When I left Minnesota in January for Costa Rica, I wasn’t completely sure what I would find. I will credit my time at Quail Springs Permaculture last year as the catalyst for the kind of trip I crafted, but I chose my ingredients carefully: Country? One without a standing army that seemed to hold the … Continue reading
It’s always the cities I find myself stopping in accidentally, on the way to another destination, that cast a certain kind of spell over me. Perhaps it’s because they’re the ones for which I hold the least preconceived notions. This is how it was with Barcelona, and so it was again a week ago with San … Continue reading
“You don’t take a photograph, you make it.” – Ansel Adams I made some photographs the other week. I made them with paper, chemicals, and light. It had been years since I’d used a darkroom, but with the acrid smell of developer and fixer wafted back memories of high school photo class, those first feelings … Continue reading
The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found? – J. B. Priestley To be honest, the above sentiment … Continue reading
“Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.” ― Lauren DeStefano It’s one of those weeks when everything comes together in an uncanny way. Yesterday was the first day of autumn. To me, autumn … Continue reading
“We’re making borscht today,” my dad proclaims this morning. Caught off guard, I slowly agree, but remember I’m the one who requested to receive this knowledge upon my last tasting of the family recipe soup. And to be truthful, I can’t think of a better day to do it. ~ Ten years ago, around this … Continue reading
A documentary poem compiled from conversations with Loren Niemi and Sandy Spieler of In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre in Minneapolis and Claribel Gross of Penumbra Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota. Both are independent nonprofit theaters with a focus on social justice. The first thing you need is love, the most … Continue reading
It’s been a little over a month since my return from Quail Springs, and I can feel the experience slipping further into the recesses of my memory. Going through pictures of the beautiful views and faces that surrounded us for those ten days, listening to recordings of songs we fell in love with (Andrew’s songs … Continue reading
During our time at Quail Springs, we weren’t going to be planting or harvesting, but Brenton still gave us a tour of the farm. He explained the benefits of small, polyculture plots cared for by people versus giant, monoculture plots run by machines (“You can stop by and weed a few plants on your way … Continue reading
Imagine you’re building your own home – and anything goes. Branches for hangers, wrenches for hooks. Colored glass bottles for windows. Trees rising from the clay ground to the straw ceiling. And the smooth, speckled walls of your earthen home harnessing the California sun’s warm glow. All you need is a small, one-room house – for … Continue reading
making ⟷ meaning 