FARM CITY: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter
This was a fun read, the memoir of an 'urban farm' in downtown Oakland, CA. Novella tells us how she went from beekeeping, to chickens and eventually to pigs, and all the things she learned along the way!
At times funny, other times a little sad, this book fits in on the shelf right next to Michael Pollan's writings :)
It was well written, and will probably give you the best taste of what meat farming in the back yard is really like. Novella doesn't pull her punches when she describes the slaughtering of her animals- whether for food or other reasons.
It was refreshing to read a local food book that was not all about being a hippie- although Ms. Carpenter admits to being the child of hippies ;)
If you like Michael Pollan's books, or enjoyed Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, then this book is one you will certainly enjoy.
I rate it **** 4 stars. Very entertaining :)
I forgot to upload a photo the other day!! I drew this from a reference photo I took, just before sunset in a local park- I was out capturing the autumnal colours before they faded ;)
Pokeweed is a beautiful plant- the contrast of the magenta stem, with the green leaves (varying in tones of green) and the purplish-black berries is a stunner- especially at this time of year!
I have been busy trying some new things too... messing with Manga :) O.K. maybe not precisely manga. Every so often I just get the inkling to mess around with something new. And then it doesn't help when I get myself hooked onto one of the Manga strips out there ;)
But just so you can see I was not just doing nothing...


I'm not too good at consistency in looks just yet ;)
And the other thing I have been doing is planning. Restructuring schoolwork for the kids, and planning a little self education for myself. You can read more about that on my homeschool blog if you are truly interested ;)
A certain "How to Keep an Artist's Journal" Class is also on my list of 'Things to do" :)
Since I came to Virginia, my impression of October has changed. In Englad I tended to think of it as cool and wet. Here, I think of it as bright blue skies and harvest colours!
October's Bright Blue Weather
Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885)
O SUNS and skies and clouds of June,
And flowers of June together,
Ye cannot rival for one hour
October's bright blue weather;
The view while I waited for my meal in Aunt Sarah's :)
Belated, thriftless vagrant,
And Golden-Rod is dying fast,
A so called 'hardy orange'- not a citrus, but edible. We have oodles of them- which means it will probably appear again since I am not satisfied with this particular effort ;)
When Gentians roll their fringes tight
To save them for the morning,
And chestnuts fall from satin burrs
Without a sound of warning;
In piles like jewels shining,
And redder still on old stone walls
Are leaves of woodbine twining;

When all the lovely wayside things
Their white-winged seeds are sowing,
And in the fields, still green and fair,
Late aftermaths are growing;
In idle golden freighting,
Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush
Of woods, for winter waiting;

When comrades seek sweet country haunts,
By twos and twos together,
And count like misers, hour by hour,
October's bright blue weather.
O suns and skies and flowers of June,
Count all your boasts together,
Love loveth best of all the year
October's bright blue weather.

Yes, if you visit the blog you will probably notice it looks different. I made a new header (I've been learning to play with Gimp) and made my page much simpler. I did keep most of my sidebar contents, if something is gone, it is probably over at one of the other blogs ;)

EDM #244: Draw the oldest thing in your Refrigerator
And this is mine. Some old horseradish with no use by date and a label 1/2 falling off of it!
I don't remember how long it has been there :-o



