The Tangled Nest

Hi, Tom here… Lyanda’s away on a writing retreat so I am hijacking her blog for a few days.

In Seattle it’s a snow day–we are having our annual “snowpocalypse,” when a few inches of snow completely shuts down the city and sends cars skidding into the curbs and children flocking into the unfamiliar white stuff.

The snow is not just unfamiliar to our children; this afternoon I went to check on the chickens and found them completely flummoxed by it. They had managed to make it out the coop door onto a branch in the run, but were totally unwilling to put their feet down into the scary cold white stuff. It was two PM, and the entire coop was covered with a virgin, untouched layer of snow, more than six hours after dawn.

Ethel was brave enough to fly over to a box, where I found her pacing back and forth, unsure what to do next.

Watching for a while I saw their technique for getting across the coop without having to put a foot into the snow. Crafty!

Even after I pushed the snow aside, they remained completely unwilling to come off their perch. Bird brains!

4 PM update: they are still on the branch. How do your chickens handle the snow?

Winter is considered a time of quiet and hibernation, and often we wait until spring to think about viewing birds and other creatures. But the cold of winter increases the energetic need of wild animals, sending them out to seek food at all hours of the day.  It’s one of the best times to watch for urban-wild encounters.  Just a few of the visitors to our little yard at the Tangled Nest these days:
We’ve had lots of Varied Thrushes this year.  Today a Sharp-shinned Hawk rushed through and caught one in the bushes by the back fence, then stood under the cherry and began to “exfoliate” the thrush before flying away with it in her talons!  I wish my photographer husband was here to capture that!  I found myself wondering why the hawk couldn’t have settled for one of the gajillions of starlings in the neighborhood, instead of “my” beautiful thrush.
I do not maintain an arsenal of birdfeeders (I’m too lazy to keep them as clean as they should be…), but I do love the few little window feeders in my study that bring birds within a few inches of my face as I sit at my desk and write.  In the autumn and winter, flocks of bushtits crowd onto the suet feeder, creating giant “bushtit balls,” up to 50 at one time. “Cuteness Overload,” as my teen daughter says.

We call this male Anna’s hummingbird “Old Man.”  He sits on a branch by the feeder on our porch, eats, then sits some more, as if on a park bench, watching the world go by.
The other day I stepped out to gather the mail, and was hit with a barrage of crow scolding.  There was a squirrel sitting on a branch near the crows, but surely that couldn’t have been the problem?  No, in fact the squirrel itself was scolding something.  Even a little Anna’s hummingbird was upset.  I felt very unobservant when I finally looked down to notice, almost right at my feet, the young raccoon that was exploring my front yard.  When I said “hello,” he looked up at me, came closer, and looked up some more.  The spell was broken when my cat Delilah got out, and I ran to get her (I had no worries that this little raccoon would hurt my cat, but Delilah is not supposed to go out!).  It is a common myth that raccoons seen during the day are rabid; here in the Pacific Northwest there is no rabies (except very rarely in bats–never in squirrels, raccoons, etc.), and there are all kinds of reasons raccoons might be out in daylight.  In summer and autumn, adult female raccoons will be out all day seeking food for their young of the year, either alone, or with the baby raccoons.  And adolescent raccoons, who are inexperienced and so have a harder time feeding themselves, are often out alone in daylight, but especially in winter when meals are more difficult to come by.  Distracted by Delilah’s escape, I didn’t manage to get this fuzzy iphone photo until the raccon was loping away, and under the fence into the backyard where my chickens were running loose!–locking them up was my next stop, but by that time he had completely disappeared, as raccoons do…

Who is visiting your urban-wild home these winter days?

A guest post from Tom:

How many states did you visit in 2011? Countries? How much do you weigh? What piece of music are you currently practicing? What magazines do you read? How many Facebook friends do you have?

I recently ran across a journal I kept in 2008-09. On January 2, 2009 there is a brief list of data points about our family at that time, and looking back at it is so much fun that I’m sharing the idea. Now is the perfect season to capture a brief snapshot of meaningful personal data, to be revisited in future years.

In the last decade a whole set of tools has emerged that allow us to obsessively track our personal data, share it online, and be voyeurs to the data streams of others. In fact it’s become almost expected that we share our personal data as a form of social bonding–don’t we all have friends obsessively posting about the food they eat, how far they jogged, or their Spotify music preferences on Facebook and Twitter? (Please… just… stop!)

Perhaps we have Nicholas Felton to thank–he serves as the grandmaster geek in this department, each year publishing a lavishly designed “Annual Report” of personal data that makes for fascinating reading, in an Edward-Tufte-Meets-Rainman kind of way. (And he now works at Facebook, which probably comes as no surprise!)

