June library book haul

Hello! I have a new batch of books to share! 

First, some quick thoughts on last month’s library books…

• The Bean Book. I loved this cookbook so much that I went ahead and bought it; the recipes were practical and unfussy but the end product is delicious and feels special, which is generally what I’m aiming for when cooking! I also checked out Cool Beans (another Rancho Gordo joint) a couple weeks later, but I didn’t care for it quite as much. 
  

• The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power. This book started off strong, but just turned out to be kind of…thin. I think it probably should have been a very good podcast episode as opposed to a whole book, because there wasn’t enough information directly related to the subject at hand to sustain 300 pages. I actually quit reading after like 150 pages because it just wasn’t holding my attention and life is too short! That said, I liked what I learned about cholera. (Also, there was a Samuel Pepys appearance. There always is!!!)
  

• How to Seal Your Own Fate. I didn’t get to this one before I had to return it, which was fine. I might try again at some point! 
  

• The Berry Pickers. I also didn’t get to this one! Ah well! 

Moving on! Here’s what I checked out in June: 

City Limits: Infrastructure, Inequality, and the Future of America's Highways. This was a reader recommendation (thank you, Faith!) and it was everything I’d hoped it would be. The main focus is racist highways in Texas. Having lived in Houston for four years, I was very heartened to see just how hard people are fighting to stop the development of even more enormous highways. It was genuinely inspiring and I’m glad I read it! 

The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream. This isn’t technically a library book, but I borrowed it from my neighbor, which is spiritually the same. (I also listened to some of it, as the audiobook is available with Spotify Premium.) I enjoyed it, though it was a tad dry! It felt like reading a really long New Yorker article (complimentary), which is to say that it’s good non-fiction, but not great non-fiction. But it taught me a ton about the history of immigration in the US, which was very timely given what’s happening right now. 

Wrestling With Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took On New York's Master Builder and Transformed the American City. I was excited for this one, but I’m currently 230 pages in and kind of disappointed! Nearly everything in the Robert Moses chapters is lifted directly from The Power Broker (which I guess makes it good for people who are never going to read TPB, but it definitely lacks Robert Caro’s wonderful prose); the book is kind of lacking a POV in places where it feels necessary to have one; and I’ve spotted at least four typos/copy errors. I am planning to finish it, but ultimately it’s reading more like a very interesting Wikipedia page than a great non-fiction book. 

Easy Everyday: 100 Recipes and Meal Prep Ideas for Effortless Eats. This is my friend Jess’s newest cookbook, and it didn’t disappoint. (It never does!! She is extremely good at what she does!) The recipes are truly so easy and fast, making them great for weeknights. We will definitely be buying this one!

Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man). This is the second book in a new cozy mystery series and I thiiiink I liked it better than the first installment, but they are pretty similar. I haven’t decided how I feel about this series yet; they require a suspension of disbelief that I find excessive even for the genre, and are kind of stupid but are also kind of funny? But also, I read it in about three hours? Perfect library book! 

The Queen of Poisons. This is the third book in the Marlow Murder Club series (not to be confused with the Thursday Murder Club series, which is leagues better). The first two Marlow books were fine enough, but this one was so fatphobic, it honestly calls the whole project into question for me! Disappointing! 

Rejection. This was recommended by a couple of friends with good taste in books! I tend to prefer fictional short stories to fictional novels, so I’m hoping this one is a winner. 

Seeds of Murder. (I keep hearing Alan Cummings read that title in his Traitors voice.) I started this one a couple days ago and it’s truly neutral at the moment; we’ll see if it picks up. I’m finding that cozy mysteries are a dime a dozen, but really good ones are hard to find. (Please send recs!) 

That’s all I got! What are you reading right now? 📚

Growing a terrace garden in NYC (part II)

So much has been happening in our terrace garden over the past eight weeks! 

First, Erik came back in mid-May for our second round of planting! This time around, we added white hanging petunias, a mini skirt hosta, and a peachy climbing rose; planted peppers, jalapeños, and basil; and transplanted the tomatoes into their forever homes. About a week later, I took a trip to the farmers market and picked up some additional pepper plants, zinnias, and marigolds, along with a lavender stream plant. Kiyana and I also added some easy-to-install decking from IKEA to half of the terrace, along with a box that serves as a flower stand/extra seating, all of which has made a huge difference aesthetically.

Also pictured here: pizza dough focaccia and the best hummus, topped with parsley from our garden. Also, the tomato plant in this photo from May 25 is now as tall as the railing!

We’ve also been able to start harvesting! I picked a ton of chive blossoms and turned them into chive blossom vinegar. We’ve had several nice radishes, which we’ve been pickling. Kiyana used thyme, oregano, and rosemary a couple times when roasting a whole chicken, and I’ve been drying bunches of herbs to save.

The nasturtium has become the goldendoodle of the planter box. It’s very nice but it’s also….too enthusiastic? Borderline badly behaved? It’s growing at an incredibly fast pace and in every direction. (“Leave her alone!!!!” I thought as I pulled a huge branch off the zinnias, which it was fully pawing.) I keep cutting it back and it just keeps going. The last time Erik came by, he suggested leaning one of the plants fully to the left (it was already moving in that direction) to see if we can get it to sort of grow toward the far edge of the planter as opposed to over everything else. Then he brought some of the stems of the other nasturtium around the front so see if it could essentially becoming more of a cascading plant, which is working well. (You can see some of the tendrils creeping over the front in the photo of the snapdragon below. Those tendrils are now reaching the ground.)

Meanwhile, the pink snapdragon emerged as the star of the show. About a week after we first planted everything in April, we had a terribly windy day; everything outside was whipping around like crazy as I watched in horror. Everything came through unharmed, except for the pink snapdragon; the stem broke about four inches from the top. Erik told me to leave it and it would probably be OK, so I did…and, like a gorgeous hydra, it came back so much stronger and more beautiful. It’s actually doing better than the yellow snapdragon, which initially fared well in the wind. Feels like a metaphor! Don’t peak in high school!!

Other good things are happening: There are currently dozens of tiny green tomatoes on the Super Sweet 100 plant, which has gotten so tall, and little baby jalapeños have appeared. The beardtongue got super tall and then finally bloomed lavender flowers, immediately attracting BFFBs (big fat fuzzy/fucking bees). The nemesia is thriving—just really solid/consistent/pretty. The rose has also been quite consistent; we’ve had a lot of beautiful blooms so far. And three mushrooms have popped up, which Erik says is a sign of a healthy ecosystem. 

There have also been some losses. The ranunculus was doing well for a while and then just…decided it had had enough. Some of the radishes bolted (meaning they went to seed too quickly, probably because the soil got too hot), and the carrots, green onions, and cilantro seeds we planted have been a little hit or miss, though I think everything now is ultimately on track now. 

We also had a petunia disaster a few weeks ago. The first time I watered them, I did a half-gallon of water + a half portion of fertilizer. Everything went well, so the next time, I decided I’d do a full gallon so I didn’t have to water them again so soon. (Erik had said I could go either route with the fert.) About 15 minutes later, I heard a loud thud.

All the extra water had made the soil really heavy (duh, in hindsight, but it hadn’t occurred to me); the planter’s bottom fully broke from the extra weight, and the petunia came crashing down. It actually survived the fall so I gently transferred it to a bucket until a replacement planter arrived. It’s currently doing…okay. It’s not exactly mounting a snapdragon-style comeback just yet and looks, well…like it got bashed on one side! Overall, I’d say that the petunias have been the most fussy/hands-on plant so far, at least relative to everything else. 

Now we’re meaningfully thinking about summer plants; Erik dropped by last week and planted beans and cucumbers. I’m very excited to see how things start to change now that it’s getting warmer!

If you’re tending to plants or a garden, I’d love to hear how it’s all growing! Also if you have any suggestions for what to make with copious amounts of parsley…hit me up. 🌿

How I’m thinking about politics and despair right now

I saw someone say on BlueSky the other day that it looks like we’re heading toward another “Summer of _____.” And…yeah: Things are fucking shit in the U.S. right now, and are likely going to be bad for a while. It’s all extremely overwhelming and demoralizing, but the best course of action is, of course, to try and do something about it.

