Garlic: Just Watch.

Portland

This is a little late, but we traveled to Portland the weekend before Thanksgiving.  So impressed with their Farmers Market at PSU. Amazing amount of produce considering we were there at the end of November.  Some of the greatest pate I have ever eaten.  The best cup of coffee! Got most of the produce for our Thanksgiving dinner here. 

Went to a lovely Sunday morning breakfast at Mother's. (Don't let the music on their website put you off.) My children loved the place too. The chef/owner served us our food.   My kind of business: owner-owned and managed, works in the kitchen on Sunday morning, and serves her customers. Amen.

Slipped into another gem of a shop called Alder & Co.  Beautifully curated. Owner there too.

That town has incredible food and coffee... Oh LORD.

And that got this little porcelain egg grate at Powell's. Isn't it lovely for our home-grown eggs?

Note to self:  Next trip down bring bathing suit and go to School House Electric.

Two beauty hints to remember

I dye my hair from a box from my main grocer, Whole Foods. Good advice article on how to get gorgeous haircolor from a box.

2). Avoid The Orange
If you're looking to go darker, Petrizzi suggests skipping anything in the warm brown family. "Unless you want orange hair, steer clear of this inviting, snuggle-up-to-me color," he says. When dying your hair darker, those tempting ammoniated colors will actually just develop brassy. Going lighter? It may sound counterintuitive but choose an ashy shade. "It will do anything but singe your hair and will actually balance out any brassy undertones that may pop up," says Petrizzi. 

 via  Refinery 29.

And Number 2:

A red-orange lipstick that looks good on everyone, claims a Glamour editor.

the Sheila Maid

Oh, how I have wanted one of these for many years. I discovered a purveyor here in the U.S. that sells this wonderful invention. It's sweetly described as a "Clothes Airer."

Image from ANCIENT INDUSTRIES

Where does your milk come from?

I buy organic milk most of the time, and don't buy ultra-pastureized milk products.  But it's no longer possible to believe "organic" on the product any more, as Jaime Oliver recently pointed out why we feed our children such crap every day in our schools, and why labeling laws in the country are a joke:  "The food companies of America own you. They are more powerful than government."  

It's time-consuming work to find out where our food comes from. A blog brought to my attention a website that can tell you exactly where your milk comes from the code on the carton or bottle.  It makes me so happy.

Watercolor by Marion Hylton

I learned that our organic milk does indeed come from a local diary that is not part of huge conglomerate.

 Thanks, Skip.

The Big House

I finished reading a wonderful book last week called "The Big House" by George Howe Colt. I found out about this book as I do so much of what's good and great out there in this big wide world through a blog.  How I love you blogs.  This one is named the the blue hour, a beautiful site of photographs taken by Brian Ferry.

He kindly let me use some of his photos of Wings Neck, on Cape Cod, where the book takes place.

Highly recommend the book (and Ferry's blog).  Funny too, that Colt's wife is Anne Fadiman, whose book, "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down", I read many years ago and still the story lingers in my mind.  A great, great book, and a winner of a National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction. 

All photos by Brian Ferry

Dream store

Must plan a trip to LA to visit a shop called Cookbook.  It looks so fabulous.  Right up my alley.

Obsession

I have a healthy obsession for taxidermy. These two mounts are at an estate sale this weekend.  So tempting, a mount adds so much character to a room.