cold-weather food.

Seems kind of strange (almost disheartening) to think of April as hearty-food weather, but there you have it. Rob found the perfect recipe for 35 degrees and rainy: A Basque-style chicken and chorizo ragout from one of our favorites, the Jimtown Store Cookbook. We roasted a chicken in the afternoon (its remains are in the stockpot now), then shredded the meat. We sauteed some chorizo, then a load of sliced onions and red peppers, poured in a glug of white wine and a can of diced organic tomatoes, then let the whole mess simmer for a bit. In went some Pimentón (a smoked paprika that's nicely spicy and wonderfully aromatic), salt, pepper and the chicken. A bowlful, plus a simple green salad, a wedge of crusty bread and Three Rings Shiraz, was the perfect foil for crappy weather. That, and thoughts of St. Bart's next weekend.

more art. more beauty.

Poet Billy Collins reads his work, accompanied by some really gorgeous animation and motion design.

missing out on something beautiful.

I blogged about this today for HOW, but wanted to post it here, as well:

Washingtonpost.com has an amazing—amazing!—article about beauty and art and how we so often totally miss out on experiencing both in the rush of our daily lives. The paper asked violin virtuoso Joshua Bell to pose as a street musician in a Metro station in downtown Washington, DC, playing, on his Strad, one of the most gorgeous and technically challenging pieces in the violin repertoire. To see if harried commuters, as they filed past, would stop for a listen, toss a buck into his violin case, even notice at all.

From the article: "The poet Billy Collins once laughingly observed that all babies are born with a knowledge of poetry, because the lub-dub of the mother's heart is in iambic meter. Then, Collins said, life slowly starts to choke the poetry out of us. It may be true with music, too."

The writer cites two philosophical theories on aesthetics: one, that beauty is a quantifiable fact and two, that it is strictly opinion. The philosopher Emmanuel Kant has a third: That beauty is both fact and opinion, but furthermore influenced by the current state of mind of the observer. In other words, context is key.

It's fascinating to listen to the audio of Bell's performance, with all the low chatter, footsteps on concrete, opening doors and other background noise. Sitting here at my desk, even with the murky sound, the hair on the back of my neck is standing up. I wonder what I would have done if I'd come into that Metro station, on a crazy morning, coffee in my travel mug, facing a dayful of meetings and emails. Would I have stopped to listen?

whaaaaa?????

OK, so on Monday it was 80 degrees. Or thereabouts. On Wednesday, when we had tix to the Reds/Cubs game it was SNOWING. In the fourth inning. Flurries coming right down into the stadium. (The cold weather kept our beers nice and frosty. So there's that.)

Nonetheless, someone who shall remain nameless (Rob) talked me into purchasing a dumptruckful of mulch to be delivered on Friday. So we spent yesterday dodging the snow flurries and spreading 4+ yards of mulch throughout the landscaping. We especially enjoyed the company of a robin couple, who scrounged for worms as we were digging around in the garden beds. They were fearless. The whole yard looks awesome!!!

The shrubs we planted last weekend (back when it was, you know, above freezing) are faring so-so: The hydrangeas aren't at all happy, but the rhododendrons seem to be hanging in there. I'm told the dogwoods and lilacs should do OK. Here's hoping.

Today, we spent Easter Sunday reflecting back on last year, when Wrigley was in the Madison Animal Hospital with liver failure and Rob and I sobbed through the lovely outdoor Easter sunrise service we attended. We felt especially blessed to have all of our little family feeling good and happy. Cheers!

[edit: Hey, Emily from Titus Vineyards -- thanks for the visit!]

it's not really my job.

I am married to the Lawn Master—with a capital M. Rob has managed to completely eradicate even the most stubborn weeds (violets look pretty, but they're real bastards), fill in the patchy spots and create a really masterful yardful of grass. Already this spring, it's lush and incredibly green.

