This last week a big winter storm hovered over Minnesota for days. I am so glad I don’t live up on the north shore where they had a blizzard and as much as three feet of snow! In the Twin Cities we got rain on Tuesday and Wednesday. Then Wednesday night we got a few inches of slush. This is my third year of winter bike commuting and I’m pretty intrepid, but when I saw the unplowed slush filled streets Thursday morning I absolutely did not feel safe sharing the road with people in cars. So I took the bus.
First time on the bus in three years and it felt so decadent! I was chauffeured, warm, dry, and cozy to work. And then got to be chauffeured back home at the end of the day through the even more snow-covered streets. It was lovely!
And when I got home my neighbor had shoveled the 7 inches of snow off my front sidewalk already so all I had to do was my porch and front walk.
We got a few more inches of snow overnight (this time I had to shovel), but the plows had been out and the roads were in good shape, so it was back on the bike. The bike trails are generally in better condition that the roads, so I was surprised to find when I got to the trail that it hadn’t been plowed since the day before. Pedaling through two inches of snow for a couple miles is quite a workout, let me tell ya! Thankfully, by the time I was back on the trail to go home, it had been plowed. But this time I had to keep alert because there were quite a few icy patches. Studded tires for the win!
And now I am on vacation through January 2nd. Aahhh.
What will I be doing on my vacation? Reading, working on craft projects, planning the garden for next year and putting together my seed order, making more bulk food bags out of an old sheet, and making some heavy window curtains to block the porch and yard lights my neighbor leaves on sometimes all night. I also have a pile of mending, and some cashmere turtleneck sweaters that James got from work (a bit of a complicated story so just go with me for now) that I want to turn into crewneck sweaters because turtlenecks make me feel like I am being strangled. I have to get through the mending before I get to the sweaters though, so they may not happen just yet.
But in 2023 I really want to learn how to refurbish, no that’s not the right word, remake, already existing clothes into something new. For instance, I have an old strapless black velvet dress that I am never going to wear anywhere again that I want to turn into a skirt that I will wear. That sort of remaking. I am hoping to schedule a personal lesson at Rethink Tailoring in the spring when dealing with weather and layers won’t be a thing anymore.
I do plan on sharing my mending and remaking adventures though because I think changing our relationship with clothing is an important step in spewing less carbon and other toxic chemicals into the world. Not to mention stepping out of the consumer capitalist fashion industry that pays poor wages in unsafe working conditions and even uses child and slave labor. Plus, isn’t some of the excitement of fashion having completely unique clothes? I think it is.
Winter Solstice is almost here!
James is the cook at my house, the kitchen wizard, 364 days a year. The one day I cook is Winter Solstice. Since it is only one day, I do it up big. I scour the cookbooks and online recipes I’ve saved and put together a menu of sometimes elaborate food. Last year it was ravioli and bean soup and I made the ravioli myself from scratch. This year I am aiming for a bit more simplicity:
- Split pea soup in the crock pot
- Miso glazed tofu steaks
- Roasted cabbage
- Roasted potatoes with zataar
- Roasted delicata squash with a little garlic and onion
- Everything bagel garlic cheese sticks
- Biscuits and chocolate gravy for dessert
I will let you know how it all turns out!
Reading
- Book: Trafik by Rikki Ducornet. A slim novel about Quiver, a human whose job it is to mine asteroids and the android, Michelangelo, Mic for short, whose job it is to both work with her and keep her sane because she is alone. After a job that went sideways they decide to go rogue, and take off for a planet called Trafik. The chapters are short and the style is surreal and you just have to go with it. It’s disorienting and thought-provoking and frustrating, but worth the effort in my opinion.
- Article: Ron DeSantis is a Case Study in the Threat of Fascism in the US. Just because Trump is no longer the Republican Party darling doesn’t mean we are safe from other Republican fascists.
Listening
- Podcast: Crazy Town: Human Rights and Multispecies Justice. Oh y’all, this had me nodding my head so much it almost fell off. Danielle Celermajer is an author and professor at University of Sydney, and the conversation is about not only human rights, but also justice for our more-than-human kin as well.
- Podcast: The Great Simplification: Vandana Shiva: Agroecology and the Great Simplification. The host, Nate Hagens, tends to rub me the wrong way because he comes across as not exactly a know-it-all, but close to it. I suspect it has to do with his day job as a professor. His guests also tend to be majority men. But in this case, the brilliant Vandana Shiva knows a lot more than Hagens does and he even needs to ask her to explain a few things to him. If you are interested in food and how it’s grown and by whom (we should all be interested in this), you will want to listen to this one.
