neglect

yowza. i have been mad neglectful.

i apologize.

and i resolve to do better.

i promise.

yum apples + split peas

happy-domesticity is tainted a bit by hindsight, but nevertheless i have a food-post worth of [now lost?] pictures, so damnit, i’m going to do it.

i had been gifted with a couple of pounds of apples, courtesy of the secretaries and the number of bountiful trees of brytania, later in the same day that i had snagged some at the local market.
at a loss of what to do past good ol’fashioned plain eating, i came across this fab recipe for an apple curry. mmmmmh.

however, rural poland is at a severe lack of “ethnic” food; there is an abundance of cabbage and potato but not much else. substitutions ahoy!
in lieu of lentils [not able to be found in the local grocery], i subbed in yellow split peas; garlic, curry powder, chilis and a bit of ginger ad-libbed curry paste.

the day before had been loads of heavy polish-eating, the kind where hidden meat lurked around the corner of every innocuous dania jarskie. tonight, as an antidote and refresher, lots of veggies were needed; to make this dish more like a palaak dal [mmmm my favorite], i threw in a bunch of frozen spinach chunks, random mushrooms found in the fridge and plenty of garlic.

ever mindful of our surroundings, i cooked up some kasha in veggie stock for the carb underbelly. holy jesus himself, kasha is so tasty.

the whole thing was extremely unphotogenic, but mysteriously my process pictures have disappeared . . . confusing.

long overdue

oy vey. what a ride.

i have lots of things to tell you all with many posts, but this sums it up fairly succinctly:

went to poland. didn’t like debica. talked about moving/relocating. got in touch with amideast in tunisia and other schools. decided didn’t have necessary resources to relocate at the moment. resigned myself to staying in debica. vowed to sign contract. met to do so; details of contract withdrew. given 24 hours to vacate apartment and leave debica.

there’s some fleshing out of that story, but those are the bare bones.

been in krakow (4) days; flying to america this morning!

[overall feeling pretty good about this, so no worries there]

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