Rob's lawn-growing talents are the subject of some admiration in the neighborhood; our next-door neighbor has consulted him for advice on seeding bare patches. And they're also the source of some grumbling and eye-rolling; our neighbor two doors down, who fancies himself quite the green-lawn guy, sniffs when he sees Rob getting a head-start on outdoor chores. "Well, I won't put down grass seed for another 2 weeks," he harrumphed at me disapprovingly when Rob was scattering finelawn fescue a week ago.

Rob is also an accomplished mower of said lawn. When he was in Bangkok last week, I made a feeble attempt at running the evil machine over the grass—leaving scalped patches and uncut strips in my wake. I'm going to leave that chore to him. He's better at it anyway.

now showing.

It'll be interesting at this time next year to read these posts cataloging spring blooms. Things seem to be early this year, which may be due to this warmer-than-normal stretch we've had for the past 10 days or so. Everyone I know has Spring Fever--I've been approving more than the normal volume of days off for the HOW staff.

So here's what's going now:

Magnolias
Redbuds (love those)
Bradford pears
Purple plums
The weeping cherry in the front yard (just now starting)
Forsythia
Some kind of shrub with hot-pink flowers (I think it may be quince)
Purple azaleas

Coming soon:
Crabapple
Dogwood (the flower buds have just started to unfurl a tiny bit)
Azaleas
Lilac

hello, b.

A shout-out to Rob, who's on his way to Bangkok for business, via this lunchtime post. Hi, B! I figure your flight should be arriving at the Bangkok airport in about an hour (I checked online, and it's an 11-hour time difference from here to there). After this trip, you'll probably never want to set foot on an airplane again! (Except maybe for our upcoming trip to St. Barth.)

Things are super weird when Rob is traveling; I find that I don't much mind being alone, but don't particularly love it, either. I tend to not have wine with dinner, get a few projects done in the evening, and then go to bed early and read. Wrigley is funny, too -- he's more clingy than normal, he barks when he thinks a car is pulling into the drive (Is it him? Is it him? Is it him?) and seems to sense that something isn't quite normal in his little world. I suppose you could say the same of me.

seedlings.

Tiny lettuces: Burpee Butterhead and Four Seasons. They're liking this warm weather (hope it sticks around). As are the bradford pears, which are now in full bloom throughout Hyde Park and Mt. Lookout—which, as a result, now smell like feet. We're pretty much convinced that blooming bradford pears stink like toes.

tasting notes.

Friday evening, we went to the Cincinnati Wine Festival, an event that we missed the past two springs (although we did hit a smaller but comparable event in Madison, NJ). I scribbled a few tasting notes about some new wines and a couple we've previously had:

Whites
Stag's Leap Karia Chardonnay: bright and fruity
Mondavi Chardonnay: rounder and softer than the Karia; oaky, but not too
Zaca Mesa Rousanne and Zaca Mesa Viognier: both incredibly drinkable, lovely

Reds
Clos du Val Cabernet: dark fruit and leather
Pine Ridge Stag's Leap Cabernet: soft, big and full of dark, ripe fruit (blueberries)
Pine Ridge Oakville Cabernet: interestingly different from the Stag's Leap; brighter, with more fresh, red fruit (raspberries)
St. Clement Oroppa Cabernet: SGS (seriously good sh*t)
Titus Zinfandel: SGS
Provenance Rutherford Cabernet: SGS

now open: side porch café.

It's official: The SPC opened for the season yesterday. I spent the afternoon cleaning furniture and sweeping up five months' worth of crap and cobwebs. I got all the candles fired up before we sat down to dinner: Rob's famous burgers and grilled sweet potatoes. Perfect!

Last week was remarkable: You could see, day by day, the green-o-meter shifting to "High." The grass greened up, trees started showing that haze of chartreuse, and daffodils popped open. A warm and sunny weekend meant that the purple plums, magnolias and forsythia are going strong, and the bradford pears are in the on-deck circle. I have high hopes for a spectacular display from our lilacs and peonies. Oh! And there were plants for sale for the first time at Findlay Market on Saturday.

I've been snapping photos around the yard to document progress and chart the results of my landscaping plan. I'll post those soon.