kale x 2

Ansel has always loved the Public Market, our enormous central farmers' market. He got up before dawn every week to go there and get his pick of the best vegetables.

When we met, I loved eating vegetables, but I did not love washing vegetables. "When you wash them, they're so sparkling, and fresh!" he said. He reminded me of how beautiful they are.

Now we go together to get the vegetables (but he still washes them).

happy international fountain pen day!

I peacefully coexist with at least 10 fountain pens. I don't know how it happened; it just did. There was the Waterman. Then, finally, the Pelikan.  3 "vintage" ones of my mom's. And then Ansel got a Kaweco, and a Rotring.

All in all we get along great. A long time ago, there was an incident with a bottle of royal blue Pelikan ink, my backpack, and a cement floor in front of my locker in high school...but no one remembers that. Oh yes, and the parent of a girl I babysat who called me over and met me at the door with the old Sheaffer fountain pen I'd given his daughter, safely housed in a plastic ziplock bag. "I don't know what you meant, giving her this, but please take it back, we don't want it in the house." 

Okay. Not for everyone. But definitely for me! Hooray for fountain pens, dangerous, messy, unpredictable, beautiful, small and mighty.

Featured here: Pelikan fountain pen with Pelikan turquoise ink; Pilot Petit-1 fountain pen with J. Herbin mostly Lierre sauvage and a little Vert pré green ink; Pilot Cavalier fountain pen with J. Herbin mostly Gris nuage and a little Perle noire ink, Waterman fountain pen with a different mix of J. Herbin Vert pré and Lierre sauvage (ne jamais mélanger deux encres différentes notwithstanding)

on the subject of vegetables

Ansel and I went for dinner at our friends' house last week. Their son, faced with the vegetable selection, made this announcement. (Though he found they were quite ok when roasted underneath a chicken!)

Later, Ansel suggested this solution:

You know, with an axe or a sword, your choice :)

(If anyone wants to make this into a T-shirt and produce at least 36 of them (the minimum), so I can give one to Padraig, let me know!)

roots and plants

Ansel brought me some beautiful light green bok choy from the market this weekend. They were hydroponically grown by a farmer in the city. Each one had a little block of soil at the bottom, filled with tiny roots. "I think if you plant them, you can grow more bok choy," Ansel said. 

"Wow, neat, great idea!" I said, and went on to do other things. 

A little while later I thought of it again. "Maybe I should plant them now," I said, turning around to find them. 

And there they were already, rooting in a glass.

2 others, in a bowl

And a profile of Ansel :)

happy thanksgiving!

I spent Thanksgiving with my boyfriend and his wonderful family. They are the kind of people that say, when you bring over a celery root to put in the stuffing, "Wonderful! But let's draw it first."

So we did.

turnip

and other assorted fruit and vegetable forms. 

of radishes and earrings

It's been a little while! I've been busy doing all sorts of things, but one of them was making these earrings, a key part of my Luna Lovegood costume which I premiered at our school's Halloween party:

Here's the other side (those are toothpicks on the stems):

I got into the spirit of radishes with this drawing:

And here, perhaps a vision of things to come: 

pumpkins for october

A small, rotund pumpkin.

This one is edible, but hard to cut into.

life in 2013

Much as I love words, I'm all for modern communication. 

I mean, how much more expressive can you get?

a rash of eggplants

An eggplant from the market was my model for several daily doodles. I loved its curve, and its spunky little curling bits on the stem. I made a painting for the girl who sold it to me, since she was always so nice to me and recognized me each Wednesday afternoon when I'd show up at the market.

Here, with my coffee cup: 

This was a fun idea that occurred to me that I couldn't help following up on: