living and loving local

Saturday's rain (or should I say monsoon?) threw a wrench in a lot of fun plans this weekend, not the lease of which was the cancellation of Baltimore Green Weeks' kickoff event, EcoFest. Set to highlight myriad enviro-friendly organizations and local vendors from throughout the city, EcoFest was going to be a rollicking good time with live music, fresh food, demonstrations and activities in Druid Hill Park. Alas, it was not to be. And no rain date. Boo hoo.

But Sunday saw an eruption of sunshine, and so Green Week's

activities marched on. I had read about and eagerly awaited "Localize It!", hosted by Baltimore Free Farm in conjunction with Baltimore Green Currency with the goal of showing how fun sustainability can be. And fun it was! We arrived at the moment of launch for "BNotes," complete with the release of green balloons and BNote currency. What on earth are BNotes, you wonder? So glad you asked! According to BGC's website, they offer an "alternative economic that will strengthen local businesses, create jobs, encourage the for formation of local supply chains, and ultimately rpovide economic opportunity and increased resilience to communities underserved by traditional economic

structures." Long story short, you trade "normal" money for "BNotes" which you then use at the 48 local businesses as cash (the list of businesses is growing all the time so stay tuned to the directory!). The goal is to get people to think local, buy local, and be local. Plus, the BNotes look pretty cool!

After much fanfare and cheering, the BNotes became official local currency and the festival got underway. At the core of Localize It! was a chili cook-off and home brew tap-off (I made that up. But I like it) called "ChiliBrew" - for a suggested donation of $10, you got a sweet tasting mug and all the chili and beer samples your heart desired. Oooh, how yummy! I don't even like beer and I enjoyed myself! Top prize in my books went to the Thai-inspired chili and to LOVEBREW beer. To round out the festivities, there was a line-up of neat local bands of all genres.

Localize It! took place on Ash street, which is where one can find the Baltimore Free Farm, a really neat organization striving to promote "urban agriculture and sustainability through the creation of green spaces and community sanctuaries which utilize reclaimed materials whenever possible." The huge hillside lot was open to the public to see how volunteers have transformed overgrown abandoned lots into wonderful and fruitful farming. It's such a neat project and incredibly inspiring to see what dedication on the part of so many has done to improve the lives of even more. I really suggest you go check it out!

Here are just a few other images from the day, to give you a feel for the fun and festive atmosphere!

Such a great and exciting day! I really didn't know what to expect this morning, but I'm so glad I seized the (windy) day and ventured over. I am even more excited to go to the other Baltimore Green Week events I have on my schedule this week!

love k

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the young urbanite's spring shopping list

This post could, more honestly, be entitled "Things K wants to buy (or has already bought) and for which she is seeking justification." But that's a little wordy, no? I digress. Spring may be playing a really ill-advised and mean-spirited game of cat and mouse with us, but I've had just enough hours of sunshine and warmth to have my spring cleaning and preparation juices get flowing. You see, I hate winter in a way that is laughable. I refuse to buy winter clothing (I have about 4 outfits all winter. I'm almost not exaggerating). I hole up in a bear-like manner. I leave the country for warmer waters at least once -and then act like a fate worse than death has struck me when I return. Winter is, in my opinion, an offense against taste and decency*.

Oh, but once it is warm! I want to go everywhere and do everything. Farmers' markets, bike rides, al fresco dinners, coffee shop strolls, picnics in the park, games of tennis, dog park outings, backyard bbq's, games of capture the flag... you name it. I want to do it. In one day.

All this makes one want a few choice accessories, however, to fully embrace the urban lifestyle. Here are a few items on my Spring wish-list - I think you'll want them, too:

• How can I combine cruisin' on my sweet beach cruiser and coffee without a handlebar beverage holder? Now that I know this actually exists, the real question is, how have I been living without one? Coffee from Fell's Points' Daily Grind or a smoothie from Liquid Earth perched in there would really complete my lil' urbanite look, don't you think?

• While we're on the topic of bicycles, I also think a couple of these bicycle clip on shopper bags would at least double my purchasing power at the farmers' market - clearly my front basket is not enough! Just don't look at the price tag and it'll be juuuust fine...

• I believe that one should be prepared for a picnic at all times - that's why I keep a blanket in my trunk all summer, a woven wooden picnic basket with a red and white checked liner handy (this is, in fact, true) as well a rainbow Tiffen box. For anyone who likes their food separated and not touching I recommend purchasing one of these ASAP - plus you feel pretty snazzy walking in to work with one, too. Brown paper bag? Snooze. Rainbow Tiffen box? Cool!

• Now that I think about it, I could really use an upgrade to a cuter picnic blanket - the gray cotton one from an academic camp I inherited from a long-gone roommate just doesn't scream "cool." I could probably make myself one, but then I'd need a sewing machine...and also learn how to sew. Etsy has some cute ones, though....

