Dear friends, family, fellow travelers,
Today is the final day of our lovely five-day Thanksgiving break, during which we stayed at home and did a lot of cooking, reading, crafting, and napping with much encouragement from the cats. We are looking forward to more of the same at the end of December. Here is our month in five pictures.
1. Blue Wave 2018
Image: A stack of half-finished Postcards to Voters reading "Fellow Voter! VOTE DEMOCRATS..."
It was a hopeful relief to see the returns start coming in on Tuesday, November 6th, and see the good news of house seats gained and state-level legislatures flipped from Republican to Democrat in the midterms. I know there were some hard losses, but I don't think those losses should eclipse the very real gains. As Rebecca Traister wrote at The Cut on November 7th, "this will be our lives, this fight":
Today is the final day of our lovely five-day Thanksgiving break, during which we stayed at home and did a lot of cooking, reading, crafting, and napping with much encouragement from the cats. We are looking forward to more of the same at the end of December. Here is our month in five pictures.
1. Blue Wave 2018
Image: A stack of half-finished Postcards to Voters reading "Fellow Voter! VOTE DEMOCRATS..."It was a hopeful relief to see the returns start coming in on Tuesday, November 6th, and see the good news of house seats gained and state-level legislatures flipped from Republican to Democrat in the midterms. I know there were some hard losses, but I don't think those losses should eclipse the very real gains. As Rebecca Traister wrote at The Cut on November 7th, "this will be our lives, this fight":
That fight is — as it has been since this nation’s founding — a fight over two concepts central to our nation’s origins, its progress, and its future: the promises of and restrictions on political representation and political enfranchisement. ... Donald Trump, and the party that created and sticks with him, is not a fluke. He and they are the living, powerful embodiment of an old American theory about who should get to participate, who should get to have power, whose voices should be heard, whose votes count. This is not a fluke. This is the civic, legal, political, and social American argument — the one that at its core circles around the question of who among us is counted as fully human.
If you haven't already, I encourage you all to go read the entire piece.
2. Arlington St. Church Quilt
Image: Ragnar the cat crouched on the reverse side of a finished quilt laid out on a wood floor.
As I had hoped, by mid-November I was finally finished with the Arlington Street Church auction quilt for 2018. This piece raised $300 for the operations of the church, and as a bonus made one cat (Ragnar, pictured above) and two humans in Boston very pleased. You can see more photos of the finished piece here on my Instagram account (use the tab forward arrow to flip through all five images).
And, on a related note, Persistent Stitches has raised $4,173.00 so far in 2018 with a month left to go in the year! This project has been a major part of my self-care and world-care work this year and I am so thankful to everyone who has participated as a crafter and a donor for turning it into the modest grassroots success that it has become. I am already looking forward to year two!
3. Autumn at Arnold Arboretum + Autumn on the MBTA
Image: Berries in brilliant shades of yellow, orange, and red on a tree in the Arnold Arboretum
Image: A damp T platform on a rainy Boston morning (Brigham Circle, Green Line E branch)
The weather this past month has given us opportunities both to walk through the brilliant colors of the Arnold Arboretum behind our house ... and also offered up many days of misting rain and sometimes outright downpours. No snow yet, save one brief overnight flurry that was almost entirely melted before the following evening. Not unusual for Boston, where snow seems to arrive most typically in December and linger into the spring.
4. How Sex Changed
Image: Cover of the book How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States by Joanne Meyerowitz
For the last two months of the year, I have reading to do for two review projects: 1) a three-book review essay of titles related to reproductive health and politics, and 2) a collection development essay for Library Journal due to be published next spring to mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. I have the exciting yet daunting task of selecting and writing up 25-30 works of nonfiction that provide a solid basis for a generalist library's collection of works in LGBTQ history. This weekend I began reading Meyerowitz's history of trans identity in the United States (published in 2002), finished Tangled Diagnoses (on prenatal diagnostic testing, "the scrutinized fetus," and pregnant personhood), and as of this writing am halfway through the anthology Radical Reproductive Justice -- a wonderful collection of pieces that introduce, historicize, and theorize the reproductive justice framework.
