*insert random title here*

I should not have slept in today. No, really. There is waaaaaaaaaaay too much to be done - I'm still not unpacked from Fest, the SCOBY needs new tea, there's laundry to be folded, pajama bottoms to hem and finish (and another pair to start), a crocheted scarf/hoodie in progress, Christmas projects to plan, I have three clients later, I REALLY need to go for a run, and oh right, we have a wedding to attend tomorrow...and I have to buy new shoes. 

Allow me to distract you (and myself!) by narrating these pictures instead:

Ahhh...the Crafts Bazaar, pre-Fest, in the misty morning light. (I was on my way to use the catbox, but the light was so enchanting that my full bladder was momentarily forgotten.) 

 My workspace for the week. Sigh.

 It's been very hard working by myself in a small dark room this week, after working in such a bright and wonderful space with six other magical womyn...

 Home Sweet Home!

 The sign-painting crew are true artists.

 Belly Bowl, bright and welcoming in the near-dark.

 One of the critters encountered on my woodland safari. This little gal hitched a ride to the showers on my backpack, and was gently re-homed in the ferns.

 My view while working. Seriously, how the heck do they expect me to work indoors after that?!

 Ahhhhh, Belly Bowl - keeping workers hydrated, fed, and caffeinated at almost all hours of the day/night! How we love you!!

 Quiet woodland walks...

 ...and beautiful open skies.

 Meet Luna (on the left) and Aloysius (on the right), my new companions! Both were purchased from a craftswomon at Fest. Luna (who took nearly a week to tell me her name) is carved of rainbow jasper, and has a very calming and grounding presence. Aloysius is carved of hematite, and not only told me his name right away, but also that he is not a 'roo. He's a wallaby (Guard Wallaby!), and is intense and protective. They like to be together, with Aloysius always nearer the door, and they're very good at repelling negative energy. I heart them.

 Maple Walnut Flax granola with organic blueberries and local milk! NOMNOMNOMNOMNOM!

The beginnings of a Christmas present for my mom. That's not a P, it's B in progress, lol. I'd forgotten how much fun it is to cross-stitch!

Well, kids, that's all for now. If I'm a very efficient dragon, I can tackle the laundry-folding, brew tea, shower, and buy shoes before work! I hope you all have a fantastic weekend...very much looking forward to mine, we're planning a little picnic on Sunday! Yay couple time! Yay BLT's!

enough.

So, we did the Warrior Dash, and had a wonderful time - although we didn't do much dashing, lol. It was more of a nature hike with obstacles for us. But next year...oh, next year, we will dash like the wind! Nobody fell off anything, and nobody suffered anything worse than scrapes, sore muscles, and insect bites. We got gloriously muddy, ate roasted turkey legs, swam in a pond, and shivered the whole way home. Worth it? You bet it was!

And then there was Fest. Ohhh, what a magical Fest we had this year! There were more womyn...still not enough, but at least 500 more than last year, which is encouraging! The energy shift was palpable and amazing - we spent a lot of time looking at each other and remembering that we love each other, instead of eyeing each other with suspicion and wondering who was on our side. I participated in the Goddess-raising this year (E: "Baby! You cast a circle!! I'm so proud!"), worked on several big-name performers, helped my old crew load in their equipment and get set up, and curled up in a field with my love to watch the Perseid meteor shower. I won a massage in the raffle (!), got sized up by a low-circling hawk that thought perhaps I was a large rabbit, showered in the open air ("so...how hot is 'Quite Hot' this year?"), learned to shoot a longbow, did a metric f*ckton of walking, performed FOUR TIMES in a sock puppet show (word of our fame has spread), ate bagel dogs and unicorn-flavored donuts (if unicorns are chocolate and fluffy on the inside), drank a whooooooole lot of coffee, got rave reviews on my rocket ship fleece footed pajamas (it was COLD, y'all), and came back physically exhausted but with a replenished heart and soul.