The idea of doing something can also be overwhelming! Like, what can I personally do about the likes of someone as rotten and powerful as RFK Jr.? This is why I always return to the idea of taking action at the local/state level, as that’s where so much of what meaningfully affects our day-to-day lives (not to mention actual state/federal policy, eventually) actually happens. As I wrote back in 2020: “Change isn’t limited to general election years; it happens at city council and school board meetings and late-night legislative sessions. It happens when state supreme courts decide which cases to hear and police budgets are allocated. It happens no matter who the president is, or what party controls Congress. Now is a great time to learn the names of your reps, follow local organizers and reporters, sign up for a few relevant newsletters (and make a habit of reading them), start regularly consuming your local news, and set up a few recurring donations.” 

I stand by this…but I’m very aware that focusing on your county or state can also be overwhelming, or at least just super confusing. Local politics can feel impenetrable to anyone who hasn’t been doing this full-time for the past 20 years, and there’s just so much bad stuff happening right now—everywhere, all the time, and it’s all worthy of our attention.  

So this spring, I took a similar-but-different approach that I’ve been finding quite helpful: I chose a “major” and a “minor” for myself with regard to city politics. The idea is that I’m pushing myself to go really deep on those two issues for the next several years (which is how long it takes to get anything done anyway) so that I can be truly effective. I’m still generally aware of other issues—taking my general ed classes, so to speak, which isn’t hard because everything is so interconnected—but I’m putting the bulk of my time and energy into organizing that’s happening around two core issues. 

My major is housing. If you don’t have a safe, affordable place to live, you don’t have much of anything. Housing is connected to other things I care about (public health, literacy, incarceration, homelessness, art/culture, inequality…the list goes on) so it feels like the obvious choice to me. And because there’s so much going on with housing in NYC—we need 100,000 new units, according to one estimate I read, and building them won’t be fast or cheap—I think this will keep me busy for a very long time. 

My minor is street safety. I’m a huge fan of safety in general (lol but also…it’s true) and I feel quite passionate about making New York City’s streets less deadly for pedestrians and cyclists. (This also has the added bonus of fighting climate change!) Honestly, this might turn out to be my major; I simply love to see protected bike lanes, low speed limits for vehicles, congestion pricing, Open Streets, and accessible sidewalks! And because there are a lot of members of the Seething Dork Community actively trying to shut down anything that even remotely undermines what they see as their fundamental right to mow down an elderly person with their car, there are a lot of opportunities for action here! 

I’ve joined organizing groups for each of these issues, which is helping me stay on top of what’s happening week to week and making me aware of what I can be doing in a given moment. I’m also getting an education in how things happen on a very technical level, along with what’s been going on for the past decade (or more because…everything takes so long). It’s been a very good time for this; because of the upcoming Democratic primary/mayoral election (please, for the love of god, don’t rank Cuomo!!!), lots of people are just casually chatting about, say, the specific, nitty-gritty ways a city council candidate has blocked affordable housing in their district. 

Anyway, I’ve been trudging to my community board meetings, Zooming in to City Council hearings, talking to my neighbors, and doing so much reading. (I recently learned, for example, that Community Board 1—an entirely unelected group of people—bought itself a car using a City Council grant a few years ago??? And nothing was ever really done about it? Honestly, this is one of the wildest stories I’ve heard in a minute!!!) 

I think we all know, intellectually, that getting involved is both an effective way to build the world we want to live in and a potent antidote to despair…but it’s still so easy to freeze when confronted with the sheer amount of reactionary wreckage we’re dealing with. Breaking it down into “major/minor” has been a useful practical approach for me, and is helping me feel a little bit less bad. 🕊️

Related: Where I’m getting my news these days

My go-to source for custom frames

Hanging shit on your walls is one of the easiest/most effective ways to make your space feel homey, cozy, and nice. It’s also kiiiiind of a pain to do and can quickly get very expensive. 

