As you readers know, we have a serious love for bread over here at ACO (revisit with our friend and bread maker Ben Tugwell). Recently I bought a Dutch Oven and the first night we had it there was bread to be made.  I found Mark Bittman’s recipe (an adaption from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery) for No Knead Bread and we were on our way to 18 hours of rising, more rising and baking.  What resulted was a beautiful, delicious crusty bread for lunch and dinner (x2).  I was so impressed with this bread.  You should definitely try this!

Side Note:  A Dutch Oven is a thick-walled (usually cast iron) cooking pot with a tight-fitting lid. Dutch ovens have been used as cooking vessels for hundreds of years. They are called “casserole dishes” in English speaking countries other than the USA, and cocottes in French, They are similar to both the Japanese tetsunabe and the Sač, a traditional Balkan cast-iron oven, and are related to the South African Potjie and the Australian Bedourie oven. (LINK)

Who knew?  A Dutch oven is a slang term for pulling a cover over someone’s head while in bed and creating flatulence, thereby creating an area of foul-odored air in an enclosed space that must be inhaled. This is done as a prank or by accident to one’s sleeping partner. (LINK)

RECIPE!  /  More images

Though Monday was Chinese New Year’s, the Year of the Dragon does not officially arrive until February 4, which is the first day of the 2012 Chinese Astrology Year. The Year of the Dragon is considered the luckiest year in the Chinese Zodiac. It is characterized by dominance, ambition, and success (bring it on!).

More about The Year of the Dragon:
Ruling hours: 7am-10am
Motto: I Reign!
Season and month: Spring, April
Fixed element: Earth
Birthstone: Amethyst
Colors: Red
Polarity: Yang
Food: Wheat, poultry

Something to keep in mind: “Other years might seem to drag on, but the Year of the Dragon has the potential to breathe life-shaping fire, to be magical, even mythical. Keep one eye on the calendar and the other on the stars.” (SOURCE) 

Learn more! LINK

Vernal (or ephemeral) pools are temporary bodies of water usually filled with winter rain or snow melt.  They are called vernal pools because they are often, but not necessarily, at their peak depth in the spring (“vernal” meaning of, relating to, or occurring in the spring) – their water level will fluctuate with a normal dry period.  One of the most important parts to the pool is the underlying or hydric layer that allows for the base retention of water.  Amphibians migrate from their winter spots upland down to the safety of the pool (usually there are no fish as predators), where breeding happens.  Each vernal pool holds its own unique chemistry and attractions. There is a special curiosity for me in these waters, the secrets that are created in this temporary wetland.

Check out the California Chaparral Institute’s page on Vernal Pools. LINK

From Proust’s Swann’s Way, the first volume to his seven-part In Search of Lost Time (or Remembrance of Things Past) which introduces the idea of involuntary memory (sometimes also called Proustian memory). I like thinking of this notion of place in direct relationship to a point and time in our memory instead of as a physical location. I also like thinking about involuntary memory, that thing that happens when  you touch something or see or smell something that triggers a memory, out of the blue.

Find out more:
Why Proust? And Why Now? LINK 
Proust: In Our Time, LINK

Sometimes I go crazy for someone.  Jeff Whetstone is one of these people.  He teaches and directs the graduate program at the University of North Carolina (I want to go there now), graduated from Duke with a degree in Zoology, Yale with an MFA and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship – to name a few of his accomplishments. His work gets right down into me and makes me want more. I read this in an interview with him about human relationships to the land: We are nature. Our natural instincts drive us to use, control, dominate, nurture and find a spiritual connection to our landscape. Spirituality, sexuality and dominance intertwine in my work, as our survival as a species has relied upon these motifs.

(Our friend Ward Long is guestblogger-in-residence on ACO.
Let’s hear it for WARD!)

Doing research for my interview with Vanessa Davis, I stumbled across the masterpiece above. My boyish teenage years were unmarked by rebellion, inventive hair dye, or expressive keratin paint, but now I was caught in a wormhole of nail bed nightmares. An hour and several search terms later, I stepped away from my computer woozy and wondering about what it all meant. I asked Vanessa, and she clarified things considerably. 
 
When did you start drawing awesome things on your nails?
Last spring I had the flu and I found a nail art Tumblr and spent one whole night looking at all 150 pages of it. I am not even really into nail art, but I love enamel paint. I don’t have the best nails for nail art–my fingers have really small nail beds. But it is fun to paint my friends’ nails. I also just like seeing what other people out there are doing. There is this one lady who is just, like, so good, such weird ideas, such an artist. Nail polish itself, though, is sort of this horrible obsess-able commodity that pushes all of my crazy-buttons: it’s an art supply and a beauty product. Plus they are hard to mix, so it’s not like you can get away with just having a few. I actually wish I’d never thought about it, at this point.
 
