I’m embarrassed. I created a dead end, a rusty beaner from too much Seattle rain, an atrophied forearm that not only doesn’t climb anymore but hardly has the stamina to tap enough keystrokes to make up a respectable post. i don’t make any promises that things will improve but i’ll at least include the blog in one of my new year’s resolutions. I guess we probably owe at least a picture of ourselves. well alright, you’ll have one soon.

here’s at least something to go yeo yeo about before the new year:

and some boys really gettin’ after it:

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

All good sandwiches start with a baguette.

Ham is my brother’s meat of choice.

Goat cheese was a perfect compliment to the ham.

One sandwich.

Two sandwich.

Voila! We ate quietly enjoying the sounds water, twigs crackling, and insects humming.

Hurray for simplicity!

There are very few places I’ve ever been to that were this special. If I was religious I would have considered this a pilgrimage. A two-and-a-half hour pilgrimage past three tolls, on more than four different highways, and all the way from Baltimore to New Hope, Pennsylvania. My brother and I went this past Saturday. It was an auspicious and beautiful day. We turned off of the windy Aquatong road and into the almost empty parking lot at the Nakashima Studio. A loud party was just leaving the office showroom as we walked in. We greeted a kind woman who instructed us on the places we were allowed to visit while we were there, which where the chair studio, the finishing department, and the conoid studio. I’ll let the pictures I took tell the rest of the story, except to say that after we had toured all the spaces we went back to the porch outside the office showroom and we sat there for as long as we could. The sun warmed my face, my body rested, and my mind thought of the great people that had built the place I was visiting. It was a great feeling to be there without any place to be, without any thoughts in my mind except of my surroundings. We stayed past 4:30 when they normally close. There were people still working but we had been the only visitors for the past two hours. We had become part of the background but then we left, turning back onto Aquatong Road the soft turns and rolling hills carried us away.

The entrance to the office showroom.

Another view from outside the office showroom.

Looking out onto the gentle South-facing slope that makes up the majority of the property.

Inside the chair studio.

Between the chair studio and the conoid studio.

Inside the conoid studio.

A look at chairs waiting for their turn to get finished.

One last look before leaving.

We walked and read a bit before succumbing to our hunger and walking into Hon Cafe. It was the large plates of brunch food that we saw through the windows that sucked us in. Eggs, bacon, sausage, buttermilk pancakes… BRING IT ON! We both ordered the same thing: “The Avenue Breakfast”. It hit the spot.

We then headed to Hampden’s sister neighborhood, Woodberry. We walked off part of our brunch while walking through the neighborhood that had become a very industrious area. Bawlamer! an informal guide to a livelier baltimore wrote about Woodberry, “…[it] was the home of the first silk mill in the United States. The neighborhood took its name from the Woodberry Flour Mill owned by Elisha Tyson.” The large building are still there. Some of them occupied and other not. It was all grandiose.

A trip downtown for a walk around the Inner Harbor completed our afternoon delight.

It turned out to be a glutinous and extremely enjoyable day off.

Here are our current big rigs.  We just added the Ford F150. It is huge, we will need to do some serious greening to offset this beast’s carbon footprint.  It is another gas fueled vehicle for our family.  We would have loved a diesel option, but for the time this is what we have.

In classic Jonathan style, the truck was modified soon after we brought it home.  He didn’t like the extra details that the previous owner had added.  There was a bug guard on the front, that had to go.  There were running boards along the sides, which apparently were “too grandma-ish”.  There were rain/wind shields over the windows, those were just silly to him. I was very surprised when I came outside after a few hours of Jonathan’s tinkering to find a stripped down and simplified version of the truck we purchased.  It was just the way he liked it, and I have to agree it looked a lot cleaner.

Why, exactly do we need a truck?  We have to get back to Idaho and haul all of our possessions out here.  It needs to be able to pull a trailer, and make the road trip. Unfortunately our lovely VW can’t pull the load.  The good news is that there is another road trip in our near future.  We hope to take a week or more to take the trip, and will take the long way there in order to see some sights and climb some rocks.  The travel time will be a little less luxurious than the ever spacious van, but we will just have to pack light and make due.  I am angling for a canopy, but we’ll see.

We are also eager to start working on projects as soon as possible. We will need something to facilitate these endeavors, something that can haul lumber, metal, maybe some hay or livestock.  Every farm needs a truck. Now that we have the truck we just need the farm.

Loose Park, it is a rather large park (74 acres I discovered) downtown near the plaza.    It is mostly rolling grass lawn, speckled with various evergreens and deciduous trees, which have yet to come to life with leaves.   The park also has a few ponds surrounded by walking paths and furnished with a few bridges, and a rose garden (which I didn’t see).

For lunch, I made a sandwich of roasted red peppers, hummus, arugula, sharp cheddar cheese, and dressed it with a little mustard, olive oil, salt and pepper…yum.  I also threw in an apple and a bag of my Mom’s dehydrated plums for snacks.  I brought along my new birthday book, Possum Living, and am excited to get started on it.  I just had to sit down and write a minute while I was here.

I wasn’t the only person inspired by the sunshine to play outside. The weather coupled with the fact that it is spring break for students and teachers has brought everyone outdoors.  The park is currently host to kids with kites, a high school Frisbee game, runners with dogs and baby strollers, people feeding geese, office folks taking a walk or lunch break, someone playing a bongo drum, children in trees, families picnicking, lovers (old and young) lounging, everyone alive and bathing in the light.

I regret that I forgot my camera; the snapshots would yield images of a lazy summer Sunday afternoon. If it wasn’t for the occasional sweatshirt and the silhouetted bare trees, you wouldn’t believe it to be March.  What a glorious day.

Year 2000 Monster 900.
‘nough said.
But I’ll say more, because I can’t help it.
I’ve dreamed of riding and owning a Ducati since forever.

Days after riding my baby home I convinced my brother to take out my Dad’s KTM.
I wanted a motorcycle gang, and then, I wanted a hamburger and milkshake.
We went to a local burger joint here in Kansas called Blanc.
The ride was delicious and the food was delicious.
I wanted to feel like Poncho and Jon Baker from the 80′s TV hit Chips.
Coincidence that on the way to the burger joint we passed two motorcycle cops.
I gave them a gleeful head nod.

The first nice day after we had the bike home I took Kristine for a ride.
We went around the city and to especially windy roads.
We shifted our weight from side to side,
and the Ducati rolled in and out of the turns.
The power was smooth and the ride intimate.
We were both wearing helmets of course.
I’ll be teaching Kristine how to ride in the Spring when I return from Baltimore.

The new blog will encompass every other aspect of us. The context will be much broader with very few limitations.  It will include but is not limited to things we’re learning, things we find interesting, beautiful, projects we’re working on, ideas we’re exploring, thoughts about life, and life cycles, food we love, things we cook, restaurants that change the way we think about food, books we’re reading, ways to improve the way we live, and ways to save the planet, and everything in between. It will follow more of the day-to-day of our life.

So check out the new blog!

Wilde.Hull

But, sigh, I am 1500 miles away.  So, instead I went out and ran by myself this weekend. I did run a little over 10 miles in their honor. I ran out of trail or maybe I would have gone farther. It was a beautiful day, so the distance didn’t feel bad.  It helped that the sun was out, to keep me motivated.

I hope to schedule some family races soon. I actually enjoy running alone, but it is exciting to have our own pack.

So that’s about where I stand now. I’m still doing the routines, although not as religiously as I should, and I cycle between weeks four, five, and six. Another five months and I’ll be doing 100 push-ups no problem… or so I hope.

P.S. Stephanie, I apologize it took me so long to respond.