To me, this blog already exists. About a year ago, give or a take a few days, or perhaps a month, it started. It already had a name. Some friends gave it to me, after discussing, what is a Marcy all about. Swimming & Cake. Later, its identity, its reason for being, was first thought out during a winter leek harvest.
I asked the question, if you had a blog, what would it be about? Ian would create an account of learning-how-to-do-just-about-anything-yourself blog. Matt thought a multi-contributor affair focusing on farming blog would be swell. Emily would revive her real blog about pickling. Me? A blog about snacks. I amended my answer. I didn’t want to write just about snacks. What would I say, I ate this, and it was delicious, the end. (I did eat some amazing thai food recently. Long Grain, always and forever the gold standard. Hand-pulled noodles!)
We made new blog ideas. Harvesting leeks can take awhile. I like to ask questions, I could write a blog that somehow asks questions.
Some standard, almost daily questions that certain co-workers might have tired of after two years of answering them: What did you have for dinner last night? What did you do after dinner? They’d already answered the pleased-to-meet you, would you tell me: what’s your favorite ice cream? what would your knuckle tattoo be? what forest would you live in? And, what’s your favorite kind of cake?
I could branch out and find other people to answer these questions. That premise seemed true to me, but difficult to put out there. Answering the questions, what would you name a food cart? what tree best represents you?, usually just moves conversation along. The answers live in the land of stuff we know about each other, not as Ping Pong on Matt’s knuckles. No one intended to start a blog dreamed up in the leeks, including me.
The idea of a blog called swimming with cake stayed with me. I thought very abstractly about it. I talked about it to people I met on the farm where I now work. Testing the waters of what having a blog might be like, I told them, I have a blog, it’s called swimming with cake. They all believed me. How unreasonable it is to have a blog? Not very. I adjusted my statement, I have a soon-to-be blog, it’s called swimming with cake. Cool, what’s it about?
I don’t rightly yet know is still the best I can say. There will be snacks. Some questions. (Question of the moment: what is your alter ego?) Lots of discussion about what I make, where I go, how I think and why it all happens. That could take awhile to get through. Cake and swimming and all the rest. Maybe someone will learn something. And, hopefully, there’ll be some answers. Life is mystery.
For enjoyment, may I suggest:
- Listen to Willie Watson. Don’t stop. May 6th: Album!!!!
- Watch Temple Grandin! Have you seen it? I won’t yammer on about how inspired and moved and warmed I was by the story, which is all true. I’ll just say: I want all of her shirts.
- Visit Charleston. Eat and eat and eat. Collect shells. Listen to music outside. Eat more.
- Make a kolhrabi-carrot salad with roasted harissa spiced chickpeas. Have a lamb meatball.
- This blog.