Happy Happy!

Today is Starrhillgirl’s birthday. A day to celebrate, for sure.

The day my beautiful friend was born.

Oh Happy day. Happy Anniversary!

xo,

LB

18 yr Anniversary

Today is my Birthday!

This week, Starrhillgirl and I will have a birthday. We are having our 18th birthdays since the year we met! It wasn’t until I started counting the years this past week that I realized it had been so long. In my mind we were stuck somewhere around 15 years, but really we are creeping up on 20.

How the time flies. What a beautiful thing. I know we have a tendency to spend much more time on important dates we share with lovers/partners/husbands/wives, but I think all the time how lucky I am to have such a great family of friends.

Starrhillgirl and I have been through 18 years of ups and downs and we are still in love! We have lost family and friends. We have lost love, found love, Traveled, lived in separate cities 3 times. We have lived together 3 times (depending on how you count).

Sometimes people mix us up. Only one of us prefers girls and only one of us doesn’t eat meat.

She insists I was blond when we first met…………….I wasn’t, but don’t burst her bubble.

We have had a good 18 years. Here is to 18 more.

Happy Birthday.

xo,

LB

Bristol and Beyond

State Street. VA on one side TN on the other.

We had a lovely weekend in Bristol. We packed ourselves into the van with a car following behind and headed on down. The van is a high style travel option, in case you are looking for one. Nice big comfy seats. Places to plug in a computer to work. Lotsa cup holders. We had a cooler packed to the gills. Bread,cheese,fizzy water, fizzy orange and cranberry drinks, nuts, chocolate, crackers, and lots more. This is how you avoid a starvation induced food mistake. Anyhooters we were a jolly bunch. We got to the hotel in time to relax for a bit and change clothes and then headed on to the music. The fella played on the big stage the first night and I sang on the same couple songs I helped with on the album. Then we strolled and ate. Overall we had a great time. The fella had two gigs, we saw some friends from here do their thing, and managed to see some of Doc Watson and James Hand. We capped the weekend with a gig over the mountain from here on Sunday night.

Now to beyond. There are only a few more weeks of the CSA to go. How sad. I wasn’t able to figure a way to get to the harvest festival at the farm, which is a total bummer. The farmer told me to forget about work and just come and even tried to win me over with homemade blackberry wine. Alas, I couldn’t figure a way to make it out. The Kp and IC were also thwarted, annoyingly, AFTER she had made 3 pies for the event. Maybe we can get a private invite? I’ll have to work on that.

Now I am sick. Grrr. Which may mean Having to reschedule my massage tomorrow. Grrrr. I am hanging at home today. Trying to take it easy and get some cleaning done.

xo,

LB

Bristol.

The sign. My fella played on a big outdoor stage with this as a backdrop.

Some Things

You will likely find boring but……

I don’t seem to care.

This past Saturday Market was an adventure in wetness. My usual time to head several blocks over to the market coincided nicely with our little tropical storm. I spent some time on the porch calling the KP and Starrhillgirl to guess whether it was worth the trek. There was much back and forth. None of us can actually see the market from our houses and SHG hadn’t gone to market since her CSA shows up on her porch. Finally I decided that if my farmer had chickened out he would have let us all know our shares wouldn’t be available so I grabbed my bag, and my box to return, and my brand new umbrella and headed out bout 9am. I caught a lucky break and ran into my neighbor in his old white truck heading out for breakfast. I happily caught a ride with him. The market was a lot of fun in the pouring rain. Several vendors had braved the weather and a handful of folks turned up to buy. I had a nice long chat with my farmer as the water poured by the gallon from the roof of his tent. I scored some free sun-golds. He offered, and I said the IC would be happy to see more of those, thankyouverymuch. Apparently she ate the last batch like candy. My farmer’s wife and children offered me a ride home but I had another stop at the market and was enjoying the sensation of walking in the rain, so I politely declined. I am hoping to make it to the harvest festival at the farm, where there will be a “Jack and the bio-dynamic beanstalk” puppet show. Word.