For a while, I was using Framebridge, which was effective but also…not cheap. The price (and overall onerous process) meant framing multiple prints was taking a while, which isn’t ideal. When Kiyana and I moved into our new apartment last year—with a lot more wall space to fill—I knew it was time to find a better option. After poking around a bit, I decided to give Frame It Easy a try. I figured I’d order one frame and see how I liked it before committing to any more. Now, 12 (!!) frames later, I’m here to sing the brand’s praises. 

All the frames on this wall except for “New York Ain’t Perfect” are from Frame It Easy

The frames on the right and the left above the desk are from Frame It Easy

You can order frames to your exact specifications, and there’s a nice selection in terms of styles, mats, and clear covers. The prices are very doable (for example, one 11 x 17” frame cost me $56) and the products are made in the U.S. And when I had to contact customer service at one point—because I was assembling everything while sitting at our kitchen bar, and I accidentally knocked a crucial piece of hardware between the counter and the stove and that thing is not coming back until we get a new stove—they were great! They accidentally sent me the wrong replacement piece the first time, but were just extremely lovely and human in terms of getting me the right one, and it was an all-around extremely pleasant experience. 

My biggest/only complaint is that there aren’t more frame styles available, and that you can’t get very small things framed (5” x 5” is the smallest option). That means that I’ll still use other sources from time to time, particularly if I want to frame something super unique or special. But when it comes to, say, buying white square frames for a couple of prints that are going to go on a gallery wall, Frame It Easy is definitely my guy. 🖼️

A flower quilt for my mom

After finishing my first and second quilt, I knew I wanted to make a quilt for my mom. My plan was to make it for Mother’s Day, and because I appreciate when the gift aligns with the theme of the holiday, I wanted to find a pattern that represented flowers in some way. I looked at a ton of different options (some of which I loved, but were not beginner friendly) before eventually settling on Then Came June’s flower tile quilt. I knew my mom (who retired from her job as an elementary school art teacher last year) would really like the bold, graphic style, and I was excited to make something that felt completely different from the two shoofly quilts I’d already made. 

Before I started making it, I ordered a lot of fabric to try and find the perfect colors that all worked well together. Kiyana suggested using blue for the flower centers, binding, and backing to make the quilt feel less Eastery, and I think it was the right choice. 

This is the first quilt I made where I truly enjoyed the entire process. Even though I had to redo several things (the diagonal corners that form the squares required a new-to-me technique, and it’s kind of fussy in terms of making sure the blocks are the correct size), I found myself surprisingly unbothered by it all. It was ultimately a very low-stress quilt, which is a huge win to me! And my mom was impressed, which is the main thing that matters. 🌼

I read all 1,200 pages of ‘The Power Broker’ and now I have beef with a dead man

You know how they say you’re never more than six feet from a spider? In New York City, I feel like you’re never more than six feet from Robert Moses.

I mean this both literally and figuratively. Here, for example, is Curbed deep dive about a project in my neighborhood that I read yesterday, where the infamous city planner comes up repeatedly. He’s also name-checked in a recent Atlantic article about abundance politics. I’ve also literally read the document Moses wrote making the case to build the apartment building I now live in. And looking at important, timely topics like congestion pricing, Open Streets, the MTA, and the current mayoral election, let me just tell you…the ghost of Robert Moses is everywhere. (If this guy had been obsessed with trains and tunnels instead of bridges and cars, we’d be living in a very different America right now!)

In both New York and across the U.S., we’re still dealing with* the negative effects of his 40-year (unelected!!!) reign, which is why The Power Broker—Robert Caro’s 1200-page Pulitzer Prize–winning accounting of Robert Moses’s life and work—was such a fascinating and infuriating read. 

I had often heard people talk about The Power Broker because of how long it is, but…no one ever really talks about how good it is! And not just good in the sense of, like, “I’m learning so much from this, it is Important,” though that is also true. But it’s really, really readable. It’s juicy! The stakes are so high and there’s endless drama, gossip, humor, and pettiness, coupled with the kind of epic narrative arcs that feel more like fiction—it really doesn’t feel like reading a history book. (My jaw actually dropped at times.) Robert Caro does an incredible job of making the case for why we all need to know this bastard’s name, and laying out just how destructive, nasty, cruel, and prolific Moses was. One of the worst people to ever do it! I initially decided to just read the intro to see if I wanted to fully commit to the book, and by the time I finished that, I was…panting. I truly couldn’t put it down. (And before you ask: Yes, Moses has replaced Samuel Pepys as my #1 historical enemy.)

