Reuniting and Celebrating

Last weekend we combined a mini-trip to see my college roommate with Mitchell's college reunion.  It's always special to see the place that our Someone Special became an adult.  

If you married your High School Honey or College Sweetheart, you were there for the transition, but if not, you probably know what i mean.  It's enlightening to learn about the place that shaped him and the people who knew him "when".  

Mitchell graduated from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey - a small music college that turns out world class musicians.  When he was there the only choices were choral conducting or organ and they supplied the musical staff for countless churches across the county.  Today, one can also get a degree in music education and performance and they produce more than their fair share of Broadway singers and opera stars, as well.  A very interesting place.

The highlight for everyone annually is the actual graduation ceremony which is held in the Princeton University Chapel.  It's a gorgeous gothic church - just made for music.  From well-know hymns to new music composed by a graduating senior, to music written in the 50's specifically for the graduating classes to sing everything soared high into the vault.  And, nearly 1,000 people, most of whom were trained singers - undergraduates, the graduating class and alumni - can make a very joyful noise!

For Mitchell it was a time to see old friends and connect with new ones.  For me a time to learn more about this place that is so special to his past and so instrumental is shaping who he is today. 

Then off to see Elizabeth and Chuck, including a fun visit to a sheep and goat farm that makes wonderful cheeses.  She knows i love goats (and sheep, too) so had arranged for us to take a tour.  It was a fun trip, but more importantly a chance to reconnect with the best friend who keeps me on a even keel.

A good weekend all around!

Stay-cation

It was fun staying home and doing things "in the neighborhood" for a few calm days.

Day 2:

A lovely morning spent at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.  The current "big" show is Indian art and objects from 1750 - 1950, mostly during the English Raj.  While the "art" was more "illustration" to my way of thinking and didn't really touch me, the objects were divine.

Jewelry like the most extravagant you have ever seen - huge diamonds, rubies, emeralds and pearls to die for.  Fabrics of the finest silk and cotton, woven in the most intricate of patterns, clothing and objects literally fit for the king - or in this case the maharaja.   No photos allowed, of course.

But in the side exhibit - Silver for the Raj - they did allow photos.

I love the intricate work.  You do use a tea pot like this for your Earl Grey, don't you?

 

Lunch followed in a lovely little cafe at the museum overlooking their pond, full of lotus.

And, what did we learn today?   The long white cotton shirt/dress traditionally worn by Indian men was called a "jama"  and the long, loose, white cotton pants worn underneath were called "pai-jama".  Give you any ideas?

Day 3:

What's a stay-cation without a bit of wine tasting?  right?  So off to one new winery and to one old one.  Met a nice trio from Pittsburgh who were on their way to the Outer Banks for a week with the extended family, but were stopping the same places we were, so we tasted our way thru some eastern Virginia wines together.

A lovely way to spend an afternoon.  And, yes, a few bottles of wine to remind us of a good time.


What did we learn?  As Virginia's wine industry grows, the quality gets better and better.  And, we are happy to help the local economy, when we can!

Day 1:  Yes, there was a day one.  A few hours in the garden and then a bit of reading while Mitchell had some very minor ambulatory surgery.  He is fine and up to making his world-famous gazpacho today.

Southern Sunshine

Honesty requires me to say this is last year's picture!  

Sunday morning and the sun is sparkling off the pond outside our door on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.  Thanksgiving week finds us here like swallows returning to Capistrano.

Some years we spend the week in a tennis clinic, but this year it is pure R & R, with friends coming mid-week to play.  Christmas shopping will be high on our list (as always), but there are new high end shops at the outlet mall [think Ann Taylor, the Loft and White House, Black Market] so taking care of "the girls" should be easy and fun.  Can't tell you what I buy, of course, since it will be a secret!

Walking and biking may get some attention, and we did bring tennis racquets ... just in case we want to hit a ball or two one afternoon.  But the main focus of the week is wonderful restaurants, wine and friends to share it.   I'm already a thankful girl!

Road Trip!

One of my favorite things in life is to climb in the car and hit the road.

