• Home
  • Laurentide
    • Farm
    • Cool Women
    • Family
    • Interiors
    • Lessons
    • Procrastination
    • Reviews
    • Travel
    • Vintage Finds
  • Videos
  • Resources
    • Message Me
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Twitter
    • Pinterest
    • YouTube
  • Subscribe
  • Search
  • Archive
Menu

The Bubble Joy

Street Address
City, State, Zip
Phone Number
"In folly's cup still laughs the bubble joy." Alexander Pope

Your Custom Text Here

The Bubble Joy

  • Home
  • Laurentide
  • Blog
    • Farm
    • Cool Women
    • Family
    • Interiors
    • Lessons
    • Procrastination
    • Reviews
    • Travel
    • Vintage Finds
  • Videos
  • Resources
  • Contact
    • Message Me
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Twitter
    • Pinterest
    • YouTube
  • Subscribe
  • Search
  • Archive

Playing with Fire at Laurentide

October 9, 2020 mithra ballesteros
AtticusGeoTejo.jpg

Among the many plants we’ve been experimenting with here at Laurentide, one is hot peppers. A couple years ago, Walter decided to create a pepper with the flavor of a habanero but in a more slender form and with slightly less heat. His first try came out small and wimpy, so he kept cross pollinating. What you see in the photo above is Walter’s fourth generation pepper, and they’ve definitely got some fire.

We’ve named them Tejo peppers, after the popular Colombian game involving alcohol, metal balls, and gunpowder.

The son on the left, Atticus, lived in Colombia, and he describes Tejo as a more dramatic version of the midwestern Cornhole. Both are played outside, both are team sports that involve standing in place and tossing a projectile, and neither would be complete without a beer in hand. The difference is that in Tejo, instead of sacks, the projectile is a ball of lead. And instead of trying to get your sack through a hole, the goal in Tejo is to get your ball of lead to explode a shell of gunpowder. What’s not to love?

The son on the right, George, is what you would call a norm breaker. He jumps into freezing cold Lake Michigan when no one else will. He dances in public squares when no one else will. He crosses lines so that the rest of us can follow. And here he is, doing it with the Tejo peppers.

Truthfully, he has an iron gullet. When he was two, he threw a tantrum on an airplane, and it wasn’t until I traded him my ham on rye with Dusseldorf mustard for his chicken nuggets and my black coffee for his chocolate milk that he settled down. When he was four, he ate wasabi peas in his cereal like they were Lucky Charms. When he was six, he accompanied our neighbors to their country club for a posh Fourth of July fête where somehow, going through the buffet line, he nabbed the bowl of sliced onions meant for the burgers, took it back to his picnic blanket and snarfed down those raw babies as our neighbors stared, transfixed.

George found these peppers a tad hotter than expected. He ate three of them and got, for the first time in his young life, wrinkles on his forehead. Maybe that is how we age. Our skin reacts like the surface of water when something disrupts the usual flow.

GeoTejo_1500.jpg
Tejo_1500.jpg
AtticusGeo_1500.jpg

See the spindly stalks and decaying leaves? The outdoor garden is done now. Other than a few beds of cabbages and swiss chard, the outdoor growing season has ended. We’ve sown some baby spinach and other greens in the hoop houses. Tomatoes are doing well in there too. But our first season at Laurentide is fini and the sadness I feel is real. Like a baby outgrowing his crib.


Autumn by Louise Glück

The part of life
devoted to contemplation
was at odds with the part
committed to action.

       *

Fall was approaching.
But I remember
it was always approaching
once school ended.

       *

Life, my sister said,
is like a torch passed now
from the body to the mind.
Sadly, she went on, the mind is not
there to receive it.

The sun was setting.
Ah, the torch, she said.
It has gone out, I believe.
Our best hope is that it’s flickering,
fort/da, fort/da, like little Ernst
throwing his toy over the side of his crib
and then pulling it back. It’s too bad,
she said, there are no children here.
We could learn from them, as Freud did.

       *

We would sometimes sit
on benches outside the dining room.
The smell of leaves burning.

Old people and fire, she said.
Not a good thing. They burn their houses down.

       *

How heavy my mind is,
filled with the past.
Is there enough room
for the world to penetrate?
It must go somewhere,
it cannot simply sit on the surface—

       *

Stars gleaming over the water.
The leaves piled, waiting to be lit.

       *

Insight, my sister said.
Now it is here.
But hard to see in the darkness.

You must find your footing
before you put your weight on it.


Never Miss a Post

Join the 1000+ readers who subscribe to my newsletter. It’s made fresh with homegrown ingredients that you will love!

We respect your privacy.

Thank you!









← Making the Move to the FarmKeeping It Clean at the Farm →

Mithra B096 copy.jpg

Welcome! I'm Mithra (pronounced Mee-thra). I'm an interior stylist and a writer. I'm also a vintage and antiques lover. I have an online shop, Finder Not Keeper, where I sell my best finds. (That's a white lie. I keep the best finds.) Read more about me and the blog here. 


