Permission to Create

the shanty, digital print, January 2011

I hadn't realized I became such a blog delinquent. Certainly it wasn't for lack of material. We work while most people are off for the holidays so time becomes really of the essence for us. But realities of the jobs they are, so from Thanksgiving we remet the annual roller coaster ride that is December. We made it to Christmas in PA with my wife's family and it was wonderful to finally sit down. The blizzard started on our drive back to NYC, we made it in five hours, not bad, but then add the three hour trek to get the 6 miles (typically a 20 minute drive) from my brothers place in Brooklyn home to Queens, and there went that chance for down time! Shovel, sleep, shovel, sleep, shovel, ...well, if you're local you know all too well what I'm talking about. But I assure you I have great images and horticultural factoids from all of these adventures to share. For now we are working on creating a new home and that's why it might be a few more weeks before I am fully back in the blogosphere. You see, the shanty, our fabulous home base for the last four years is finally and literally crumbling to the ground around us. So it's time to go. It was time to go anyway. With our new married status the time for a fresh start is now. Thanks to the generosity and support of our amazing families we have permission to create, and we're taking full advantage of the opportunity. With a new and better home, new horticultural challenges to work the mind and body, health and happiness I think 2011 is going to be a great year. Our new place is sturdy and safe and secure and will undoubtedly make for great meals, great studies and observations, great moments, and all the appropriate blog posts to accompany.

Out back of the shanty is an Acer pseudoplatanus, a big shade tree called a sycamore maple. It is very obviously a maple, with that big quintessential leaf, but the scaly, almost flaky nature of the bark throws you off until you learn that there is such a thing as a sycamore maple. A thuggish tree without question, I can't help but be attached to this particular one. Though I don't endorse it's insane ability to set seedlings EVERYWHERE, it is a thing of beauty I've really enjoyed looking at over the years. This has been a great view. And now, yes, with more snow, oh brother. Happy New Year everyone, write you again soon.