In my first car - right out of college  [you know, in the days when kids didn't get cars until they bought their own!] - I'd think nothing of hopping in my VW and heading west out I-64 to I-81 to make the nine-hour trip Knoxville, Tennessee, to see my mother.  Nestled between a couple of 18-wheelers and listening to them babble on the CB radio while I sang with whatever blared from the radio, I'd spend the day traveling light and fast and comfortable in the knowledge that if I did have a problem the truckers would make sure I got help.  

Those were carefree, fun times and certainly low tech.

Yesterday as we headed south for a week of "us time" I was reminded of how far we have come since then.  When it was my turn to drive, Mitchell turned on his Galaxie and hooked it into the car radio so that we could listen to Pandora as we passed thru the NPR-less radio wasteland.  No singing with whatever on this trip. 

With Gypsy navigating [get it? GyPSy?] we drove south.  [Let's see... the route is I-95 south for seven hours and turn left at Exit 8 in South Carolina.  I really needed Gypsy's help!]  Then the red lights appeared ahead - like three lanes wide and as far in advance as I could see.

Mitchell jumped the Galaxy to Googlemaps and immediately found us a lovely country road at the very next exit and successfully navigated us around whatever was happening ahead and back onto the Interstate five mile farther south.  The tie-up completely averted and a lovely drive thru North Carolina cotton fields.

Let's hear it for technology!

A Little History

We just spent a long weekend in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  It's one of those places that I have always wanted to visit, but never made the time and was never in the vicinity. 

Rolling hills and lovely farms surround the borough itself, where a traffic circle marks the intersection of two major routes.  The 18-wheelers mix with small and large cars and navigate the circle skillfully.  It was fun to just sit and watch the hustle and bustle right thru the middle of town.

We shopped little stores up and down the streets and enjoyed a nice lunch right on the circle.  Lots of American crafts and hand made items to choose among, as well as art and antiques.  There was a wide variety of things to see, including a wine-tasting room.  It would be terrible to not support the local grape growers ... don't you think?

No gardens to visit, but the town center was filled with flowers and fall decorations - all adding to the overall feeling of a fall festival.  There was a First Friday event that evening with lots of the boutiques open with specials and serving this and that.  Sadly, we were committed to a conference dinner.

Oh.  I forgot to say that we made this journey to attend a conference.  Mitchell and I both made all the obligatory appearances and then disappeared to shop or to visit the battlefields.  I didn't even try to photograph the battlefields - the scale was just too large for my little point-and-shoot.  Instead I took pictures of the orchards and vineyards.

A nice place to visit and a good place to remember the terrible war that was fought there.  Perhaps fitting that we were there a week before Veterans' Day.  Wish we could put that war behind us, but we don't seem to be able to do that yet.  A pity.  We need to find a way to heal those wounds and come together - sooner, rather than later.

Next week: our big purchase!

We Escaped!

While Mother Nature was dumping heavy, wet snow up the East Coast north of me, we awoke this morning to the first frost.  Somehow, I had forgotten the charm of these early fall frosts - the rising sun just kissing the trees and shrubs.

A hardy salvia still holding its own.

 

Shrubs kissed by the frost.

And, a day full of promise.  A day to light the fire, to read a good book, and to open a nice bottle of wine.  Fall's not so bad, after all!

Pop ... pop ..

... pop!  It's become my favorite sound this summer.  The sound of jars sealing on the kitchen counter. 

The bounty of our fruit CSA this summer has just overwhelmed us.  We've eaten peaches, nectarines and plums daily for weeks, but from the middle of July until now we have just not been able to keep up.  It broke my heart to throw away fruit that was over-ripe  to make room for each week's new batch.  So, in August I learned to can.

I'm a mini-canner.  I only make two or three jars (half-pints, at that!) at the time; my largest batch just six jars.  But it feels so good to "put something away" for the winter.  [I hear my grandmother saying, "waste not, want not" in my ear.]  Mind you, I am not sure I will actually let anyone eat any of it.

Yesterday we had a rainy afternoon, so I finished up the week's canning with two jars of plum preserves, four jars of tomato jam, and then in the crock pot overnight six jars of apple butter.  I hope to do some pear butter tonight.

