A Wonderful Experience

Last weekend, our studio performed an original ballet based on Dr. Seuss stories. Beginning in January,  dancers auditioned and I and the five other teacher/choreographers began the process of turning the classic books into ballets. The costumes and props were hand made and specifically designed for the dancers and the pieces.

Ellen and Arianna got their parts and practiced once or twice a week for several months. These rehearsals were in addition to their regular ballet and contemporary classes that they take during the school year. These girls love to dance and they loved practicing and hanging out with their ballet buddies. Now that the show is over they are sad that they don't get to go to rehearsals anymore. We are all wondering what we are going to do with ourselves now that the show is over.

The fish at dress rehearsal

Before the show: Arianna a Sneetch and Ellen a Fish

Ellen in the center during the show with the Fish

Arianna pictured here with the fish

Truffula Trees and Dr. Seuss

 

I don't have pictures from the Sneetch dance that I choreographed but I should have some video soon. Here is the Star Machine that my friend Alyse and I decorated. It is huge as you can see and the Sneetches walked through it. Here is the front side.

Proud mom and dancers after the show.

Grandaddy William and Grandmother Gail came down from Charlotte to watch!

 

A special thanks for my love. You picked up the slack around the house while we were rehearsing. You also designed and planted our amazing vegetable garden this spring without any help from me. This ballet was a wonderful experience that couldn't have happened without your encouragement and support. Thank You Daniel.

You're Invited

Columbia Ballet School Company Dancers Present

The Wisdom of Dr. Seuss

Five original ballets

3 PM March 27

Richland Northeast Auditorium

Columbia SC

Green Eggs and Ham

Choreography by Jhe Russell

Oh! The Places You Will Go

Choreography by McCree O'Kelley

The Sneetches

Choreography by Jen Kruidenier

The Cat in the Hat

Choreography by Joy Alexander

The Lorax

Choreography by Anita Ashley and Ann Kent

Contact me for ticket information.

Photoshop.com Album: Hunting Island 2011

Beach camping with good friends.
Hiking to the lighthouse, A beautiful view from the top, Climbing on the playground of fallen trees, Tromping through the mud, Nature center, Walking the pier over the lagoon, Spotting the osprey on her nest. Walking on the rocks out over the waves, Flying the kite, Chasing the kite that got away. Warm fires, Dads playing guitar, Swinging on the hammock. Older kids playing late night yahtsee, an original play by the kids and sweet voices singing their made up songs. Last hike down the boardwalk trail. Always sad to leave.

I think we took about 1000 pictures on this trip! Everything was so beautiful. I narrowed it down to about 37 photos and you can see them in this album I've posted above. You can scroll through them individually or hit play and watch them as a slideshow.

Urban Garden Notes: Starting Spring Right

The ole peach tree is blooming.

Spring is a busy and exciting time for the Southern urban gardener. It's not only a time for planting but a time to measure the readiness of the soil for the entire season. While the world is turning green we are following our now yearly ritual of strengthening the soil before everything really cranks up.

Onions planted during winter are now growing strong.

Garlic planted last Fall really responds to the warmer weather.

These cabbage grew uncared for and completely unattended all winter. They won't last long now!

It all starts with the soil. The soil community is the life of the garden. It must be put, with the limitations of time, money, and knowledge, in the best condition possible. Here are some of the products we use to increase the productivity and long-term health of the soil:

Compost-each Spring we borrow or rent a truck and drive to our friendly sanitation department where they load us up with compost produced from the city's yard and construction waste. This compost is not aerated and so is probably not as high in microbial content as would be actively aerated compost, but what it does do is add water retention capacity and nutrient to the soil. If you're growing in the south-east, and especially in the Sand Hills of South Carolina this cheap source is an excellent way to boost the soil's capacity to hold water. Better water retention means less watering, more stable growth for plants, and a better environment for the microbial life that makes healthy soil possible. Our composting facility sells compost for $30 a yard cubed. But they are very generous and always send us away with more than that. As you can see in the picture below the compost has been deposited on top of the beds and will be lightly mixed in the top several inches.

Here is a view of our main eight beds. The darkened rows are covered with rich compost. It will be integrated into the upper-layer of soil along with other amendments.