Watching
- Movie: Lady Chatterly’s Lover. This is the new adaptation on Netflix. Do not watch this with children in the room because there is lots of sex and nudity. But the movie is well done and puts Connie’s desire front and center and gives her agency in her relationship with both her husband and Mellors. It was directed by a woman so that probably has something to do with it.
Happy Solstice! I love your clothing revamp ideas… I’ve done a little of this, with mixed results. It is fun to experiment though. I think dress-to-skirt usually has a pretty high rate of positive outcomes. Your menu sounds wonderful! We are getting some cold weather this week too. My poor chickens decided to molt late in the season so I got them a flat-panel heater to hang on the wall behind their roost, just to make sure they make it through the unseasonably cold nights coming up without their usual fluffy coats. It’s much safer than the usual lightbulb for chicks, and I’ll be getting chicks next spring, so I figured it was a good double-duty purchase. So far, so good! This is the time of year when they get to get out and dig around in the garden, so they are pretty happy. I’m hoping for some snow in the next few weeks, but we’ll see. Certainly will be freezing, at any rate! Stay warm out there!
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Thank you Daphne! I hope you had a lovely Solstice and a merry Christmas! Oh your poor chickens! Why do they always decide to molt when it’s going to be really cold? Mine managed to get it done in October this year, which was a big relief. So excited to hear you are getting chicks in spring! Will there be ducklings too?
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Happy Solstice! Your menu sound amazing!
I would love to follow along on your mending/remaking clothing journey. Sounds very interesting!
You are an intrepid traveler. I’m glad the bus is available to you on the slushy days!
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Thank you Laila! I hope your Solstice was wonderful and I hope you are having a merry Christmas! Mending and remaking clothes is becoming a thing andI find it really exciting especially since I don’t like shopping for clothes, but I think I will really enjoy making old clothes new again.
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My son and his fiance just got here from LA and there’s snow on the ground, which they find novel enough to be agreeable.
I agree about turtlenecks! Can’t figure out how some people can stand them.
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Since I grew up in a place where it didn’t snow Jeanne, I still find snow (mostly) agreeable 🙂 So glad I am not alone regarding turtlenecks! Happy Christmas!
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First of all – happy vacation, holidays, reading, creating, and garden planning! In November with our first snow/windstorm power was knocked out and I wasn’t quite acclimated enough yet, but fortunately it didn’t last too long. Now we’ve got temps around zero and below for a few days with on and off snow. Probably just enough to be annoying. May all of you stay warm and cozy as you usher in the turning away of the dark!
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Thank you Julé! I hope your winter holidays are wonderful! We have thankfully never lost power during a winter storm. Since we don’t have a fireplace or alternative source of heat, I’m not sure how we would keep warm. Something we need to figure out just in case. Stay safe and warm!
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Enjoy your vacation and get plenty of rest! Your menu looks quite yummy, I want to try delicata squash too, I think I saw some at the farmer’s market (or was it spaghetti squash? those 2 varieties are not quite common here). I actually enjoy mending clothes and also reusing, but I’ve never done a dress-to-skirt transformation. I’ll be following for inspiration!
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Thank you Smithereens! Delicate is a small striped squash that is fairly sweet and thinned skinned, which you can eat, which makes it easy to cook with since you don’t have to peel it. Spaghetti squash is big and fun to make into things you might use pasts for, though it tastes nothing like pasta. Yay for mending and reusing clothes! Merry Christmas to you and your family!
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I buy almost nothing new (unless it’s edible) because there is so much stuff at the local Goodwill and garage sales. I haven’t traversed into making my own clothes or upcycling because I don’t have those skills, but I see potential in weird things, like turning a pickle dish into a toothbrush holder that doesn’t leave the bristles laying in water and goes into a drawer off the counter.
Will you take pictures of the food you make? I’m curious!
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Oh Melanie, I laughed that you qualified buying nothing new except for edibles 🙂 I love that you see potential in weird things! This is a quality and skill I would like to cultivate! I have taken photos of my Solstice meal and will be posting about it soon! Merry Christmas to you!
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No, not edibles! LOL! Edible, like food! I’m too square for edibles, hahahaha. Yes, I love finding weird things and thinking about how they can be different.
I look forward to seeing your blog post. I’m a bit behind because I’m still in Michigan.
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LOL Melanie, I didn’t mean those kinds of edibles, I meant edibles plural for foods, victuals (time to bring that word back into circulation?). But I suppose with the rise of those other sorts of edibles I have to pay more attention! 😀
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True, I sometimes hear people talk about stopping to pick up a couple of cookies or brownies, which they then describe in detail, only for it to dawn on me that they are not headed to a bakery. I live 2 or 3 miles from the Michigan state line and am from Michigan, where all marijuana is legal, so it’s a topic of conversation for sure.
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Legal marijuana has made life so confusing! 😀
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