The womyn. The absolute Amazons that found their way onto my table, trusted me with their bodies, worked alongside me, smiled and laughed with me, fed me (in every way), reveled in their freedom, danced in the Night Stage bowl...God(dess), what an honor. What a blessing to be one small part of such a radical, transformational, sacred place.

The hat got finished, and bartered for a leather cuff bracelet that says Enough. It's a word/concept I've been meditating on for the last year or so...mainly, letting the small steps, the effort, be enough. Maybe we're not self-sufficient gardeners, but we ate home-grown sauteed squash in the woods and canned a whole lot of jam, and for now, that is enough. I haven't figured out how to knit socks yet, but I can knit hats, scarves, toys, and blankets, and for now, that is enough. I may not be making enough to pay off my debts, but I can begin to pay them down while not incurring more, and for now, that is enough. I just spent 16 days in the woods and my house is a hot mess, but the laundry is half done and there is one clean, uncluttered dresser space in my room and for now, that is enough. The world is being torn apart by greed and bids for power, but every August, I'm shown again that thriving, loving community, and peace despite our differences, is indeed possible, and for now, that is enough.

bits and pieces

Just a little photo catch-up today - gardening and camping! 

 Hops on the trellis, tomatoes in and out of cages, and an orphan butternut squash plant. And some weeds. Ahem.

 Mostly squashes (yellow, zucchini, and butternut), with garlic on the edges and pickle bush cucumbers in the middle.

Our half-pallet herb garden: oregano, rosemary, sage, tarragon, thyme, basil, parsley, and shallots. And chocolate mint, in a pot, because that sh*t's invasive and we already have a huuuuuge mint patch by the house, lol! We also have horehound, which needs to be potted (mint family). If we can find another heat-treated half pallet, next year we'd like to have both culinary and medicinal herb gardens.

Somewhere in the middle of the Au Sable...

 Feet at Foote Pond!

 We have serious fire-making skills. And camp cooking skills. This ups our chances of survival in the Zombie Apocalypse.

 Is that a view, or what?

 You can't see it, but we were only about 10 feet above the pond, and the private beach. Oh, and there are giant snails in that pond!!

The fossils I picked up along the river. Two at the bottom are coral, we think, but no idea what the rest are, other than amazing. (<------- totally geeking out on prehistory and God's creativity over here.)

The last week or so has been a mix of frustration and awesome. Bought my first real (professional! they launch into the air! they're not on sticks!) fireworks on the Fourth of July, after signing an amusing/horrifying piece of paper stating that I am not a terrorist and will only use said fireworks for pretty displays. I worked a lot, while recovering from what my nurse friend thinks was a mild bout of salmonella. Whatever it was, it upset my guts and gave me a fever of 102.2 F that lasted about 24 hours. So, in between working, I was pretty much a limp noodle and didn't accomplish much, lol. We set off a few fireworks on Thursday, then went to a friend's annual party on Friday for the bigger show. Having fulfilled our patriotic obligations by eating cheddar bratwursts, drinking beer, and blowing things up ( 'Merica!), we spent the rest of the weekend being domestic - buying herbs and building the herb garden, cleaning the kitchen, making pancakes. ( ***De-rail*** I don't know why people bother buying the regular grade-A maple syrup. Sure, it tastes great, but if you can manage to get your paws on some darker, richer grade B, then DO IT. We have a jug of this magical substance, bought from a small sugaring operation that sells at Eastern Market, and I could drink it straight. If E ever comes home to find me dead on the floor with the empty jug next to me, she says at least she'll know I died happy. And for even bigger flavor, get the grade C if you can possibly find it. I spent $6 on 8 ounces of it, and it is now My Precious. I never knew maple syrup had such depth and character. We did mini-shots of it in the car, and now are researching recipes that will do this syrup justice. I am stocking up before winter. ***Re-rail***) I came back to Mom's last night, FINALLY got to work on the knitted earflap hat I'm making for a friend - we're bartering, knitted earflap hat for custom leather bracelet, and had my own mini fireworks show for Mom and a few neighbor kids. Mom was laughing in shock, we've never had fireworks like that in our backyard before, lololol!

