mourningdove

Iron Teakettle and Winter Tonic

The rental I’m staying in in Berlin has this beautiful iron teakettle that sits on a brazier stand that takes a tealight. It’s so nice to brew a pot of green tea up and then sip it hot all afternoon while sitting and working on the couch. Today I put some winter tonic in theContinue reading “Iron Teakettle and Winter Tonic”

Aikido and Rhetoric: Finding Balance Outside

Now and again, it is necessary to seclude yourself among deep mountains and hidden valleys to restore your link to the source of life. Breathe in and let yourself soar to the ends of the universe; breathe out and bring the cosmos back inside. Next, breathe up all the vibrancy and fecundity of the earth.Continue reading “Aikido and Rhetoric: Finding Balance Outside”

Ceramics Saturdays: Vershenkte Teekanne!

One of the neat things about Berlin is that you’ll just find random boxes of stuff on people’s stoops with a little sign that says “Verschenken!” (“give away”). On my way to drop off some knives for sharpening, I picked up this teapot (coffee pot, really) with a dashing little peacock on it. No ideaContinue reading “Ceramics Saturdays: Vershenkte Teekanne!”

Tomé Hill

I’m posting this story today in honor of the 50th birthday of my lifelong friend Michele, whom I met in first grade at Montgomery Elementary School in a friendly competition for the affections of a boy named Tag, who turned out to be more interested in snapping his fingers rapidly over his math worksheets thanContinue reading “Tomé Hill”

Field-Trip Fridays: IKEA with Lucky

I did this when I lived in Münich–try to take a day trip every Friday to somewhere new and interesting. Fridays worked well because my collaborator had to take the train back home to her family that day, and museums, national parks, etc. were less busy on Fridays than on the weekend. So, I’m tryingContinue reading “Field-Trip Fridays: IKEA with Lucky”

Hey, it’s the Sun!

Not the ball–that’s the Fernsehturm 🤣. But the reflection on the building next to it proves the sun actually came out today for a hot minute (sorry, Cassandra)!

PBS Cooking School

I read a great short essay in the New York Times today by food columnist Eric Kim, in which he calls himself a “Food Network Baby” who, along with others of his generation, learned to cook–and to enjoy food as culture–by watching Emeril Lagasse, Rachael Ray, and other TV chefs in the late 90s andContinue reading “PBS Cooking School”

Letter of Recommendation: Weleda

Weleda was founded in Switzerland in 1921 on the philosophy of putting as few and as natural ingredients as possible in beauty products. I’ve been using Weleda since I discovered their salt toothpaste at our local co-op a decade ago: I have sensitive teeth and weak gums, and the salt helps with that as muchContinue reading “Letter of Recommendation: Weleda”

Aikido and Rhetoric: Yin and Yang

Eight forces sustain creation:Movement and stillness,Solidification and fluidity,Extension and contraction,Unification and division. Morihei Ueshiba, The Art of Peace What opposes unites, and the finest attunement stems from things bearing in opposite directions, and all things come about by strife. Heraclitus, fragment 8 (Barnes) Aikido and rhetoric are both arts specifically designed to harmonize opposition, whichContinue reading “Aikido and Rhetoric: Yin and Yang”

Ceramics Saturdays: Edmund de Waal

I just finished reading Edmund de Waal’s White Road, a poetic and gripping personal history of porcelain–from its discovery in China to its infection of the rest of the colonial world, first through feverish collection and later through emulation as enterprising potters in Germany, England, and even the Americas attempted to reverse-engineer the “white gold”Continue reading “Ceramics Saturdays: Edmund de Waal”