Hi!!

A few pictures!  Today was a little garden work and house rearranging...AND thesis writing...sigh...thesis writing...anyhow, I didn't take any pics of the garden work I did, but it was basically reinforcing the roma tomatoes which have outgrown their cages and now flopping over themselves being so top heavy and all...a little pruning here and there, and I set out some sunflower seeds from our plants for the birds.  The mother cardinal is back in the garden and I can hear her new little one peeping about for tasty vittles.  I wonder where her first chick wandered off to...anyhow...she hasn't seemed to find the seeds yet (or she's not interested in my attempt at growing bird food)...but let's hope it works out...

the house rearrangement pictures are mostly for Dan...so he can "yeay" or "nay" the new look...but anyone can chime in if they have an opinion...
xo!

ct

Another Post From Iceland!

Hello Everyone!

There must have been quite a storm in the mountains around Reykjavik last night, as they are covered with snow this morning. It was also very windy in town last night. The wind was howling and I could here it from inside my new apartment. Speaking of my new apartment, here are a few pictures of it. PICTURES

I'm sitting in one of my new favorite spots in town right now. It's a stylish cafe in the city hall building next to Lake Tjornin. I can sit here, drink my coffee, use the internet, and watch the plethora of birds swim and fly by. Just now, I'm looking at Mallards, Arctic Terns, Black-headed Gulls, Whooper Swans, Common Eiders, Tufted Ducks, Scaup, and Red-breasted Mergansers. There's probably more considering the number of birds on the lake, but those are what I can quickly identify.

It's a fairly nice day outside. It's about 10C and a little overcast. Springtime in Reykjavik is awesome! I'm starting to see that Icelanders are a very industrious and hard-working people. Everywhere, there are people gardening, planting things, washing windows, painting houses/fences, and power washing walkways. Nobody does much in the winter when it is dark for most of the day and the temperatures are uncomfortable. However, when the first nice day arrives, people get to work and since the days are so long, they are able to work extremely long hours.

I'm hoping to get back into the field this weekend and do a little work of my own. It's so beautiful at Hengill this time of year, I'd almost rather be there than in Reykjavik. Plus, I have to check in on the Oyster Catcher family to see if they have re-nested after the Arctic Fox incident.
I'll keep you all posted as I know all of you are on the edge of your seats awaiting that news.

Until next time.

No Joke...

MY MORNING JACKET BENEFIT SHOW WITH NEKO CASE AND PHOSPHORESCENT TO RAISE FUNDS FOR TORNADO RELIEF IN ALABAMA

This is OUR DREAM!!!

NO WAY!!!!  This is arguably Dan's favorite band (if put on the spot for the Dating Game that would be my answer, but White Stripes and Flaming Lips would also be on that list)...and they are coming to TUSCALOOOOOOOOOOSA!!!  This is INSANO!  The only bummer - they play the NIGHT Dan gets back into town from Iceland....he flies in at 851pm to Birmingham...the show starts at 7pm..so I think Dan will need to change his flight in order to actually see them...because by the time we get back into T-Town, MMJ will have finished up their set..**.DAN PLEASE DO THIS**

When the amphitheater opened up we joked "Ha! What if My Morning Jacket came and played...wouldn't THAT be something..."  and now it is happening - all it took was a tornado...Neko Case has a Tornado song that NPR featured the day after our tornado...sigh

ok..not the most thought-out post...but there is this...the Tornado did a ridiculous amount of hurt and damage to the town...the upside?  My Morning Jacket comes to play...that's bittersweet right there...

Anyhow, I'll be in line buying tickets June 17th at 10 am at the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater...

Thanks to our neighbor Darick who let us know about it...WOW!

xo

Yippee!!

A post from Dan from Iceland!! :)  Nice to see his pics and nice that this blog helps us keep in touch with each other as much as with other folk scattered throughout!

A couple of links of some garden/veggie pics!  This morning I took a few pics of some tasty veggies from the garden and I made some beignets from the leftover challah dough Dan had made a few weeks earlier - frozen in small quantities this dough is PERFECT to thaw out overnight and then make these wonderful little fried gems...this was my first time making them, and I foresee Dan and I enjoying these together this coming Fall with a big cuppa joe!!

Also, a few pics I posted a day ago of the first two tomatoes I (prematurely) picked!  I just couldn't wait any longer...

xo for now!

Greetings from Iceland

Ahoy!!

As Chau mentioned in an earlier post, I made it to Iceland safely. This past week has been busy and chilly. According to our Icelandic friends, this has been one of the coldest springs in years. It snowed on us on Thursday and today was extremely windy and cold, although it was sunny and clear. I'm just glad I brought thermal underwear and my warm Mountain Hardwear Windstopper hat.

Jon and Alex leave in a few days and I'll soon be all by myself for a while here (but not really b/c I'll have the post doc Jim and our Icelandic friends to keep me company).

I'm sorry but I don't have a lot of interesting news yet, but I hope to soon. In the meantime, enjoy these pictures from the past week.

PICTURES

Happy Sunday evening to you!

Hello!

I just made some homemade mayo which tastes pretty yummy, even though I accidentally put in a tsp of ground ginger instead of ground mustard (that's what I get for not labeling my bulk spices) - whoops!  

Our friend Andy makes a killer potato salad which is basically an egg salad with potatoes - hardboiled eggs seem to make a potato salad go from "good" to "OMG THIS IS SO GOOD WHAT DID YOU PUT IN THIS, CRACK?!?!"  I had a craving for this potato salad - perhaps it's the heat that comes along with summer....maybe it is because I love mayonnaise more than I like to admit and potato salad is the perfect vessel for mayo, I don't know...But anyhow, I also just vowed this weekend to see how long I can go without going to the grocery store.  I'm allowing myself to go to the weekly farmer's market because it is just so dang delicious... what with the fresh peaches, beans, peaches, onions, peaches, and peaches (peaches are my favorite).  But allowing myself to go to the market also means I get a few other things that will help me along - eggs (but you gotta get there RIGHT at 3pm when they start!), goat cheese, AND frozen beef.  I like to keep a fully stocked cupboard, and sometimes that goes a little overboard.  Now with Dan gone for the summer, I feel the need to eat what I have - it's also a fun experiment to try to be creative with the ingredients on hand - sort of like a self-imposed Iron Chef show, except it happens every night with just me and less exotic ingredients.

So how this ties into homemade mayo goes back to the tornado back in April.  Since we were without power for a couple days, Dan preserved the food we had by not opening the fridge/freezer (I was away at Coweeta for monthly sampling).  Still, a few things got thrown out - soy milk that was a little suspect, and the mayo.  Ok, so I know someone who doesn't refrigerate their mayo - never has, never does, and they have not yet died.  But then you hear about mayo-based salads going bad at summer BBQs when left out in the sun too long.  So I just don't know what the deal is with mayo.  The mayo MAY have been compromised, but really...Dan does not like mayo, and I'd like to think that he trashed it at the first chance he got.  But it's ok - I would have done the same thing with french toast.  Which is really the only thing that I totally REFUSE to eat..but that's another story for another time.

Anyhow, my potato salad craving was HINGING on the fact that we had mayo...because, even though I don't use it all the time, I like to have mayo in the house at all times, just in case a craving like the one I had today pops up.  But what to do? Can't go to the grocery store on account of my desire to abstain...but wait!! Isn't mayo super easy to make?  Why yes it is...and thank goodness I still have eggs from the farmer's market!  The only problem is one egg needs about 1 cup of oil...and that makes quite a lot of mayo for a now single-person household, which needs to be consumed in 5 days.  The smart thing would be to give up and accept that yes, most of this mayo is going to the trash...but I'll try to do something with it...look up some recipes online that are heavy on mayo.  Then I'll get sick of mayo for a few months..then the cycle will begin again...with that craving for potato salad...

Sadly, Andy has now left T-Town for the boondocks in Georgia for the rest of his Master's work.  So I shall carry on this wonderful recipe with a heavy heart.  

Anyhow...did I mention Dan made it safely to Iceland?  He did last week, all is well - cold, but well.  Light until 10pm, but snowy and chilly up at Hengill where field work is...all in all he seems quite happy, perhaps he'll chime in once he gets settled in his new digs.

Here are a few pics from the garden this weekend...My last foray at 4pm today meant I got hit by mosquitoes...7 annoying bites in 5 minutes...man they act fast...at least my tomatoes are safe for now...see the pics for the skinny..

xo

Hallooo!

Hi There!

A few updates:

It is still HOT here...as in H-O-T....I fear that the summer heat is already upon us and it is only June!  It has been in the 100 range all week - thank goodness for central A/C...despite being of Southeast Asian descent I am wilting like a daisy...though I am unsure if daisies wilt in heat...perhaps tulips is a better example?   I am not a botanist.  

The good news: our beloved big boy tomato is turning a rosy colour!!!  See pics of the "turning"...not quite like a human turning into a vampire, but a similar excitement level.  Included in the link-o-pictures are a few other choice events:  me making another spanish tortilla - which I lived off of for 2.5 days (Dan left on Monday for Iceland for 2.5 months and the desire to cook wanes..), a trip Mick and I took to Tallulah Falls which is on the way to Coweeta and our monthly sampling, a few pics of Coweeta in its "green" state, and then the garden, which I am known to photograph on occasion.

stay cool....temperature-wise...

xo