Coyote Ugly

This morning, barely awake, I heard the panic button cackle. The coop had come to life with the sounds of death. The dogs started whining and scratching at the door and I bumbled around looking for shoes and slung open the door. We all ran towards the chicken house (some, um, faster at 630am than others) the dogs were on to something and growling and snapping and I had that sinking feeling that I was about to encounter 'it' and I was unarmed and the worst of it...in flip flops. I often think about footwear at the strangest times. How will I get out of this earthquake, this flood, this fire---in THESE shoes. As if I have winged ones back in the closet. And by unarmed I mean I forgot to grab a stick.

A sort of reduction sauce...boiling down to what matters

This was a big week for everyone it seems. Lots of changes. Lots of roller coaster rides. Lots of things left behind, and some new beginnings. I for one am happy to be out of the starting gate. I have felt like I've had a failure to launch for a while. What is my next step? Is it this? Is it there? But the cool part about sitting still is that you can listen. Wait. Discern. The urge to DO SOMETHING has had to wait until it was right. You can't fake undercooked chicken and you shouldn't open a business just because you can. I've looked at taco trailers, cafe spaces, been asked to run a kitchen at a spa. No. No. No. All were wrong for many reasons. It's funny what we bill as 'opportunity' sometimes. I saw through the 'opportunity' to lose $50,000, build out another rented building and work with people who would certainly drive me bananas.

Turkey Medicine- Today's Spirit Animal

Animals have all the messages we need. If you pay attention that is. And that's not always easy. They don't talk. Spiders drop out of cabinets on your arm reaching for the honey. Bats swirl your head at a concert. A wild turkey is under your window when you open the curtains in the morning. Then again strolling across your kitchen deck. Then in a tree and flies (flies!?) over your head on your evening stroll near the fig tree.

Don't Mow It. Grow it!

If yet another E. Coli break out in VEGETABLES wasn't enough for you to care about who's growing your food, I can't reach you. If you haven't heard, over 20 people have died from a suspect cuke, tomato or lettuce...over 250 are in the hospital waiting for their kidneys to fail. They have maybe linked it to a festival where over a million people ate some concession, maybe a salad---thinking they were making the right choice. It's sad really. It would have been less dangerous to have a flame grilled sausage. Fattening, sure. But you're still alive. E. Coli has become resistant to antibiotics and why? Yea, well the long and short of it is that we are prescribed too many of them. And they are in our factory farmed meats. Tolerance has grown. Useless when you actually NEED them because no one can seem to RIDE out the 4 days of inconvenience of a head cold so you've pumped up on antibiotics. And voila. You eat a pickle at a fair in Hamburg and you're dead.

New Moon

Today at 5pm is the New Moon for this month...and an eclipse. Lunar. Time to be clear on intent. Ask for what you want. Change direction. Make a decision. Toss it out. Clear the decks. Be prepared. Pay attention. And plant something in your garden. Or in a pot. Or on your fire escape but spend some time outside. All of the answers we seek are in nature. Less force, more flow.

The Naked Chef

May marks my official 4th year of living in the country. I don't always notice the changes that have taken place but if I look back at who I was in 2007, I see the difference. Instead of training my staff about Viognier vs. Albarino, or the benefits of grass fed beef, I'm training my chickens to not eat my beets. I'm not saying which is easier.

I spend more time outdoors than in. I "shop" in my yard where I forage for edibles, herbs, medicinal roots. I'm in bed when I used to be sitting down for dinner. Things that I used to love (high heels, cheese dip and margaritas, sleeping with the gardener) no longer serve. Like, at ALL. I don't know if it's the full moon in Scorpio we just had (on my birthday no less) or that the End of Times malarky came and went but the planets seem to have shifted but I feel like I've wandered out into the road with no clothes on.

Sufficient?

When I was in my 20s, I lived in this really cool warehouse on the 'wrong' side of the tracks in Atlanta. It was sort of a commune experiment. We all had our own loft spaces but outside was the group gathering spot. A Le Jardin Industrial Park vibe. A deep south Algonquin round table. A lot of big ideas were fueled by too much hooch but hey. That's what you do in your 20s.

Out front a tall chain link fence revealed a loud and dismal view of MARTA tracks beyond, and there we grew a big garden where we all contributed, some as growers and some as cooks. In the middle was a deck platform with a long hand made picnic bench where everyone gathered at the end of day to drink beer or cop wine from a neighbor. You get it this time, I'll get it next. A convenience store across the street that we called Mr. Lee's---where most of us ran a tab, had all of our needs. Charcoal. Big bottles of red. A turn the other cheek attitude about Sunday liquor "sales". We were musicians, photographers, art curators, yogis, hippies, a speech writer, a Canadian comedian, artists of all types (real and imagined) advertising writers, a few resident loonies, about 18 Weber grills and lots and lots of dogs.