south asia bound

Not related to anything upstate, but we’re taking off for a few weeks to visit family (see some of them above) in Gujarat, India and then travel around Rajasthan.  It’s my first trip to India so I’m very excited.  Anuj is warning me about the chaos, poverty, and food/waterborne illnesses, and I’m preparing myself as much as I can, but it’s hard to know how I’ll respond to this very different part of the world until I’m actually there.  Needless to say it’s going to  be an amazing trip.

In the meantime, I’ve polled friends for a list of list must-sees and dos, and will spend a good chunk of the flight highlighting sections of our guide books.  Yes, we are going to see family, but we are still tourists and will be shamelessly wielding our cameras and wearing our hats and unattractive waterproof sport-sandals.

Maybe we’ll post a picture or two when we return.

(These lovely people will be meeting us in India – they’re family, too, just not from that side.  Actually, they are on my in-laws’ side of the family, but by marriage.  They’re the parents of Anuj’s sister’s husband.  They’re also Dutch.  All clear?)

amy cotler and my garden

I am inspired, people.

I just returned from a book signing in Great Barrington where I briefly met Amy Cotler, local foodie, chef, and author.  Her book The Locavore Way is a great gift for the foodie in your life who already counts Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and The Omnivore’s Dilmena as favorites.

In The Locavore Way, Cotler breaks down seasonal eating, CSAs, local vs. organic, eating out, and includes a produce glossary and lots of simple recipes.  There’s a slight Berkshire/Columbia County slant ’cause she lives in Stockbridge, but she assures us that the book is for anyone who cares about food and health.

Anyhow, for the past several months Anuj and I have been toying with the idea of starting a vegetable garden this spring/summer.  I know, I know, we live in the country – farm country, no less – for two years and are only now considering it.  But keep in mind, neither of us are gardeners.  Sure we have gardening families (I grew up with a huge garden, both my parents have gardens, Anuj’s parents have a garden and my grandparents even manage to maintain an impressive if unwieldy one at their place in Maine that they visit less frequently than we come upstate) but somehow the gardening gene must have skipped our generation.   I think two things have kept us from starting a garden to date:

1. we’re lazy.

2. we’re scared.

The laziness I make no apologies for.  When we get here on Friday nights or sometimes Saturday mornings, all we really want to do is relax.  And if we’re inclined to cook (which we often are – though not as often as we should) we’ll just swing by the store or farmer’s market and pick up some fresh meat and produce and be done with it.  The idea of tending a garden just seems like an awful lot of work, and well, we work all week.

I imagine the people who have gardens don’t think of tending them as work, they think of them as fun or meditative or soul-enriching.  I have friends who work in community gardens in the city, which to me sounds like the most unappealing, thankless way to spend a Saturday afternoon: digging a two-by-two plot of dirt in a sweaty, sticky concrete jungle in the hopes that a few carrots and heads of lettuce will emerge?  No thanks, I’ll be inside drinking sun tea and looking at carrots in the latest issue of Bon Appetit.

Clearly, if we’re going to have a garden, we need to make some kind of mental shift.  Lord knows we have the setting for a garden.  We have the resourcefulness.  We even have the plot where the previous owners had their own garden.  And now we’re building the inspiration through our families, our friends upstate who make it look so easy, blogs of newbies like us, and books like Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and The Locavore Way.

As for Reason We Don’t Have a Garden Number 2: I can only speak for myself, because I’m not sure Anuj would say he’s afraid of gardening (in fact, he’ll probably get mad that I even insinuated it), but I am.  The idea of plotting and planning and buying seeds and digging and fencing and watering only once a week (what if we miss a weekend?) just fills me with dread.  It’s a lot of work.  And I don’t mean work work like I mentioned above, I mean there’s a lot of room for error and I’m afraid I’ll screw it up.  I am very organized, and love to plan things, but I don’t think I have the tender’s touch.  I can’t even keep a houseplant alive.  Try giving me an orchid – the flower that’s supposed to last forever.  I’ve got two dead ones on the terrace back in NYC as we speak.  (I put them there after they died, thank-you-very-much).

