I guess I havn’t posted often enough for a real blog. It’ll take me a while to post more regularly, but I’m sure I will. I’ve been working for a Landscaper and concentrating on Tai Chi and Kung Fu and Art.

The Landscaping gig has been very interesting. The guy I work for went to culinary school then moved back to his home town to marry and start a restaurant. He tried restauranteurship for a brief period which required to many hours managing and cooking by himself. No one in his small coastal city in NC needed a chef as there are no decent restaurants there. However the city has been developing rapidly so there is a need for landscaping. So he’s been doing that for the past five years. He does allot more hardscaping than what I’m used to, so I’ve been learning a bit. We’ve been installing paver walkways, sod, and retaining walls, as well as plantings. The planting style is more mainstream, less aesthetically and horticulturally developed than I’m used to. The plants are different to some extent because it’s a different bioregion.

About Kung Fu; I must look like a total psycho to my neighbors. Nothing new there I guess. I practice four to six days a week, usually at dusk. I wait til dusk because that’s when I’m off work, but also because I have to practice in the back yard. Pick up trucks are driving by one after the other, and I know what there thinking. “Look at that psycho, who does he think he is, the Karate kid, p@#*y.” So my philosophy on it is this; screw em’ I can kick their asses. Hopefully as the light get’s low I’m less visible.

I’ve been working on flexibility allot lately, which is funny. I feal like gumby. I got a few instructions from, http://www.martinvidic.com/martinvidic_en_2006/flash_mavi/index.htm. I can do good cartwheels,  and a pretty good front split, working on handstands, all with deer hunters and farmers riding by, gawking, on their way to Christian Men’s Fellowship, or Clive’s BBQ or whatever.

I recently obtained a pair of Tiger Claw Wushu Shoes. I love these shoes. Get some, they’re like 20 bucks. Weird thing is they came with an ad for the Tempe Arizona police department. Oh well, they’re great, cheap, cool looking shoes, they get sweaty after a few hours though so they’re stryctly exercise shoes, not for general wear.

Today I went to the Carolina Garden Expo at Greenville Convention Center and the Antiques Show at the New Bern Convention Center. Le’me tell ya, a whirlwind tour of small city convention centers. I have to say CGB was a let down. They allways over promote these things. There were a good number of nurseries represented, but nowhere near as many as there are in the region. Only one really had a catalogue. I only found a couple of growers very interesting, one of which is Southview Greenhouse where thay had full grown Burgmansia Dr Seuss, much bigger than I could find in the triangle last year.

There were plenty of Antiques in New Bern I recommend it. Greenville seems to try really hard to get use out of it’s convention center. New Bern’s has some City offices in it which I think is a good way to get use out of the building. I think the Chaimber of commerce meets there which is also a good idea. Both convention centers are eyesores though. New Bern’s presents some particular aesthetic problems because it’s right on the waterfront so it ruins the small colonial city’s skyline which is seen from the giant bridge intersection monstrosity that connects it to the rest of the world. New Bern truly has some gorgeous buildings in it. It has potential to be a beautyful place, as does the general area between New Bern and Oriental. New Bern has a large recreational harbor filled with sailboats and yachts on it’s waterfront, but a couple of the new big buildings just don’t quite fit. Greenspace would have been much better, with the monster buildings pushed back a few blocks into the city. I can’t wait for modernism and funstionalism to finaly give up the ghost.

Spring is on the horizon so I’m sorting my cache of seeds (if i can find it) and getting ready to plant a garden in my parents yard. It’s strawberry time! I’m gonna try out plants for market gardening next year. Next year I will have a couple acres of my dad’s farmland to use if I want, to do a CSA or if I want to rent a stall at the farmer’s market.

I’ve had allot more time to draw and paint lately. I’ve been filling a sketchbook with drawings of may hands and a tobacco barn behind my house. I also cut and painted a corsican gourd to look like a purple coneflower.

I‘ve been real into tea lately. I got a gaiwan and a couple varieties of oolong tea, most notably some anxi oolong tea that’s pretty good. Ive been drinking a cheap green tea as my regular tea at work. Green tea may help with weght loss so it compliments my weightloss diet I’m working. Not that I’m over weight, just too damn single, so I’m trying to get ripped. I figure as weird as I am I need every advantage.

The diet goes like this; I’ve been eating Pineapple for snacks because it contains bromelian which is supposed to help break down proteins and fats. I have bran cerial for breakfast and snacks, because it’s supposed to release serratonin which makes you feal full, it’s also good for the colon. I try to squeeze in chili pepper because capsaicin raises the matabolism as does the hot mustard on my sandwich at lunch. The capsaicin in chili also helps with my sore back as does birch bark tea. Ginger to aid my liver, matabolism, and for energy. Lemon juice to get my liver going in the morning. Chickweed goes in my salads for weightloss. I’m eating more roughage and protein and less fats and carbs at supper. I’m also adding garlic to everything the help prvent colds since I’m out in the cold windy weather.

So all of this brings me to my Kinston Chai ™ weight loss anti cold tea recipe.

in one tea ball

1/2tsp minced ginger

pinch cinnamon,

1/2 tsp lemon zest

a little minced garlic (you’ll get used to it, don’t be a spoil sport)

pinch lemon grass,

2 cloves,

4 black peppercorns,

pinch (or as much as you want) ceyene powder or crushed red pepper ,

1/2 bay leaf,

a bag of your favorite green tea

pour one half cup boiling water over the tea ball let sit for two minutes then add the tea bag wait a minute add the rest of the mug full of water which has cooled for three minutes now. let stand for one or two minutes. It’s great when it’s cold out, make you grow hair on your eyes, good for what ails ya, etc.