Hi Karen

One point of fact: I've never been a vegetarian, though I probably eat much less flesh than the American norm, and also (ahem!) just plain better when I do (bison, not much beef; avoid factory chicken; fancy bacon [which is, after all, a Vegetable...]; and lots of fish). So fish sauce, yes. The one I mostly use is Squid Brand, a Thai version. Sometimes I see Vietnamese, but pretty rarely, so I don't have any suggestions in that realm. I don't know where the nearest Vietnamese grocery store might be, but probably no further north than maybe Lowell. These days we get Squid Brand thanks to Amazon, but in former times I could find a large array at H Mart (that's just off 128, in I think maybe Burlington, but perhaps you knew that). Hard to imagine when I'll venture to Boston next...

I'm glad to hear that Marjanna's recipes live on, and applaud your search for the tastes of yore. I don't recall that she was a fanatical measurer ("3/4 of a teaspoon of oregano..."), and was I think more inclined to inspirational spur-of-moments additions. David, on the other hand, sometimes relied rather more on spur-of-moment in the unshakeable conviction that he was RIGHT... you may recall some of that...). I'm sure that you have the cooking genes from both sides (sometimes David WAS right: think Dynamite Soup...), and IMPROVIZATION is well-supported in that Line. 

As to the world of herbs and spices, we've used Penzey's for mail order for years, but for some things (especially oregano, which is a personal favorite) generally seek Greek or Turkish packaging in stores like Eastern Lamejun, or these days the Amazon equivalent. There's also a place in Brooklyn called Sahadi's (never been there, but nice to know there's actually a Sahadi), well worth looking into for spice mixtures like Ras al Hanout and Berbere and Hawaij, which we've been using a lot of lately. That 'lately' is since Kate arrived in March 2020, on her way to her house in Nova Scotia just as the Canadian border shut down. She and Shannon had reasonably amicably just split, and she was out to create another life, alternating between Maine and Nova Scotia (her cartography business is totally portable, just turn on the computer...). Building an ADU on the property made infinite sense (where else you gonna park your munny?), but it was the GARDEN that came first. By the beginning of April we were constructing raised beds and... (see https://www.flickr.com/photos/blackmerh/albums/72157714434400361 for that first summer, and https://www.flickr.com/photos/blackmerh/albums/72157719115288368 for this last summer). Wick's second cousin once removed (or something like that) is a partner in BrightBuilt https://www.brightbuilthome.com/ and since we knew her we followed that path. The process can be seen via https://www.flickr.com/photos/blackmerh/albums/72157716325620292 and the end result is as close as may be to perfection. Kate, persnicketyest person on the planet, is pleased. She's clearly made a life for herself in St. George, knows all kinds of people (and we have a lot of kinds hereabouts). She's almost as notorious as Betsy and I are (we for our now-5-years roadside trash picking up, vests and bags and grabbers over 20+ miles of roads on the peninsula).

So most nights Kate cooks, at least in part because she's been on a keto regime for two years (details if you want them... she's literally HALF the weight she was. Of course we do not speak of these things, but being all deep-dyed New Englanders and Blackmers besides, hardly need to). Fish sauce figures regularly and even spectacularly in some instances ("how much fish sauce should I put in?"  "oh, about a mouthful..."). You Can't Make This Shit Up. So we eat a LOT of cheese and eggs in vastly varied presentations, and millions of brassica preparations, and fish and bison. Everything is amped up to 11, another long-running family habit. Betsy and I get to eat carbs, but Kate avoids that pleasure. NObody eats as gloriously as we do. Kate has supplied the grilling genes I absolutely lack, and cauliflower and Brussels spouts and kohlrabi and squash and Poblanos and and and are glorious on the grill. Tofu's wonderful grilled too. But you probably know all that.

Yeah, Nick. Don't know what to say about that. He comes to visit occasionally and we talk in a Nick-like sort of way, but we don't go out that way much (and these days don't go anywhere much...). He and I (and Kate) are in frequent email contact, mostly exchanging things that the two/three of us and hardly anybody else comprehends or finds amusing or bellwetherish... you probably know what I mean). He and Kate talk of meeting in Belfast, but I don't think she's done that yet. So I know no details of how their separation is working out, who gets the camelids, how the cattery is to be split, etc.

Congratulations on Retirement, which I can say (after 16 years) has been the BEST of my careers. I'm not sure if congratulations are in order on the puppy front, but then I've always enjoyed other people's dogs and never for a moment wanted to possess my own. One of the households we see a fair bit of adopted a greyhound a year ago, and (much against all my forebodings) she's just a lovely dog. But see a rabbit and....

As for us. On the musical front I'm continuing to accumulate slightly bizarre instruments. https://oook.info/musics/JakeWildwood.html catalogs some of that (pass allong to Maia if you think she'd be interested). Betsy continues weekly flute lessons, and gets better and better. And on the photographic front there's a bit of a lull for both of us as we wonder what our forward directions might be. I hope I sent you the address for our Joint Show in September 2020, but if not or to remind you of it: http://oook.info/imagining/  Question is, what next? Gallery shows aren't something I want to do again, unless I have a whole new body of work (as they say...) to show. The last few years have found me pretty deep into pareidolia and apopenia: http://oook.info/FT/26iii21Gallery.html and http://oook.info/FT/27ivGallery.html but that's for fun, not for public engagement in spaces with stuff on walls. But really, how many portraits of rock persons does the world even need? So I think I'm headed for a period of study in the Photography library, and we'll see where the next camera inspiration might come from. Betsy will surely keep producing small numbers of luminous images: https://www.flickr.com/photos/broot 

Lately I've been at work organizing the Auxiliary Library in the barn and have fallen into re-reading stuff from former lives, following a line of inquiry for a week or so, keeping a dozen or so books in the air at once. And of course that results in more Amazon (used) book orders and THAT means building more bookshelves. http://oook.info/Conviv/ has some of that exploration. And the last couple of days has been on cotton. But then being an anthropologist you never have to say you're sorry for getting interested in something tangential.