Because 2024 was the fiftieth anniversary of the book’s publication, there’s been a ton of renewed interest and media coverage in it. 99% Invisible (a podcast I love!) did a multipart series on The Power Broker last year, which is definitely a worth a listen if you know in your heart that you’re never going to read the whole book. It’s very light/fun (one of the co-hosts for this miniseries used to write for The Daily Show), and does a great job of communicating the key takeaways. (At minimum, you should definitely listen to the interview they did with AOC, wherein she talks about why the federal government…is the way it is. Her interview starts at 1:51:16 and is so good and will also make you want to scream.)

One of my biggest takeaways from The Power Broker is just how much impact a single person can have. Even in a city as big and as complicated as New York, it’s increasingly evident to me that a few loud NIMBYs with a bone to pick can stall progress for years. And yeah, Robert Moses didn’t do what he did alone…but the book was just a stark reminder that, for better or for worse, people built the world we live in, and people can change it. 

Some related content:

• I’ve really been enjoying The War on Cars podcast. (I loved the free parking, Tesla, and Rick Steves episodes!) 

• I recently picked up City Limits: Infrastructure, Inequality, and the Future of America's Highways from the library. I also have Jane Jacobs and Wrestling With Moses in the queue.

• “Can Andy Byford Save the Subways?” I remember reading this in the New Yorker when it was published, but I re-read it after finishing TPB. And now, just this week…Andy Byford is back! 

• “The Most Expensive Mile of Subway Track on Earth,” from a three-part Times series on the failures of the MTA. 

• Streetsblog is a great resource if you care about what’s happening in terms of transportation policy; I read the NYC edition daily and it’s very in the weeds (in a good way!) about what is currently happening. 🛣️

*Here’s a very salient example: The Second Avenue Subway comes up a few times in 'The Power Broker;' it was first proposed in 1920 and is mentioned toward the end of the book as something that the city still “desperately” needs (so, in the 1970s). I was curious what ever happened with it so I decided to look it up…and discovered that only the first three stations and two miles of track on the line have been completed to date, and this only happened in…2017.

‘Death Becomes Her’ is everything I want in a Broadway musical

Our friend Ryan came to stay with us last week, and one of the items on the agenda for her visit was the Death Becomes Her musical on Broadway. It was my second time seeing the show, and I already want to see it again. If you’re in New York City—or just near enough to take a weekend trip here—I highly, highly recommend it! It’s campy, stupid (in the best way!), and just a really goddamn good time. 

I saw the show for the first time right before New Year’s, when I won the ticket lottery. I had seen the movie, but I went in knowing literally nothing about the musical or what to expect. And I was surprised and delighted at every bit of it. 

The music? Fantastic, catchy, so funny. The stunts and staging? Excellent, clever, perfect. The cast? Well, this is actually a Megan Hilty stan account now, and I just loved Christopher Sieber in it. (His Act II solo is probably my favorite number in the show, but it’s honestly very hard to choose a favorite.) 

Death Becomes Her is the rare adaptation that a) is extremely faithful to the source material, b) somehow manages to improve on the source material, and c) stands on its own as a unique and complete piece of media. (The Devil Wears Prada movie is the only other thing I can think of that completed this triumvirate.) 

You really don’t need to have seen the movie to have a good time, but if you’re not familiar with the story, the (very) basic plot is that two lifelong frenemies drink a potion that promises eternal youth and beauty, and makes them immortal…but it doesn’t protect them from, say, sustaining catastrophic injuries (without actually dying), so they essentially turn into hot, falling-apart zombies. 

It was really interesting to see Death Becomes Her right around the same time I saw The Substance and the Sunset Boulevard revival; it felt like the three were in conversation with each other (the theme being “woman turns 50, develops psychosis”). 