Today, my morning client cancelled (poison ivy, poor guy), so I worked on the hat and watched 10 Questions for the Dalai Lama. Oh, if only the rest of the world leaders were as humble, kind, and wise. Later, I have 3 clients, possibly 4. We're having chicken and roasted tomatoes for dinner, and I'll spend more time on the hat. Tomorrow I'd like to weed the bunny-proofed garden here, and finally go for a training run. In the heat. Less than 3 weeks before running the Warrior Dash, lol. Well, this year I'll just focus on finishing, huh?  :o)

The Michigan Womyn's Music Festival is also coming up fast - some of the long crew will get there next week! My arrival date is the 31st, and my fest pile is only just begun. The goal is to be packed by the last Saturday in July, and so far, I know where all my gear is, so that's something, lol. Oh, and I bought a 3-pound bag of trail mix. And toothpaste.

ice cream!

Remember that no-churn strawberry ice cream? Well, it just happens to be the best dang ice cream I've ever had the pleasure of nomming. Even E loves it, and she doesn't usually like fruity ice cream AT ALL. It's smooth and creamy and perfectly sweetened, and pretty much we don't see the need to buy store-bought ice cream ever again. Seriously. Especially since this recipe is endlessly customizable - we want to make mint chocolate chip next, and I'd like to try one with bits of baklava in it, and, and, and... :o)

linkety link:
http://www.kevinandamanda.com/recipes/dessert/easy-homemade-ice-cream-without-a-machine.html

Basically, you get yourself a can of sweetened condensed milk, a pint of heavy whipping cream, and whatever you're using to flavor the ice cream. Put the sweetened condensed milk in a large bowl, and add the flavorings (vanilla, mint, chocolate, candy bits, crushed strawberries, whatever). In another bowl, whip the whipping cream til stiff peaks form, then gently fold into the milk/flavorings til combined. Pour it into a 2-quart container (i used Tupperware), cover it, and freeze for at least 6 hours. (At 5 hours, mine was frozen but scoop-able; by the next morning, we had to let it sit on the counter for ten minutes or so before scooping.) Ta-Da!

Seriously. Go browse the recipes in the link, and make yourself some incredible ice cream. It's summer. You owe it to yourself.

stormy

It's pouring rain outside, and we're currently under a severe thunderstorm warning. And after 3 years of no storms to speak of, I am LOVING every crash and bang! (I'd love it more if I could spend the afternoon enjoying it from inside the house, but hey, three clients (at least) is nothing to sneeze at!)

So. Camping. We got off to a rough start (nearly forgot hamburger meat, couldn't find my swim trunks, had to stop for allergy meds), but once we got out of the metro area, the drive was great, and we were at the campground by 12:30. We picked a beautiful rustic tent site looking out on Foote Pond, and by 5 o'clock, we'd gotten the tent up, cooked sausages on the fire, made love, and taken a nap. It was idyllic and blissful. That night, we cooked hamburgers on the fire (we didn't bring a single vegetable or fruit! LOL!)...and realized that we'd forgotten pots and pans. It turned out not to matter too much, because we overslept Saturday morning, so breakfast was handfuls out of our (almost three-pound) bag of trail mix, and we bought coffee at The Dam Store on the way to the canoe rental place.
 
We got started down the river shortly after 9am, and had the water to ourselves the majority of the trip. We each caught a fish (trout, i think - and mine was a Golden Rainbow Trout!), but they were too small to keep. Both were caught on my line, using Frank, my fake minnow lure, because the fish kept robbing E's live bait off her hook! Alas, eventually my line snapped on a cast, and Frank is a permanent resident of the river. We just hope he sank to the bottom without inflicting any damage on the other residents.

We ate our turkey sandwiches along the way, and made several stops for rock hunting and swimming. Nothing like swimming in a cold, clear river, with nobody else around! I brought home a pocketful of rocks, too - one really neat agate, and lots of fossils, which I'm hoping to get identified. Fascinating stuff.

