Deviant Dispatches

Hi all - been a while. Distractions abound. I'm trying to get back into the swing of it - I haven't had a blogging hiatus like this since I started this up in 2011. Time to regroup, which may happen in fits and starts, but I'll do my best. What's been distracting me? Well, you know. Life. My next couple of posts will feature a lot of backlog, and mostly pictures, as I find it easier to get a post going when there's an image to go with it. First: the great outdoors. Earlier this summer, Spousal Unit and I decided to make good use of our fire pit. We proceeded to buy a ton of logs from the grocery store. You know, the paper-wrapped ones they sell next to the coolant and motor oil. (That should have been a clue.) One night, Spousal Unit didn't just put out the fire: he hosed it out, dumping the ashy water onto our yard. We ended up with dead grass and weird mushrooms. (Not quite a fairy ring.) So that's gross and disturbing, and we're never b...

Our CSA through Circle M Farm has started up again, and it's been amazing. Every other Thursday when we pick up our box is like a delicious, strange Christmas - after three years, Spousal Unit and I are still surprised at some of the stuff that graces our kitchen. This year, we finally have a fridge big enough to house the fresh greens and produce. In past years, our tiny apartment fridges barely fit everything, and the tails of greenery would spill out of the sensitive crisper drawer and even hang out of the fridge door. Cramming everything in like that sometimes meant things went bad more quickly - there was no room to set a glassful of fresh herbs.  The benefits of our house keep surprising me. I've never needed more than a stove and a sink and a handful of fresh ingredients to cook great food and enjoy doing it. But it's a little more fun when you can move the teapot to a different counter instead of a different room to avoid oil splatters. I have more room to ...

When we first moved back to Wisconsin, Spousal Unit's mom got us a Thanksgiving cactus (much like a Christmas cactus, but also different). That year, it bloomed, and it had the most beautiful flowers. Over the course of the next year, an apocalyptic mayhem was apparently wrought upon it by yours truly. A few sprigs of cactus fell off, much like the fabled Charlie Brown tree . And in its little plant mind, it screamed at me, "Why?! Oh, why would you do this to me?! For the love of GOD, just end it already!" And then we got cats. Titania is our mountain climber, nibbler, and all-purpose troublemaker. She steals yarn from my lap while I'm using it, eats candy wrappers that have any bit of chocolate stuck to them (yes, the whole wrapper), and tries to destroy our pipes by shredding the insulation off of them. (I don't let  her do any of these things, but when the human's away ...) Spousal Unit and I were still surprised (and horrified) when she de...

There are some gorgeous things out in the world that you need to see. I follow The Creative Crochet Collective on Facebook . They are constantly posting the most creative, beautiful projects, and this morning is no different. Check out this shawl by millicurie on Ravelry. It's called Venus Transit . Perfect. A friend shared this beautiful book art with me. Elaborate paintings were discovered on the edges of 19th century book pages, visible only when the pages are fanned out. More book paintings This gorgeous vegetable medley was in the CSA box yesterday. This is how it looked after  I removed the spinach, and basil, and herbs. A rainbow of delicious. Here are the tomatoes we received. I had trouble fitting them all into the fruit bowl. Sauce is upon us. (Not literally. That would be gross.)

Over the weekend, Spousal Unit and I took a brief trip to his parents' lake house. No one else was there, so it was a nice chance to just hang out and have a brief vacation without paying for a hotel room. We assembled a couch and didn't get divorced by the end of it. Win. (Also, it was 10 a.m., but that was a beer kind of moment.) We went for a walk and saw little bee butts. And pretty flowers. We found an adorable little bridge... ...over an adorable little ingress. This sign did not seem to be placed appropriately, but it was very new-looking. Strange. And we found a beached turtle sandbox devoid of sand. It seemed really sad to me. Poor dude.

I've decided that my favorite thing about growing plants is getting something out of them in the end. This means no more silly houseplants that are just green will enter my domicile. Sure, plants of all types are great, but it seems I can't be bothered to care for them if they're not going to care for me. My second favorite thing about plants is seeing them grow so quickly. This is my amaryllis bulb. A week ago, it was an inch tall. Now, it's three. My big basil plant, purchased several weeks ago, is moving along at a fast clip. (Don't worry - I plucked the flowers off right after this picture.) My paste tomatoes are growing quickly, too - though to be fair, that tomato had a head start when I got it from my CSA . And the newest addition - another basil, this one from the CSA - is tiny, but going places. I can tell. Some people might be disappointed to get a second basil plant. I think that's silly. We eat pesto and caprese like mad in ...