Nevertheless, my friends, I am willing to take the fear and the laziness head-on.  I really am.  I am willing to take a risk.  Maybe it’s just about starting small.  Plant only a few veggies.  Ones that’ll practically grow themselves.

james taylor benefit for Haiti

This Saturday, January 23 at 8pm, Berkshire county resident James Taylor will perform a benefit concert for Haitian relief at the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington.  Tickets go on sale at 9am today.

This will be Taylor’s second benefit at the Mahaiwe in a week – last Friday he raised $300,000 for Partners in Health.  Tickets are $100, $200 and $1,000.

Tickets sold out for last Friday’s show in 90 minutes so get them fast!

More at Berkshire Living.

lauren ambrose & the leisure class

Lauren Ambrose and the Leisure Class performed last night at the Lion’s Den in Stockbridge.

Wish I coulda been there, but Dan Shaw’s post on Rural Intelligence will have to suffice.

She’s coming to Joe’s Pub in NYC on Thursday, but - gah – I can’t go!

Sing it, sister.

really resolved: 2010

I got a little sidetracked with my last attempt at listing my non-resolutions for 2010.  As much as I wanted to turn the page on 2009, I guess reflecting on the good things that came out of the decade leading up to (and even including) it was sort of a healthy way to do it.

Could it be argued then, that rolling over unaccomplished to-do’s from 2009 into 2010 is an unhealthy way to start the year?  Call me sickly then, ’cause herewith is my list of home improvement goals from last year, with short status updates.  I figure it will give me equal parts satisfaction for completing the things I did, and incentive to finish up the things I didn’t.  Updates will be in blue.

1. make a home improvement binder that includes measurements for each room, including windows, closets, floors, etc.  Also include contact numbers for repairmen, hardware store, etc.  (note: this is separate from my magazine ‘inspiration’ binder -  alright, binders.)  Haven’t done yet.  Still a great idea, though.
2. strategize about deck issue (ugh, long story) No money in 2009 put this off.  Right now we’ve got about 1-2 feet of frozen snow on the deck, which should put the issue off for another few weeks if we’re lucky.

3. add post to top of driveway with better address signage.  Nope.  Not yet.

4. mudroom – a place to sit/put on boots/store hats.  I put a folding chair out there this year.  It seems to be working fine, though it’s only helpful to one person at a time.

Update: this comment was supposed to be funny, but it didn’t translate.  I really DID put a chair out there this year - a folding chair, at that – but the idea that I would count that as some kind of accomplishment is funny, right?  Or…maybe just pathetic.  Um, I’ll work on my delivery.

5. living room – couches? Yeah, what about those couches?

6. dining room – reupholster & reglue chairs.  I’m still holding out for Annie Selke.

7. dining room – table.  I did actually speak to my furniture-making friend about this.  It will be great when we have the money to commission him to do it.

8. living room/loft – tv solution. Anuj flips through the Best Buy flyer every Sunday remarking how flat screen prices are coming down.  That’s about as far as we’ve gotten there.

9. master – bed and mattress -  no more sleeping on the floor! Wait – we really did this one!  We got a Malm bed frame and mattress from IKEA in New Jersey, squeezed the boxes and plastic into the Subaru and drove it all the way up here only to discover the headboard was busted when we opened the box.  Nice.  A week and one hellacious trip to the IKEA returns department later, we got a new one back up here and put together.  Killed my back putting the damn slats together, but we got the adjustable ones, so that’s the price you pay.

The latex Engenes mattress is a bit firm for my taste (were we gonna have to return that, too?), but Anuj needs it for his back, so I’ve thrown a camping pad under my side of the bed and I think we’re all good.

10. master – paint. This is really going to happen.  I mean, look at that yellow.

11. upstairs bath – sconces. Another task accomplished!!  Anuj installed a double sconce in the Jill half of the Jack-n-Jill bathroom last fall.  Look out, 2010, ’cause Anuj might just do the Jack half next.

12. upstairs bath – solution for storing towels, etc.  Um, we’re gonna stick with what we’ve got for now.

13. upstairs hall – clean and line drawers of dresser.  Someday, someday.

