On the way home from a conference this summer my sister and I stopped in at the house of a friend.  She proceeded to lead us around her town of Mt. Vernon to inspect milkweed leaves and search for monarch eggs or larvae that could be brought in for safer incubation.  A few hours later each of us packaged up a little critter and instructions on how to be a good foster parent to a monarch then went our ways homeward.

Nutmeg Iced Tea is great for a summer’s day, so here are photos of a divine location to relax with a glass—a gazebo co-created by Scott and metal-master friend Hung Van Pham.   This is the initial design in miniature, before it took an evolutionary turn to include metal.   The top…not in miniature   The frame upside down under construction in Hung’s shop, with bracings . Hand-beveled boards for the sides of the gazebo   The awesome stainless steel centerpiece hanging from the crossbeams   Looking

  Before we get to refreshing cucumbers, here are more photos from the Willow Gathering in June.  These are from classes led by the two Danish instructors Ane Lyngsgaard and Eva Seidenfaden.         You can see the soaked willow on the floor in the background.               The booklet describes Baskets4Life, a group of Danish weavers that converge twice a year for one week to stretch themselves to new dimensions of their art and to thoroughly enjoy

 .   The Montreal Botanical Gardens—if you ever visit, remember that they deserve more than one day of your attention.  I will now try to refrain from cluttering the page with unnecessary words so you can just enjoy the images.  It’s summer!           Bonsai trees—from 25-350 years old.           A resident.         Favorites June 2014   How to Grow a Mandala .  . Cycle-passion art  . . I want to try these gluten

  Gluten Free and Low Carb—perfect for summer!  You can put nearly anything in a lettuce leaf and it provides a handy shell to hold the flavors.  I often am looking for edible vehicles that can deliver the punch line and in the summer lettuce leaves are a refreshing meal-holding-husk.  But they can be a little messy so watch out for those after-Memorial-Day white pants.    . Fillings can be as simple or complex as you want to create.  A vegan alternative to bacon could be

  Sour cream–it’s the perfect dip starter: a bit tart, a bit creamy, and it ‘plays well with others‘, merging and melding with most herbs or flavors.  Lightly fermented dairy similar to crème fraîche but is more tangy and often made with less fat…I say yes.  If you’re feeling the need for more scrumptious fats in your cream, try this little method of a non-cultured sour cream:   Quick Sour Cream:  pour 1 cup heavy whipping cream into a bowl and add 1 teaspoon (or a little

  The Creative Entrepreneur by Lisa Sonora Beam “A Do-It-Yourself Visual Guidebook for Making Business Ideas Real”   My friend Frances introduced this book to a small group of us and it became incredible art therapy for us all.  Lisa has created a method of writing a business plan that is unlike anything you’ve done…it’s fun, creative, messy, deep, challenging, rewarding.  Get to the game plan, yes, but the path is an incredible journey…   She writes: “The Creative Entrepreneur offers a dynamic left/right brain

  While we were in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in February we ate lunch at a little place called Steep Creek Cafe (and White Cap Kayak Trips) in the Ironwood and I seem to recall we licked out the bowl that this dip was served in.  Having only the three ingredients listed in the title to go on, I came home and ran with it making a slightly different rendition that is very green and not half bad. Is it hummus?  Is it pesto?  Is

  Despite the occasional April snowstorm our landscape is about to explode into electric GREEN.  It’s been patiently waiting and waiting and the time is nigh.  Later this week I’ll plant my onion sets for green onions —I keep harvesting the shoots throughout the spring and the bulbs keep producing more.  But I rely on others with more space for growing the asparagus, especially since I don’t know where the secret ditch patches are around these hills.   A few

  This past weekend was the annual sisters get-together, and though we ate heartily and well…I have no photos or recipes from it to share with you.   We were totally undocumented! We spent our days and nights eating, joking, laughing, nibbling, shopping, imbibing, laughing some more, and sharing (but not much sleeping), and life was good.  Returning to our day-to-day lives is never easy and as we each travel homeward the melancholy can seep in.  This brought to my