Happy Midsummer!

I hope you and yours have an awesome Midsummer, or St John the Baptist's Day, whichever you call it. I just found out that the Finnish National newspaper (Int'l edition), Helsingin Sanomat, takes the whole month of July off, I guess it's "a slow news time" there, after Midsummer and all. Finland is great!

I guess over the weekend in Rutland, VT(?) there was a Finnish Midsummer festival. I love the "wife-carrying contest".

On Saturday we had our own Midsummer party - a dinner party for some local friends and neighbors. It was potluck and fun! I'm hoping we can make it a tradition. Finnish flag was flying too.

Weekly Blog Round-Up - Part II

An illumiated letter image from Idle Speculations.

I don't think I should let la Prima see this death map from Buzz Feed. She's having trouble falling asleep at night because she's worried about natural disasters.

The Carnival of Green at Christian Environmentalist.

Uses for former big box retail stores - fill w/ recyclables?? From Treehugger.

From this week's horoscope by Rob Brezsny:

Happy Holy Daze, Pisces! My gift to you is advice about the coming year. First, read this quote from W.H. Auden's book The Dyer's Hand. "A daydream is a meal at which images are eaten. Some of us are gourmets, some gourmands, and a good many take their images precooked out of a can and swallow them down whole, absent-mindedly and with little relish." With this as your touchstone, I urge you to be a gourmet in your approach to daydreaming during 2009. It will be time for you to make your fantasy life into an art form instead of a chaotic, unconscious diversion. If you put more intention into your generation of mental images, you will find yourself better able to create what you really want.

"It's Gettin' Hot in Here!" fight global warming.

Five stories of former slaves via Monte Asbury's blog. Inspiring stories, though it is distressing that we are still fighting the scourge of slavery.

Remembering "Feed the World" at To Miss With Love. Snuffy talks about how there aren't many people of color in the video - not many women either.


An Advent calendar w/Modern gargoyles. Check out the Yuppie Gargoyle. There's even a Darth Vader grotesque!.

Solar tiles are currently available for residential buildings! From Treehugger.

A Sami woman from Finland. NY Public Library has uploaded tons of photos to Flickr.

According to the BBC Vampires no
longer scary. I'm surprised, as a British news source, that the BBC never mentions their famous (luscious) vampire impersonator, David Bowie, from The Hunger.

Jay's photos of St James the Less clean up day - a beautiful altar icon of Mary holding baby Jesus and a Lily.

Brief Round Up - Happy Thanksgiving!

An excellent image of my favorite female saint, Mary Magdalene, from Idle Speculations.

"I'm not One of Those Christians," one more reason you gotta love the Onion.

And in case you missed it, the spontaneous Obama love in West Philly the night of the election.

Josiah and I got to meet the Finnish Flyers last night, including Ossi Vaananen (he's so cute!). The Finnish Ambassador was there, AND the Flyers won! So cool!

Hallelujah! Obama might nix Daylight Savings Time!!! Wohoo!

Green house design via Huff Po

Linguistic diversity matters just as much as biodiversity.

A great idea! Solar panels on cemetery in Spain.

So, in the spirit of thanksgiving, I will say, thank you for reading, and visiting my blog. And thank you, God, for all the blessings of this life. I'll share my favorite (easy to remember!) table grace with you all:

God is Great
God is Good
Let us Thank God for our food, Amen.

Weekly Blog Round-Up

Apparently, this is the correct video of Angie and Neil at the Flaming Lips' Halloween Parade of a 1,000 flaming skeletons. Look at the 17 seconds marker for Angie and Neil turning around to look. I guess there was awesome music coming from behind them.

Obama on food policy from Boing Boing.

Finnish landscape from Villipiha.

"One Nation, Under Cupcakes" good job Philly!

An overheard dream about Abe Lincoln from Heading East.

Michelle O. in the fab red dress from Huff Po.

Hipsters no more? because of Obama? A treatise on the hipster scene and why to not diss those who work(ed) for Obama, from Gawker. Original source here.

Rebooting computing from Kimberly Blessing. I'm so into usability. Could be interesting to go, but not sure I'm hands-on enough. My cuz is though.

Spooky Polish forest. I'd love to check out this part of the world, in nice weather. Thanks to Vrbovan Blog for the image.

Obama family's secret service names - love them! From Huff Po.

Bush snubbed. wow. it's sorta hard to watch, and realize how much the rest of the world disliked this guy.


And finally, the Dot Earth readers' "10 Earthly Ideas on a Budget" - suggestions for Obama to consider for a greener US. Excellent. I especially love # 10, the idea of a Victory Garden at the White House. Aparently, Eleanor Roosevelt planted one, back in the day.

