Birds vs. Squirrels

photo credit Briana Lee, 2008

I live just a few blocks from the Mississippi River. It's a neighborhood rich with trees, birdfeeders and generous neighbors. When I first moved into my house, I was feeling particularly poor and was focused on paying the mortgage every month. That Christmas I received a check from my parents...not the kind that Paris Hilton might get...but enough to allow me to have a little fun. I chose to use it on a few things to make life in my home just a bit better, including a squirrel-proof bird-feeder for outside my dining room window.
That feeder has held up remarkably. Situated in the midst of several lilac bushes, the feeder is visited from dawn to dusk by sparrows, juncos, chickadees, and two pair of cardinals. When the sun is shining, the male cardinal glows in the tree like a ruby.
And every day the neighborhood squirrels make another pass at trying to figure out how to access the food.
Yesterday my niece was here for Christmas breakfast and we had a nice time watching the activity around the feeder. The cardinals showed up and garnered some applause. And of course, the squirrels. At 9, she's actually turning into a quite a good photographer. She provided some nice documentation on the tenacity of the squirrels, Christmas day.

photo credit, Briana Lee 2008

The Christmas groove

I'm using a picture from last year's blog, but I'm happy to report that the vintage 1979 beater is still going! Of course, the true test is tomorrow's annual baking of the secret family recipe for Orange Cookies. In all my reading (and eating!) of Christmas cookies, I've never seen anything like this one. It's light and lovely and fragrant with orange...and takes forever to make. It also uses 4 cups of flour...a real challenge for my old beater.
In addition to the family orange cookies, I've made 3 new recipes. We'll have to see how they go over. I've browsed Gourmet and NYTimes for recipes and printed some out. But even as I collect them in a binder, I miss the history of a shared recipe. The recipe for orange cookies is in my Aunt's hand, which is scary-similar to my late Grandmother's. The tradition of recipe cards with "from the kitchen of" printed on them is one that I miss. I think the new brown sugar ginger crisp cookie is one I'll make again..and I never would have found it without being able to browse the Gourmet web site, but I do miss the spots and stains...and even difficult handwriting...of shared recipes from family and friends.

Snow and show

I was planning on a visit to the Walker today to see their new artist's books exhibit Text/Messages but the snow is coming down too hard to go anywhere. (6" snowfall by evening is one prediction.) It's a lovely day to stay in, wrap packages and start Christmas baking.
Instead I can post some links to reviews and articles on the show:
StarTribune
links to Walker blogs here and here

MCBA's 20th annual Winter Book

For 20 years, Minnesota Center for Book Arts has produced a Winter Book...a collaboration between an author, printer and the book arts community. This year's edition is called Winter Ink and features the poetry of (recently NEA-d...that is, he just got a grant!) Bryan Thao Worra.
My favorite way of staying current on Twin Cities arts and culture is through 3-Minute Egg. Here's their wonderful video of the Winter Book launch party. Bryan says correctly that most artists are used to working alone and that the Winter Book process encourages trust between all the collaborators that the final book will be a thing of meaning (and, I might add, done on time!).

I dream in Japanese (paper)

With a nod to Green Chair Press, I've now discovered that there is an amazing store in Canada for all the gorgeous Japanese papers I love! And not only that, but The Paper Place is running a contest on their site...the winner to get an 8 1/2 x 11" sheet of every Chiyogami paper they have.
Really, I try and be a generous person in real life, but under normal circumstances I may not have shared this information, believing that the fewer people that know about it, the better my chances of winning. But smart people that they are, they have offered me more chances to win if I post a note on this blog about their contest...so here it is! Good luck to you and wish me luck as well. I think if I won I would sit at home all day and spread them all around me and never stop looking at them!

Walker Art Center celebrates their book collection

Starting this Thursday through April 19, our wonderful Walker Art Center is bringing into the light of day their collection of books by artists. Text/Messages: Books by Artists brings pieces from the Walker's collections into the same exhibit with the books by artists collected by the Walker's librarian, Rosemary Furtak. "Even in today’s digital age, artists’ continued engagement with books—as medium, material, and subject—is evidence, say Engberg and Furtak, that this is an area of artistic invention alive with ideas and possibilities."
Walker is also sponsoring 3 free workshops in conjunction with the exhibit:
January 8 and 15: TXT IMGE BK GNR8TR (a workshop on texting and the book)
January 22: Making a Traditional Artist's Book
January 29: Odd Materials: Make an Out-of-the-Ordinary Artist's Book