community garden..

i love my neighborhood. it earns that

title, neighborhood. most of the houses are

turn of the century to 30's. the houses

wear porches wide enough to be considered a

room. large enough to gather unexpectedly

when you spy neighbors with their coffee

in the morning or wine in the evening.

windows and transoms that can grab a fall

breeze and pull it inside like deep, slow

breath, whipping curtains around like batting eyelashes.

it only makes sense that a neighborhood

filled with homes built back when mother nature

set the thermostat would be

filled with folks of a like mind.

throwing open windows, dining on lawns,

napping on sleeping porches.

even though i have raised beds (i worry

about lead in the soil from 100 years

of paint scraping and sanding)in the back

yard, i decided to be a part of our

community garden. i grew up on a farm

where we grew a lot of what we ate

and it felt really new and novel to me

to ride our bikes to a city lot to grow

broccoli! the kids were more entranced

than they are here at our home garden.

i like looking around at other families

working their plot. i love feeling a part

of something..especially something that

helps make my neighborhood a community and

my community a part of my family.

dog days....

of summer...

(if you're going to be a stickler for things,

i think the actual 'dog days' don't begin

until august but this summer is turning out to

be a hot weather beating)

positively maybe

we recently decided on a new color palette for our house and had it painted. i swear, it was a more difficult decision than naming our children. they seemed to name themselves but the 'old lady' house refused to be forthcoming with any preference as to what colors she would like to spend the next decade in.

in the process of trying to choose colors, i got in the habit of checking out other old house colors on my walks around the neighborhood. there was a particular house i really liked. all cool blues and purple-ish greys. the owner was standing the yard as i walked by the other night. i stopped to tell her how much i liked it.

"uck", she said. "i hate green houses", gesturing her hose towards the house while she watered. "the sun and weather faded it to this green and i can't stand it." so, i'm thinking, this house is blue. i mean, clear-as-day blue. "it seems like a nice blue-ish color", i said all diplomatic-like. "what?! worst. green. ever.", she frowned.

so this got me thinking about times when i don't have a shade of doubt about my position. my recollection. my idea. my knowledge. i argued for hours about whether or not a coffee table was alive, for christ's sake. you know, you're having dinner with friends and your husband/friend/lover. later on, the two of you discuss something that was chatted about that evening. how can he remember it like that?! that's not the way it happened at all!

well, what if you're wrong?

what if it didn't happen any particular way and how we each experience it is the end-all accurate truth? what if i spent a lot less effort and time defending my perception and more time hearing how everyone else sees it? what if i'm nearly always wrong?

my neighbor walks in the door of a green house every evening after work. i walk by her blue house and wave while she waters. what color house do the folks across the street see in the morning as they have coffee? what color house does the mailman deliver to everyday?

you tell me.

chili domination......

5:30 am involuntary beginning of day.

6:00 am feel like a slug crossed with a sloth crossed with a gharial

7:00 am thoughts becoming more appropriate

8:14 am decide to enter chili cook-off

9:16 am at store, list of ingredients at home

11:10 am chili complete, one eye is burning

2:00 pm internal debate to take a nap or eat some halloween candy

2:15 pm still awake, feel kind of sick

3:00 pm off to chili cook-off. quick stop at fiesta for bowls, good luck candles (cheating),

and beer

6:45 pm congratulatory photo taken with winner's ladle and two charming gift baskets

8:30 pm adoration from family trying to score chocolate from winner's basket.

8:32 pm hide chocolate in mud room

my adaptation of...

pierce street veggie chili

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

12 garlic cloves, chopped

1 tbsp. ginger, peeled and grated

3 tbsp. san antonio chili powder

2 tsp. cumin

1 serrano pepper, seeded and finely chopped

4 chipotle peppes w/ adobo, chopped (i also added as much of the adobo as i could spoon out)

1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes

8 cups broth

2 cans hominy, drained

2 1/4 cups black, brown or green lentils (i used combo of green and black)

2/3 cup pearled barley

2/3 cup bulgar wheat

1-2 tsp. smoked salt (i used alderwood smoked)

In large stockpot, over med. heat saute onions in olive oil. when translucent, add

garlic, ginger, chili powder and cumin. stir and cook until fragrant. stir in serrano,

chipotle pepper, tomatoes,and broth. now add hominy, lentils, barley, and bulgur.

stir. i began adding the smoked salt here and kept adding and adjusting as it

cooked. simmer for about an hour until grains and lentils are cooked. as it cooks

you might need to add additional broth or water. i needed to make sure this was

very chili-like and thick, but next time i make it for the family i will add more to

be a bit more soupy.

*i made chipotle guacamole to top it with. holy guacamole it was good. just add

some of the left-over canned chipotle peppers, chopped, of course, to your guac.

i also offered a dollop of crema if someone was scared of the heat. this is a pretty

spicy chili. adjust the pepper amounts as you feel like. you can get a little less

heat if you use only 1 or 2 chipotles and scoop out the adobo to add without the

actual peppers.

gotta gate!

living in a historic district has been a learning experience for us. nearly anything you do has to be approved by a committee and the city. anything that would alter the historic value of the home is scrutinized. although this can be an enormous pain and make things more expensive to repair, it's obvious that a lot of homes have been saved from god-awful attempts at restoration. many, many houses have been gutted and completely rebuilt with more that just a nod to the original structure. vacant lots get brand-new homes that are built to the neighborhood's guidelines and don't feel at all out of place sandwiched between older homes with not a 90 degree angle to be found. i LIKE being able to roll a ball in a perfect circle around the dining room floor without touching it, but can definitely see the appeal of brand spankin' new wiring and plumbing. i don't think i've ever lived anywhere where so many people put so much love and energy into where they live. this neighborhood has it's problems but i'm amazed at how much it's improved just in the last three years. now i'm rambling...when i began this post to proudly show my new gate. our house is one of the few in the 'hood that has the original fence around the yard. we spend a lot of time on the porch and roxie would inevitably head straight for the street. my dad built this sweet gate and he and chris installed it. our house has always reminded me of a plain-jane victorian farm house. i can see that gate keeping the cows out of the flower garden and chickens sneaking under to peck around in the beds.

before the gate.....

two good men installing the gate......my dad and chris

tuesday.....in the city

loving the fort's bike trails....

I've really fallen in love with a lot of things about Fort Worth and one of them

is the underused bike trails along the Trinity River. When I lived in Eugene, the trails

were always packed with people going to work, store, friends, wherever....I loved

that so many people used their bikes to get around the city but here I can go for miles on the trails and pass maybe three folks, a couple of dogs, a nutria and maybe a turtle or two. I've watched snakes play dead, herons fish, and hawks hunting.  It's so peaceful and I just love it.

This first photo is the very end of the trail.  You go under a bridge and suddenly it just dead ends into this pretty little wooded area.  My twins are going to summer camp just on the other side of the river.  Lucky boys!