William Kamkwamba was fourteen and living in drought-stricken Malawi when he stumbled on a library book called Using Energy, and saw a picture of a windmill. He thought that if he could make one, he could provide electricity for his family, pump water and irrigate crops, and power light for reading at night, as well as a…
Read Moremore on d-i-y wood ovens: books, sites, recipes…
Once the door to an idea opens, information often miraculously seems to appear. There’s some sort of attunement that seems to happen when you hold a question in mind and start trying to figure it out; perhaps it’s simply a shift in awareness that makes us see the answers around us. Right after I wrote…
Read Morestealth improv: philip besonen’s backyard retreat
Philip Besonen was a remarkable man who most people hadn’t heard of until he wrote a piece for the New York Times about the mokki he built in his back yard. A mokki (rhymes with hokey) is a small unassuming cottage much beloved in Finland, where Philip had roots. “Mokkis …were invariably off by themselves…
Read Morestairs in colors
Architect Kim Sykes spotted these wonderful color-painted stairs in Sayulita, Mexico. Whoever made them cunningly painted each stair on the side that doesn’t get stepped on (so you’d only get the effect from a distance, and going up). Though Mexico is renowned for it’s brash use of color, colored stairs are a world-wide theme: a…
Read Morewhipped cream with sea salt, and other 2-ingredient discoveries
At the end of an impromtu dinner party, my friend Josh served a chocolate cake with herbes-of-Provence salt his wife Ellen had made. To accompany it, he had whipped some extraordinary bio-dynamic cream from a farmer friend, and I popped a spoonful in my mouth, sans cake, to savor it. Perhaps it was the bowl…
Read Morea modernist island retreat (on a budget)
Remodelista posted some terrific pictures of my friends Suzanne Shaker and Pete Dandridge’s perfect summer house on Shelter Island, 2 hours from New York City. Suzanne, an interior designer and stylist, and Pete, an art conservator, worked with Deborah Burke & Partners Architects to build the 1250 square foot from-scratch house. It seems incredibly spacious, due…
Read Moreguest post on vivianna torun and ‘seeing what happens’
After reading Anni Albers ‘Common Object’ Jewelry, Lydia Wills wrote an inspiring email that is a perfect, if inadvertent, post for ‘the improvised life’. It’s like a bedtime story for grown-ups (with an amazing ending in bold.) “The lesson of Anni Albers’ jewelry is her ability to look at everyday objects and see just how they can…
Read Morejars with chalkboard labels to buy or d-i-y
Pamela Hovland alerted me to these cool jars that have chalkboard labels so you can just scribble the contents (or the date) with chalk. You can by them at Rockett St. George for 12.50 euros and have them shipped from the U.K. OR you can rig your own. Paint labels directly on jars using chalkboard paint by hand…
Read Morebroke-down-taxi-on-the-expressway improv
What do you do when the car service car you hired to take you to the airport during rush hour stalls on the Long Island Expressway on your way to catch a transatlantic flight? I’d been sitting in the sweltering car for 20 minutes on that bleak, scary highway, waiting for the dispatcher to call…
Read Moremusic for monday: finding giuseppe logan
‘the improvised life’ is about following links, paths and connections, letting one thing lead to another to unexpected discoveries; it’s what I do daily to write the blog. And everyday, I’m surprised. I can’t remember where I found this beautiful photograph*; I clipped it for the Surprise Box (the box with the ribbon on the…
Read Morecherish the mundane
more anni albers common-object jewelry
During World War II, when materials were in short supply, textile artist Anni Albers improvised charming, inventive jewelry using simple components usually found in hardware and stationary stores, and five-and-dimes. This dramatic necklace uses inexpensive window chain sold on giant wheels at hardware stores and steel bobbi pins. Seeing her necklace, suddenly these objects become…
Read Morerestore something
dog bar!
Another imaginative idea from Tertin Kartano, the wonderful farm-hotel-restaurant-cafe-store in Mikkli, in Southern Finland. Words aren’t really necessary, though this other picture is pretty inspiring: Expands your view of dogdom…see/
Read Morea perfect, portable knife for errant cooks
When I’m camping in a borrowed or rented house out of town, I love the challenge of cooking in the invariably rudimentary kitchen with whatever is there. It’s fun to devise solutions to small dilemmas: making roasting pans out of tin foil, or rolling pins out of wine bottles. I’ve made cheese souffles in cast-iron skillets,…
Read Morecopy this: vines and leafy vegetables as flowers
Tertin Kartano is a 16th century farm that doubles as a hotel and restaurant (or vice versa) in Mikkeli in Southern Finland’s lake region. Much of what Papita and Matti Pylkkanen and their staff grow and forage – from wild chanterelle to rowan berries – are used in the traditional Finnish manor-house cuisine, and in…
Read Moreall TED talks on a spreadsheet
TED is a yearly conference (its motto is “ideas worth spreading”) as well as a website where you can watch videos of riveting talks by truly remarkable people. Some TED talks are so compelling that they continue to be blogged and referenced around the internet years after they first appeared, like Jill Bolte Taylor’s “My…
Read Morerecipe: amontillado and other grown-up milkshake(s)
One of the most pleasurable parts of cooking is the Eureka Moment, when an idea comes to mind unexpectedly that opens a clear path of discovery. The other night, a sudden brain-flash lead to discovery of a milkshake flavored with Amontillado sherry, a grown-up flavor to be sure, that in a milkshake makes an unbelievably…
Read Moreradical shift: economist into farmer/forager
Dennison Lee is one of several people I know who have shifted their life radically recently, some in response to the recession and their work drying up, and some hoping to find a more satisfying way of living. Dennison, who had plenty of work as a transportation economist, is one of the latter. He spent…
Read Mored-i-y pizza oven
Adam Kuban of Serious Eats’ Slice Blog has a compelling series about people who have built their own pizza ovens. His interview with Mark Wilkie, who created this beauty is in the backyard of his Brooklyn rental, comes complete with photos and drawings of the process. Wilkie found lots of practical resources at Forno Bravo, a…
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