Flurries

Sticking close to home amid the cold and snow.

Today - of snow (slow motion, then as it actually fell), on the Jardin.

Yesterday - of pepper (on a lovely salad), of ricotta salad (on a rigatoni with eggplant), of cocoa (on a very good tiramisu), of powdered sugar (over house biscotti), at Masseria East for Restaurant Week.

15-minute cities https://sponsored.bloomberg.com/article/taking-cities-to-the-next-level?utm_medium=social&utm_id=customcontent-Schindler&utm_source=Facebook&utm_campaign=Business-Paid&utm_content=US-Ad1&fbclid=IwAR2qTUbEpvNc6dLx9QmoOatoPlT8GWPEg0GG6jRA_PvGsIcm7TYEKOEdN0U_aem_AVngYKWRtA7gANcaOWGFX88s4-fUnC9i2vSPr8WJTNHCPK8-l-kLIkDCW50ReP-X1TvHKYN46eQate-kMsEf_NTn

Swedish recycling mall https://www.facebook.com/reel/733814748796260?s=yWDuG2&fs=e&mibextid=Nif5oz

The Growers, Bakers and Beekeepers Embracing the Terroir of American Cities

Long celebrated in France, the concept of place-specific tastes is spurring the revitalization of neighborhoods and communities.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/26/t-magazine/food/terroir-american-cities.html?smid=em-share

Perpetual Stew https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/20/nyregion/bushwick-brooklyn-perpetual-stew.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

The Bittersweet Tale of a Diner, a Toy Shop and a Changing New York

One is expanding. One is closing. But not all is lost.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/11/nyregion/coronavirus-veselka-nyc.html?smid=em-share

What if Local and Diverse Is Better Than Networked and Global? Helena Norberg-Hodge has been arguing for localism since the 1970s, but the pandemic is making the Australian activist-scholar’s ideas more relevant than ever. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/09/world/australia/norberg-hodge-local-organic-australia.html?smid=em-share

New York as a Biking City? It Could Happen. And It Should. A new report proposes 425 miles of interconnected bike lanes across the five boroughs. Another sees new car-free bridges into Manhattan from Queens, Brooklyn and New Jersey. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/09/arts/bike-bridges-new-york.html?smid=em-share

I’ve Seen a Future Without Cars, and It’s Amazing Why do American cities waste so much space on cars? https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/09/opinion/ban-cars-manhattan-cities.html?smid=em-share

The New Generation of Self-Created Utopias

As so-called intentional communities proliferate across the country, a subset of Americans is discovering the value of opting out of contemporary society.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/16/t-magazine/intentional-communities.html

Cities Worldwide Are Reimagining Their Relationship With Cars

Cars changed the way we move. They also led to toxic levels of air pollution in many cities. Now, under pressure from their citizens, city officials are experimenting with new ways to reimagine the role of cars.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/14/climate/car-ban-air-pollution.html

3 Far-Flung Cities Offer Clues to Unsnarling Manhattan’s Streets

As New York considers congestion pricing, the systems used in London, Singapore and Stockholm could provide a valuable road map.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/nyregion/congestion-pricing-new-york.html

Christmas 2019 in the Rear View Mirror

Christmas 2019 at the Mother Ship in Queens.

Before more time passes, some images to record the day ... a mish mash of Mother Hen hobbies (that’s right, the plants have taken over the upstairs bathroom), Papa Rooster eccentricities (juxtaposition of scale model of house and erratic holiday lighting of actual house), and my hobbies/just being...

Wooden Snoopy, painted at a classmate's party sometime during the latter half of elementary school.

Santa socks, snow globe pajamas.

Mama's African violets.

Papa's model of the Mothership.

Papa's lights for the coming year.

Burlap wrapped gift with recycled ribbon and card tag.

Haphazard tree lights.

A lot lamp post.

Mama's amaryllis.

Bathroom jungle, by the only southern exposure upstairs.

Christmas cactus, blooming on schedule.

More African violets...

... in different shades.

Classic poinsettia.

What’s to be drawn from this?  Interestingly, my interests seem to be a mix of theirs.  The green thumb is definitely Mother Hen.  The shelter interest would seem more Papa Rooster, though, truth be told, he hasn’t a particularly strong interest in home improvement - his has more to do with blingy-ness of whatever is on hand or has caught his eye at that moment.  And the overarching theme?  A high tolerance for some messiness and coziness and relaxed, non-neat, non-minimal, non-streamlined existence.

[Edited February 8, 2025 to add photo captions and delete "compromised" tag.]

In From the Cold

As a caterpillar fattened itself for the coming Winter on the petunias, ...

... it was time to rescue the tender bonus hydrangea...

... and geranium...

... and strawberry plants, ...

...and do some seed gathering along the way. 