I painted a watercolor in a one-day art class, back when I was in New Mexico. It turned out really nice, and I was proud of it. But a painting of an adobe church isn't really the kind of thing I would hang on my wall. So it stayed in a pile of papers for years. One day, it occurred to me that the person who would appreciate this most was Spousal Unit's mom. She adores all things southwestern. So I found a matte and a frame. I think it turned out pretty well.

It was a busy weekend, but I have some great pictures to show for it! I went to my friend Liz's wedding, and it was gorgeous and fun and full of love. I saw friends I haven't seen in a long time. Spousal Unit rode a tractor. I took artistic photos of random stuff. (Or I tried to be artistic, anyway.) There was a gorgeous moon above a white farmhouse. And there was happiness. All of the greatest things for Liz's wedding. (I include the tractor in that, too.)

Last night, Spousal Unit and I made a couple of stops after work. We meandered home later than usual, full of lively conversation, as we often are after work. After nearly four months of car pooling, we still have things to talk about on the drive. After eight years together, we still have stories to regale one another. I drove into the parking lot and pulled into a spot, frigid with ice and twilight. I swirled away my skirt and long coat as I rose, slipping keys into purse and chill breath into lungs. But the sound of the car door closing? I don't remember that. I don't remember it because as the door closed, I looked up, toward the south. The light extended this evening, the first clear promise of eventual spring, and a sliver of moon shone in the sky during our drive. I could forever say this was the reason I looked up, but the truth is, looking up is what I've always done. My dreaming mind is in the stars, and in seeing them, I see all I am and all I want to be, ref...

Over the weekend, I spent an incredible amount of time with my youngest sister. We had tea, took pictures, visited a really lame pumpkin patch, and ate way too much ice cream. I say the pumpkin patch was lame only out of what may be a spoiled sense of what a pumpkin patch should be. When I think of such a thing, my mind is filled with the smell of cider, the glory of corn mazes, and the childlike rapture in a simple hay wagon ride. (Mostly influenced by the horses. Because, holy crap,  horses.) A pumpkin patch is a place to revel in all things fall, eat overpriced apple cobbler and pumpkin bars, and breathe in the wonderful smell of dead nature. The pumpkin patch we visited only had pumpkins. Lamest. Cauldron. Ever. Okay, that's a slight exaggeration. There were many varieties of squash in all shapes and sizes. There was also some local honey, chewed up and spat out by bees in my own backyard. But that was pretty much where the fun ended. I love pumpkins. But I...

Downtown Madison is one of the prettiest parts of the city. Sure, State Street itself has moments when it's full of drunks and panhandlers, but I think you'd be hard-pressed to find another downtown in a city of this size that is regularly so clean. And looks so nice at sunset. (If you know of another, please share with me.) It's been two weeks at my new job, and I already miss working downtown - a tiny bit. I have to say that overall, it's pretty nice to not deal with downtown traffic. Wait, I'm dealing with the beltline now. Crap. Anyway. The capitol looks gorgeous at any time of day. Have a marvelous weekend - I'm off to enjoy a photo shoot and the mustard museum with my sister. But not both at once.

There are approximately five million things I love about fall. But I especially love a couple of them. This is a new one for me: a plant finally blossoming for the first time, at the end of summer. At its peak, my African violet had 21 blossoms at once. I finally got to wear my colorful new pink Asian-style jacket. Remember when I bought it ? I also picked up two awesome fall shirts, a really comfy pair of pants, and silky pajama pants to replace my old ones. (They had holes at both hips. One was the size of my head.) Leaves are turning everywhere! The library parking lot (above) is especially resplendent right now, but I'm also impressed by the tree outside our window. It's almost chartreuse at sunset. This photo is not edited at all.  Wow. My least favorite color for a long time was yellow - and it was least favorite by a wide margin. Now, I may not wear yellow, but I appreciate it a lot more. I used to think yellow trees were boring, but that's not...