Like, here’s Megan Hilty singing a song that contains the lyrics “I gotta nip, and tuck, and fill, and freeze / And Restylane the lips and Juvederm the knees / Fix the bits, lift the tits, try to hard the scaaaaaars” and “Wrinkled, wrinkled little star / Remind them who the FUCK you are,” fully belting and sounding like a villain during Disney’s golden era (compliment!!!): 

I really can’t say enough great things about Megan Hilty’s performance—she’s so good. (When we saw she show last week, we found out once we were in our seats that her understudy was actually going on, and it was, respectfully…not the same show without Megan!) I loved her so much in this, in fact, that I went back and watched the first season of Smash, the truly awful 2012 TV series about the making of a fictional musical about Marilyn Monroe (that was recently adapted for Broadway…it’s honestly all too meta, I can’t even get into it here). 

While we’re on the topic of the thea-tuh, here are some stray thoughts on other shows:

• The Cabaret revival is very good; I thought Orville Peck was great in it!

• I saw Oh, Mary! twice before it transferred to Broadway and hope it sweeps the Tonys. Absolutely loved it.

• Yeah, I’m planning to see BOOP! at some point! So sue me!!! 🎭

May library book haul

Going to the library never fails to thrill me. Like, I just get to take these books…for free? Incredible! And given all the vital functions libraries perform and all the ways conservatives (and some dumbass liberals) are attacking libraries right now, it’s especially important to support them as much as possible.  

One of my favorite things about the New York Public Library is that when your requested books become available, they’ll transport them to your “home” library, so you don’t even have to go across town to pick them up. Again: This is all free of charge! In this economy! It’s amazing! (Related: Please enjoy this video of the NYPL’s book train in action.) 

Anyway, here’s what I had waiting for me this morning:

The Bean Book. A couple weeks ago, I found myself wondering if there was a good cookbook devoted entirely to beans…preferably fancy but not fussy preparations. Kiyana mentioned that Rancho Gordo might have something, and she was right—and this is one of the brand’s cookbooks. Given how much I like Steve Sando’s beans on toast recipe (that’s a gift link, btw), I have high hopes.

How to Seal Your Own Fate. This is the sequel to a cozy mystery I read a couple months ago, How to Solve Your Own Murder. To be honest, the first one wasn’t amazing, but it was also fine. (I think I read it in its entirety during a long hair appointment.) But to me, this is the exact type of book to get from the library! 

The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power. I generally prefer to read non-fiction but I’ve been in kind of a slow period lately. I can’t remember how I came across this book, but I think I’m going to love it. (As much as you can love a book that’s about an infuriating topic anyway.) 

Also, as I was leaving the library, I got a notification from Libby that the e-book edition of The Berry Pickers was also available for me. This one is a little out of my wheelhouse (I don’t love straight-up fiction) so we’ll see how it goes!

And when it rains it pours…because I’m actually in the middle of reading The Power Broker right now. (More on this another day…this book has become my new personality.) It’s 1200 pages long, so it’s definitely taking up my entire brain, but I’m currently on page 900 and really blasting through it because it’s so, so good, so I think I’ll be done by next week and then I can start on the others.

What are you all reading lately? Anything good? 📚

Growing a terrace garden in NYC (part I)

When Kiyana and I started apartment hunting last year, our biggest non-negotiable was some kind of outdoor space, as that is functionally the only way we can socialize because of my weak immune system. We didn’t have major expectations for what this space would look like or even how big it would be…we just wanted something. We ended up getting really, really lucky: We found a place with a large terrace and an incredible view of downtown Manhattan. (The trade-off was that the interior of the apartment was aesthetically….challenged. More on that some other time!) We’ve been slowly adding furniture to the terrace since moving in last summer, but we knew that this was the year we would really start making something of it…which meant getting plants. 

I started doing research in earnest in March…and was immediately very, very overwhelmed. Gardening is science, and though I successfully grew tomatoes and basil at our old place, the flowers also fried. Figuring out what would grow 200+ feet in the air with our exact lighting and wind conditions was pretty intimidating, and I didn’t want to put a ton of effort into something that was ultimately destined to fail.  