5. White Bean and Black Olive Soup
Image: Bowls of White Bean and Black Olive Soup along with butternut squash rolls on a dinner tray.
It's soup weather! I've been making a lot of my favorite soups from the original Moosewood cookbook including this one, White Bean and Black Olive Soup, that goes super well with Hanna's squash rolls:
2. Arlington St. Church Quilt
Image: Ragnar the cat crouched on the reverse side of a finished quilt laid out on a wood floor.As I had hoped, by mid-November I was finally finished with the Arlington Street Church auction quilt for 2018. This piece raised $300 for the operations of the church, and as a bonus made one cat (Ragnar, pictured above) and two humans in Boston very pleased. You can see more photos of the finished piece here on my Instagram account (use the tab forward arrow to flip through all five images).
And, on a related note, Persistent Stitches has raised $4,173.00 so far in 2018 with a month left to go in the year! This project has been a major part of my self-care and world-care work this year and I am so thankful to everyone who has participated as a crafter and a donor for turning it into the modest grassroots success that it has become. I am already looking forward to year two!
3. Autumn at Arnold Arboretum + Autumn on the MBTA
Image: Berries in brilliant shades of yellow, orange, and red on a tree in the Arnold ArboretumImage: A damp T platform on a rainy Boston morning (Brigham Circle, Green Line E branch)The weather this past month has given us opportunities both to walk through the brilliant colors of the Arnold Arboretum behind our house ... and also offered up many days of misting rain and sometimes outright downpours. No snow yet, save one brief overnight flurry that was almost entirely melted before the following evening. Not unusual for Boston, where snow seems to arrive most typically in December and linger into the spring.
4. How Sex Changed
Image: Cover of the book How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States by Joanne MeyerowitzFor the last two months of the year, I have reading to do for two review projects: 1) a three-book review essay of titles related to reproductive health and politics, and 2) a collection development essay for Library Journal due to be published next spring to mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. I have the exciting yet daunting task of selecting and writing up 25-30 works of nonfiction that provide a solid basis for a generalist library's collection of works in LGBTQ history. This weekend I began reading Meyerowitz's history of trans identity in the United States (published in 2002), finished Tangled Diagnoses (on prenatal diagnostic testing, "the scrutinized fetus," and pregnant personhood), and as of this writing am halfway through the anthology Radical Reproductive Justice -- a wonderful collection of pieces that introduce, historicize, and theorize the reproductive justice framework.
5. White Bean and Black Olive Soup
Image: Bowls of White Bean and Black Olive Soup along with butternut squash rolls on a dinner tray.It's soup weather! I've been making a lot of my favorite soups from the original Moosewood cookbook including this one, White Bean and Black Olive Soup, that goes super well with Hanna's squash rolls:
Sweet Potato Dinner Rolls
8 oz sweet potato (we also use butternut squash or similar)
6 Tbl butter
2 tsp honey
1/2 c. milk
1 pkg dry yeast
1 lg egg
3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1. Bake and mash squash
2. Melt butter and honey together, add milk
3. Add yeast to milk mixture and let stand until it begins to foam
4. Add mash, egg, flour, salt
5. Mix together thoroughly and knead until flour is fully incorporated
6. Let rise in a warm place until doubled
7. Divide into 12 even pieces
8. Roll into balls or shape into knots
9. Set oven to 375 F and let buns rest covered on the stovetop while the oven heats.
10. Bake on a greased pan for 18 minutes
8 oz sweet potato (we also use butternut squash or similar)
6 Tbl butter
2 tsp honey
1/2 c. milk
1 pkg dry yeast
1 lg egg
3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1. Bake and mash squash
2. Melt butter and honey together, add milk
3. Add yeast to milk mixture and let stand until it begins to foam
4. Add mash, egg, flour, salt
5. Mix together thoroughly and knead until flour is fully incorporated
6. Let rise in a warm place until doubled
7. Divide into 12 even pieces
8. Roll into balls or shape into knots
9. Set oven to 375 F and let buns rest covered on the stovetop while the oven heats.
10. Bake on a greased pan for 18 minutes
Be brave, be kind, be warm, be well!
Anna