Sea Kelp-we purchase Thorvin Sea Kelp. This is a great source of nutrients containing over 70 different vitamins, minerals (major and micro), and other bioactive agents. A standard fertilizer focuses on the major essential nutrients nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, without which not. But these nutrients are not sufficient. Sea kelp is a great catch-all supplement for other necessary nutrients. We apply it broadly when conditioning the soil, put it in our seed-starting mix, and sprinkle it in with fertilizer as a side-dressing during the spring and summer seasons. As a side note sea kelp is also a great amendment to add to your compost, enriching it and giving the bacteria in the compost a chance to break down nutrients before the application of compost to the garden soil.

Espoma Fertilizer-we like Espoma because it is organic and it also includes microbial life. Microbes are crucial for any healthy soil. They break down nutrients, tie up nutrients so that they are not leached, and even form beneficial relationships with some plant roots. When applying Espoma Fertilizers we are able to provide a higher level of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium,   and add the crucial mibrobial life that will help make those nutrients available to plant roots.  Espoma makes a variety of fertilizers for different applications. We use Garden Tone.

We planted the majority of our Spring garden this past weekend. Below are two of the trays of seedlings. And, a reminder of our need to learn more and continue to experiment: In the top tray there are empty cells. We learned this year that onion seeds degenerate very quickly. Never use old seeds. Buy new seeds each year. Old seeds will not germinate. In the lower tray the spinach on the left is going to seed. Why? We have no clue. One friend suggested the length of time I was running my grow light may have stimulated flowering in the spinach. Who knows. More failure is sure to follow. But there will also be lots of good eating.

 Here some strapping young kale are sprinkled with Biovam beneficial fungal spores (a bit of an experiment on our part) before being introduced to the garden soil. Kale is powerfully nutritious, grows well for us, and is extremely productive. We started a bunch this year.

We are harvesting turnips, cabbage, and collards (Arianna and Ellen hold a single turnip and single collard below) from our uncared for and unattended winter garden. The winter garden here was easy. We planted in the Fall and left these guys completely alone all winter. They grew slowly but surely and now we have an early harvest before the Spring garden gets kicking.

Historic Camden Revolutionary War Site

As a part of our Colonial Period literature study and history coop we are reading the book Johnny Tremain. It takes place during the Revolutionary War in Boston. Today our group took a field trip to the Camden, SC Revolutionary War Site. There was a small fee but it was well worth it. The tour guide was very informative and engaging. She took us through the Kershaw Mansion (pictured below). She let us feel the clothing and touch the uniforms and weapons of the period. We walked all through the house and spent the afternoon picnicing and playing on the grounds.

The wealthy merchant who built this house helped establish Camden as the largest inland trading town in the Colony. He wasn't able to complete the house before Cornwallis' troops took it over in 1780. Then the house and town became the main British supply post in the Southern campaign. The Battle of Camden was the worst American defeat of the Revolution. The original house was burned after the Civil War but was reconstructed and furnished in the late 1970s. Very interesting stuff:)

There are also other original small houses set up as museums, reconstructed redoubts, a part of a blacksmith shop, and gardens all on the site.

I highly recommend this as a place to visit.

Spring Seed Starting Week by Week

On January 23 we started 3 trays of seeds --36 collards, 36 kale, 24 cabbage, 24 spinach, 24 brussels sprouts, 18 lettuce mix, 18 broccoli, 18 onions, 18 chard. 

We are using a new indoor lighting set up that will make starting seeds a lot easier. This powerful light stays on for 18 hours a day which has been enough to keep the seedlings healthy and strong so far. (We put paper bags on top of the trays in the beginning to help keep the seeds moist while germinating.)

The new tray allows for easy watering. Daniel fills it once a week with water, fish emulsion, and compost tea. He uses 5 gallon buckets to fill and drain.

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3 

Started another tray of 6 broccoli, 18 cabbage, 18 red Russian kale, 12 red lettuce, 18 buttercrunch lettuce

Week 4

Week 5

We plan to put these out and get summer seeds started within the next few weeks.

Zip Line Mania

We installed Arianna's birthday zip line. Now I think we need them all over the city. We could zip everywhere! Set up was super easy and we're all enjoying the occasional ride.  

 Arianna takes the inaugural ride.

Ellen zooms along!

Even Dad rides the zip line.  "C'mon Dad, it's not your birthday."