• Finally, for the fashionable femme, give your urban lifestyle a pastural flourish with a ravishing sunhat. Just because we live in a city, doesn't mean we can't get over-sunned, so safety first and all that.

So there's your spring shopping list - errr, my spring shopping list. Now if only my garden and patio would plant and clean themselves...

love k

*bragging rights to whomever knows the book from which that quote is taken. Only cheaters Google. And everyone knows that cheaters are losers.

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patterson park wins the prize - again!

We did it again! Patterson Park has got to be the reigning champion of underdog winners in media by now. Let's recap: We've been in Southern Living, Bang for Your Buck, local TV, The Urbanite, Baltimore Sun, Forbes, and I'm sure myriad others that I have either forgotten or never saw. And now? Well, now we're in Travel & Leisure's list of "America's Coolest City Parks." Bam!

In the list with us are 12 other city parks, including Grant Park (Chicago), NYC's Central Park (Snooze.Played out. Too crowded. Keep your park, New York), Papago Park (Tempe), City Park (New Orleans), and Golden Gate Park (San Francisco) - as you can see, we were in with the big dogs.

It's a short snipped highlighting our quirky features, such as the uber-long sculptures in the "little park" (apparently that long blob is, in fact, a caterpillar - who knew), the Kinetic Sculpture Race (coming up in May!), the Great Halloween Lantern Parade, BARCStoberfest, and the Pagoda. According to T&L, the best time to visit our beloved Park is in May, but I think ANY time is a good time - heck, even in the winter we have an ice skating rink! In your faces, other parks!

Yup, we're officially big time.

It's going to be nice out again today - so why don't you go take a stroll around our award winning park, huh?

love k

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my birthday in a blog!

Yesterday was my birthday! I take birthdays pretty seriously - in college, we set aside the month of April as "Kimival" with different activities each night, posted on a whiteboard on my door - and this one was of specific excitement to me. Why, you ask? I've had some weird thing bout 27 for years now - it stands out as this really awesome age. It's the perfect balance of youth and maturity, leniency and legitimacy. I'm thrilled.

My family kicked off my birthday week with presents then dinner at Woodberry Kitchen, my fav restaurant ever. It was awesome, of course, and I was full for approximately 18 hours afterwords.

Woodberry set the bar high, and I was determined to maintain that standard all week. With this in mind, I planned my work week around it. The entire day of April 12th was blocked off and scheduled around - I would have a day of fun and celebration. But in all my scheduling around the day, I didn't think to schedule my actual birthday. I mean, great, no appointments, but also no friends to play with! Well, not quite true, I had the early morning with Jules and N for coffee, breakfast (made my ned, YUM), house decorated by Jules, lovely note from Sarah. I'm a lucky one, I am.

But off they went, and in came the rain. Undeterred, I forged on. I decided I'd start my new year with perseverance and positivity (and apparently purple prose). Instead of kicking it on my couch bemoaning the rain, I set out on a mission to experience beauty in Baltimore. I threw on a raincoat, grabbed my camera (rainy pictures aren't the best, but better than nothing, right?), and set off to explore Druid Hill Park, Cylburn Arboretum and Hampden. I got really wet, saw gorgeous flowers, nooks and crannies of baltimore I'd never seen, got sad when the Conservatory was closed, rescued a LOT of worms stranded on pavement, and resisted the urge to purchase myriad cool things. So here you go - my day in photos:

To wrap it all up in a perfect day, I got this SWEET vintage print from N - I LOVE it!

All in all, it was a super sweet birthday. I am not usually one to do things by myself, but I'm so glad I seized the day and did some solo exploring. I hope that yesterday is indicative of how this year goes - full of fun, surprises, and really cool stuff.

What was your most recent birthday like? What was your favorite birthday?

love k

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sports and socializing for the sun

Today is going to be gorgeous! It's already 60 degrees and it's only 7:45 a.m. so it's not surprise that we'll be seeing warm sunshine all day with temperatures over 80! But don't get used to it - most every day for the next two weeks is forecast to be dreary, rainy and otherwise unappealing. So here are some ideas to soak up the sun after work today without wasting a minute getting back in your car (assuming you live in or around Patterson Park, that is...for the rest of you, well, let this be incentive to move here!):

• Throw on your sneakers and go for a walk, jog or run! No matter what your fitness level you can burn some calories and enjoy the first signs of Spring in the Park. My favorite path, loops up to the Pagoda and then back down around the Boat Lake, but with almost three miles of paths I'm sure you can find one you like.

