Bird + Seed

Sunny Weekend Notes

You are all very aware I'm sure of the strange winter weather.  Strange yes, unwelcome, no.  We took advantage of the sunny 50 degrees to air out some afghans and our pillows.  Plus hang dry som laundry.  Come spring we'll hang a clothes line on our porch, but for now, the curtain rod will have to do.  Other things we did this weekend...

- Went shopping in Harvard Square.  Damon wanted some comfy sweat pants and needed some undershirts.  We went to Gap.  Across the street from Gap is Anthropologie, where I got a shirt to defend my thesis in (thank goodness out of all the ones I took to the dressing room, I preferred the one on sale).  

- We had lunch at Clover.  I occasionally go to their food truck for lunch, but I had never seen their Harvard Square Space.  So cool.  Barbecue seitan and rosemary fries.  Mmmmm.

- Friday was Damon's company's holiday party [much belated]  It was at a go-cart track.  Its good to still be a small company.  Will they still be able to do that next year?

- We went to the winter's farmer's market.  Plenty of parsnips still around!  A few farmers have hot houses, so some greens can still survive the winter.  Although, I bet some hardy kales can grow outside in winters like these.

- We were visited by 3 neighbor cats over the weekend.  So we got our kitty petting action on.  

- We spent a good deal of time working on new kitchen curtains.  Once they are complete, I'll show you.

- And of course, this.

I haven't gotten used to carrying my camera around again.

And we're back

Around the end of November I began working on my thesis in earnest.  On top of that, I had a paper to write for submission to a scholarly journal.  The way it works here, as is much of the US for lab science PhDs, your thesis is the last step- not something you are constantly working on.  True, you spend years on a project, and that body of work, when written, will comprise your thesis... you are not writing it as you go.  You are given permission to start writing by a committee who oversees your progress.  They say when you have completed enough of a project to both display your scientific maturity and have contributed substantionally to your chosen field to begin the thesis writing [and thus PhD earning].  

Yesterday I submitted my thesis to my dissertation committee.  It took me just about a month to write [if I count the days that I worked on it... there were days in there that I worked on my paper, celebrated Christmas, performed experiments, slept in...]  In a few weeks I will have my dissertation defense, which is comprised of a public seminar and discussion, followed by a private, faculty lead defense.  It's an important exercise, but also a formality.  There is no way I will 'fail'.  

So I am back from my blog break.  The thought of spending MORE time at the computer when I was in the midst of writing was painful.  I spent hours in front of the computer... cold, wrapped in blankets and typing with fingerless gloves.  Days on end, the only time I went outside was for a morning run.  When Damon was traveling for work, I didn't talk to anyone the entire day.  True, I slept in till 6 or 7.  I ran errands in the middle of the day.  And I watched Star Trek: The Next Generation on Netflix a lot[Honestly, that show has stood the test of time way better than most shows that came out in the late 80s.  Just don't watch it on a high-res screen]  

Now that the thought of being in front of my computer and typing words doesn't make me sick, I'm glad to be back to blogging.  So, internet.  How are you?

Pickled Peppers

Sunday was the penultimate Farmer's Market of the year... until May.  [I believe that penultimate should be used whenever possible]  This time of year New England farms are still churning out plenty of root vegetables, brussel sprouts, gourds aplenty, some leafy greens and a few peppers.  I scooped up plenty of potatoes this week, and chilies.  The potatoes went into our growing root cellar, and I pickled the peppers.

I always thought canning should be done in huge batches- but not so!  I made just two jars of pickled garlic chilies with lemon zest.  One jar has my dad's name on it already.  The other will grace our dinner during some dismal part of winter.

This summer I put up a lot of vegetables- canned & frozen.  Apple butter galore.  Pickled onions at their peak.  Blanched and frozen peas, corn, spinach and peppers.  Frozen berries, herbs & peaches.  Dried herbs too.  There is something incredibly wonderful about putting up your own food- about knowing what to do when given a surplus, and knowing that you can take care of yourself in this small way.  I look forward to doing even more next summer.  But now I get to enjoy the fruits of my labor and those sweaty hours boiling jars in a hot summery apartment.

Leaf Wreath

There is a massive pile of leaves in the back yard.  I am actually itching to rake them, but baby grass is growing and raking would upset their tiny efforts, so the leaves sit.  Except for these few that I made into a wreath.  I used the dipped in beeswax technique that I experimented with last year and found to be an excellent way of preserving leaves for 2-3 weeks [one of the leaves, the printed one, lived for an entire year, and would be with us still if it hadn't been crushed while moving.]  

Preserving leaves is super easy- let me show you how.

1- Gather leaves.  Don't worry if some have holes, ripped parts or a few yucky spots.  Pat them dry if wet.  Assemble a double boiler.  If you actually own one- don't use it.  Use just a pot plus a crappy bowl.  It can be hard to get the wax out.  Also, use a crappy wooden spoon.

2- The beeswax.  I used about 1.5 ounces of a 3 once cake of beeswax bought from the Co-Op.  Of course hippie grocery stores have beeswax.  They even have it in pellet form.  You can use regular paraffin wax, but I think that might make everything look white-ish grey.  Plus beeswax smells heavenly. 

3- Melty melty.  Lay out a sheet of waxed paper.  This is where you'll lay you dipped leaves on.  They dry super fast, so after you cover the sheet with leaves, they will already all be dry enough to pick up and move.

4- Ok! Dip!  Using the leave stems as a handle, dredge the leaves into the melted wax, then allow the excess to drip off.  If you are feeling extra fancy, you can fold and crease the leaves into shapes and the wax will more or less keep the leave in that shape.

5- Once dry, arrange your leaves as you like them on a suitable backing.  I used a large embroidery hoop.  But a donut-shaped piece of cardboard would work.  Or a wreath form.  Then- hot glue 'em on.  The leaves are light, so you don't need too much glue.  You can leave the stems on or off- I glued a few on just by their stems, to achieve a 'just fell into a pile' look.  Cover up some of the more ugly parts of the leaves with other smaller leaves.

And I just realized that I haven't shown you all much of our new place.  So here's the view of the wreath and the living room from the front door.  

Nothing to do with pumpkins [ok, maybe a little]

This is a dual purpose post.  First: the item having nothing to do with pumpkins.  I got my box checked.  Now, yeah, that sounds gross- but it's PhD talk for 'my dissertation advisory committee thinks I have contributed enough to the body of scientific work and I have progressed to a point that they checked a box on a official form indicating that I may now coalesce everything into a written thesis, defend such thesis [by March] and obtain a PhD.'  Saying 'checking the box' is so much faster.  Although the long winded explanation more closely mirrors the long-winded 5.25 years of work [I am now a G-6] I have done to get to this point.  I am relieved and happy but a little bit dreading everything I have to do.  And I'm a little sad that I have to pretty much stop all my experiments now so that I have time to write.  But this is what we all aim for and strive for and agonize over- so I will continue with this smile on my face.

And in other news, we had our first Halloween [in also that same amount of time] living in a place that we can hand out candy and put pumpkins on our porch.  Mine is the one on the left.  It's supposed to be the mustached pig from Angry Birds.  I think if he were green it would be more obvious.  Damon carved a rocket ship.  Because that is how he rolls.