A Few Things I'm Excited About: Summer Delights Edition

Eating: Because one of great pleasures of a day at home is hot lunch, I just cooked and consumed this lentil recipe, and wow. It's fussier than my normal lentil scenario, but it's so complex and savory-- almost meaty (I know this last characterization outs me as a carnivore). I subbed in broccoli, zucchini and a handful of radishes for the carrots and celery, because that's what I had lying around, and I added a teaspoon of "French Soup" herbs (chervil, parsley, thyme and marjoram, I think) at the veggie simmering stage). Make this now-- it's that good.

***

Reading: At my first monthlong Virginia Center for Creative Arts residency in 2012, I was lucky enough to have a standing afternoon swim date with a group of ridiculously kind, talented women. We'd write all day in our studios, then meet before dinner for a dip and some gossip. It was a hard life. 

Among this crew was Alena Graedon, who I really should I met before, because we have the same hometown and a bunch of friends in common, and because she is just lovely. Watching Alena push through the last stage of writing her novel taught me so much about the dedication, resourcefulness, and sustained curiosity that goes in to make a book happen. It was so cool to watch. 

And lo, just as my second residency at VCCA began this past May, Alena's novel, The Word Exchange, appeared to great acclaim from Doubleday. I spent my pre-dinner idyll this time around reading The Word Exchange, and I loved every page. The New York Times calls is a "dystopian thriller" and, ehn, I don't really agree with that description. I think it's simply a fantastic piece of literary fiction that thinks deeply about the interplay between humans, technology, and language. I think it's twisty, turny, immensely inventive, and thoroughly intellectual in the best sense of the word. Even better, it's filled with complex, intriguing characters and build on gorgeous prose. SO much fun to read and say over and over to myself, "My FRIEND wrote this!".

***

Watching: So I just finished a huge Sports Night kick, and I loved it just as any Aaron Sorkin acolyte should. I loved it DESPITE the laugh track in the first season, and DESPITE the fact that it serves as a prime example of Sorkin's sometimes rut of writing women as unbearably SCREAMY all the time. I loved it BECAUSE he pulled together a great cast of actors, and BECAUSE it's also a prime example of his knack for writing about people doing something they love to do with feverish intensity. Maybe you will like it as much as I did, but I can't say for sure. Let me know!

***

Treats: I just had the CRAP spoiled out of my for my 30th birthday, and one of my favorite gifts was a super-snuggly sheepskin rug from Black Twig Farms. I met the owners at the Nelson's Farmer's Market, and they are very nice people who love sheep. If you are looking to buy a sheepskin for your baby or for yourself, go no place else: the skins are so gorgeous and thick, and they cost less than those from factory farms. My feet are snuggled into mine right this very moment.

Places: Nelson Farmer's Market, Nellysford VA

There are about a million things to love about the Nelson Farmer's Market, not least of which was the BRIE AND APPLE TURNOVER I ate there, but foremost in my mind is the fact that kids really seem to run that place. Everywhere I looked, there were flocks of kids roaming free, totally comfortable and having a blast. I remember that feeling of ownership so vividly from childhood-- being in a public place, dominated by adults, but feeling safe and authoritative because I was the one who knew where the good stuff stuff was, and I knew all of the important people, and I was the one having the most fun. It was the best. 

Beyond that, there was live music,  impeccable meat and eggs from Spruce Creek Farms, gorgeous hand-died yarns and sheepskins from Black Twig Farm, Trager Brother's Coffee fresh from the source, and baskets and baskets of GARLIC SCAPES. I wish I could go there every week!

Parents dreaming of their children

I had the chance to photograph two awesome parent-child duos this week, first Skye and his dad and then Nola and her mom. In both sessions, the kids evoked these huge, wonderful smiles from their parents. It's so fun to see people get such a kick out of their kids. Beyond that, though, in each session there were a handful of pictures that captured the parent looking on the child with an incredibly beautiful poignancy-- a kind of longing almost. It reminds me of Basho's famous lines, "Even in Kyoto...I dream of Kyoto"-- a love so spellbound by change and time that you miss the love object even when they are right next to you. What terrifying luck.