Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Andy Goldsworthy on Staying Put


I finally watched the 2001 documentary Rivers and Tides about Scottish environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy. He does amazing, mostly transient, sculptures with natural elements like stone, leaves, and ice. I should not have been surprised to hear him say this about living in one place long-term:
I’ve lived in places for four or five years and moved on, and that is not enough time, it really isn’t enough time to understand the changes that happen in a place. You have to live on the same street in the same village for a long period of time, seeing children when they’re waiting at the bus stop grow into adults and have children of their own. There was an old lady in the village who has since died. She was quite a dour lady and she’d had a tough life. And she used to walk up and down the street that I lived in. And I said, "Since I’ve been on this street my son--well all my children were born there—my elder son was the first child to be born on that street for twenty one years.” And she said, “Well, you see only births, and I see only deaths.” From her perspective she just knew all the people who had lived in those houses and who had died. And I hope I never forget either those people who have been born and those people who have died.
Goldsworthy books and DVD available here.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

A Walk In The July Garden

Photos taken July 16.

Learning to live with weeds.


The carrot and cilantro patch. Hmmm, looks a lot like last month's photo, doesn't it? Absolutely nothing germinated. Ugh. Must not have kept the seedbed wet enough. I tried carrots last year, too, but they didn't germinate. Anyone have tips on carrot-growing?


My three surviving, and now flourishing, cucumber plants.


Tomatoes and peppers. More tomatoes in the background. Two transplanted raised beds on the left. Cory brought them over from their previous home in our cabin's yard. Soon I'll start building soil in them for next year.


More tomatoes, plus a pepper stuck in there, and a few calendulas.


Beans and nasturtium. I lost several bean plants to bunnies.


My beans in need of taller a taller trellis. Next year I plan to build bean teepees, which should bring as much joy to our little one (who will be two years old by then) as they will to me.


The nasturtium win the Prettiest Leaf contest in my garden. I love their shape and color.


In the middle of about 25 sweet corn stalks.


More losses to bunnies here in the sunflower patch. The remaining plants are thriving. When I caught one rabbit mid-munch, I dug out the old chicken wire for a crude fence around this spot. Cory then set to work building me a more structured anti-rabbit device, which is still in process and soon will protect the entire garden.


Cory's experimenting with branches for a gateway to the garden.


Zinnias about to bloom!


I had to include a shot of this lovely spot, the public boat dock, just down from our driveway.

Support A Poor, Starving Artist

OK, we may not be starving, but Cory's headed back to grad school this fall for a Doctor of Information Systems at Dakota State University. So, our pocketbook will take a bit of a hit paying for tuition for the next three years (although that's somewhat mitigated by an assistantship).

I'm planning to get an Etsy site up and running this summer, so we can start selling Cory's art online (and around the world!). In the meantime, you can enjoy his latest paintings up close and personal at the Community Cultural Center in Brookings, where work like this (one of my favorites) will be displayed for another couple of weeks:


You can view his exhibit until July 27, Tuesday-Saturday from noon to 5:00 p.m. at 524 4th Street, Brookings, SD. His artist reception and gallery talk will be Friday, July 27, 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Friday, July 13, 2007

Madison Farmers Market Starts

The local farmers market is open!

Thursdays
4:00 - 7:00 p.m.
Library Park
South side of the Madison Public Library

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Brookings HFH ReStore To Open

One of my favorite places in the world--my hometown of Brookings, SD--will soon have a new Habitat for Humanity Restore warehouse. Sustainable-building-minded South Dakotans in the east central region of the state will now have two places to pick up recycled housing materials: the ReStore in Sioux Falls and the new one in Brookings.

ReStore provides a win-win-win situation for everyone. Builders can find recycled materials at reduced cost, materials are kept out of the landfill, and money raised by ReStore funds future Habitat homes.

Cory and I had hoped to get a few things at the Sioux Falls ReStore when our house was built. Unfortunately, we just didn't have the time to sort through their materials (something you'll need to keep in mind and budget into your timeframe). By the time our house was at the stage when we needed to pick up things like doors, it was the dead of winter, Cory was in the middle of the busiest time of the teaching/speech-activities-coaching year (out of the house by 6:00 a.m., not home until 7:00 or 8:00 p.m.), I was traveling to Brookings a few days each week for work, and I was eight months pregnant. However, when we get around to that strawbale greenhouse I'm so keen on, we'll definitely hit ReStore for doors and windows.

Click here for a map to the Brookings ReStore.

Click here for a map to the Sioux Falls ReStore.

While you're at it, take a look at Habitat's Construction and Environmental Resources pages for some great information on sustainable building.