I finally drove 80 miles to get some bloody butane (yes, I could have ordered it from Amazon had I known that this backwaters didn't sell it. Other than in cigarette lighter refill form), and we finished our creme brulees this morning. I sprinkled some ginger sugar on mine~YUM!
This afternoon we were going to a colleague's home to do flower arranging, formal table settings, and general hospitality etiquette.
We did do some of that, but we were all so enamoured with her 18th century family farm that we spent most of our time chasing chickens, petting cows/dogs/cats, and wandering her property.
A charming pond just outside what used to be an orchid room!
A whimsical brunch setting.
I love old homes for all the nooks and crannies and built-in cabinetry.
The formal dining room.
The one section still had all the original walls and woodwork.
After seeing Food Inc the girls were thrilled to see happy, truly free-range chickens.
Sheba, singing to Andre the rooster. I was fairly sure that she was going to bring him back to her dorm room. She's from Indonesia and misses all her chickens from home.
And! If our visit wasn't full and fun enough~we discovered that they also have bees.
Such a lovely day.
Oh, wow. There's a couple who were The Yenta's neighbors around the block from the Academy, and she arranged with them to have the students come over and see their bees and chickens and huge garden. They purchased their East Bay house - on two lots - well back into the 60's, so that property is immensely valuable now, and they're both very old and couldn't care less, just pottering around on their little suburban farm. The kids, every year, are just entranced by CHICKENS! and BEES! It never fails to amuse/alarm me how distanced people are from where their food comes from... didn't they all have a garden growing up? Or is that a generational thing only we - and generations prior - did?
ReplyDeleteThREE of these students are her neighbors. And, a couple of others come from rural/farm families. Maybe it's just being outside with one's classmates?
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