Happy Mid Summer!

Happy Midsummer, All!

As you might have guessed by now, I am trying to revive celebration of St John the Baptist's Day in our household. I've hung the Finnish Flag. I'm planning to have friends over for (vaguely) Scandinavian meal of fish, cucumber salad (and probably some other cold salads), with home made strawberry ice cream for dessert. I'll let you know how it turns out.

In other news, there's a great review of Jesus for President at Emerging Pensees. I think I'll add it to my wish list.

There are some amazing "issue" posters done by people all over the world here. Go check them out. Powerful stuff. These are about global warming, but there other themes include water scarcity, human rights, child mortality, STD's and more.

And another "green" item I have to share is: I just watched Hulk last night, by Ang Lee. And I was blown away. I had no idea I would like it. Granted there were commercials, and so it went on forever (which I've read was a criticism of the movie when it came out in the theaters too), and the whole Nick Nolte thing was annoying. BUT, the underlying message about the green monster in all of us was right on. Specifically, what I imagine it must be like for men to feel rage (I'm not a man.) Bruce Banner's description of how he felt as the Hulk was amazing. I don't know that much about testosterone, but it seemed like the movie described how it feels to be a guy, both enraged, and calm - gave me some insight. I thought Eric Bana did a fantastic job (though I pretty much dig Eric Bana in whatever he does!)

P.S. Hungry For Change Bake Sale for Obama at the Clark Park Farmers' Market tomorrow.

What are We Doing?

This is how I feel today. It's not snowing here in Philly, but it is cold again - though good to get some rain again finally. I have been fantasizing my spring planting over and over again. I have catalogs spread out just like this! At least, I think this blog is describing how I feel. My Finnish is way too rusty but - Kiitos!

Which makes me think of travel... but then, oddly enough, I got this in my mailbox this morning.

So, let me get this straight, the organization that makes a pretty map of all my travels throughout the world, is encouraging me to stay home with the lights out? What is this? A blackout shade a la the Blitz? [Or is it to make up for my humongous carbon footprint I've left from all my traveling??? hmmmm]

Not to be overly alarmist or anything, but what is going on in this great country of ours?!? I realize we are at war and all. But, I've been getting more and more concerned about the restrictions on Americans (and our allied friends) traveling for years now. The limits to Canada were probably the last straw for me - but I made sure we, in our little fam, all had passports. What about all those Americans who won't go through the hassle and never visit another country?

Or worse, what if we give up more freedoms, with idea that we're more secure, but really, end up broke (as a country) and no better off? These two blog posts brought it home for me:

First, from BlogHer:

"In Washington State, our gov was keen to fast track the program because we Washingtonians are always zipping up to Canada. With only 33% of Americans holding passports, border crossings dropped when the new passport regulations went in. Maybe the Canadians enjoyed having fewer Yanks swanning about Vancouver, but Washingtonians were pissed. Our local Department of Licensing site had bad news for us. If you've got a Euro-spouse (or any other non-US citizen type sidekick) they won't be granted a REAL ID, even if they're a green card holder. Pack your passport, sweetie, we're going to...Tucson? Thinking travelers devoted to freedom of movement are none too happy about the REAL ID initiative."

" The demand for ID does nothing for security while making honest Americans less free.

Every government that has imposed totalitarian rules told its populace that it was doing so to "uphold freedom" or "improve the security of the homeland" or "root out terrorists and subversives." These ends do not justify unconstitutional means. We uphold freedom by exercising it – not by restricting it. "

What she said!!!!

And second, from Boing Boing, a while back, reporting on a segment on NPR:

"We're putting up with the federal government on so many fronts, and nearly every month they come out with another hare-brained scheme ... to tell us that our life is going to be better if we just buckle under on some other kind of rule or regulation. And we usually just play along for a while. We ignore 'em for as long as we can. We try not to bring it to a head but if it comes to a head we found that it's best to tell 'em to go to Hell and run the state you wanna run your state.

Unfortunately this time around they've really got a hare-brained scheme... almost all those hijackers on 9/11 would have qualified for a Real ID."

Oy.

The Built Environment

I've been thinking about the "built environment" for the past couple of days. First, it was the post on Boing Boing, originally pulled from the BBC (which is increasingly becoming my source for American news, since our own press can't seem to get its act together!). There are essentially "Hoovervilles" popping up already as a consequence of the "sub-prime meltdown." During Bush I's reign we had the "S&L scandal", but at least that just meant that working and middle class people bailed out the bankers through taxes. This time around a lot of them are losing their homes. It's sad. But I'm also wondering what it means for the the abandoned houses - the (already) built environment - that is left behind. What happens to those houses, and the land that was destroyed for them to be built? I don't think this is good news for the environment in general.