Our little annual family census is handwritten and personal and much less sophisticated, and we don’t keep it up all year, a once-annual check-in is enough. If you want to give it a try, here are a few suggested questions and categories.  In general, focus on data that will change over time, and are easy to capture. Personally I just pick a date (January 1!) and take a quick data snapshot, even if I know that I’m about to change the data by paying off a credit card or receiving the last magazine in a subscription.

Basic household data. What’s the big picture? Try to think beyond just numbers, and find data that will be meaningful to future-you.

• Current address
• Checking and savings account balance(s)
• Retirement account balance(s)
• Mortgage balance or current rent
• Credit card balance(s)
• Car mileage(s)
• Current salary
• Current pets
• Newest appliance
• Wifi network’s name
• Last major household repair
• Last overnight guest

Personal data. Pick whatever makes sense to you. Again, try to dig a little beyond just the numbers. For example:

• Weight of each family member
• Height of each child
• Child’s current GPA
• Telephone number(s) of household members
• Email address(es) of household members
• Number of Facebook friends or Twitter followers
• Most recent Facebook friend
• Last person or family you shared a meal with in a restaurant
• Last person you talked to on the phone for 15 minutes or more
• Oldest living relative
• Youngest relative

Cultural choices. These definitely change over time and give an interesting window into our past. For example:

• Current favorite food, movie, television show, song, album
• Last movie you saw
• Last concert you attended
• Last game you played (with whom?)
• Tickets you are currently holding (travel, concert, show, etc)
• Magazines subscribed to
• Last blog you commented on (hint hint!)
• Musical piece(s) that any family musicians are currently practicing
• Favorite restaurant meal last year
• Newest toy you acquired
• Last city you visited

As more and more culture moves online, this category can also include a lot of data culled from your various accounts, for example:

• Next three films in Netflix queue
• Top three items on Amazon wishlist
• Last website you bookmarked
• Your last three Facebook status updates or tweets
• Last text message you sent or received
• Last three debit transactions

Aspirational data. These are data points for things you intend or hope to change. If you keep meaning to fill your house with more house plants, capture “Number of houseplants.” If you want to learn more juggling tricks, then capture “Most difficult juggling trick I can do.” (In my case I am firmly plateaued at Mill’s Mess!)

Looking back at the data I captured in January 2009, I’m reminded that we had a trip to Cancun to look forward to, as well as tickets to see David Sedaris that winter, and that Lyanda was working on Suzuki Volume 1, song 14 in her nascent effort to learn violin, while Claire had not yet started the cello. Lyanda wasn’t yet on Facebook, and I only owned three bicycles. Boy, how times have changed!

Happy new year.

…Peace to all creatures. Thank you for sharing The Tangled Nest this year.

There is usually a spray of orange silk tulips at the base of my bike’s saddle. Not a lot, just a little touch of flower-ness. For this season, there are  bells and berries on the handlebars.  Such things look pretty and make me happy, but I’ve been completely astonished at how much conversation and delight they inspire in others–in a city where bicycle laws and “rights” continue to be controversial, this simple act brings an unexpected amount of bicycle goodwill.  Though my bike is not vintage,  it is a classic mixte frame, and that in itself invites a fair bit of discussion when I am out and about, but not nearly as much as the flowers.  When I have  flowers on my bike, people smile, wave, and even call out, “Lovely bike!”  And I cannot count how many times, just because of the flowers, people that pass while I am at a bicycle rack have paused and said to me, “I have a bike I almost never ride, but now I’m thinking…”  Sometimes I hear, “I would ride more if my bike was that pretty,” and I respond, “Everyone can have flowers on their bike.”  A simple celebration of soulful transportation.

Most people ate turkey on Thanksgiving.  Us?  We came home from the holiday feast with a live chicken.

Last May, our older chickens went into Urban Chicken Retirement at my Uncle Joe’s farm in Maple Valley.  We’ve taken our aging flocks there in the past, where they  nibble away their golden years in wide sun-dappled meadows with horses as friends.  This year, since our chickens came to the farm, Joe has lost two cats and three of our four chickens, presumably to coyotes!  When we arrived for Thanksgiving festivities, we learned that the only chicken left happened to be our favorite-ever chicken, Marigold the Buff Orpington (of the famous Chicken Walk).  She was doing what any of us would do after seeing our colleagues picked off one by one by a toothed predator–she was hiding in a box in the barn, and hardly ever came out.

Joe's farm has a beautiful old barn and outbuildings.

Next to Marigold's box--another dusty treasure. Maybe I'll use this to finish the book I'm writing!

Marigold's Hiding From Coyote Box.