So far we have peach, plum, Damson plum, fig and nectarine jams, plus Ginger Plum and Balsamic Plum jams, tomato jam, a sweet red pepper jam, and apple butter.  Am planning on pear butter next and then I will have run out of space in my cabinet.  Will have to give some away before I can make more!

,

Nectarines mixed with sugar (and Splenda).  Let it sit for 15 minutes and then cook it down.

Plum preserves going into the jar.  I bought a "canning set" that included this handy dandy funnel, a pair of tongs for getting the jars out of the canning bath, and a magnet to lift the jar tops out of hot water.  If you get a canning set, you can be a canner, too.

Tomatoes starting to cook down.  The tomato jam is wonderful - tomatoes, cinnamon, red pepper, sugar - and hits most of the bases, taste-wise.  It's our favorite find.

Damson plums cooking down.  Altho they took a lot of sugar, they are just wonderful.  It was my grandmother's favorite jam, but I had only had the commercial variety until now.

Apple butter after a night in the slow cooker.  Making butters this way is so easy!

If you will drop by for a cup of tea on the garden bench, now I can promise you a biscuit and jam, too.  You're always invited and welcome.

Starbucks!

48 hours and still no power, no phone, no wifi so I have joined the Gen Y'ers working at Starbucks!  and charging up my pc for later.

Blue skies and cooler temps so sleeping should be better tonight.  Much food to cook if power's not restored by tomorrow.

Be Bop a Re Bop

Rhubarb Crisp!

We got rhubarb in our fruit share this week - along with lots and lots of strawberries - so I decided to give it a try. Rhubarb is one of those things - is it a fruit or a vegetable? - that I have never eaten so I threw together a "crisp". It smelled delicious, and tasted yummy. Good enough to do it again sometime.

After an entire week without my computer I feel totally cut off from the world. So much to read, so many comments I wanted to make, but mainly to let you know I am alive and have been missing you.

Congratulations to GG on her graduation!! Know the party was wonderful. Glad your dad is in town with you and Jane. Happy Weekend!

Fish Out of Water

Monday was our annual "Clean the Pond Day". It's one of those things that responsible pond owners need to do - well, if you have two tiny, enclosed ponds as we do - and that we put off as long as possible. Then when it's done you say, "not so bad after all!" I hope the fish feel the same way, since they experience a bit more trauma than we do.

Before, the pond at the end of the winter looks like it's hiding the creature from the black lagoon - dark water obscuring the darker depths and hiding not only the fish, but untold gook from delaying leaves, food and what-not. Above is the fish pond, which is the cleaner of the two ponds, since it has no fish "waste" or decaying food in it - only vegetation.

The fish are understandably not anxious to be caught and moved for this process, so there is no choice except to start draining the pond and to catch them as they are trapped in less water. A quick scoop and they are transferred to holding ponds. Ok, big plastic tubs.

Then we wash down the sides and vacuum out the bottom, scooping up as much gunk as possible. That goes on the compost pile. You do use fish "emulsion" don't you? The drained water goes to the best perennials - this year the peonies got a big share. And, I pull out the water lilies to cut them back and re-pot for the new season.

They look like land-based tubers and you cut them back the same way - simply cut off the old part that no longer has viable roots and re-pot the newer part. Both tubers already had a large number of sprouts and some leaves that were nearly 10 inches long.

Safely back in the bottom of the pond, fed and refilled with gravel and lava rock the lilies are ready for another year, and all that's left is to fill the pond, treat the water and return the fish. Start to finish - two hours on a lovely, sunny, warm afternoon. No one got wet, except the fish and now the pond sparkles in the sunlight and the fish have remembered that they get fed at the cocktail hour. They are waiting for me every evening.

This is the day that I am annually amazed that we can maintain the lilies and the fish thru the winter. We lose a few fish every winter, but in our fourth year there are still two from the first five we bought - Whitie and Goldie, in case you were wondering. I named the first five, but none of the rest. Since they have common parents there is now a strong family resemblance.

If you're in the area, come have a glass of wine and help me feed them on afternoon!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We celebrated early with a long weekend in D.C.