While poking around on Reddit, I came across a website called the Gnome Network, which connects New Yorkers with plant professionals. I posted an ad describing that I was looking for (basically just some guidance/direction on what would grow well up here—and what we should avoid—to increase our chances of success). I got a lot of responses and we were ultimately able to find someone (Erik) who turned out to be a great fit; he’s just getting his solo landscaping and consulting business started, and he immediately understood what we were hoping to do. 

A few days after our initial conversation, Erik came over to see the terrace in person and learn more about what we were hoping to grow; the type of planters we wanted to use (e.g., we were hoping to make use of the two big pots we had at our last apartment); and where we’d ideally like to place them. Kiyana and I were hoping for a mix of flowers, herbs, and vegetables, but weren’t married to anything in particular and really just wanted plants that would grow. 

The next step was observing the light, which ended up being a really fun task. Basically, I set an alarm to go off every hour and then popped outside to see what the sun was getting up to. It was fascinating and also kind of beautiful—I loved it seeing how exactly the light moves hour by hour! I took photos and made detailed notes, and then sent my full report to Erik. A few days later, he sent over a doc with all of his recommendations. Turns out, even though our terrace is fully in the shade until nearly 2 p.m. every day, we get enough hours of afternoon sunlight to be able to grow a lot. 

Then came planting day! Kiyana and I had initially planned to DIY it, but we liked working with Erik so much that we decided to have him take the lead and I’m really glad we did; he brought so much expertise and even just watching exactly how he watered everything was helpful. We learned so much from working with him that we simply would never have figured out on our own. (He also just has a great vibe!! We had a lot of fun chatting with him.) 

Here’s everything we’re starting with in our garden:

• Ranunculus 

• Peruvian lily

• Nemesia

• Threaded coreopsis

• Beard-tongue

• Snapdragons 

• Nasturtium 

• Lettuce! Buttercrunch, red oakleaf, summer crisp magenta, and encore mix

• Herbs: Chives, Italian parsley, lavender, English thyme, oregano, and cilantro

• Carrots

• Radishes

• Green onions

• Costoluto Genovese tomatoes

• Super Sweet 100 tomatoes 

(You can see more of the progress in the TikTok above. Also I am now on TikTok!)

The plan is that we’ll make some swaps in June/July—at that point, it’ll be too hot for a lot of these plants to continue to grow, so we’ll replace them with summer veggies. We’ll also be adding a climbing rose and some hanging baskets with petunias (!!) in a few weeks, once it gets a little bit warmer, and we’ll transfer the tomatoes into their permanent pots. I’m also getting a plant stand to go under the flower pots to elevate them slightly, and we still need to hang up string lights. 

Just planning this garden was a huge mood-booster, and actively tending to it for the past couple of weeks has brought me so much joy. All of the plants are thriving, and it’s really amazing to see how much they can grow and change from one day to the next, and even from morning to afternoon. The radishes and carrots—which, along with the green onions and cilantro, we’re growing from seeds—have started to poke through the dirt, and blossoms have appeared on the nasturtium and Peruvian lily. We’ve also been sitting outside a lot in the evenings to watch the sunset and then stargaze, two activities I love. (Lately we’ve been able to see Jupiter and Mars pretty reliably!) We still haven’t harvested anything edible yet…honestly, it feels crazy at this point to be like “I’m going to pick and munch my friends.” 🌱

Some Mother's Day and Father's Day gift ideas

When it comes to smaller holidays, I really like letting the theme inspire the gifts; for example, I love a Valentine’s Day present that also happens to be pink, red, or lavender. For Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, I’m all about pretty, springy things that either nod to or inspire time spent in a backyard or garden. (And yes, I’m putting moms and dads into a single list, because I’ve personally always found the way that gifts for the two are gendered to be extremely alienating! Some moms like to grill and some dads like flowers!!!) 

So if you’re hunting for something to give each of your parents (or the parent of your kids, or honestly whoever) for Mother’s Day/Father’s Day, here are some ideas that I hope will spark something!

Nocs zoom tube

I’ve been gifted several pairs of Nocs by the brand over the years and wholeheartedly recommend them; they are very nice starter binoculars that don’t feel like heavy-duty “gear.” I’m a fan of the singular zoom tube ($75), which can easily be tucked in a jacket pocket on a morning walk for impromptu birding.

