Day 2, in which we got up late!

 Today's mail: a postcard from a Mail Artist in France. "E" Ambassade d'Utopia sent this one from somewhere close-by.

I went to La Poste today and purchased some stamps so I'll begin sending out my own Mail Art shortly. The stamps didn't have denominations on them, only 20gm (max weight) and "Europe" or "Monde" on them. Like the Forever stamps in the U.S. I like numbers on my stamps. They make them so graphic.

 This is the result of our cleaning and re-organizing the storage room. We still have more towels to wash and put on the shelf. We will return items we've removed for our use when we depart, like some books, wastebaskets, coffee maker, Brita filtre, and more. We weren't able to get the to the coffee maker or other items due to the congestion in there. I wish I'd taken a before photo.

 These are the lights on the Mairie on rue de Rivoli, near us.

 This is the reflection of the lights in the windows of the building across the street.

 This is what I ate before my main dish, at Le Trumilou, tonight. It's a beet pate. Roasted beets in layers with a goat cheese mouse in between (the rosy colored part.) Delicious. The thing above it is actually a tomato wedge with some vinaigrette drizzled on it.

 This was our dessert. We shared it. Apple sherbet with Calvados poured over it. Okay, it was so good! For the main course, I had baked fish (Liege) also very good but not a good photo of it, and no where near as exciting as the beets or the Calvados dessert.

 After dinner, we walked our friends to the bus stop and saw these lit up Christmas trees on the plaze by the Mairie. I got up close and to my surprise - soda bottles! How recyclage of them to do this.

 From across the street at the bus stop.

Here's the entire scene with the 5 trees. So festive. A real bottle tree.

We walked home, looking in shop windows. Checking to see what shops and restaurants are still here, and they mostly are the same, with the addition of a few more Asian cuisine ones, Thai, Japanese. It's nice to have things familiar.

Blog Action Day - FOOD

Today is Blog Action Day and the topic is food. I wasn't sure how to talk about this subject. I love food! I love to cook, I like supporting my local farmers, I like that my son started making the CSA movement in our community more visible, and I've read many books about food. I'd like to share a memory that I recently told M. about. When I started being involved in a food coop, I only thought about getting good food at lower prices. One of the members would talk about Food as a political issue. I was clueless. I listened, I learned. He suggested I read the book Food for People Not for Profit and my mind was opened. Here's some information that I read recently.

The world can feed itself without ruining the planet, study says

Author Jon Foley says feeding a growing world presents a huge challenge. But employing many strategies simultaneously can meet the problem.

...... a new study in the journal Nature argues that we can feed the world’s growing population without destroying the planet… if we make major adjustments now in agricultural and consumption practices and patterns. (Hey, if it were easy, we’d already be there, right?)
Based on new data about the Earth’s agricultural lands and crop yields, the study offers some core strategies to meet future food production needs and environmental challenges. Those strategies include:

• Stop farming in places like tropical rainforests, which have high ecological value and low food output;
• Improve crop yields in regions of Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, where farmland isn’t meeting its potential;
• Change farming practices to better manage water, nutrients, and chemicals;
• Shift diets away from meat; and
• Stop wasting food (up to 1/3 of all food grown is wasted either in production, transport, or after purchase).

Taken together, these strategies could lead to 100-180 percent more food available for consumption and sustain the lakes, rivers, forests, and soil that food production depends on.
We found that there is no silver bullet – we need to incorporate the best of what we know now into solving the world’s food problems and protecting our natural resources.
Can we do it? We have to – it’s absolutely necessary. It’s up to us to decide what’s politically feasible. We can change how we govern, tax, ship, produce, etc. What we can’t change are the laws of physics.
READ the complete article here.

#184 series, a pool picture & a beet

 More of my altered cards. I'm going to have to stop by the Virginia Museum of Fine Art and stock up on postcards while they're still 10cents each. Look at all the fun I'm having for so little money!

Yesterday, or today, counts as the halfway mark for my Mail Art 365 project.

 I entitled this gal (a cyclidic figure) something like "She could stand very still."  It was a surprise to me that I could make something really different happen for this sculpture with just one element.

 As always, big people looking at the landscape crack me up. Doesn't this just work?

 I chanced my phone getting wet to take this photo. We were at the pool before
8 a.m. Alone as usual, all the movement in the water is just from the two of us. The duck takes the water temperature. It was 88F/31C. Mighty warm. There is one of the new yellow umbrellas and some of the new yellow chairs.

 This is one of the beets that I got last week from my farm share. I absolutely loved the roots on this and asked my honey to take a photo of it for me. Of course, it's so perfectly an art shot. I'm thinking I need note cards or a stamp made of this image.

Here's what I did with last week's beets. I steamed them (the inside is peach and pink) and then made a pickling liquid to pack them in. It turned out very tasty, though my photo isn't as attractive.

Farmers' Market

We're winding down at the Farmers' Market with only two more market days. However, you'd never know it by the quantity of produce that my farmer brings to market. It looked prettier than ever this past Thursday. I've posted a recipe using beets here.

Cake, yum!

This is the completed chocolate and beet cake. The slice is blurry, don't try to adjust your eyes, but I thought is still showed how the cake turned out. It was VERY good. 8 people ate it in celebration of Chuck's birthday, and all agreed that it was quite yummy. The recipe is on my Vox blog.
I'm thinking that this is the original red velvet cake. Does anyone have any ideas about that?

Market day

While working at the farmers' market, I get my coffee from Alan and his wife, who have a stand across the way. They sell coffee and their own coffee beans, Koralee Coffee. She had on a wonderful hat today and allowed me to take a photo of her in it. Really quite lovely, as were the squash blossoms we had for a special order. They were perfect and beautifully yellow. We had lots of beets and I was so excited by that because I'd wanted to try the chocolate & beet cake recipe that I'd recently downloaded. I'm steaming beets right now so I can prepare the cake later this afternoon. The Armenian cucumber looked a bit like a snake, all it needed were some googly eyes glued on. Shelia said "never name your cucumber or you won't want to cut it up." That made me laugh. The onions added more magenta to our table as did some cabbage which I never got a photo of, oh well, next week. For the recipe for the cake, check my VOX blog, where I'll post it.