The Cheapskate Intellectual

A journey through matters of spirit, sustainability, and self-reliance

Friendship, community, and sensory delight: now on sale.

Just back from an excursion to our local farmers market – amazing that because of travel and what-have-you, this was my first visit to the market this summer. As ever, I had a wonderful time greeting and talking with friends, exchanging local news (when will they replace the bridge on Happy Hollow Road? hope it’s […]

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Green smoothie recipe!

Quick recipe for a homemade green smoothie and great afternoon snack: ingredients but not (most) amounts listed, as you should adjust the proportions to make it taste good to you. Kale (I used a big bunch of Lacinato, from the yard) Basil (I used three or four sprigs worth, from the yard) Pineapple (preferably a chunk […]

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Diets, labels, and a local life.

Some great conversations with my yoga teacher, a nutritionist, and other good friends and advisors lately — along with traveling, walking, and experiencing a bad blood-sugar crash in foreign places — have set me one stage deeper on a path of reinvention from the inside out:  in addition to biking a lot during this fall’s […]

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A Cheapskate Romanticist abroad.

“Experience enlarges the space for the self to swim in.” – George Eliot, from a manuscript in “Writing Britain” at the British Library. A month of travel has left me with more than I can say, and more than I can put into words, even to myself, even as I’m settling into a fall sabbatical […]

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Giving back to the garden.

It’s been a tough week in our little town, with reminders of how quickly life can change, and how strong the fabric of friendship and love in a community can be, and how precious the threads are that connect us. More than ever it feels necessary to at least try to ask, before proceeding with […]

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Gardening in public.

Our little town’s gardening group has been buzzing after two of our members — following a neighbor’s anonymous complaint — were notified recently that they might be in violation of a city ordinance against gardening in the “boulevard,” the strip of grass between sidewalk and curb in front of most houses.  The issue: our members’ […]

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A sweet, savory summer salad.

So while maybe it’s not terribly original, I was proud of this when I threw it together, with an experimental tweak or two, last night: lettuce from the garden, cold deep-red plums from the fridge [pause for silent William Carlos Williams homage here], goat cheese, almond slivers, and one of the last handfuls of strawberries […]

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