Also, the fella and I finally cooked the steak I bought him. We went for a drive, which is not environmentally responsible but when you live in the land of greatest beauty, it has to happen every now and then. We headed down the way to the little town on the James to take a look at their new main street and so I could pick out all the houses I like. Once the day turned to dusk we headed back to my place to eat. I had stopped by the local fish guys and gotten a tuna steak so we cooked up the fish and the meat and some mashed potatoes and some corn on the cob and a big salad of tiny greens with cukes and tomatoes and goat cheese and ate ourselves silly. The fella agreed that the hunk of happy cow tasted better than miserable cow and it was a fine meal all around.

Also, last week marked my Nephew’s first week of kindergarten. WTF! How that is possible is beyond me. Just a minute ago he looked like this:

In his First Few Hours

Hopefully, they will realize what a genius he is!

In other exciting news. I got a visit from The Herbwife and her fella while at work. I feel soooo 2008, actually meeting people from the interweb in real life. Weird. We had a very nice chat and are hoping for a blog coffee date with Starrhillgirl next time they are in town.

Last night Starrhillgirl and I had a date at the diner to see my fella play.

xo,

LB

P.S. Inspired by the Herbwife, I give you a gander at my jars. However, it is clear who has the bigger jar collection, if ya know what I mean.

We Drink No Wine Unless it’s VA Wine

Well, That isn’t even remotely true but it was last night.

A few of us from work, Jedidiah, J and J’s lovely lady T and I have decided to get a little wine drinking group going. We started a little over a month ago with some Burgundy’s and a Condrieu I had that really needed to be drunk. Despite the fact that one or two of the Burgundy’s looked decidedly sketchy the evening turned out pretty durn well. Everything tasted delicious and Jedidiah and I didn’t even get into a fist fight! So we will soldier on. I would love to tell you that these evenings resemble the salons and discussion groups of the days of yore. A gathering of the intellectual elite as they redefine the thinking of an entire generation, However, there is way too much potty talk for that to be true so I won’t even try.

Last night was the second dinner and we decided to go with Virginia wine. Jedidiah already had a bunch to choose from so the rest of us showed up with food. Since the wine was coming from Virginia and we are a local leaning bunch, we thought we would make all the food local, too.

The evening started when Jedidah and I headed to his wine cellar to pick out a couple of reds. We debated for a few minutes, I ogled everyone’s loot and then we hit the road. Once we got to Jedidiah’s place I reminded him quickly that his house should belong to me, he agreed of course, and we started setting up. J and T arrived with the main course and we got to work tasting the whites and eating some bread and cheese. It should be said that the bread was locally made but the starter cheeses were not.

We opened a 2007 Veritas Sauvingnon Blanc and a 2006 Chester Gap Sauvignon Blanc. The wine maker for Veritas had said that the 07 SB is the best wine she has made and the Chester Gap was a new one for us. The Veritas had a great, typical SB nose, but we thought it was a little thin. Still it was crisp and clean and got a little more going on when it warmed up a bit. The Chester gap was a bit more rich and we all agreed we liked it a bit better than the Veritas. We admitted this in hushed tones since some us think Veritas’ wine maker is totally dreamy and we felt a bit bad preferring the Chester Gap wine. This discussion took place on the porch.

Local apple, local bread, and local feet enjoying local wine.

We used these same two wines to go with the beginning of our meal, so we moved to the table and enjoyed our local salad, arugula, tomatoes, cucumber, hard boiled egg, and local unpasteurized chevre. The dressing wasn’t local but what are ya gonna do? A person can’t live without olive oil, vinegar or mustard.

Local Salad.

We switched back and forth between the whites and everything was pretty darn tasty.

Then we moved on to red. Jedidiah opened two reds, a 1999 Barboursville Nebbiolo and a 1998 Barboursville Cabernet Sauvingnon Reserve.