Tree Finder and Flower Finder

I love these classic paperback books, which were first published in 1955. Both are currently $5.53 from Bookshop: Tree Finder and Flower Finder. (I also think they’d pair so nicely with the Nocs zoom tube!) 

Fellow travel mug

After drinking coffee out of a standard mug for my entire adult life, I’ve seen the light: An insulated vessel keeps coffee so much hotter (especially if you’re a slow sipper, like I am) and has improved my quality of life considerably! When people stay with us, they always comment on how nice these Fellow mugs are, and we’ve gifted them to a few people (including Kiyana’s mom). Also, the Fellow’s splash guard really works! It comes in several different colors; get one from Fellow or Amazon for $35.

Devotions by Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver just writes so beautifully about nature, and reading this anthology while sitting in a park or on the beach is pretty sublime. Get the hardcover for $29 from Bookshop. 

Toyo steel toolbox

I actually have two of these—a smaller one ($44 at the Container Store or $35 from Amazon) that I use for actual tools, and the bigger cantilevered one ($135 at the Container Store or $129 from Amazon), which Kiyana gave me for Valentine’s Day to use as a sewing box. I love the bigger one—it’s really practical, and the creamy white is quite striking. (Note: If you are willing to do some Googling, you can find additional color options across retailers!) 

Cadence toiletry kit

I own and love these customizable magnetic toiletry containers, which are ostensibly for travel but are also great for other forms of storage. (For example, when I was juggling a bunch of different meds, I used mine to mete out doses and keep track of what I’d already taken.) You can choose any combination of colors, adjust the sizes, and have labels made or keep them neutral. The bottles are leakproof, easy to clean after a trip, and just genuinely very convenient. A seven-piece set of 1.32-ounce containers is $168 from Cadence.

Meyer lemon phone wristlet

Kiyana gave me one of these cases along with two different beaded cords for Christmas last year and they bring me so much joy; I use them whenever we’re going out to do something that feels a little fancy. There are a bunch of different styles, but I’m partial to the fruits. Get the strawberry cord + case for $75 or the Meyer lemon cord + case for $110 from Ossa. 

Wingspan board game

I’ve been extolling the pleasures of this game for years and actually taught Tom and Danny to play when we saw them earlier this month. (They loved it and bought it for themselves immediately.) It’s so mellow—it has beautiful art, and is just a treat to play. Get it from Stonemaier Games for $59. (Note: I’ve heard of people accidentally buying counterfeit versions on Amazon, so I’d recommend buying directly from Stonemaier or at a local game store.) 

Crepe paper flowers

Flowers are a classic Mother’s Day gift, and I love a version that will last for years. I have tulips (in the living room) and peonies in the bedroom, and both bouquets are really beautiful! (The peonies actually look real at a glance.) A set of three tulips is $76 from floresparasiempre on Etsy, and the shop offers a bunch of other flower options as well. 

Popsmith popcorn maker

I never really cared about stovetop popcorn—I’ve always been fine with a bag of Orville Redenbacher—until I was sent a Popsmith to try out few years ago. The popcorn is delicious (I recommend getting the popping kits—they are worth it), and the process of making it feels like an event (in a good way!). The starter bundle is $213 from Popsmith or $249 from Amazon. (Note: It comes in three colors; I have the cream one and I think it’s really pretty.)

Stanley water bottle

I’ve already made my feelings on this water bottle known! Get it from Amazon or Stanley for $35.

Moccamaster 53921 KBGV Select 10-Cup Coffee Maker

If you’re willing/able to really splurge, this coffee maker is pretty life-changing; it simply makes the best (and fastest!) cup of drip coffee I’ve ever had. It’s also really aesthetically pleasing and available in several colors. I actually bought my mom one on Black Friday as a Christmas last year because she kept talking about how good our coffee was when she visited. Ranges from $319–$380 from Amazon, Williams-Sonoma, and Moccamaster.

That’s all I’ve got, but let me know what you’re gifting this year! 🌷