Quote of the day: Thanksgiving edition

"Even the compost looks beautiful today." 

- Mom remarking on the cranberry- and apple-peel-studded
assortment waiting to be taken out to the bin

I grew something!

Azalea is blooming!

I got an azalea for my birthday back in May. I don't really do house plants, mostly because I've been moving a lot over the past couple years and plants are hard to move. And the mint plant I had brought back from the Hollywood farmers' market was quickly adopted by my roommate at the time who, with good reason, was afraid if she didn't water it that it would die. 

She assumed the same with the birthday azalea, and it promptly shriveled with the deadly combination of too much water and too much direct sunshine. And it's been barely breathing ever since.

I thought I would kill it when I moved in August, but it survived — though it was still very scraggly-looking. I decided to bring it to Montauk with me to see if I could nurse it back to health, and, look, a bloom! I leave Montauk today to head back to my parents' house in South Carolina for the holidays, so hopefully the ride home won't stress it too much. Yay for growing things!

Plastic Beach

Apropos art in Share With...

Saturday, I stopped into Share With..., one of my favorite shops in Montauk. Share With... is a small store that boasts sustainable, recycled, handmade, local and eco-friendly products. I snapped the photo above when I was there once earlier in October, but this time I got to ask about this "Plastic Beach" art, made from plastic lighter casings, and I was told that "Plastic Beach" is actually the name of a company that sells jewelry pieces at the store — made from plastic found on the beach, of course.

I've been trying to find out more about this Plastic Beach group via web search with no success. I knew they didn't have a website, but the guy in the shop assured me I'd be able to find out more about them if I did a Google search. But I keep getting results that send me over to the Gorillaz, who have a new album out by the same name, instead. Interesting video — check it.

I've been thinking a lot about what I should be doing with all this plastic I'm collecting from the beach. I recycle what I can, of course, but it seems like a shame to send the bits that can't be recycled into the landfill. It occurred to me during a bike ride a few weeks ago (along a stretch of highway littered with even more plastic stuff) that maybe I could start making something beautiful from it. Art, jewelry, etc. I'm glad to see others, like these Plastic Beach designers, are already doing this. And here is more artful inspiration from a couple who has been doing this sort of thing for years.

Share With... does not have a website either, but here is a nice writeup from the East Hampton Star.

Sometimes nature amazes me.

Like tonight when I was turning out the lights to go to sleep and there was a glow coming from beneath the floor-length curtains so bright that I thought I must have left a light on outside. It is the moon. Beautiful, full, amazing.