Nebbiolo on the left, Cabernet on the right.

Frankly, they were both really good and still full of a lot of life. The Nebbiolo still had good acidity up front and nice soft, ripe fruit. The Cab was bigger and darker with pleasant tannins. Do I sound like a wine snob? I think I’m boring myself. They were good. The Nebbiolo being a stand out and better with the food we had, too. J and T brought Local potatoes roasted with herbs and local eggplant brushed with local pesto and grilled. Very tasty.

Roasted Potatoes

Grilled Eggplant

The night was a huge success. Virgina wine is a beautiful thing. I know I am biased. I think Virginia in general is a beautiful thing and it is difficult not to root for the home team but this is an exciting time for wine round these parts. There are some really great wines being made and we are just beginning to discover what grapes might someday be the Kings and Queens of our region.

Next dinner will be at J and T’s and we are thinking about focusing on the Loire, I think Jedidiah is also hoping for some damn meat. We’ll see.

xo,

LB

Suddenly It Is Winter

I wrote the title to this post a few days ago, in the middle of our 3 day deluge. I then wrote a slightly maudlin first paragraph and sensed that I should let it sit.

I was right. It was a bit much.

We were getting a  taste of the darker months to come. It is the way the seasons go. Sneaking up a few days at a time, sending lookouts a few weeks ahead of the rest of the regiment. The air wasn’t cold but something in the breeze did not belong to summer and it took little handfuls of leaves from the trees around my porch. I am sad to see this summer go but I know when we reach the crisp brilliant days of Autumn I will be glad. It is my favorite after all.

Speaking of which, I didn’t manage to turn in to a food storage queen. I had hoped to have a freezer full of…something. I don’t. I do have some vegetable stock, some in cubes and a couple larger amounts. I have a bag of veggie bits on the way to being more stock. I have a few tomatoes and some basil. I suspect this will not equal a winter’s worth of food. Oh well, most of my goals start with grand illusions and fizzle into modest success. I do have some bread flour from Georgia that the KP brought me. I also have the flour and corn meal that Elsie picked up for me from the local mill. I still have some weeks left and if I could manage to make my brain work on Saturday mornings I might still be able to plan ahead a bit. Either that or I will get rickets, or scurvy or some other ancient disease.

Tomorrow, I will be doing laundry and such around the house, I will. Even better though, I will be having ice cream with the KP and the IC and I hope like hell the gelato place will be open. I haven’t enjoyed a single gelato all Summer, how is that possible?

In the evening I will be going to Jedidiah’s with our friends J and T for a Virginia wine tasting. We are attempting to start a little tradition. The first wine dinner was at my place. We tasted a Condrieu and three different Burgundy’s I had that needed to be consumed. This is Jedidiah’s turn. We will be descending on him and drinking four different Virginia wines and bringing food. I think the next will be at J and T’s and we are aiming for the Loire.

Today I headed up North a bit with my Fella and the band to watch them play at a wine festival. I and M and the little ones, including my fella’s number one fan, came out too. We had a great time. The kids spent a lot of time on various bouncy things and the adults enjoyed some local White Riesling. All of this topped off by the fella’s music and his number one fan’s total delight. I also manged to get a Fucking sunburn. How? I am the whitest most sun hating person in world besides Fatbiscuit and I get a burn. It was overcast almost the entire time. I spent 20 minutes in the sun chatting to a friend and I get a burn.

Surprise delight of the week: My fella returned from the recycling centre with a book for me, a book on ettiquette copyright 1921. I couldn’t be happier!

xo,

LB

Another Day.

It is Saturday and so I went to market. I had the luxury of going a bit later this morning, though this means missing Starrhillgirl. I didn’t miss the other %75 of town, however, much to my chagrin. I stopped at the money machine on the way and went ahead with the usual plan:

Meet the KP and the IC at my farm’s stand.

