dzien dobry

in poland!

no flat internet yet . . . our "native speaker coordinator" got confused when we asked for such a thing, so perhaps that is a bad sign . . . must convey the urgent need of north americans for constant wireless.

town is smaller and much less anglo than expected, but adam and i are trying to keep positive.
will write more later!

WALES IS OK!

so adam and i went to southwestern wales last weekend. it was an adventure.

i present to you a choice selection of welsh pictures, as "montage" is my favorite way to recap events or wacky mishaps. there were both.

above, adam mastering the art of driving on the left side of the road while shifting with his left hand, all while i gripped various objects such as, but not limited to, the car seat, door handle, dashboard, and his knee while making panicky noises.



bridge into wales - toll coming in, but not going out? weird.


we then headed up the river to tintern abbey. i am usually disdainful of "tourist attractions" - i don't really like crowds and a lot of stuff seems to be overrated - but tintern was amazing.


it is astonishing, from an north american standpoint, the antiquity of great britain remains. tintern was founded on may 9, 1131, at a point where the new world hadn't even been discovered.


more staggering is its awesome size, in every sense of the word. imagining coming around the bend at a time when the abbey was surrounded by peasant farmers, cresting the hills around its valley must have been such a overwhelming reminder of god's greatness.


despite being there on an absolutely gorgeous fall afternoon, there was a real sense of melanchony to it. the abbey once housed 50-60 brothers and lay people, at the heart of an isolated but tight-knit community, but now there are only tourists flocking about and ravens croaking from the stone rafters.

Once again
Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,
That on a wild secluded scene impress
Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect
The landscape with the quiet of the sky.
The day is come when I again repose
Here, under this dark sycamore, and view
These plots of cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts,
Which at this season, with their unripe fruits,
Are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves
'Mid groves and copses. Once again I see
These hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little lines
Of sportive wood run wild: these pastoral farms,
Green to the very door; and wreaths of smoke
Sent up, in silence, from among the trees!

- william wordsworth, "composed a few miles above tintern abbey, on revisiting the banks of the wye during a tour, july 13, 1798.

this picture sums up holiday well for us ; adam gets romantic and snuggly and i make faces at the camera.


after leaving tintern, we kept on truckin down to swansea for dinner. swansea is billed as one of wales' big sea-side tourist towns, but it was pretty ugly and built-up so we peaced out pretty fast.

now, as it was a delightfully perfect weather weekend, as we later found out, most of england also had come to wales. seeing as it is almost october, cooling down a little bit, no leaf-peepers like in new england, we both figured we would have no problem finding a place to stay - wales is crawling with b+bs.

no such luck. stopped in solva - everything was full up. walked around st. davids for an hour and a half, banging on doors at 9:30 at night and wrangling with a hotel to let us both take their one empty single room. no vacancies, no vacancies, no vacancies. to reallllly get things going, we were running on 1/8th tank of petrol.

so on our way to a 24 hr gas station in fishguard, where the ferry comes in late from ireland and where several people swore we would find a room, we stumbled upon the awelfan b+b in beautiful square and compass, wales.

leeetle sketched out when two teenage girls answered the door, but who gives a fuck, we didn't have to sleep in the car. turns out her mum was at a late meeting. we popped down to the [surprisingly unfriendly] square and compass pub and passed out.


after a delicious full welsh breakfast [sausage, beans, toast, mushrooms, tomato [adam ate mine], eggs, toast, lots of tea], we ran to a cashpoint to pay karen. turns out she thought we had stiffed her. so for future reference, adam and i look just that shifty.


on karen's suggestion, we headed to porthgain, to walk a two mile section of the pembrokeshire coastal path to abereiddy.


this is THE classic adam power stance photo op.



porthgain from the hills.



a cairn of some sort? we never figured it out.


if you are a portly man with elongated fingers, whatever you do, DON'T TRY TO CATCH YOUR ROCKS IF THEY FALL OFF A CLIFF.



adam noticed that a number of erudite fellow walkers had taken the time to write their names with stones in this valley. we were too lazy; or else ANNA + ADAM 4EVR would have graced the welsh countryside.



beach in that we frolicked on the trek back.


adam kept on making lotr comments and eluding to the "shire" all weekend.


out of order and too lazy to fix it; beach came after ice cream time.


enjoyed fresh home-made welsh ice cream [adam, rum raisin, me, tasty tasty coconut] with a side order of WACKY WELSH ACCENTS. also, a cheese+onion toastie which was pretty delicious. walked back.


ate lunch in solva. if you ever happen to find yourself in pembrokeshire, stay at the ships inn in solva. the bartender was immensely helpful in trying to find us a room and the pub was loud, friendly with a good vibe. plus, they had an attached curry restaurant.

don't stay in st. davids. they're kind of assholes there.


see the full set here, if you are so inclined.