Their indoor home will be the planter vacated by one of the old mandevillas that got consolidated. 

Unorthodox gardening tools?  Perhaps slightly unorthodox....  Yes, that is a sled, liberated from the sidewalk piles, great for containing stray soil on slatted tables (and if we ever get our sledding hill back from the bulldozers behind Gracie Mansion, great for use by petite adults!).

And yes, disposable chopsticks wrappers repurposed as seed envelopes. 

And, yup, all of these plant transfers done on the convertible bench table used as half-table while the wooden table awaits repairs.  Repurposing and multitasking!

Bye Bye, Plastic Bags?

It seems they may finally be going, or, at least, their numbers may be dwindling in our fair hometown.  So reporteth the New York Times.  A plastic bag ban might become reality yet.

Took long enough.  Although, indeed, it IS a much bigger deal here than in other cities, even San Francisco.  The car is still king everywhere else.  New Yorkers walk, and carry stuff, and having easily available bags does facilitate that.  Hopefully there will be solutions in place to not penalize the poor.

Not to toot the ol' horn too much, or pat the ol' back too too much - just a little, but reusable bags were part of daily life in these parts way before that was in vogue - going back to the late 90s.  Back then, the only bags around that fit the bill were the indestructible ones from dollar stores, the ones homeless people often used to carry around their belongings.  Those bags made for great grocery bags.  Not cute, but they did the job.  Supermarket clerks in Cville were impressed.  They survived the return to New York, and live on as defacto clothes hampers.

The OG reusable bag.

On the other hand, to dampen the ol' horn, a collection that had gotten out of hand did not survive the last move, and, alas, went to the landfill.  Even with the general intent not to take plastic bags, it is hard.  They got carefully stored, with the goal of becoming the stuffing for padded hangers made with upcycled dry cleaner wire hangers (yes, a very late 80s/90s idea, admittedly).  Somehow, all that spare time to sew and craft never materialized.  Those first few years at a BigLaw firm are rough.

Anyhow, the current collection is much better managed.  Slow learning.

The World Is Your Oyster

Although perhaps not quite so much on a predominantly vegetarian diet.  But exceptions can always be made for those occasions when oysters are on the menu and good company is at hand.  Liberal invocation of those types of exceptions is highly recommended.  Life is short; YOLO, as the kids say.  Balance - duty to the animals, on the one hand; nature and self-care, on the other.  Everything in moderation.

And with that approach, maybe the world really can be your oyster - the best of it all.

Like the Billion Oyster Project - an educational program in the New York City public schools that teaches marine conservation techniques and seeks to seed oysters in used shells to plant in New York Harbor, both to clean the water and to act as a defense against the strong currents of global warming.  And, bonus, the participating restaurants save money by reducing the need for waste disposal, and the shells that yield all that deliciousness go back to the ocean from where they came.  Not just win-win, but so many wins all around!

Love those stories!  Environmental goodness, educational goodness, gastronomical goodness.  Like the little urban (terrace) jungle.  Now how is that for bringing it all back around?

By Agata Poniatowski, from the NPR article linked. 

(Also the best of it all: Finally coming back around to making time to blog after a long absence, finally getting to use inspirational material saved and emailed in hopes of sharing it further, finally getting to take a little step toward building and sharing a version of the ideal and integrated life - that elusive goal of living....)

Accidental Farmer

"Accidental" - granted, the majority of the plants out on the terrace are certainly deliberately there, perhaps a bit haphazardly nurtured, but nurtured, or kept alive, or kept from dying (with moderate success).  Without a doubt, they are nurtured in spirit, and cared for, even if time permits of less than what is wished for them.  There are weeds - those cannot be accidental as they persist and insist despite being unwelcome; there are tomatoes that spring up out of the compost that hasn't quite composted - I suppose those latter truly are accidental, but only in their initial stages, as then they become nurtured and coddled.  But the rest of the time, "accidental" is not really accurate for the plantings out on the terrace.

"Farmer" - is simply not generally applicable.  The "Jardin," as it is affectionately known in these parts, is definitely a garden.  Although I suppose by some standards, a container garden may not be a "true" garden, without the direct connection to the earth.  And while it may be a decent size for New York City standards, well, New York City standards are a different standard where space and greenery are concerned.  But by no means is the Jardin anywhere remotely close to a "farm" - either definitionally or geographically - notwithstanding the foodstuffs that sometimes grow out there.

Hence, "accidental farmer" is most apt.  And when applied to produce left on the counter for too long without consumption, well, that anything would continue to grow is purely accidental.  That they would be left to grow for so long that they might reach a stage sufficiently advanced to provide any hope of cultivation, well, yes, accidental to the tee...

