Happy Holidays!

Visit to the MFA

The holidays are here and I opted to return to the Boston area a week early to finish up some lingering tasks, teach yoga to my summer students, and spend some extra time with family. Last Thursday I visited the Museum of Fine Arts with my parents and wandered into some great exhibits. Shinique Smith's mixed media "Bright Matter" is on display until March 1st and it was a fresh breath of bright colors and creativity.

Pictured (right) is the piece titled When Shadows Fall (Home) which included acrylic, ink, and layers of tulle and fabric on paper, stickers, and other mixed media. Another is Splendid, inspiried by a palette of popular product colors of the 1980's - Smith's teen years. The painting I enjoyed most was Majesty, which unlike many of Smith's other works was comprised solely of ink and acrylic. Inspired by the artist's memories of glacier walks in Iceland and views of the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis).

Splendid, 2014 

Majesty 2012

The second exhibit we viewed was National Pride (and Prejudice) a small collection of pieces by artists who tackle issues of national identity. 

"What instills pride in one citizen may be a call to protest for another, or may represent a complex combination of thoughts and feelings. The seven works in this installation take a critical look at such images to spark dialogue around provocative issues of national identity. They challenge long-held assumptions about these symbols with a combination of humor, beauty and biting commentary, highlighting the close link between politics and contemporary art."

Bullet Flag IV, 2009

My favorite of this group was Bullet Flag IV created in 2009 by American artist, David Cole. Cole states "The power in the piece for me is in the contradictions". The dark bullets in this piece were used in the United States and the bright copper ones in warfare fought abroad.

Another thought provoking pice was Guernica to Wounded Knee, a mixed media piece created in 2012 by Stan Natchez of the Shoshoni and Paiute. Natchez references the Massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 when many Lakota fought against the U.S. army in the last battle between Native Americans and the United States.

"I paint to understand the world around me" Natchez comments.

I discovered these cuties while browsing in the gift shop...

Spring Arrives, New Beginnings ⚘

Another three months fly by... I often come across travel blogs that I read for a short while as a convenient distraction from work, and then bookmark them in hopes of returning later. I probably revisit less than 1% of sites I bookmark, but I digress... Today I came across another "Bucket List Travel Blog" full of inspiring quotes and realized that if there was one disappointment of the past few years it's that I have not blogged more often!! So, here goes another try at resolving to update more frequently. Dear Readers, please feel free to hold me responsible to this ;)

Now, to announce some very exciting news! I've been doing some consulting for the +Maine Primitive Skills School in Augusta and am thrilled to be moving to the Augusta area in May to be able to work part time at the school. I've also just recently decided to take MOFGA's Permaculture Design Course this summer as well! As some of my readers know, I've been interested permaculture for a few years and completed a large garden project at Navdanya in 2012. Last summer I attended the Common Ground Fair with my aunts which is put on by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardener's Association (MOFGA) and it totally blew me away. So many workshops, demonstrations, vendors, and interesting people to talk to. I came home with just over 1000 seeds (they've been waiting patiently in the freezer) and now I'll be returning to Maine to plant them. ツ

It's inevitable ... autumn has arrived

Where did the summer go? The speed at which my summer flew by was most likely directly related to having 3+ jobs and moving twice. Actually, I'm glad it's over! The hectic craziness that has been life for the past 6 months since I returned to Boston is finally winding down. Hence the long overdue update. Returning to the states was a tough adjustment. My time spent in Canada made the transition easier, but returning to Boston is always more of an adjustment that I expect. I'm not sure when the city I used to call home started feeling more like where I'm from instead. Nonetheless there have been lots of exciting developments in the past few months. I'm most excited about Yoga Teacher Training at The Yoga Loft in Wilmington. This awesome studio was on my list of places to check out and when I saw a LivingSocial deal I bought it. Two weeks later I was starting their ten month teacher training program. As some readers may know already, I debated doing my teacher training in India when I was traveling in Asia. Although a bit more pricy in the US, it's totally worth it. I don't know how I could have absorbed all of the information in the one month intensive course style most shalas in India opt for. Currently, I'm assisting occasional morning classes at the Yoga Loft, and loving it!

Vendors at the Boston Local Food Festival

Recently I attended the Boston Local Food Festival and the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival. I was a vendor coordinator at the Local Food Fest and had a great time at both events!

