Author: loiseaufait

Little by little the bird feathers its nest, and object by heart burnished object we surround ourselves with lovely necessities of memory and function. It is these things that make a silly Apartment a Home or a silly Wednesday an Occasion. Whether my nest is an old farmhouse, a sixth floor tenement walk up, or a brownstone basement... whether I share it with family, vagabonds, women of heart and mind, or a little brown cat and a sweet ginger banjo, my principal joy is filling it with light and laughter (and corralling).

Brooklyn Garden Envy

This Brooklyn sidewalk garden on the block next to ours is exactly how I want my wild country side yard to be. Juuust out of frame: an apple tree (I have that), and this awesome mural (I don’t have that).

Sweetheart + Honey

Here is Sweetheart on his first-ever hive inspection, and he’s a natural. Just look at that frame full of capped honey! Xanadu is almost full, we are considering whether or not to harvest some (just a little?) before the fall nectar flow. Toto, we aren’t in Rockaway anymore.

Spy Rock

Miss Rav and Ann Marie and I had gotten a recommendation for a new hike: “it’s kind of a slog, but I swear it’s totally worth it when you get to the top. You’ll just have to see for yourselves” our sort-of-out-of-shape friend said, and that’s the ideal reference point for hiking advice for me. I don’t want trail-running triathletes to tell me something’s a walk in the park, especially if I’m of the mindset that the airbrushed alter-ego trucker hat that Rav gave me and a tribal necklace will be sufficient for “hiking equipment”. Our friend was right, the hike itself was a relatively short (5 miles round trip) but insistently steep trek ending with a sheer-rock-face scramble up to a bald point of granite, Spy Rock itself… we were pretty sweaty, but when we reached the summit, took in the stunning 360 degree views of the Shenandoah valley on all sides, and felt the breeze through our hair, well, it was totally worth it. And here’s a video Ann Marie took because it’s awesome. “Do you think we can hike to that rock outcropping?” “Maybe we can fly there”.

Montauk

And then we packed up the F-150 with surfboards, bikes, lounge chairs, coffee, guitars, scarves, whiskey, tents, necklaces, and bahn mi’s and headed out to Montauk. We judiciously used our lack of showering and/or anywhere with a roof to go to avoid becoming embroiled in any of the overarching Montauk sceneyness, and pretty much spent all of our time gazing at the ocean, getting into it, surfing/watching the surfers, eating fried seafood, and drinking beer. That, singing songs, killing a Thursday NYT crossword, and waking up to infinity stretching off into the distance and it was an alright time indeed.Thank you to AMR for the snap of the surfboards and for inviting me along for a little tag-team-third-wheel.

Walker Evans

Sweetheart’s mama and I went to MoMA on Friday, for f-r-e-e! We got on what was both the longest and quickest moving line I’ve ever seen, and made it the three blocks into the museum in less than 5 minutes. At one point we were actually running. Amazing! A new exhibit (American art Hopper to O’keefe) was opening that very day so the place was slammed, but lucky for us, our plan was to bypass that madness, scoot past a couple of pretty stunning Pollocks and go to the Walker Evans American Photography show. It was glorious. Stark. Telling. Honest. Graceful.

Slow Jolene

The impeccable Dolly sounds a little wild, but also totally mesmerizing slowed down from 45 rpm to 33. Looks like I’ll have to spend the rest of the afternoon listening to the record on slow speed.

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In New York this week, I’ve been here for 24 hours and so far I’ve already seen four bands, eaten pork buns, Ippudo ramen, and a pretty killing patty melt, held a baby, and ridden 11 CitiBikes. So far so great. Can’t wait to see what the rest of the week brings.

Hipster Wedding

This flowchart from dear Miss Jennis pretty much covers the bases for everything I like (namely, flowcharts and bemused judgment). But, all jokes aside, it’s looking like I’ll probably be having a pretty seriously hipster wedding. Bring on the mason jars + beards!

DIY Pest Control

Wasps were taking over, building their strange and beautiful papery cones under the eaves of every overhang on our first floor. If they weren’t constantly threatening to sting me, I’d leave them well enough alone (as I’ve done with the SPIDERPOCALYPSE that has been coating every corner of the house with cobwebs as if it were the entrance to that holy grail cave in Indiana Jones). But since they are stinking stingers, they had to go. Because of the bees, I didn’t want to use any deathly flying insect spray, but, also because of the bees, I find myself in possession of a specially designed stinging-bug-impervious suit. So, I slipped into my bee suit and caught three baby wasp nests in mason jars. They were MAD. But fascinating. And now they are gone.