#527 Polyface Farm revisited

In the two years since I first visited Polyface Farm, owner Joel Salatin's message in support of local food has gone mainstream.

Time Magazine

 In 2011, The Atlantic magazine touted Polyface Farm as a "Mecca of Sustainable Agriculture".  A subsequent Time magazine article on Salatin hangs framed on the wall of the farm's newly expanded sales center.  Author Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma, Food Rules) cites Salatan's sustainable farming techniques in contrast to the "industrial organic" approach. 


USA Today visited the farm and over 100,000 people watched.


So when University of Virginia Professor Rachel Most kindly invited me to return to Polyface Farm today along with her students, I was eager to see how things have changed in two years.

Joel Salatan has not changed.

He explained his farming philosophy and answered our questions in his unique hay bale amphitheater.

He demonstrated the first installation of his newest idea, sidewalk gardening, still under construction in the growing hoop house.

He quoted historic accounts of grasses taller than horses covering his Shenandoah Valley soil.

Clearly his crowd is growing.  He made a few more believers today.

Yours in going to the polls three times a day: breakfast, lunch, and dinner,
Kelly

#526 Christmas reading

Christmas reading is fun!

To compile my Christmas 2011 reading list, I searched the PS shelves in Alderman Library; I re-read Fannie Flagg's A Redbird Christmas; and at the public library, I even found a Christmas-themed mystery set on a cruise ship.  Ho! Ho! Ho!

• The Birds' Christmas Carol, Kate Douglas Wiggin
• Christmas at Monticello, Helen Miller
• A Christmas Blizzard, Garrison Keillor
• A Christmas Card, Paul Theroux 
• The Old Peabody Pew: A Christmas Romance of a Country Church, Kate Douglas Wiggin
• One Christmas, Truman Capote 
• A Redbird Christmas, Fannie Flagg
• The Romance of a Christmas Card, Kate Douglas Wiggin
• Santa Cruise: A Holiday Mystery at Sea, Mary Higgins Clark
• Winter Solstice, Rosamunde Pilcher

This year's favorites were both written by Kate Douglas Wiggin.  I don't know how I've missed these two Christmas gems for so long, since Kate also authored Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and founded the Salmon Falls Library in Buxton, ME!

The Old Peabody Pew: A Christmas Romance of a Country Church,1907

The Romance of a Christmas Card, 1916

If the Alderman Library is not convenient, you can download these early-20th-century titles for free from your favorite e-book vendor.  Now that's a merry Christmas!

Yours in unabashedly enjoying Christmas romances,
Mary

#525 Ginkgo!

One hundred fifty-one years ago Mr. Pratt planted a ginkgo tree on the University of Virginia grounds near Thomas Jefferson's Rotunda. 

Every November, Mr. Pratt's ginkgo puts on a show in Charlottesville.  Here is the 2011 performance:

 

Yours in enjoying the ginkgo spectacular,
Kelly

#524 Switching Art

When I reach for a kitchen switch, I see an Alaskan moose.

When I reach for a hallway switch, I see the Sunflower state.

When I think about the artist who created these wonders, I smile.

Thanks, Donna!

Yours in appreciating creative friends,
Kelly

#523 Including the kitchen sink

Our townhome builders are a thrifty bunch.

In our kitchen, Ryan Homes installed an aluminum sink, 5.5 inches in depth.    I think it was probably made for a motor home.  Lowe's doesn't carry any sinks that small.  

 

According to Lowe's prices, it looks like installing a sprayer would have cost our builder another dollar or two.

 

So, we bought our own sink.  It is black and made of composite granite.  And best of all, it is NINE inches deep with a fabulous sprayer.

..

Kelly took out the motor home sink...

And installed a sink for our grown-up house.

Now, doesn't that white wall need to be painted?

Yours in spraying and splashing,
Mary

#522 Christmas Dozen

I love a good Christmas movie! Aren't I lucky the list of Christmas films is so long?

I tried out a new holiday film already this year:  The Tsarina's Slippers, a Russian opera composed by Tchaikovsky and performed live at London's Royal Opera House.  I like the opera, especially the Cossack dancing scene in Act 3, but my top dozen Christmas films (including one from every decade since the 1940s) remains unchanged.

Be sure to let me know what's missing from my list of favorites.

12. Scrooge (1970)

11. A Christmas Story (1983)

10. The Holiday (2006)

9. A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)

8. Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)

7. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

6. Holiday Inn (1942)

5. Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

4. Miracle on 34th Street (1994)

3. It's A Wonderful Life (1946)

2. Love Actually (2003)

1. White Christmas (1954)

Yours in a fabulous cinematic Ho! Ho! Ho!

Mary

#521 Take One, Leave None

The take-one-leave-one fiction library on board the MV Explorer is one of my favorite spots.

Voyagers leave behind books they've finished and look for their next read.  Their goal is to find a break from their study, light reading that will require no struggle to understand.

And, of course, there are many other groups who like to take a book and leave a book.  You'll find plenty of recent news about the Little Free Libraries and the recently formed People's Library at Occupy Wall Street.

And now I, too, have jumped on the book-sharing bandwagon and installed my own Guest's Library at home.  Though quite a bit smaller than the People's Library or the MV Explorer take-one-leave-one library, one recent guest became the first to take home a book. The Postmistress by Sarah Blake now lives in Mukiteo, WA. 

So next time you're visiting, be sure to check out our Guest's Library.  Or if you see something you'd like on the shelf, I might even deliver!

Yours in sharing books,
Mary