Arianna turning 8

Arianna at about 1 in Indianapolis

Arianna now!

Our beautiful little girl is turning 8 on Wednesday.

Here's Daniel, the girls, and some good friends after a celebratory silly string war.

 

We got her a zip line for her birthday. It was a surprise and she was so excited.

 

Birthdays are so fun, a lot of work, but fun! Friends and family come together, we play games, laugh, and eat good food. It makes me stop and think about how blessed I am to have such wonderful people in my life. I am so thankful.

Easy Tasty Veggie Soup

I have to give credit to my friend Lesley for this meal idea. She wrote about this soup on her blog a few months ago and I've been making it about once a week all winter! It is easy to put together and cooks up in about 30 minutes. A lot of times (when I'm making any soup) I make it early in the day and let it sit on the stove for the afternoon. Chopping the veggies ahead of time will make it go even faster. The soup is very versatile, but the main ingredient is the bag of Bob's Red Mill Vegi Soup Mix which contains split yellow, red and green peas, lentils, barley, and alphabet pasta. This meal is a huge hit with my kids and is something I serve to other kids and families who may not be used to eating our style of food.


Ingredients:
2 cups vegi soup mix
1 onion finely chopped
1 carrot finely chopped
2 ribs celery finely chopped
4 cloves garlic finely chopped
2 cubes veggie bouillon plus 8 cups water (equivalent to 8 cups veggie broth plus extra water)
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
salt and pepper to taste


Saute onion, garlic, celery, and carrots for about 5 minutes or until they get soft. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook for 20 mins.


Optional:
You can add a handful of chopped greens (kale, collards, spinach) the last few minutes of cooking. Potatoes are also good in this soup but you'll need to add extra water. Canned tomato paste goes well also. Daniel made it into a curried soup by adding Indian spices and you can also make it more Italian flavored by adding basil, oregano, rosemary, etc. The options of what you can do with this little bag of soup are endless.

The bag is on sale at Kroger right now. Usually it is around $4.50 but it was going for around $3 the last time I was in there so I bought all of them!

New Recipes

I got this cookbook Appetite for Reduction

for Christmas. The author, Isa Chandra Moskowitz, has several other great vegan cookbooks but this one focused on dishes with healthier ingredients. She has cut out most oil, processed foods, and sugar. She uses whole fresh foods.

A lot of the recipes are spicy and a little too flavorful for my kids. The girls love bland food--plain sandwiches with no mustard or mayo and salad with no dressing! I might be making some of the recipes for just the grown ups because everything looks yummy to me.

The first thing I tried was this balsamic viniagrette recipe that I'll share. It is EXCELLENT. I love the use of cashews to make it creamy.

1/4 cup cashews (soaked in half cup water for at least an hour preferably overnight)
2 tablespoons chopped shallot
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
1 teaspoon agave nectar
3/4 teaspoons salt
a few pinches of fresh pepper

Put cashews and shallots in food processor and pulse to chop. Then add the rest of the ingredients and blend for 5 minutes scraping down the sides often. Transfer to sealable container and chill. Makes 1 cup dressing.

Sorry no pictures. We ate it too fast...

Snow Days

We had about 3 inches of snow and lots of freezing rain. The whole town has shut down today and tomorrow so no teaching for Daniel or me!

Here's how my SC girls boogie board in the snow!

Easy Embroidery (how to)

I made these shirts for the girls for Christmas. I came up with the idea while I was at Belk trying to spend enough money to use a $10 off coupon. These solid t-shirts were only $8 and the girls always need new t-shirts since that's all they ever wear. I got these but I thought they were too plain to give as Christmas presents so I figured I'd go to the hobby store and find something to put on them. These little embroidered iron-on letters were about a dollar and seemed perfect as I've noticed that E and A are always drawn to things with their name or initials. 

I ironed them according to the directions, but figured they weren't going to stay since the material is so stretchy in these shirts. To keep them from falling off I just stitched them very quickly around the letters. The whole thing was less than $10 and the kids love them! 

Finally some Christmas photos

Here's a slide show of the best pictures from our trip. We started out with Christmas Eve and morning in Charlotte with the Kruideniers. Then drove to Baton Rouge to stay with the Ashbys. Then made our last stop in Jackson MS with more cousins and extended family.