotten on here, this community is such a source of strength and healing and i've missed it so!

love to you all, and hopefully to post again soon from my old computer!!

blessings,

karen

almost there ...

Hi, everyone.

Boy, do I miss reading and posting on here. My computer is taking a little longer at the shop than was originally planned .... but so far they've removed - 66!! -- infections and are just figuring out why the keyboard and mouse won't work (hm ... too much cat hair/snack crumbs?? lol) hopefully this blog will be up and running again in no time.

in the meantime, my best friend from connecticut is coming to visit me for a week on saturday!! and i found a subletter for my apartment this summer. I've made pumpkin lasagne and orzo salad with veggies and feta. the last day of school is friday, and i'm looking forward to a fresh start in a new classroom come late august. that's about it on this end ... i miss all of you whom i link to and hope you're well!!

stay tuned ... more blog from me coming again soon!!

peace,

karen <3

Hi,dear readers.

Just a quick post to let you know that I'll be sparse here for a while, as my computer is in the shop due to trojan virus infection. grrrr....it's always something. Hope to be back and posting soon once hardware/Internet issues are finally resolved.

love and light,

karen