Next week I start up glassblowing again at the NOCA Glass School. It's been years since I've done any hotshop work but I'm psyched to start again. In Taiwan, I focused on drawing and painting because instruction and materials were so affordable there, and I was never able to make a connection with or even locate any local glassblowers. I'm hoping that once the crazy hectic schedule that took over my summer slows down I'll have more time to work on some of my unfinished pieces from Taiwan. Also on the list is a visit to Paint Bar! Has anyone been there?

Oh, and I can't forget to mention that I just started listening to my first audio book! This was the obvious solution to being bored an average of two hours a day sitting in traffic and having no time to read. I'm listening to Born To Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall. Although I'll probably always prefer the old fashioned method of reading books with actual pages you can turn I will take listening to an audio book any day over the radio. Born to Run is totally inspiring, it was recommended multiple times after I'd mentioned to both avid runners and readers that I liked Murakami's memior What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.  I started listening 3 days ago, I'm already about 3/4 of the way through. Which do you prefer, ebooks, audio books, or good old paperbacks?

During Nicole's birthday celebration we saw Mighty Mystic, local reggae artist :) 

Community Supported Agriculture

This spring, one of the items on my to-do list for preparing to move to Boston was to find a CSA. I knew it might be too late once I was back and wanted to make sure it got done. In PEI we joined a veggie box program with a local organic farm and it was great. Crystal Green Farms has a flexible system, where they email you the contents of your box the day before and a list of possible substitutions if you don't want or need everything that's offered. We really liked that eggs were included too. I think the rural community of PEI allows programs like this to be more flexible and less structured, because I was completely overwhelmed the first few times I started looking into signing up for a CSA in Massachusetts. One big issue was that the pickup windows were often short and during weekday hours which would be impossible with my work schedule. There were very few that offered weekend pickups. We used to get our veggie box on Saturday mornings at the farmer's market, which could not have been more convenient because we were there doing shopping for the week already.

I finally decided on Red Fire Farm in Granby, MA. I found them through the Clover Food Lab site. It got off to a rough start, due to delayed opening of the Clover site in Burlington and shortly after the restaurant being shut down as a result of Salmonella! Luckily, I was able to switch to another site which turned out to be much more convenient anyways. One advantage of picking up directly from a RRF site (vs. at Clover Food Lab), is that you have more flexibility with produce. For example, maybe you don't want 8 ears of corn, so you only take 6 and there is extra eggplant to make up for it. At Clover, the boxes were always pre-made. I have photographed quite a bit of the recipes I've made, but these will have to wait for another post. A friend who writes Hugging Trees and Shelling Peas has been much better at updating weekly recipes.

Having a CSA is great, you can save money, save time on grocery shopping, and have fun experimenting with new foods. It's a major motivator to eat healthy as well. Some things to ask yourself when singing up:

How far am I willing to drive to pick up my share each week? I recommend choosing a site within 30 minutes of your home or work.

What day/time will consistently be convenient for me? Some farms are very flexible, and will allow you to change your pickup site if something comes up.

Am I willing to experiment with new produce? Picky eaters beware! You will probably not receive tomatoes every week. There will be a lot of greens in the beginning. RFF has a great resource of recipes to help you figure out what to do with your produce. Like Kale Chips!

Each of these sites allows you to search by zip code to find places in your area. Many farms in the western part of the state offer metro pickups in and around the Boston area. Some farms even offer winter and deep winter shares on a bi weekly basis.

MASSGROWN Map

Local Harvest Map

Farm Fresh Map

Home for the Holidays

I ♥ snow

It was a busy week in Boston.  I ended up getting seven days out of my vacation (instead of six) because my flight to JFK was cancelled at the last minute.  Simple version of the story, JetBlue has some serious organizational problems but at least I got to complain about them on the 10 o'clock news :)

I decided to take the Amtrak Acela train to NYC instead of trying to get on an overbooked flight at the airport so Im officially on my way back to Taiwan. It's pretty convenient if you can get on one of the cheaper trains and they have free internet for the whole ride.  I finished watching The Stoning of Soraya M. which was a great movie, but disturbing when you think about all the women for whom this is their reality.

The week was short but I got to see lots of friends and family. The blizzard didn't stop our holiday dinner at The Independent either!  We've kept up the tradition for over 10 years now.  It seems like it's gotten even warmer in Taiwan so Im looking forward to some nice weather when I return.  I'll probably be exhausted by the time I arrive on Friday but I'll have a few hours to recover before our new year's eve party :)

The Independent, Somerville