But it's time to get back to this thing. Right now, I'm looking out my window to a coming thunderstorm, a regular thing on a Georgia summer afternoon. There have been a lot of developments in the Van Wyk household in the past months. One of the biggest: David (the husband) has decided to quit his high school teaching job and go full-time with knifemaking, something I've probably only barely mentioned that he does. The decision sounds crazy, but it actually isn't. Bloodroot has become more and more viable over the past months. He and Luke have received some pretty good press -- Southern Living, Food and Wine, Martha Stewart Living -- which has been really exciting to watch. All that press came from one submission I made last summer to Design Sponge, a blog I read daily and love. They feature design work by established and new artists and artisans (difference?). About four days after I emailed them, Luke and David were on Design Sponge, in all their glory. I almost crapped my pants. And the next day, they started getting emails from magazines (the ones mentioned above). So, that all happened. We're just watching it, jaws on the floor. Which makes it hard to walk around.
In other news, I have one more year of my PhD, which means I'm working on my dissertation. But to make that even more exciting/complicated, I got a job teaching high school English here in town. Which means that David and I don't have to move. If you're in academia, you know that to get a professorship, you really have to be willing to move anywhere in the country (world). As David and I became more and more established in Athens, that sounded less and less attractive. We would have had to move our dogs and chickens across U.S., like the Clampetts, probably several times. I'm not 22 anymore. I used to like being mobile. Now, I like my garden. So, I'll be teaching and finishing my dissertation simultaneously, like a super hero.
Pictured above:
Cosmos in bloom - all volunteers from last year. Those suckers reseed like crazy.
The garlic harvest
My first year growing nasturtiums
Tomatoes and peppers, thinking about ripening. With all this rain, they'll probably be thinking about it for awhile.
Stella in the garden
Sleepy Ivy
David, knife contemplation
I'm learning how to knit!!