Pick up our CSA box.

Divide it up.

Chat with farmer and his daughter.

Encourage him to curse.

Be pleasantly surprised to find that milling around seems to encourage the farmer to had over extras for free!

Since I am working the later shift today I got to wander around with the girls and take in the sights. I also spent more money so I can’t say it is win/win. We picked up some corn cause I haven’t had any this season and also got my eggs. I also couldn’t resist a head of lettuce from the egg people since I haven’t had one of my very own since May. I just used it to make my lunch and like a pillaging beast, I reached my hand right into it’s very middle for the most tender leaves. I also picked up a steak for my fella. I think I will have to rename Stank on this blog but haven’t come up with a new name yet. The steak buying required some talk with the meat guy. I don’t eat meat so……we’ll see what he thinks.

I lugged all my stuff home and don’t think I broke any eggs. The haul this week is good. Pots, squash, eggplant, corn, apples, peppers, toms, carrots, corn, lettuce, eggs, steak. I am heading out tonight to see Will Oldham play here in town and my friend S. will get to play with them. Should be a good night.

xo,

LB

County Fair

Stank and I hit the county fair the other night. Last year we went during the day but the night time is right time. All those lights! So pretty! First order of business was a giant scary sausage thing for Stank. It looked kinda gross but I don’t eat meat and he seemed very happy, so I reckon it was good. After getting our hands on some shifty looking meat (hee!) we headed in the direction of the critters, which are the best part of the county fair if yer asking me. We eyed all the baby critters, cows, goats, pigs. All the chickens and bunnies. I asked Stank to buy me a baby duck but said I could make do with a baby chick or a bunny. Nothing doin. I don’t know what his problem was. I thought me getting an animal and letting it live on his farm was a genius idea. Guess I was the only one. After petting the baby ducks and watching the baby pigs sleep in a pig pile, we headed to the big critter tents. We looked at all the giant cows and big fat pigs and admired all the ribbon winners and the little 4-H kids and petted the horses.

Then we washed our hands.

After taking in all the animals we headed to the rides. I prefer to watch. We did take a ride on the Ferris wheel which was great, and same as last year, came with a slightly scary ride operator. We watched all the teen boys winning big silly prizes for their girls. I noticed that the girls looked %50 proud of their gifts and %50 embarrassed to carry them around.

We capped the night with a funnel cake, which we ate while listening to the band, and a last look at the baby animals. It was a beautiful night. It cooled right down and there was a gorgeous breeze. So far, highlight of the Summer.

xo,

LB

Cheese and More.

So, the cheese has been made! We gathered at Elsie’s house early Monday eve to do the deed. Cho girl and Starrhillgirl and Elsie and I made our very first batch of cheese. There is actually a much better run down over at Caved because Starrhillgirl live blogged it as we went. We managed one batch of Ricotta and one batch of Mozzarella. This took 2 gallons of milk and gave us 3/4 pound mozz and 2 pounds ricotta. Kinda expensive so we have decided we should buy a cow! I don’t think you can have a cow in the city so we may have trouble figuring that one out. However, it is a very useful fantasy because now we can also fantasize about cheese presses and cheese wax and getting rich on cheese! Likely, huh? We did a lot of talking and wine drinking and porch sitting as well. Considering how much time we wasted on other things, I think we did well. We got to Elsie’s at a little before 6pm and we were eating mozzarella with one of Elsie’s tomatoes and some of her basil by 9pm. Deelicious. I noticed today that the texture of my mozz was a lot firmer than it was Monday night. Not sure what that is about.

Tuesday night I had a group of fabulous women, Starrhillgirl and T and the KP included, over to my place. We had a big ol’ clothing swap and drank wine and had snacks. I made salsa and, much to my dismay, it was really tasty! Everyone got some good stuff and we had a great time. The KP entertained us with strange outfits and the rest of the stuff will be hauled off to the goodwill. I love a good swap.

xo,

LB