Poor Marigold! We didn’t think twice–we picked her up, dusty barn-box and all, and took her home.

It took a few days for everyone to work out the new pecking order, and we watched over them carefully as Marigold integrated with the existing flock, but now they are happy together, and Marigold is back to her old tricks.  She’s taught the other chickens how to climb up on the porch and peck at the back door for attention.

Introducing a new chicken takes several days, sometimes more. But it's usually safe to put them together in the roost after they are settled in the dark.

Ethel the Barred Rock was particularly disgruntled at first.

One happy chicken-family.

Urban chicken keeping is great for fresh eggs, sure, but sometimes it’s just a matter of the heart.  Welcome home Marigold.

One of the most lamentable things about the corporate takeover of the winter holidays is the co-optation of gift-giving.  Presents under the tree have become synonymous with obscene mobs at Walgreens and Best Buy. In an effort to separate ourselves from that scene, many of us seeking a simple, authentic season have declared “no gift” holidays.  But here at the Tangled Nest we believe in a middle way.  For hundreds of years before Christmas was on the calendar, Europeans celebrated the return of light at the Solstice by sharing gifts–an expression of the beautifully human realization that simple gifts freely given can lift the spirit, and that in the long dark of winter, a little spirit-lifting is essential. We want to re-claim the “sanctity of giving,” and follow our natural heart’s impulse this season by sharing gifts that are simple, beautiful, useful. Here are some of our favorites.

Arts and Crafts

Etsy We are big supporters of cottage industry–those who step outside of the corporate world to support their households through their own art, craft, pen, or wits.  That’s why we love Etsy – an amazing online marketplace where you can get lost for hours perusing arts, crafts, prints, vintage, and more. (It’s also cool to see the videos that our friends Mike and Riley made for them).

20X200 and Thumbtack Press These online galleries (and others) offer original art for $20 (and more). 20X200 in particular sends great emails several times a week offering 8X10-size prints in an edition of 200 for $20 each (hence the name) (also larger sizes). We’ve given several as gifts–they come with a signed artist card.

Fountain Pens.  Inspire a letter-, novel-, poetry-, or diary-writer with a beautiful fountain pen and a bottle of ink.  See Lyanda’s post for suggestions on giving fountain pens as gifts.

Alchemy Goods A pick from Tom: This Seattle company upcycles bicycle inner tubes into a stylish line of bags and accessories – 182,000 inner tubes recycled so far!

Homemade! As you know, we’re crafty and we like to make homemade gifts. Peruse the blog for earlier posts on beautiful homemade gift ideas like:

• Handmade wooden knitting needles or a knit scarf with ruffles
• A fleece-covered hot rice bag for cold evenings (by far the most popular Tangled Nest post ever!–a reader suggested making mini-rice bags as handwarmers, and we plan to sew up a bunch of those this month)
• Simple hand-knit hats
• Some of the beautiful homemade jam you put up
• And to wrap it all up, a simple drawstring gift bag

Clothing

Baby Gear Friend of a friend Heather runs Rain or Shine Kids, which offers great baby blankets, bibs, and accessories for rain or shine. For the toddler crowd, Pigtail Pals is on a mission to “redefine girly” with their printed t-shirts and apparel for girls, while Toto Knits is hand-knit children’s wear from Kenya.

Betabrand Hip clothing made in small batches in San Francisco – we’ve been a fan of this company since they were simply making Cordarounds, their unique horizontal corduroys. (No Tom, we’re not getting you a disco hoodie!) Slightly pricey but very cool.

Food and Garden

A Mushroom Kit These kit come ready to fruit mushrooms of various varieties, and are great for kids or adults. Several vendors sell them, including Back To The Roots, who will donate a kit to a school if you post a photo on their Facebook page, and Fungi Perfecti, the business run near Olympia Washington by mushroom evangelist (and author) Paul Stamets.

Heirloom Seeds Purchased at your garden store, bought online, or just shared in the form of a gift certificate for the gardener, seeds bring a little ray of summer sunshine into the darkest season of the year.

Vacu Vin Wine Stoppers Possibly the best stocking stuffer ever. There’s only one wine drinker in our house, so we almost always have an open bottle of wine. Pop in a stopper, pump out (most of) the air in the bottle, and the oxidation of the wine is slowed considerably, making a bottle last two or three extra days.

Gourmet Finishing Salt It’s fun to be a salt nerd.  Yes, your taste buds really can tell if your roasted asparaus has been finished with a French Fleur de Sel, or a gorgeous pink Australian Murray River salt. Available at most upscale grocery stores (or in Seattle visit the amazing Tenzing Momo in Pike Place Market).