By the last leg of the trip, the wind had come up, and we had to paddle hard to keep from being blown into trees. There was one point when we couldn't get our nose pointed the right way no matter what we tried, and after that, we were pretty much done, lol! We were still having lots of fun, but we were also exhausted and just wanted out of the boat. You should've heard us cheer when we saw our destination, lololol! We drove back to camp, took showers, got ice cream at the camp store...and passed out. For six hours. It was the most epic nap ever! LOL!

We woke up around 10, bought more firewood and a cheap frying pan, re-heated the hamburgers, and went back to sleep. On Sunday morning, we boiled water in the frying pan for the French press, then cooked an entire pound of bacon and some eggs for breakfast sammiches. We got the site packed up (So easy! We work so well together!), and took a much-needed dip in the pond to cool off before driving home. We changed clothes in semi-privacy...except we forgot to close the drivers' side door, and I *may* have unintentionally mooned some passing cars. Oh, well. Worse things have happened, lol.

All in all, it was an amazing weekend, and we are definitely going back next year! Pics and further details later, time to head to work.

Oh - I regret to announce the death of Fibonacci, who passed shortly after we got back from Portland. He was a wonderful snail, and much missed. We have his shell, and are keeping it.

No More DOMA!!!!

Today, I woke up to the best news in a long, loooooooooooooooooooooooooong time - the US Supreme Court has struck down the Defense of Marriage Act!

This weekend, E told me that she is my wife, and I am hers, and that someday we will stand up in front of our family and friends and say so, regardless of legal status. There is still work to do...the SCOTUS ruling doesn't automatically end Michigan's same-sex marriage ban...but thanks to that ruling, we are one giant step closer to our legal wedding day.

I can't stop pinching myself!

aaaand, we're back!

I'm giving up on the 52 Weeks of Happy. Don't look at me like that! I'll still be posting happy things. Promise. It just got too hard to remember every week.

So, where'd we leave off? Late April? Gosh, so much has happened! The tomato and strawberry seedlings, alas, did not make it. The baby basils did, and are thriving in their new container home, along with some baby alpine strawberry plants I purchased. So far, so good! E's started some roma and beefsteak tomatoes, and they're almost ready to transplant. We acquired two hops plants (Nugget and Willamette), which also need to get in the ground. The garlic is doing great (and we harvested and ate some scapes the other night), the mulberries are sloooooooooowly ripening, and oh yes, thanks to a chance encounter at the health food store, I'm the proud owner of a continuous-brew kombucha setup! Batch one is in the fridge, batch two is almost ready, and my pet scoby is healthy and happy.

 
Little V (and fam) flew in for a belated first birthday bash, and I taught her all about dandelions. Mostly she just enjoyed waving them around. Cutie pants.

 And speaking of pants, I'm learning to make them! Well, pajama bottoms, anyway. These still need finishing, but YAAAAAAAAAY PANTS!

This morning, I went to a local U-Pick berry farm and came back with a whole flat, ostensibly for freezer jam. Except there are now ten 1/2-pint jars of said jam, plus another cup or so of crushed berries for ice cream making (no-churn, no-machine...if it works, I'll share the link), and I still have three quarters of the flat left. We're already planning strawberry syrup and pancakes...and Mom likes smoothies...and somewhere, I have a recipe for strawberry bread...

Ten jars of summer flavor should be plenty to see us through the winter!(plus, that's all the freezer space we can allocate for jam, lol!)

Work has been steady, but there's room for improvement. I'm womanifesting 20 clients a week. So far, it's between 12-18, which isn't bad! E and I are going camping in Oscoda, MI next weekend, and that includes a canoe trip down part of the Au Sable river. Super excited, we've been planning this trip for months and months! This weekend, we're getting me a fishing rod, and we have high hopes of cooking fresh fish at the campsite. I haven't been fishing in over 20 years, not since my cousins' bass pond in Kentucky, and that was catch-and-release...but catching, killing, cleaning, and cooking my own food is a skill very worth learning.

More later...right now I have to run an errand, and then E's coming over for Arabic food (we seriously can't stop) and berry wrangling. Thanks for hanging around, readers! You're very much appreciated!