Finally time for a new post, I guess... it's been quite a while. In brief, I'm still in Corvallis, still lovin' up Honeychild, and still dreaming of adventure.
The winter was a dark and wet one -- I suppose that's the typical deal here in the Pacific Northwest. Now that the sun is returning to the land once again and the daffodils have popped up, all is forgiven. And the daffodils -- I'm not kidding! I've seen more varieties here than in my entire life. You can't travel a hundred feet it seems, in town or country, without coming across a patch of them. Downtown Corvallis seems like an endless bed of them, in fact, at least compared to any other city I've lived in.
And what do I do besides gape at daffodils? I'm still working at the same little bookstore (Grass Roots) as when I first arrived here in Corvallis last September. You can check out our website to see what I'm reading (click on "staff picks"). I get to do a lot of reading (though still not as much as I'd like) and also enjoy getting to peruse gallies (pre-published drafts publishing houses send us to help generate hype and reviews). I also get to do some writing, mostly for our weekly newsletter and other little things like that.
Right now we are in the midst of National Poetry Month so my job has actually become even better than usual. Each day I get to send a poem out to our mailing list with some commentary. We also post the poems on our website. It's been a blast choosing poems for the month (the other girls I work with have been helping with this, too) --- it's like getting to compile my own anthology. We even started receiving submissions from local poets! I've been loving the entire project because it forces me to immerse myself in poetry for at least an hour or so each day. I wanted to avoid printing too many poets that folks were already familiar with, so it's been great finding new sources, too. My favorite recent find is Al Zolynas -- a brilliant contemporary poet who lives and teaches in California. Oh -- and I get to set up some poetry readings, too. Tragedy of tragedies, one of my favorite local poets is out of town for the month...
And you may be curious about Honeychild. She's become quite a favorite out at the stable for her verbosity and begging skills. Ooooh she loves her oats! Folks can't even walk past her stall without her nickering and grunting and smooching out her lips in classic "give me a treat and scratch my ears" body language. That said, she's actually fairly distrustful of most people beside me. I really wish I had some folks who could hang out with her a little to help socialize her. I rode her a few days ago afer a winter off and she was terrific - we even went on a little trail ride. I've been ground driving her, too, and she always seems eager to please. She's finally gotten to move back outside again recently and is totally full of herself... ah, spring.
What else? I've been making lots of sourdough bread and sourdough pancakes with the starter I was given back in Montana last summer. I made a rye starter, too, which is proving itself to be quite tasty. I've been getting fresh cow's milk from some folks outside of town so I've bene making butter, too, and tonight I made my first cheese (a very easy soft variety -- it's resting now and should be ready in a few hours). I'm really looking forward to a summer of gardening and harvesting and putting up food...
In the next few weeks I'll start working part time at a small seed company that operates out of Gathering Together Farm, a CSA/restaurant that is located in the next town over (Philomath). I've got a good garden going at my house (right in downtown Corvallis) which I started last fall -- I've been eating lots of greens and even turnips out of it for the past month or so, and have lots of other goodies on the way. My housemates and I have accumulated the materials for a chicken coop and are planning on getting that built in the next week or so so we can keep two little hens in the back yard.
Well, I suppose that's all for now. I know this post was mostly newsy but I felt like I had to get everybody caught up a little bit. I'll get some stories up here soon.
Love to all.
P.S. For my birthday a few weeks ago I took a trip out to the coast and into the Drift Creek Wilderness area. The photos are from that trip...