Right now, while the residents of the Jardin continue to freeze, inside, the ever-present life force pushes on.  And so from food, plants are born - the reverse of the cycle, or the next iteration of the cycle.  For a plant lover, it forces the choice between eating the produce, if edible still, and letting the sprouts take over.  Sometimes it is possible to split the baby, so to speak.

Sweet potato with purple-leaved buds.  I covet the purple sprouts - what color they would add to the Jardin, perhaps interspersed among vines of its green-leafed cousin shown below, especially trailing over one of the large planters.

A companion sweet potato - this one with light green leaves on a pinkish stalk. If these leaves are more chartreuse, they would be lovely interspersed as well.

Tableau of sprouting produce.  Note the daikon, whose top is sprouting fiercely.  There likely is not enough room to nourish a new daikon root of this size.  But Mumsicle has said she will take the top for the Mother Garden. 

Tableau of sprouting produce - second angle.  Note the sprouting onion.

Sweet potato - green-leafed, full-fledged plants.  Grown from the sweet potato that caused a fire in the microwave (oops), its growing tip amputated before its descent into the inferno.

Same sweet potato - angle #2.  Its future will be the large planter where the peach tree carcass stands.

Tableau - again.

Bokchoy stub - in growth mode.

The purple-leaved sweet potato - amputated of its growing tip, microwaved, buttered, salted, peppered, filled with softly scrambled eggs lightened with milk and studded with chopped leaves from the overgrown onion.

The amputated purple-leaved sweet potato tip, settled into a makeshift bulb vase (jar, whose mouth holds a plastic bottleneck cut from the bottle, inverted, which then holds the sweet potato elevated, but just below the water line), in the window.

Overgrown, sprouted onion, whose leaf tips flavored the scrambled eggs.

Teeny tiny sweet potato cuts with teeny tiny sprouts - likely too small to grow, but just in case, they were nestled into the soil of a potted plant.



Christmas Green, Sprinkled with Red

I am a wrapping paper reuser - my gifts are unwrapped carefully and deliberately - I slide my finger under the seams, carefully through the tape, the packages removed, paper straightened and smoothed, and then re-rolled for later use.  Sometimes, when the paper is super wrinkly and crinkled, then the stops come out and the paper gets torn into, and then recycled afterward.  I am a Bert, less an Ernie (see Ernie and Bert's "Gift of the Magi" from "Christmas Eve on Sesame Street" - about 4:25 in), but I do love Ernie.  It's cheapness, but also greenness.  And it's a family trait, at least with the holiday gift wrapping.

Reused gift wrap, ribbons, and labels.

We also reuse our labels.  And I turn cards that my parents and I receive into holiday postcards.  I reuse the same boxes year after year. 

Reused boxes, and more ribbon and labels.

And this year, I raided the post-Christmas sales to buy Christmas fabric, and I am going to transition away from paper altogether - it's something I've thought about doing for years; now it's done - Mumsicle will have one pattern, Popsicle one, Sissy one, and LilBro one.  Perfect - can't wait for next year :)

And, since there was time on Christmas day (the luxury of free time), I attempted a bouche noelle - well, that was the original goal (inspired by "The Kitchen").  But I waited too long to roll, and the cake wasn't quite thin enough (maybe next time more liquid?) so instead it became a three layer chocolate cake loaf - boxed devil's food cake mix, with puréed black beans instead of the usual oil and eggs, with avocado frosting - a la Joy Bauer, although my avocado frosting was an Alton Brown similar recipe, without the lemon extract and only half as much confectioner's sugar (because I was raised on the desserts of a French/Vietnamese palate, not quite so tooth achingly sweet as American desserts), because it was the easiest one to find, even though I first saw avocado frosting on the Today Show with Joy.  Vanilla extract might have helped, though.  Anyway, I've been wanting to try it. 

Cake experiment - on my day off.

Not the prettiest dessert ever, but the cake part worked quite well - barely beany, and oh so much protein!  Plenty sweet as it was.  The frosting was fine - might have been more chocolatey had I had cocoa powder, and might have helped with some instant espresso, and avocados that were actually ripe, and maybe some vanilla extract.  Not the prettiest ever, but it was ok.  The cherries were just Christmas décor - not in season or very tasty.  Next time, maybe the acid that preserves the avocados will be orange juice, so orange zest can go in (and maybe in the cake too - to make the batter more liquidy and pliable?) - orange and chocolate have always played well together.  And if there are clementine segments as decoration, that would work beautifully.  Less bouche noelle, but it might be nice.  Overall, a good first try at a greener (avocado! vegan!) yule log cake.

The three day weekend was much needed.  Sometimes the mind and soul need a rest.

In the days before, there were other holiday rituals, including my absolute favorite - caroling and the tree lighting in Carl Schurz Park.

Carolers, and neighbors.

Our tree.

A little ladybug, still clinging on in early December.

Tree pit holiday greenery.

Holiday-lit trees.