I can claim Cutter status. I spent time across the Midwest growing up, and I reclaimed townie status after returning to Bloomington for my undergraduate education.

Many a time, there’s food to be found and shared. Free lunch anyone?

Most seasons you can find me in my garden. It depends on the season what work is getting done and on my to-do list. Right now, it’s all about the soil, landscaping prep, and waiting for the final season’s freeze warnings to end to begin planting. Peak summer is all about harvest and processing food. I make my own pesto and marinara sauce to freeze, we ferment cucumbers for pickles, make hot pepper jelly, and make all sorts of summer salad variations with our crops. In the winter, I process my dried herbs and crush dried hot pepper varieties, which are a pantry staple in our cuisine.

They are meals or snacks from long-gone establishments that I’ll never be able to recreate or eat again.

1. Scones from Red Chair Bakery (though I’ve heard a local rumor Inkwell has their baked goods recipes, which come very close to the original)
2. The Pestato burrito from Laughing Planet with their salsa verde (really anything from Laughing Planet)
3. Pimento Mac N Cheese from (the original) Sweet Grass

My husband and I had planned to begin raising chickens. The timing turned out to be that we started raising chickens during a global pandemic, when even the local chick supply was running low, if you can believe it. In the mad rush to bring home our new flock prior to the world shutting down, we were gifted with a rooster … although I did not know it was a rooster until six months later. My husband won’t let me rehome him, even though I ask on an annual basis if his mind has changed on the matter. I’m counting down the years to the rooster’s demise; he can live up to six years, and because of the pandemic, I know exactly how old our flock is. We will be raising another flock of chicks this summer. I’m hoping the rooster adjusts to the new additions. My husband picked our new breed additions because one of them is more accurate for knowing early on if they are male/female to avoid any extra unexpected roosters in the run.

P.S. He’s not a nice rooster and the amount of near death escapes he’s had thus far makes me believe he will live longer than his expected lifespan just to spite me.

Art that I have collected from my friends and family, or they’ve graciously gifted, which I display in my home and am able to wear in cooler months. This ranges from mediums across fiber art wall installations, fiber art loom-woven scarves and shawls, photography, handmade quilts, and original art.

Witches can be right
Giants can be good
You decide what’s right
You decide what’s good

--From the song “No One is Alone” by Stephen Sondheim from the Broadway musical Into the Woods