Ballsy is my blog about natural health, vegan food, sustainability, social justice, crafty recycling, literature, and other things that get me riled up.
Roses are like bratty children or self-involved friends who drive you crazy most of the time and then do one thing that’s so damn endearing that you can’t help but adore them.
A week ago, all the buds on my healthiest rose bush were suddenly covered in bugs — aphids, I think. I had a picture, but I seem to have accidentally deleted it in my ongoing struggle with Picasa. You’ll have to trust me that it was deeply disgusting.
I don’t like killing bugs, but it was either them or all my roses so I’ve been spraying with diluted Dr. Bronner’s soap and the rotten little squirmers have been slowly departing. Today I awoke to an almost perfect bloom, my first of the season. You can see the continuing fight against the aphids all around, but I finally feel like the hassle has been worthwhile.
I created a new flickr set of some of the things I’ve made over the past year or so. Some of it you’ve seen and some of it’s new. Quite a bizarre mix of cute, classy, and geeky if I do say so myself.
We went to Folklife this afternoon. Pictures coming soon, but you can already enjoy this video of dancers from the Morning Start Korean Cultural Center. Everybody was oohing and aahing when they did their thing.
I didn’t get video of the The Peoples Rhythm Party because I was hooping. But they were excellent — and Ben has pictures coming.
I’ve been doing childcare once a week while the women of BABES Network develop a play about their experiences living with HIV. I’m really excited to see the performance, which they’re calling Positive Dreams - Weaving Stories of Our Sisterhood. From what I’ve heard and seen there are some really funny parts, some heartbreaking stories, and at least one wild and crazy dance number.
I saw this Brice Marden painting at the San Francisco MoMA a couple weeks ago. The picture doesn’t begin to capture the depth and intensity of the color. Nor its grand size. (Though I was still delighted to find a good image of it on the web. Yay Flickr!)
Apparently Marden’s goal was to evoke the essence of Bob Dylan, but when I walked in and saw it I almost started bawling right then and there. My emotions have been vibrating in this mysterious shade a lot lately. Low and borderline sad, but rich and magical too. I feel like I’m on the edge of something creatively, but it’s slow because I’m working so hard.
At least we’ve almost got the place cleaned up. The piles of crap in the hall and murky depths of junk in every corner were really getting me down in a much more prosaic way. Still need to clean out all the kitchen cabinets, but overall spring cleaning this weekend was a smashing success.
Lest y’all think me totally unreliable, here’s the update on our attempt to put the kabosh on wheat for two weeks. I’ve been committed. I even resisted the vegan ravioli that was crying out to me at the market yesterday. Problem is we keep realizing that stuff has wheat we didn’t know about. Like I forgot that soy sauce has wheat (tamari is okay). And I accidentally ate some field roast (that was dumb, should have realized it’s grain-based and mostly wheat). I also mistakenly ate some spelt bread that actually had wheat flour in it. So we might have to extend the diet to get the proper effect, but we haven’t bailed.
I haven’t remembered to write down every meal, but I can tell you about the yummy dinner we had last night - quinoa with mixed veg, grilled portabellas, and salad with grape tomatoes.
I’m big into quinoa lately. I even mixed up some little pre-measured baggies of 1 cup quinoa with mixed dried vegetables (from the bulk section at the market, intended as a soup base) and various herbs and spices. So now it’s really easy to brown the mix in a little oil, add 2 cups water, and simmer for 15 minutes or until water is fully absorbed and grains are tender. Quinoa is super healthy. Though considered a grain, I was interested to find out that it’s more closely related to leafy green vegetables.
Apparently quinoa grows with a coating of saponin, which has a bitter taste. Generally any quinoa you buy in the store has already been processed to remove this, but giving it an extra rinse can clear off remaining residue. I actually skipped that step because I don’t have an appropriate fine-mesh strainer, but I figured it was worth sharing.
Sweetie and I have tickets to see LCD Soundsystem tonight. If you’re not familiar go here or here or here. There’s also an interesting interview with frontman James Murphy. Representative quote: “When I was in my twenties I was really lazy and I paid for it by being a failure.”
I want to be energized to get my work done today and shake my booty tonight, but I seem to be fighting some kind of crud. I refuse to be sick. Echinacea, vitamin C, and zinc please do your magic!
