the magic trick

and just like the most magical magic trick of all... the baby was born!

and the belly grew...

and grew!

and the tiny baby got bigger and stronger...but still she wanted a
little more time so we waited and waited and then waited a little more.
and one morning we asked the baby (down by a very special beach with tide pools and rainbows and big soaring birds) to please please come out already! and lo and behold, she did! that very afternoon.

lavender mountain

I've always loved lavender. I put the oil on anything and everything. (My grandmother has the same passion for WD40, she once told me she put it on everything but her toes!) So when I heard about the lavender farm in Upcountry, Maui I really wanted to visit.

Upcountry on Maui is such a treat on its own. It has that summer feeling that I'm always looking for in places--wide-open, wild, horses, honeysuckle, slightly unkept, sun-drenched, a little bit lazy, a little bit tended (you can find this feeling on country roads in Virginia particularly if you're on a swimming hole adventure).

The lavender farm was spectacularly peaceful. If you ever find yourself on the subway needing to imagine somewhere far far away, I'd suggest lavender mountain.

Papaya

Isn't papaya pretty? It's kind of an acquired taste to be fair, probably due to the healthy digestive enzymes in them. But they are pretty much nutritional rock stars, I eat them with a twist of a lime.



Oh tiny fruits! We are getting these lovely little eggplants, mandarin oranges and as always the small avos and apple bananas... aren't they just sweet looking? I thought years ago that if I ever designed a fashion line it would be fruit and vegetable inspired and seeing all these little ones makes me think about such a line even more. Maybe I'll try to work on some sketches. I embroidered a banana onto one of my dresses, but most people think it's a moon.

yard to table

More on food as a social issue...

I get such a kick from having all kinds of food growing all around us here... Here are some shots from the trees in our yard. I probably eat two apple bananas and an avocado every day.

The apple bananas are incredibly delicious and nutritious, they are also quite darling. The banana tree isn't really a tree at all, it's just a very large herb. Each stalk only fruits once and then it falls over.


Avocados are such a nutritionally rich food, and they also help with nutrient absorption. They get a bad rap in our calorie conscious society, but as far as I'm concerned the more avos the better.

Heddles Farm

As far as I'm concerned it's darn near criminal what's happened to our food supply. If loading down the soil with all kinds of petroleum made nitrates wasn't enough, now they are genetically modifying the seeds. It's really tough to sit by and watch our country bloat up like balloons... Not to mention the cows and the chickens all hemmed in sucking on antibiotics and things they they'd never imagine eating themselves.

We've been trying to eat local for years now but thanks to the infinite life force of Kauai we are taking local to a whole new level...

enter: Heddles Farm


I started Heddles Farm off fairly modestly on a small patch of land about 5' by 6', the soil is very rich in our little town (it's been river silt for hundreds (maybe thousands?) of years), but it's also quite sandy. I mixed in our compost humus mixture to try and give our little crops the nutrients they need... hopefully it'll be enough.

I'm growing: lettuce, kale, tat soy, bok choy, chard, beets and basil.
In a few weeks I hope to plant some cherry tomatoes and hot peppers.

My biggest challenge so far has been pet traffic... the neighbor's dog even stole my sign!

holiday cheer

I really wasn't feeling too filled with holiday cheer... it's so strange to think about Christmas in your bathing suit, but last night I painted my toenails bright red in honor of the holidays and it really got me excited for Christmas and our big sojourn on the mainland...

We don't have too many Christmas decorations in our little hale, but what we do have I really treasure. Last Christmas my grandma gave me this little apron that was handmade in the fifties (ric rak! polka dots! small bows!)... I wear it around the clock during the holidays... last Christmas I even wore it to church on Christmas Eve.