two thousand twelve

HAPPY 2012!

To welcome the New Year, some New Years resolutions. I'm hoping that if I put this out there, I might feel more accountable or at least pressured to make it happen. Wrote this out three months ago as an exercise envisioning life in 2012:

wake up and worry about the plants - how intense is the sun today?

make green tea and breakfast

say good morning to people I care about

walk, bike, or bus to work

do something that involves arranging things, working either outside or in a place with really big windows (with people I like)

it's lunch time! so delicious! maybe there's pan-fried ramen or tamales with green salsa

yoga after work sometimes

go home to a record player, wine rack, and friends

dinner with fresh ingredients, smells really good, home-cooked

at least 8 hours of sleep if not more

CA Farmhouse

BUSINESS California Farmhouse

I've been calling this my 'fictitious business' for a few months now. Maybe like Geppetto, I can wish upon a shooting star for my creation to become a real business.

Alice's Restaurant

PROFESSOR Laura Nader
It was about three years ago my anthropology professor, a sweet lady named Laura Nader (above), played Alice's Restaurant for our class, which inspired this blog. 
SONG Alice's Restaurant by Arlo Guthrie, 1967
A very long song, but apparently, you can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant.

Craft Fair/Telegraph Ave

EVENT Telegraph Avenue Holiday Street Fair 2011

'Plant Crafts' FRI BOOTH #423/SAT BOOTH #146 on Telegraph Avenue

Last Saturday, I spent my evening selling terrariums at the Arc Studios & Gallery in SF with the Kearny Street Workshop. To my surprise, I actually sold all my terrariums! I also got to meet some really cool artists and even got to barter terrariums for crafts - stationery from 'Paper Suitcase' and an original print+necklace from Vivian Truong. So, this week, with a bit more confidence, I will be selling more at this year's Telegraph Avenue Holiday Street Fair:

11AM - 6PM, this Friday & Saturday, December 16 & 17

Telegraph Avenue between Bancroft Way and Dwight Way in Berkeley

Come say hi and maybe offer to watch my booth so that I can take a bathroom break?

Marvelous Mushrooms

WORKSHOP 'Marvelous Mushrooms' with Mo-mei Chen


Assorted mushrooms, 42nd Annual Fungus Fair

Mo-mei Chen is a mycologist at UC Berkeley's Jepson Herbaria. She was one of few woman scientists in China during the Cultural Revolution (her story here). I met her last Saturday at the 42nd Annual Fungus Fair at the Lawrence Hall of Science and wow, she's really into mushroom cultivation. Anyways, she's teaching a workshop this Sunday:

'Learn to grow Indian Oyster and anti-cancer Ling Zhi mushrooms'
$25 comes with mushroom pizza dinner and an oyster mushroom cultivation kit
2-6PM, Sunday, December 11th, 2011
Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley
RSVP by Thursday: momeichen@gmail.com

Picking Up Leaves

Cold settles, leaves turn

Green flushed yellow, orange, red, into crisp dead

Lightly detached, floated here to there

To the floor with the others

Landscape Studies

FELLOWSHIP Gardner Museum Fellowship in Landscape Studies

Maybe one day. But for now, I'll work on the the studying part.

CLASSES Landscape Horticulture at Merritt College

Cool place, cool people, atop a hill overlooking Oakland & and the Bay. Today, the Landscape Horticulture Department at Merritt College announced and unveiled their AA Degree in Landscape Architecture, which would qualify someone to take board exams and acquire a CA state license to practice landscape architecture! Yes! Classes I'd like to take:

LANHT 18B: Landscape Design (Tu 1:00-3:50PM)

Principles of landscape design (primarily residential scale). Focuses on design process and definitions, legal and ethical issues and site analysis.

LANHT 210A: Landscape Design Forum (Tu 4:00-5:50PM)

Forum Emphasizing professional practices in landscape design, including review of student designs for client presentation and guest speakers in the trade. Basics of contracts and professional licensing options; development of a portfolio to market services.

LANHT 34A: Computer-Assisted Landscape Design (Tu 6:00-9:50PM)

2D drawing and editing tools; CAD orgnizational and calculation tools; personal symbol libraries; and section, elevation, and axonometric drawings.

Changing Fields

FARMER FRIEND Ben Harris, Changing Fields

Sometimes I have a hard time articulating why I've headed toward left field to become a sort of farmer-gardener despite my double major double minor with honors from UC Berkeley blah blah. In his article for forward.com, Ben explains his shift from journalist to farmer.