One Local Summer – Week 1

Food Photography It’s an art! Who knew? The shopping and the cooking and the eating were fun – that is one of the rules of One Local Summer – but the photographing not so. Dinner   This was our dinner tonight, for the first edition of One Local Summer: I’m a vegetarian and since I was the …

Homesteading for a Happier Child and Community

Dreaming We are dreaming about moving to a new place. For us that means selling this one and buying another one of approximately the same price, which means that, if we want to move, we need to move out- out of Brookline. We’re currently in a 1050 sq.f. basement apartment in a condominium. We adore …

Ernestine Huckleby, revisited

Ernestine I will keep on revisiting Ernestine Huckleby, who in 1969 sat down with her family to a meal of home-raised pork in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The hog had been fed grains that had been treated with the pesticide Panogen, which contained methyl mercury. Two months later, three of the children fell ill. Ernestine, just 9, was by …

Suite101 article on Bill Coperthwaite’s *Handmade Life*

I published a review of A Handmade Life, by William Coperthwaite, on Suite101.com.    It took me a long time to write this review, simply because I wanted to do the book justice. And 700 words are not enough to do it justice. There was, for instance, no space to treat Coperthwaite’s fascinating views on education …

Jigsaw puzzle play with under-two-year-olds

I added an article on Amie’s puzzle skills in the Child’s Play section. Beside a short history of how Amie approached her jig saw and fit-in puzzles at around age 16-18 months (a history that is perhaps representative of other kids that age), there is also a funny VIDEO of her solving some jig saw puzzles at …

Ecological Manifest

The world outside Sometimes I wish I never had to leave the house – even though “the house” is a small and light-deficient, though blissfully cool, basement apartment. “Leaving” means going out into the din of air conditioners and leaf blowers (see yesterday’s post). It means walking past shop after shops selling plastic junk, $800 strollers. …

Summer Noise: A Rant Against Leaf Blowers

Ah, summer, you break my heart. After long months of snow and frost, a long stretch of grey, rainy weather, summer’s arrival is very welcome. The warmth, the sunlight on your skin, the summer hat, the smell of sunscreen… People smile, say hi, drivers find more courtesy and patience, kids come out to play. But …

First Farmer’s Market, and Potted Herbs

This Thursday was our first Farmer’s Market of the new season. Though the weather was grey and rather freakishly cold, it was a great pleasure to say “welcome back” to the farmers. And what a bounty there was already! I got red chard, mustard greens, many bunches of spinach, and lots of herbs. All for …