• Grab a racket and play some tennis! Who cares if you're embarrassingly bad - it's a fun and social way to get outside and move around, and a great sport to learn for lifelong fitness and fun

• Knock on a few doors and throw together an impromptu game of football or frisbee (or bocce or badminton if you have 'em) in the grass

• I'll make this one easy: bread + boat lake = duck feeding frenzy! This is just as fun as an adult as when you were a kid, believe me

• Watch some BSSC games! I swear it's more fun that it sounds. Many an evening has been spent with a beverage, Puppy and N taking in the action on the field across the street. Adults playing social sports, like kickball, is always funny, trust me

• Have drinks or dinner at Bistro Rx, or walk down to Sautee. Both have outdoor seating

Oh, so many other options, but I want to hear what you plan to do to enjoy your afternoon and evening!

love k

P.S. photo of the pagoda by my lovely talented friend Jen!

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baltimore through a buyer's eyes

The other day I started working with an absolutely lovely out-of-state buyer looking for a home in Baltimore (we'll call her Ms. D for easy). Since she didn't know the city beyond her hotel in the inner harbor, I offered to give her a tour of the city and the neighborhoods we'd been discussing - sort of a "lay of the land" excursion. I have to tell you all, driving through Baltimore, acting as a tour guide for someone who doesn't know the city, really gives you a new perspective and appreciation for the cool details and differences the neighborhoods offer. In two hours, I saw my city with new eyes.

Let me start by telling you, my office alone is noteworthy, since it sits on the Promenade, overlooking the Canton Marina through floor to ceiling glass. Everyone that comes in my office oohs and ash, which always gives me a sense of appreciation for living so near and working alongside the water - how many people can say that? From there, we looped through Canton admiring restaurants and bars, then up to Patterson Park (where Ms. D noted that Baltimore seems like, "the most dog-friendly city ever!") and through historic Butchers' Hill's grandeur (where she had already fallen in love with one house where we first met, but the layout didn't work for her aging mother). Rumbling down Wolf Streets cobblestones and across on Thames was like meandering through a picture postcard - Fells Point is just the most charming place I know, even on a gray day. The wide cobblestone street, myriad businesses and restaurants, each with its own vibe and style, the scent of bread wafting over form H&S Bakery... love it.

From there, we shot up North, through Washington Hill (so close to the Medical Center!), and

over to 83, which is the most wonderful expressway I know - does that sound weird? - and

shelters the most wonderful farmers market on Sundays! Ten minutes later, we were still in the city but with a whole different feel, as we wound through Roland Park's hilly enclave. I love my neighborhood, I really do, but Roland Park is simply gorgeous, with an enormous variety of house styles, huge canopy trees, and winding roads that make you slow down and admire it all. Of course, my favorite house in all of Baltimore is in Roland Park....just look at it! That porch! The gables! How can you not want it?!

Homeland and Cedarcroft are equally charming but different and distinguishable - where

Roland Park is all trees, Cedarcroft is generally more open, less winding, but houses vary from Dutch Colonia and Tudor to Cape Cods and Italiante. It's also worth noting that as of 2000 statistics from the 2000 Demographic profile show that about 75% of homes were occupied by families! Homeland's stone houses are to die for, and people truly know how to take care of their yards over there - I never see a blade of grass out of place. The Lakes of Homeland are just gorgeous, and offer the nicest little scenes in the spring, with daffodils and cherry blossoms abloom . And with Belvedere square so close by, the most delicious food ever is a walk or short drive away.

Our next neighborhood was Hampden, which stands in stark contrast to Homelands quiet grace and controlled order. Hampden is the ultimately mixing pot in Baltimore - young and old, hip and aging, modern and old-school... it's got it all. It is all that is funky and odd (I say that with nothing by love), with eclectic retail and dining down The Ave, the outrageous explosion of lights at Miracle on 34th Street in the winter, and the beehives and leopard-print of HonFest in the summer.

We went to Federal Hill and saw brightly painted old clapboard rowhouses and talked about the history of the Hill itself. In Locust Point, we checked out Silo Point (I hate condos, but I love that place) which has seamlessly blends history (it was the largest point of grain export in the U.S.!) with modern luxury in a way that makes you want to find the designer and applaud (have you been? Do you want to go? I will so take you. While we're talking about new construction i love - which is rare - I'd like to add Overlook at Clipper Mill to the list).

What struck me at this point was how wildly different, how uniquely apart, each of these neighborhoods was from each other. You've all heard the old adage about Baltimore being a city of neighborhoods, about the bock-by-block nature of our port town. But I really appreciated it from a newcomers perspective - the difference of three minutes in most cities may mean brick instead of stone houses, but in Baltimore, three minutes is a different world. In less than an hour and a half we'd been cultural tourists in an American city. Do you realize how lucky we are? That we can stroll through such history whenever we choose, but also have access to the best of modern medicine around the corner? I'm not saying Baltimore doesn't have its shortcomings, but if you take stock of what it has to offer, and what it holds in store, you'll surely agree that is worth fighting tooth and nail to help this city realize its potential, one unique neighborhood at a time. Let's commit to changing people's perceptions of our city, one visiting newcomer at a time.

love k

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