And then there was this post (I'm sorry to say I can't remember how I got there!) about an artist's envisioning of the built environment. Or landscape as museum. Beautiful. And a little bit scary, if you ask me. But gorgeous and affecting.

Finally, Garden Punks finished a review of Omnivore's Dilemma, which it sounds like I have to read. Once I get my hand on Affluenza, O.D. is next!

Food Fives meme

Food Fives

I found this fun food-related meme at City Mama. If you are reading this, consider yourself tagged (and link back so I can find you!)

What were you cooking/baking 10 years ago?
I had just moved back to Philly after a year in parts Southward. I was married, but no kids yet, and still mainly vegetarian, though we did start eating fish right about then. I can’t really remember what I was cooking, but mainly pasta, beans and rice, broccoli enchiladas (husband’s family’s recipe). And as for baking, I made lots of pies and cobblers.

What were you cooking/baking one year ago?
Basically, same as what I was cooking 10 years ago, but with more kid-approachable stuff. Also, I decided to start making very nice sit-down meals for Sunday evenings. So I started searching on Epicurious every so often to get ideas. I started cooking more seasonally, and incorporating the colored fruits and vegetables in each meal (as much as possible) – so, a green and a yellow vegetable on Sundays, for example. Or at least have a starch that wasn’t truly bad for us. And then last Christmas, Josiah got me a Bundt ™ pan and I started baking cakes. Now I’m known as a cake-baker. And that’s a good feeling!

Five snacks you enjoy (in no particular order):

• My ginger snaps
• Super-crisp apples
• Cheddar cheese
• Carrots
• Chile & lime tortilla chips

Five recipes you know by heart:

• broccoli enchiladas
• apple crisp (aka cobbler)
  
• many Mexican-style beans & rice dishes
• baked tofu w/rice & vegetables
• most breakfast foods

Five culinary luxuries you would indulge in if you were a millionaire:

• lobster; truly fresh, good seafood (mussels, shrimp, octopus, etc.) whenever I wanted
• a wine cellar stocked with delicious red wine and champagne at all times
• year-round access to the gardens at Villandry
  
• having a chef of Turkish cuisine on-call at my home 24/7
• all the ingredients necessary for any dessert concoction that I love on hand at all times, esp. fresh cream-based ones.

Five foods you love to cook/bake:

• Pies
• Cakes
• Sunday Dinner
• Potato salad
• Mexican or Turkish feasts

Five foods you cannot/will not eat:

• Beef (mad cow disease)
• Tiny, cold, grey & white fish that I had once in Southern Spain
• Don’t love beets or onions, but sometimes like foods they are in.
• Liver, kidneys, most organ meats (esp. brains, see above)
• Black licorice

Five favorite culinary toys:

• Cuisinart
• Good bottle opener
• Rolling canvas for pie crust
• Hand-held mixer
• Egg-slicer (I love the concept, and as a kid I played it as a harp)

Five dishes on your "last meal" menu:

• Lobster and roasted chicken, with a bottle of red wine, lots of good cooked vegetables and fresh fruit, followed by a tray of sweets. See TV movie, "Moll Flanders", for and idea of what I’m talking about.
  
• My mom’s roast beef and Yorkshire pudding w/gravy, roasted potatoes and peas, w/ a bottle of really good red wine.
• Soufflé with a cold champagne

• A Mexican feast along the lines of the wedding banquet in “Like Water for Chocolate”
  
• This is very hard……

Five happy food memories:

• Every Turkish meal I ate in Turkey
• The birthday dinner we had for my dad’s 60^th in the South of France, and eating moules in Brittany
• Making apple pie w/ my mam-gu
• Our anniversary dinner at Cube in Montréal
  
• And – eating reindeer and other traditional Finnish delicacies in Helsinki.

Your turn!

Happy Finnish Independence Day!

I guess Finland is closed for business today, but still, I hope you guys are having a blast over there. It's cold and snow is on the ground here in Philadelphia, so in theory we have that in common. The time I've spent in Finland has been awesome and Josiah and I are itching to go back. We have all kinds of wacky hare-brained schemes about how we'll get a house on a lake there. Or how we'll get a sauna installed in our house in Philly. But it's nice to dream, right?

So, this Independence Day celebrates Finland's fight for independence from the Russian Empire - a battle that was happening when the rest of Europe was fighting WWI. Two great movies, if you haven't seen them that describe Finland during WWII are: Ambush! and The Cuckoo. They are Fantastic! Check 'em out! Happy Independence Day!