9.23.08, tuesday

planning a frolick through london's yarn shops today. first, loop gb at islington/angel, and then the handweavers studio & gallery, way up at blackhorse tube. i have some pictures to show you guys anyway of laminaria and button-purchases so will make one lovely yarn post later today.

scarf: simons, mtl.
cardigan: target
(invisible) tshirt : grey vneck ralph lauren, thrift, maine
skirt : thrift, maine
leggins: primark
bangles: primark
shoes: uo, sale

these shoes have been a godsend. i'm pretty sure they were with me in finland a couple of years ago - they have taken a massive beating over three? years, and are still holding in there.

also, i am deeply in love with stirrup leggings. LOVE.

original here.

stay tuned later today for more pictures of wales than you ever wanted to see . . .

wales-ho!

going to pembrokeshire and st. david for the weekend - be back sunday!

xx

9.19.08

god, how is it the 19th already? time flies.

today i wore this.

dress: american apparel. it's much more purple-y than in that picture, but for whatever reason, the color doesn't photograph well.
necklace : flea market
belt : thrift
tights : spanx, with many holes from being wore continually for like five months straight last winter.
shoes : target

game plan : sample the delectable-looking curry house under the apartment for £4.95 buffet - jaunt up to portobello road, with a detour to urban outfitters to buy £8 sneakers because adam and i are taking a drive to WALES this weekend! pray for us.

things i love thursday part iii

1. london. despite being kind of a bum lately, i love it here. the weather is fantastic - crisp, but sunny, perfect autumn - and other adults have freckles here. amazing.

2. poland. adam and i have accepted a eight month teaching gig in debica, poland. it's a town of about 50,000 people, 1 1/2 hour east of krakow. we are leaving in 10 days!

3. markets. london has some fantastic open-air pitches and i am embarrassed to say how much money i have spent by wandering around food markets . . . above is the haul from borough market last week, including . . .

4. rhubarb! mmmmmh. i found some at borough market and we all had delicious delicious pie from. without strawberries because that is blasphemous.

the original here.

9.17.08, wednesday

scarf: h+m
shirt : h+m
belt : thrifted
skirt : thrifted
tights : h+m
shoes : primark
bracelets : primark

plus black cardigan, target, not in picture. all re-mixed, save shoes and bracelets.

this picture is funny to me because i generally think i am way way taller than the actuality. like, if you asked me to show you someone with an equivalent height, i'd eyeball like a 5'6"/7" woman. i think i'm as tall as adam sometimes.

BUT as reality shows, i am a head above the ironing board. awesome. i'm a secret tall girl trapped in a 5'2" frame! ahhh!


anyway, other than having existential height crises, i realize i haven't been posting a lot, or any, really, wardrobe pictures - there are a few reasons for such.

1. i live out of a backpack, ergo
2. i wear the same five outfits repeatedly, which is
3. vaguely boring to me, so i'm not inclined to share with the interwebs.

anyway. here is today. it is cloudy and brisk outside here [surprise], so the wool skirt is in order.

p.s. primark is the poor [british] man's clothes section of target. it smells like what i imagine a sweatshop does, but it's cheap by american standards. hot damn.

p.p.s. this post also features a corner of the lovely emma's lovely spare room - where we are camping out hobo-style.

soap knowledge

words of wisdom.

"only love's stormy passion, striking deep within us; can turn blood to spirit & spirit to blood, untamed! spirit to blood, untamed! for god alone knows man's far distant future, towards which love's unfailing light shows clear the upward path, unity-harmony-peace! great tasks to nurture, with strength & knowledge, happiness can last! machine-age man is full of sense & nonsense!"

- dr. bronner, of soap fame.

catch-up

uff-da, as they say in minnesota. it's been a long week! to counter-act eight odd days of no-writing, i plan to do a whirl-wind recap of the past days, tourist-style. then, i promise you, dear (1) reader who probably is my mom, to do a better job. for sure.

above and above, the crypt at st.martins-in-the-field. it's been renovated into a cafe, so as there are groups of smartly-dressed businessmen milling about with roasted red peppers and goat cheese, there are also worn-down tombstones scattered over the floor. weird juxtaposition, but a brillant idea to re-brand your church and pump in a little extra cash flow . . .

obligatory-trafalgar-square-lion-picture

the admiralty arch, built by king edward vii in honor of his mum, queen victoria. he didn't live to see the completion.

also, these pictures are a bit out of order. fyi.

obligatory-tourist-picture of emma in front of parliament and big ben. it was wicked windy, and the clouds were awesome.

the sun cresting down behind westminster abbey.

obligatory-tourist-picture out front of buckingham palace. asked some nice american woman with a huge vera bradley bag to take it. she seemed confused by the notion.

gardens in front of buckingham palace.
buckingham gardens. we saw these weird black birds - shaped like guinea hens, but with a white-tipped beak and they had webbed feet, but the webs weren't connected to each other like ducks or geese . . . very strange.

we also sampled london pizza hut, enjoyed two cheap seats to see "wicked" and frolicked a bit on the night bus home.
that is all.
more to come. pinky swear.

elizabethian tuesday

tuesday, tuesday, tuesday. it was rather overcast and rainy - so what better to do than pretend to be 17th century peasants? emma and i headed down to the globe theater for a 5lb matinee performance of a midsummer's night dream. and honestly it was awesome. better than i expected.

