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Today I spent two really great hours in the t...
July 30, 2009 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
 Today I spent two really great hours in the town planning office, talking to the two town planners about the development realities of a small place in a big recession, still losing farm land to suburban encroachment but now juggling defaulted subdivisions. I can't wait to start.
Today is also the weekly farmer's market, where I got a massive, beautiful head of lettuce to cut our pound of CSA spinach. The bakery was absent, so I had to make my own bread. There is this picture of Irish soda bread on the cover of The New England Table by Lora Brody that convinced me to try my hand at it. It looks like a precious, lumpy little scone, begging to be smothered in cold butter. Unfortunately, the results reminded me of Peggy Bracken's description of soda bread from The I Hate to Cook Book: "This is a big easy crusty faintly sweet loaf, comforting as a turf fire in a thatched cottage. It is handy when you're out of bread." I managed to burn every surface, and it's still soft in the middle. The salad turned out pretty well, though, and I found retsina at that Greek grocery to wash down the burnt bits. The clerk thought I was a little nutty for buying it, but there's something so refreshing about its cool pine taste... like freshly mopped linoleum.
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As I've mentioned in earlier posts, Massachus...
July 29, 2009 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
 As I've mentioned in earlier posts, Massachusetts has seen some rain this month. Greg has done all of the laundry since we moved to Grafton, but I took on the task today, remembering grandma Edna as I pinned everything up on the line. But it started to rain this afternoon, so now all of our clothes are hung inside, amplifying the muggy air. I think we're going on a Mediterranean grocery run to escape the humidity. New England in late July is a stickier version of the Pacific Northwest in late January.
It's so much fun to hear your reports from the field! Such a treat.
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Greg and I are back in Grafton, having recove...
July 25, 2009 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
 Greg and I are back in Grafton, having recovered from our long flight. Today we picked up our first share at a local CSA, the collaboration of three farms. It will be so much fun to get a fresh box of produce every week and figure out how to eat or preserve strange edibles. Unfortunately, all the heirloom tomatoes have an airborne blight brought in from box store tomatoes. The crop is a little sad looking this year, but it's nice to support family farms through hard times.
For such a little place, the Grafton public library has a generous cookbook section, which we've only started to dig through. The librarian seems like a big time foodie and personally selected the recipes from the last cookbook I checked out that I absolutely had to try. She promised that Ina Garten's french apple tart would change my life.
Both of us had a wonderful time in Eugene at Marshall and McKenna's wedding and playing with the family. Some of my highs include: trampoline jumping with Jordan, figure drawing and playing in the park with Sam and Emma, walking through the old neighborhood with Greg, and sneaking off to drink coffee with mom. The orchestrated recipe potluck was out of this world, too, and I think we were all surprised that we liked squid so much!
I hope you all have a great time in Olde England!
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One of the thrills of living in the intersect...
July 11, 2009 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
 One of the thrills of living in the intersection of compromise is creatively imagining a commute that will not kill me, my psyche, or the earth between here and Boston. Yesterday I took the train and subway to work, which took an hour and a half but was relaxing and productive. The Worcester line has tables on the second story of the train, so us early arrivals can work on our laptops and use the train's wireless. The driving/commuter rail option is less expensive, more stressful, and requires getting up early to avoid traffic. I might try back roads on Monday, although Google maps warns that the traffic isn't much better.
I doubt the phrase "it takes fifteen minutes to get anywhere in Eugene" is actually accurate anymore, but it was true when I lived there. I've felt superior since graduating college, when I had a ten-minute walk to Essentials for work, and haven't had more than a ten minute driving commute since. Now we have to play old-school board games, eat local food, and hide our TV to feel superior.
This is our last weekend before the big trip home. We're coming in on Tuesday, and Adam has already reserved Wednesday for birthday pre-partying. We're going to have a hike and picnic on Thursday afternoon with Yayoe, and then head off for Belnap on Friday afternoon! Greg is excited to go rafting on the McKenzie with Marshall and McKenna and listening to home-grown music at Sam Bond's Garage. I'm excited to see all of you!
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I'm getting the hang of Greg's birthday present
July 07, 2009 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
 I'm getting the hang of Greg's birthday present. This is my second successful latte. It makes the commute east much tastier. The house is slowly coming together, although there is so much torrential rain that all I do is cower inside looking at justseeds.org posters. Not much exploring central Mass lately.
I'll be in Oregon in a week! Yay!
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Six days into our new life in Grafton, Greg a...
July 04, 2009 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
 Six days into our new life in Grafton, Greg and I decided to throw a Fourth of July party. All of Greg's family and friends came, and despite a handful of unexpected guests, we had way too much food and just enough sangria and beer to go around. Having been trained by the rigor of Russian Orthodox Easter, managing a potluck was nothing. But my guests were disconcerted by my refusal to leave the kitchen unless to fill drink orders and retrieve dirty dishes. You can take the girl out of the holiday kitchen death camp...
The new house is beautiful, with enough space for two and then some. Grafton is a larger, more suburban version of Williamstown, which makes me happy. The Baptist church chimes its bells every hour, on the hour (or half hour or quarter of an hour, depending on how they feel). The town is old as dirt, and I like the the Civil War memorial and ancient graveyard on our street. Finding community will be easier than in Waltham, which was a real life city that had a place for students. Hopefully, I'll get to integrate into ordinary town politics here.
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