Spork.  There are lots of fancy carry-along utensil sets out there, designed to help avoid using throwaway plastic.  But all you really need is a spork, and this titanium version works much better than the bamboo sporks, pretty as they are.  Wrap it in a small cloth napkin. (Tangentially, we are also huge fans of Seattle’s hard rock marching band The Titanium Sporkestra).

And of course, we make lots of extra jam, cookies, fudge, and spiced nuts to package up pretty and share with friends and neighbors.

Books

Crow Planet! Because David Sedaris calls it “A completely charming and informative book on the pleasures of keeping one’s eyes open.” And if you can’t trust David Sedaris for your book recommendations, then who can you trust?! (Tom notes that Lyanda’s Rare Encounters With Ordinary Birds paperback is also a great stocking stuffer for bird- or  nature-lovers)

Also, if you email Lyanda your address before December 19, she’ll send you (or whomever) a custom-signed bookmark to put inside the book you’re gifting. Include the name if you want it personalized.

Poetry. Lyanda loves the pocket-sized Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets Series from Random House, and keeps the small volume of Keats in her bicycle’s saddle bag.  These books are beautifully produced, and the poems nicely selected.  Instead of mypopically tuning into a handheld “device” while in line at the PO, we can pull out a little poetry.  Try the Keats, Walt Whitman, and Emily Dickinson volumes.

Other books we liked this year include Just Enough, Singing To The Plants, The Wayfinders, and Making It from our friends Kelly and Eric at the Root Simple blog. (Tom asked Lyanda to suggest a novel and her reply was “I haven’t read a new novel, I’ve read old novels. I like those pretty new Penguin Classics editions. I re-read Jane Eyre, and Middlemarch.” Which leaves it to Tom to recommend William Gibson and John LeCarré)

Music

Current favorites at the Tangled Nest include:
Brandi Carlile Live at Benaroya Hall Lyanda and Claire were in the audience for this CD, so of course we recommend it (it’s also great, and captures the energy of her live show).

Emerson Quartet: The Art of the Fugue Lyanda’s taken up violin and gotten a little obsessed with the Emerson Quartet. She loves this album’s interpretation of the Bach fugues, and has taken to saying things like “I think Drucker used his Zyg for that album rather than his Strad,” as if everyone should know what that means.

Gillian and Dave in 2009, photo by Tom

Gillian Welch: Harrow and the Harvest We catch Gillian and Dave every time they come to town, and we’re overjoyed they finally put out this great album after a long break. (Here they are singing The Way It Goes from the album.)

Rachel Lyn Harrington: Celilo Falls Rachel is our friend and she’s also a star! This album is awesome and is getting named on lots of Best of 2011 lists.

Greensky Bluegrass: Handguns This summer we were introduced to this great band, and they just released a new album. We’re not big fans of the album title, but we love the music. (Watch this Greensky concert free online)

The Goat Rodeo Sessions Tom learned about this blend of classical and bluegrass when he saw the NPR Tiny Desk Concert online. He’s hoping for it under the tree!

Free downloads Tom’s a big jam band hippie and is partial to the endless free downloads at Archive.org. Download a show and make a CD for someone you love! (There’s lots of Greensky Bluegrass to download – here’s a great show we saw.)

Give Experiences or Donations Instead of Things

We like giving experiences that can be shared together, and supporting charities.

Tickets for live music Tickets can be wrapped in a card or tucked in a stocking but Tom thinks the true spirit of Christmas lies in surprises and misdirection, and advocates using the largest box possible. With something heavy inside. Like a brick. And great tickets to a great show!

A Coupon Book With hand-made coupon books, only your imagination and generosity is the limit. Will you give your partner a coupon for a half hour massage? A ninety minute massage? A weekly massage? It’s up to you. Our coupons usually range from the slightly silly (“Tom gets one free pass to order meat in a restaurant without us hassling him”) to the truly unexpected (“Redeem this coupon for 36 hours in San Francisco on the weekend of your choice”).

Travel Gifts of travel don’t have to be expensive vacations to Bali. Plan a romantic local getaway (Northwesterners can use our friend Lauren’s TripFinder website). Ride a train.  Or send the kids to a friend or relative and plan a “staycation” around those concert tickets!

Support a Nonprofit in Your Loved One’s Name Nonprofits have gotten more and more sophisticated about their year-end offerings, and in these lean times they need support more than ever. In our family we try to donate generously, and we support several great projects including:

• Village Bicycle Project will donate a bicycle in Ghana for just $25. “A bicycle can make all the difference.”
• West Seattle Community Orchestras is an amazing local community symphony we love and support.
• The Electronic Freedom Foundation has our back as bloggers and netizens.
• iLeap runs innovative cultural exchanges to strengthen civil society worldw