this current globe theater was built in 1991, as a better-flame-retardent version of the original. and we watched theater as shakespeare intended it - no amplification, beer/crisps sold, and we got to watch the suits drinking martinis in the balcony seats. YES PROLETARIANS.

it did rain for most of the show, and umbrellas are not allowed as they block the view, but luckily em and i had scarves to go over our heads.

took a jaunt over the millenium bridge to listen to evensong at st. pauls. very lovely service.

meanwhile, back at the ranch, our friend david came over for dinner with his lovely girlfriend eleanor. adam made us all leek+potato soup from this recipe , handpicked by its many color photographs.

now, swayed by extreme bargains, i had purchased a bag of "cooking apples" at sainsbury for like 40 p or something ridiculous. they were green granny smiths, so i figured the british just didn't know that you could eat greens straight, because i feel a lot of people don't use them that way. WRONG. these were sour as fuck. i'm sorry england. i'm sorry.

so, i originally was going to do some sort of free-form rustic apple tart thing, but it turns out that we didn't have a flat baking sheet in the apartment. so, hey presto, apple pie.

it was pretty tasty - i just threw the sliced apples together with 1 1/2 cups of sugar and a bunch of spices. in retrospect, i should have put some cornstarch in - the filling got a bit runny.

and i haven't mastered celsius baking temperatures yet, so the crust dried out too much . . . . alas. next time we'll have it down.

9/6, old crow medicine show, shepherds bush

on saturday night, we had over kate and len for dinner [len bailed early] and feasted on veggie chili - it is cold here!

the recipe is simple enough:: cut up an onion, let it brown slowly in a big pan, throw in some zukes, shrooms, whatever's lying around, let them brown up. empty in a couple cans of beans - we used black and butter for some nice black/white visual appeal - a can of tomatoes and some tomato sauce. season to your delight - i threw in chili powder, cumin, coriander, black pepper, cayenne and a little bit of cinnamon and ginger. let 'er simmer for a like an hour and eat with sharp mature english cheddar and fresh baguette. yum!

also, i threw in some quorn mince - for those not in the faux-meat loop, quorn is this new meat subsitute made from mushroom protein, of all things. it's quite common in the uk, even small groceries have it, and it's fucking tasty. like, just like meat-tasty. but it doesn't have soy in it! [which may or may not be bad for you. jury is out]. i've never seen it sold in montreal, but i've found it in maine. mmmmmmm quorn.

back on topic :: we were late leaving the apt after dinner, a little bit sluggishly, and missed half of the first set . . . whoops. but hot damn it was a good show. they did (2) encores, a cover of "soul rebel" by mr. marley and got the english to hoe down.

old crow is from tennessee - newgrass in that they like to sing about drugs - but they cover good ol'fashioned oldey-timey bluegrass and folk like "union maid" by woody guthrie. they're most famous for "wagon wheel", but their more up tempo, old skool stuff is fucking fantastic.






this is a little more "controlled" sound than they were playing sat., but oh my goodness they are excellent. there's a new album out on 9/23 called tennessee pusher. i'm looking forward to it.

interests, as seen at the british museum.

after popping into the british museum for a couple of hours and only three rooms, i realized that all the pictures i took fall into four categories. who wants a crappy reflected picture of the rosetta stone anyway when you could have a crappy reflected picture of stuff no one finds interesting and you're the only one photographing it? no one.

this means that none of your friends will want to look at your british museum pictures because they are "boring". oh well.

me, i like fiber working.

that, sir, is a fine-looking warp-weighted loom.

also, i enjoy spinning.


on to clothing, #2

the musem had dozens of these - intricate diadems and headdresses. very inspiring.

another interesting motif that was spread out over clothing depictions and silverware was the swaztika. i had no idea that the classical world used it - i was aware of the indus use - but emma told me that they discussed the motif in a beck class once. interesting.

the original gladiator sandal.
interest #3. geeky classical stuff. above, a stele involving a mithraic sentator. i quoted this stele in my honors thesis and got a little giddy in the museum. again, not interesting to most.


this is fucking neat. it's the second oldest surviving piece of virgil, and scholars think it was written as either a practice piece or in a repetitive way for memory. the piece quoted is 2.601,

"non tibi Tyndaridis facies inuisa Lacaenae
culpatusue Paris, diuum inclementia, diuum
has euertit opes sternitque a culmine Troiam."

or, as fairclough translates,

"Know that it is not the hated face of the Laconian woman, daughter of Tyndareus, it is not Paris that is to blame; but the gods, the relentless gods, overturn this wealth and make Troy topple from her pinnacle."

neat!

4. food. [tangentially, mosaics.] [and apparently, just mollusks and the like]

what a nice thing to have on your kitchen floor.

this i like too, because you could just look down and be all like hey! those are tasty animals.

this is fucking neat! it's a colander. a strainer, from roman gaul. NEAT.


COMING UP: we go to an old crow medicine show, hyde gardens and have friends for dinner. THRILLING.