14. upstairs bedroom(s) – replace trim. Anuj will do this in 2010.

15. upstairs bedroom(s) – paint. Our painter will do this in 2010.

16. basement bedroom – bed. The room is empty now because of the water damage from all the rain.  My Dad says he’ll show us how to make a french drain in the driveway this summer which should prevent any further damage.  So, no guests, or bed, down there until then.

17. basement bedroom – paint. See #15.

18. all bedrooms - update window treatments (IKEA?).  This is still on the list.  Our windows are the original awkwardly sized from 1975, which makes finding a solution difficult.  I’m either going to follow Anna’s lead and cut the Enje shades, or buy roman shades to size from Target.  There’s no way we’re going custom.

19. water heater – wait for it to die?  replace? Good question.

20.gutters?  repair? Dad fixed this for us this year.  Thanks Dad!  No more water running off the roof onto the side of the house.  Unfortunately, we still need to repair the chipped paint.

21. document improvements more regularly, and more professionally (my photos err on the blurry side)  Yes, we need a better camera.  Anuj has finally come on board to the idea, so we’ll see what 2010 brings.

Wow.  Did I mention that 2009 sucked?  Clearly we didn’t get a lot done.  Though as I’m writing this, I’m reminded of a few small (cheap) projects I completed but never blogged.  Maybe I will.  ‘Cause this feels pretty sad.  I know, we did a lot of entertaining, and hiking, and cooking this year, and that’s all really really good.  But our home is important to me, feeling comfy and happy and inspired inside it.

So I resolve to create more reasonable to-do lists in 2010.  And not publish the lists for all to see, so I can avoid embarrassment this time next year.  I’ll just post the projects as I do them with a big “ta da!” and you can all be impressed.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I discovered two other Columbia county homesteaders last year that I’d like to introduce you to: Ann at A Chicken in Every Granny Cart and Christine at Just off the Taconic.  Take a peek at their upstate/downstate adventures if you have a moment.  2009 hit them hard, too, but that doesn’t take away from their charm.  In fact, I find it slightly comforting to know that we’re not the only ones desperate to turn the page.

resolved: 2010

2009 was not the best year.  We won’t get into the details, but let’s just say the economy took a direct toll on our household(s).  After many months, things appear to have stabilized, but we’re proceeding with caution.  The passing not only of a calendar year, but an entire decade, helps us feel like we’re really starting afresh.

Before I launch into my list of non-resolutions for 2010, I thought I’d take a brief moment to recount some of the gifts the last decade has brought me.  In no particular order:

1. My graduate school education.

2. The New York debut of two of my full length plays – with pretty sweet casts.

3. My sweet, spirited niece and nephew.

4. Our Harlem apartment with killer party terrace.  It’s a rental they’ll have to drag us out of.

(that was our first summer when we were using the fold-up picnic table my grandmother made.)

5. Two amazing trips to parts of the world I never dreamed I’d visit and now dream of returning to: Japan and South Africa.

(pictures are on the computer that died last year.  someday, we may scrape together the four figures we were quoted to resuscitate it.)

6. Meeting…

…then marrying

my husband Anuj, whom I love stubbornly, dramatically and emphatically.

Update:  Anuj doesn’t understand what loving him ’stubbornly’ means and wants me to replace it with another word.  Does anyone else understand what I mean by stubbornly or is it confusing?  I stand by the word choice, but will happily add a fourth, more commonly used descriptor of my love: Deeply.  And lest anyone mistake my love as common, I’ll throw the poetic Steadfastly into the mix.  All good?

7. My family that continues to grow through marriages and births.

8. Our first real home and only true escape.

Discovering Columbia and Berkshire county has become an obsession of unmatched pleasure and excitement for both of us.  Our friends and family can attest: we won’t shut up about it.

Now that I’ve just listed the most important people/events/moments of the last decade, I feel less crabby about the past year.  In fact, my lip is quivering and I’m feeling downright sappy.  Perspective, it’s a beautiful thing.

Happy New Year & Decade.

Oh, and as for what’s in store for 2010…I will post soon.  Right now I’d like to ride out this glow.