I’m not sure what to do next with several months’ worth of notes, screenshots, G doc brain dumps, piles of old magazines separated from other old magazines, found (and immediately treasured) pay stubs from 1990, decades’ worth of correspondence, and the like. This trail littered with mental and physical and digital breadcrumbs made sense to tell stories about in September and October and maybe even November, but now little of it seems to connect properly to the very particular liminal space of early December, those few weeks between calendar milestones where exhortations to consume for the winter holidays are at their most fierce; the days are somehow still getting shorter; and both last fall and next spring seem impossibly far away.
Garden scene report: Mixed.
Bad news. Planting for a fall harvest was a 98% fail.
The radishes came up and produced a nice array of greens, but not much in the way of actual radishes.1
The kale germinated but stayed seedling-sized, and despite the fence I was so proud of a few months ago, what WAS there was totally being eaten by something. Slugs? Beetles? I never saw anything, so it's impossible to say.
Out of all the new lettuce mix seeds I scattered, exactly four plants came up. FOUR.
Out of all the new spinach seeds I planted, exactly one germinated and then just… stopped growing.
Has poor seed germination been a thing for other people? I have some theories.2 As always, I’m very glad someone else grows this stuff because what I “grew” wouldn’t have amounted to even a tiny side salad.
Good news. The garlic was planted on Sunday, November 5, between a pair of cold snaps. I planted 115 goddamn gorgeous beautiful3 cloves of an absolute workhorse of a hardneck - from my own stash - on that beautiful afternoon, covered the bed in almost a foot of straw, then retreated inside because the sun was already well on its way down. I eagerly and with great enthusiasm look forward to February 1, but in the meantime, you’ll find me struggling to stay awake past 8 PM.
Garage scene report: Auspicious.
I have a fairly large book/magazine/zine library and my own personal archives, as well as a growing collection of art and other work created by others. This assemblage takes up too much space inside our very cute, very old little house. It feels, to me, a bit psychically uncomfortable and cramped, and our needs for space within the house continue to evolve as a household of two humans and two cats.
I realized this fall that I need a room—not inside the house but not somewhere else, either. I just want a simple, unfussy space to think and write and get messy and weird, preferably with a garden view. I’d spent 3+ years idly considering our absurdly large garage, which looks out onto the backyard, but as the fall color arrived I took a good, hard look.
So yeah, guess what, I’m developing plans for what feels like to me a completely-bananas-yet-somehow-completely-doable escapade: Building out, with plenty of help/advice/mistakes, a closed workspace in this garage that will leave enough room for our vehicles, garden tools, shelves of garage stuff, etc. I’ve already been doing the shitwork. The clearing-out of the space began just after my birthday in October (an experience I’ll write about another time), but I’ve paused for winter. Work resumes March 19 2024.
Just a few of the inspirations for this project:
Michael Pollan’s book about building a little writing house
Some of the spaces in recent issues of Faire
Women building and teaching each other how to build
A couple interesting garage spaces I’ve seen online
Cinnamon roll scene report: Time to get on it.
The BYI holiday baking load isn’t what it used to be, but I will definitely be making a lot of these in the coming weeks.
Mom’s Cinnamon Rolls
4 1/2 - 5 C flour
4 t active dry yeast (2 packages)
3/4 C milk
1/2 C water
1/2 C vegetable shortening (part butter)
1/2 C sugar
1 t salt
2 eggs, room temperature
Measure 1 3/4 C flour into yr large mixer bowl. Add yeast and blend. Measure milk, water, shortening, sugar, and salt into saucepan. Blend. Heat until warm (about 120-130 degrees F).
Pour into flour/yeast mixture. Add eggs. Beat 30 seconds with electric mixer at low speed, scraping bowl constantly. Beat 3 more minutes at high speed, scraping bowl occasionally. Stop mixer.
Gradually stir in more flour (by hand) to make a soft dough. It will be rather sticky. Knead on lightly floured board or counter until smooth, about 5-10 minutes (it’s good exercise!!). Cover with bowl or pan and let rest for 20 minutes.
Shape as desired. Here’s what I do: I cut the hunk of dough in half, roll out one of the halves until it’s flat and rectangular and large, brush it with melted butter, sprinkle it with a cinnamon/sugar mixture, add raisins (optional), and roll it up. Then I lightly trim the ends and cut the rest into 1″ wide slices. They usually fit nicely into two 9″ greased cake pans. Then I put them in a warm oven (I usually warm it to 200 degrees for a few minutes, then turn it off) with a pan of hot water under them and a foil tent over them and let them rise for 40 minutes, or until doubled.
Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. You can ice these with powdered sugar icing after they’ve cooled off, but believe me when I tell you that they’re wonderful just plain and warm out of the oven.
Cool them on a rack. Once they’re cool, you can wrap them in foil, and freeze until it’s time to eat them. Just warm them in a 250 oven for about 45 minutes and whew! It’s like you just made ‘em.
Enjoy! The recipe is adapted from a cookbook called Homemade Bread, published by Farm Journal in 1969.
LOTSA (Lisa’s Open Tabs, Saved Aggressively)
If you’re not reading Attitude Adjustment Facility, you should be
The singing keeps me coming back to this Landline post from a few weeks ago
It was fun to see this boomerang back into the world, 27 years on
I’m listening to so much music lately; one example = Joan Shelley
Another example: Off World
This zine is currently in my cart
Thinking about these folks’ January webinar (thanks, Annie!)
I lived in Jonathan, MN in the 80s - some (but not enough) vintage photos here
Naomi Yang’s documentary is on my short list of things to watch
Trying to match some fabric I thrifted 20 years ago… no luck yet, but WOW re: these
Siouxsie and The Banshees’ contract/rider/etc from their 11/5/1981 show at First Ave
The radish seeds were from 2018.
Angle of the sun? General availability of light? Overly wet soil? Relative lateness of planting? All of these are possibilities.
Extremely fulfilling-to-say phrase frequently uttered by Bandsplain’s Yasi Salek - it’s even a (sold out) shirt