FIND ME IN YOUR INBOX


CATEGORIES

Cool-Women_png.png
Family_png.png
Interiors_png.png
Procrastinate_png.png
Reviews_png.png
Travel_png.png
Vintage_png.png
Lessons_png.png

Instagram posts

A few days back in the ‘Quon. All of February is the price I’m willing to fork over for one week in September.
A few days back in the ‘Quon. All of February is the price I’m willing to fork over for one week in September.
Latest blog post about our new outdoor shower and the differences of opinion between this guy and his mother (me) on how it should be used. #linkinbio
Latest blog post about our new outdoor shower and the differences of opinion between this guy and his mother (me) on how it should be used. #linkinbio
Brainy, brave, kind, genuine, indefatigable, funny, patriotic, fair, hard working, gentle, strong, iconic.
Brainy, brave, kind, genuine, indefatigable, funny, patriotic, fair, hard working, gentle, strong, iconic.
Those aren’t my hands forming baguettes. But I took the pic. @heat_her_all_a_man has it down  and I’m ready with my salted butter and honey. What do you eat with baguettes?
Those aren’t my hands forming baguettes. But I took the pic. @heat_her_all_a_man has it down and I’m ready with my salted butter and honey. What do you eat with baguettes?
Surveying the herb garden after a good weeding session. Basil took a hit the last couple weeks but everything else is flourishing like summer lasts forever.
Surveying the herb garden after a good weeding session. Basil took a hit the last couple weeks but everything else is flourishing like summer lasts forever.
First restaurant account for @littlelaurentide! Also first time eating out since the snow was flying. Really really fun night. (Not to mention that building’s white with black trim paint color scheme is 💯)
First restaurant account for @littlelaurentide! Also first time eating out since the snow was flying. Really really fun night. (Not to mention that building’s white with black trim paint color scheme is 💯)
Surprise lilies, also known as naked ladies, fit in well here at the farm for reasons we will let you ponder.
Surprise lilies, also known as naked ladies, fit in well here at the farm for reasons we will let you ponder.
This is son #2, the farmer. Walter is working hard to turn this place into a sustainable organic farm. Follow us @littlelaurentide for the latest on how mother and son align, clash, argue, hug.
This is son #2, the farmer. Walter is working hard to turn this place into a sustainable organic farm. Follow us @littlelaurentide for the latest on how mother and son align, clash, argue, hug.
On the blog today, the newest bachelor at Little Laurentide. Will he draw viewers or is he a train wreck along the lines of Juan Pablo Galavis? Read the latest blog post to find out! Link in bio.
On the blog today, the newest bachelor at Little Laurentide. Will he draw viewers or is he a train wreck along the lines of Juan Pablo Galavis? Read the latest blog post to find out! Link in bio.
On the blog today: a tour of the best places on the farm to sit for a spell. And I write a bit about what it’s like to cohabit with a son who used to give me every kind of gray hair. He could teach a polar bear how to be grumpy and I could teac
On the blog today: a tour of the best places on the farm to sit for a spell. And I write a bit about what it’s like to cohabit with a son who used to give me every kind of gray hair. He could teach a polar bear how to be grumpy and I could teach a grizzly bear how to be grumpy. It’s a new world for the two of us, farming together, and can you guess how it’s going??

OLD POSTS

Archive
  • October 2021 1
  • July 2021 1
  • June 2021 1
  • May 2021 2
  • April 2021 3
  • March 2021 1
  • February 2021 2
  • January 2021 2
  • December 2020 2
  • November 2020 1
  • October 2020 2
  • September 2020 1
  • August 2020 5
  • July 2020 7
  • June 2020 6
  • May 2020 9
  • April 2020 8
  • March 2020 4
  • February 2020 3
  • January 2020 5
  • December 2019 1
  • November 2019 4
  • October 2019 3
  • September 2019 3
  • August 2019 4
  • July 2019 7
  • June 2019 5
  • May 2019 8
  • April 2019 8
  • March 2019 8
  • February 2019 7
  • January 2019 7
  • December 2018 8
  • November 2018 9
  • October 2018 8
  • September 2018 7
  • August 2018 9
  • July 2018 6
  • June 2018 7
  • May 2018 7
  • April 2018 5
  • March 2018 4
  • February 2018 4
  • January 2018 4
  • December 2017 1
  • November 2017 3
  • October 2017 3
  • September 2017 4
  • August 2017 4
  • July 2017 4
  • June 2017 5
  • May 2017 3
  • April 2017 5
  • March 2017 3
  • February 2017 2
  • January 2017 4
  • December 2016 5
  • November 2016 4
  • October 2016 3
  • September 2016 5
  • August 2016 4
  • July 2016 5
  • June 2016 4
  • May 2016 4
  • April 2016 4
  • March 2016 5
  • February 2016 8
  • January 2016 8
  • December 2015 6
  • November 2015 9
  • October 2015 9
  • September 2015 8
  • August 2015 8
  • July 2015 5
  • June 2015 4
  • May 2015 5
  • April 2015 4
  • March 2015 4
  • February 2015 4
  • January 2015 5
  • December 2014 4
  • November 2014 4
  • October 2014 6
  • September 2014 2
  • August 2014 3
  • July 2014 5
  • June 2014 3
  • May 2014 3
  • April 2014 4
  • March 2014 6
  • February 2014 5
  • January 2014 4

Powered by Squarespace

Contact: mithra@thebubblejoy.com