_Browser beware: LINK
_Vanessa’s nails: LINK

Dearest readers – I would like to introduce you to the Cochineal insect (those white clusters seen on the cactus above). They can be found in the hills of Altadena, California (for example) and produce Carminic acid, which is commonly used in food dyes and cosmetics. Synthetic dyes are around, but because of related health risks and warnings, companies are using the old school bug again.  Seriously, just check out some ingredient boxes and often times it will say Carminic Acid, Cochineal, crimson lake, natural red 4, C.I. 75470, E120, or even natural coloring – all of which are from this insect!  The bugs are collected, dried and ground to produce brilliant shades of scarlet and orange.  They have been used to dye fabric dating all the way back to the 15th century, where “eleven cities conquered by Moctezuma in the 15th century paid a yearly tribute of 2000 decorated cotton blankets and 40 bags of cochineal dye each.”  Cochineal-coloured wool and cotton are still important materials for Mexican folk art and crafts.

Here is a song I found featuring two cute ladies named Gloria and Gladys, singing about the Cochineal.  I contemplated not showing it to you, but decided against keeping such a viewing and listening pleasure all to myself (wink).  VIDEO

Watch this video to learn more about the Protect IP Act and Stop Online Piracy Act.  If you agree –  tell Congress: Please don’t censor the web!

A lovely day was had strolling the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Gardens – I even fell in love with a tree.  As I stare into this computer screen, my mind is dreaming of the sun on my face and the smell of a million sages and mints surrounding me.  I especially love gardens because there is a lot of information to be gleaned from their displays and guides.

From the website:

Spread across 86 acres in Claremont, California, the Garden is located approximately 35 miles east of Los Angeles. Nestled in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, the Garden offers beautiful mountain vistas.

The Garden displays about 2000 taxa of California plants and includes those native to the California Floristic Province as a whole. This region extends into southern Oregon, far western Nevada and extensively into Baja California, Mexico. Docents lead tours of the Garden periodically. Guidebooks and brochures are available at the California Garden Shop.

The Garden is laid out in three distinct areas. Indian Hill Mesa is a large flat-topped hill of dense clay soils, heavily planted with mature cultivars and wild species of native plants. Some of the most prominent species are wild lilacs and Manzanitas. The mesa is home to the California Courtyard, California Natives Container Garden and California Cultivar Garden—three of our popular venues for social and business events. The East Alluvial Gardens are found at the base of the eastern edge of the Indian Hill Mesa include the Desert Garden and the Coastal Dune and California Channel Islands collections. The Tongva Village interpretive site and the Majestic Oak are both located in the Alluvial Gardens. The northern 55 acres is home to the Plant Communities with displays of some of our most impressive specimens in the entire collection. The large serene groves of Four-needled Pinyon, the spring-blooming California Flannel Bushes and distinct Joshua trees are found here.

The gardens are located in Claremont, California, very very close to a wonderful James Turell piece. So close in fact, that I would suggest going to see both. Let us know if you go!

Website

I was first introduced to Daniel Augschöll’s photographs some years ago when I came across them on a photography blog. Since then, I have been following his projects including Ahorn Magazine, the online publication he co-runs with Anya Jasbar that is “dedicated to highlighting the work of emerging photographers”. Daniel currently lives and works in Berlin. Here he is talking to us about some of the things he’s working on and some of the things that are important to him.

Hi Daniel! When did you start photographing?
When I was a kid I always had to take pictures of my family. Then I stopped photographing until high school where we had a small darkroom that gave me the opportunity to make my first experiments. During the years in University I rediscovered photography after trying to build wooden structures and making drawings of rocks.

What inspired you to start Ahorn magazine?
I started Ahorn Magazine together with Anya Jasbar in 2008. We had the idea to publish a magazine where the writing would be as important as the photographs, something that is still lacking in the internet world. We wanted to create something where the work of emerging photographers would be as important as, for example, an interview with a well known photographer. There are a lot of interesting websites that feature images but not many are focusing on original writing about photography.

What are you working on right now?
Right now I’m working on a few different projects in various locations. I usually prefer to work on a single project, in order to focus better on what I want to achieve. But since I moved to Berlin last year and studying photography here, I have to work on several projects simultaneously. I’m working on a series in Berlin as well as on a project in my hometown located at the borders between Italy and Austria. The Berlin project is essentially about the need of having a person that stands by your side and the fear of being alone. The project I’m working on in my hometown is about a man who lives alone in the mountains.

Read anything interesting recently?
Marilynne Robinson, some books about early Northern Renaissance, Tod Papageorge’s Core Curriculum, Milan Kundera’s Slowness. Now I’m reading Discusión by Borges and Talking Horse. Bernard Malamud on Life and Work.

What is something (person, place, thing, animal, idea) that you treasure?
Girlfriend, re-growing my beard, some cats, photo books, flannel shirts, ideas.

What is the last country you visited? Tell us something that happened there.
The last country I have visited is my “home country” in South Tyrol, northern Italy. I’ve met a man who has been living next to my house for 25 years but I didn’t know of his existence. I had the chance to photograph him and his home. It is not the man who lives alone in the mountains.

Thank you, Daniel!

Website // Ahorn Magazine