A day at the National Museum of Natural History, a second in the National Gallery of Art, and half a day at Mt. Vernon equals a great, but busy weekend.

Good food, an excellent wine and chocolates on my pillow this morning.

Gorgeous orchids at Natural History. Orchids to die for!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Baby, it's Cold Outside!

Grim, gray morning, but covered in ice. A bit of sun would have made it gorgeous, but alas not a sunbeam in the forecast for several days.


Thank goodness for the fireplace!

Gutters or Shutters?

Today was that rite of winter-wishing-to-be-spring ... the Home and Garden Show. You know The day when everyone who has a product or service even vaguely related to home, hearth, and garden brings it all together to that folks who are yearning for better weather [that would be me!] come to spend money they don't have on projects... that they might need.

We have had both good and bad experiences in the past. The first year in our new house we found a great blind cleaner, i.e, he comes to your house and cleans your mini-blinds, as well as a guy who molded concrete borders for our garden. Both are now out of business [for which we are sorry!] but we got good service from each.

Other years we have wandered around and found nothing that we needed, and nothing that was interesting. The main trends today were gutters or shutters, garden rooms and food.

1) Gutters - It seems that there are lots of things one can do to avoid cleaning one's gutters. There were three different systems to cover the gutters and prevent leaves collecting in them, as well as my personal favorite - a gutter that flips down and dumps out the leaves. You gotta love flip down gutters! In the interest of full disclosure, I have to say that our house came with gutter guards, so we passed.



2) Shutters - well, actually siding, but shutters rhymes so well. You can get siding in all sorts of colors, patterns, and materials - all apparently preferable to vinyl. Paintable or with the color baked in, colonial or textured - they come in many different styles and prices. Fortunately, our house came with siding, so we are set there.

3) Food - I think the tie-in is that you make food in your home - assuming that you have a kitchen. Today you could choose dips to mix with cream cheese or mayonnaise in 20 different flavors. Three for $10 or six for $15. Clearly a deal. I couldn't decide what flavors, so passed on this opportunity.

4) Gardens as rooms - Apparently people are not moving to larger homes this year (had you already guessed that?) so they are enlarging their existing homes by incorporating garden rooms. We saw huge patios, huge patios with pergolas, and huge patio kitchens. Big stone, big walls, just plain big. Acres of large pavers were lovely, but who has a yard that big? Passed on this, too.

4) Food - cheese from a cooperative, Virginia raised beef, cheese straws, peanuts (this is Virginia) or jellies and preserves. Lots of opportunities to taste, but we passed again - at least on purchasing.

5) Solar - Saw some interesting things here. The state-wide solar green initiative had lots of information on building with solar panels and going greener. We are far enough south that one day all homes built in Virginia will have solar panels. We're going to look into a solar powered attic exhaust fan. It's reasonably priced and we can get a 30% tax rebate since it's solar. I think it might save enough to pay for itself in a couple of year. Definitely on the follow-up list. There was also an interesting solar oven. I've had a bit of curiosity about getting one.

6) Food - well, wine. Three local wineries were giving tastings of their wares. Couldn't insult them by not at least sampling... right? Didn't actually add any bottles to our "cellar", but did try a couple of things that we liked enough to write down for future reference.

Two others vendors with whom I plan to follow-up are a company that refinishes kitchen counters and one that installs pull-out shelves in existing kitchen cabinets. I'd like both for my kitchen. Like others, we plan to stay here for the long term so we are upgrading a bit over time.

If the Home and Garden Show is here, can spring be far behind?

10-10-10

Didn't post last weekend because somehow my obsession with losing weight seemed very frivolous with all that was happening in Tucson. Down 10 pounds and 2.5 inches. Had a couple of hard days this week and regained a couple of pounds, but am back on track. Clothes are fitting noticeably better now.

Getting Out of the Rut...

of cooking, that is.

Do you find a good recipe- or maybe an old favorite - that you make and make and make? I certainly do that, even tho I read plenty of magazines with lots of good new choices. And, I have a pile a foot deep of things that sound good, but which I haven't gotten around to trying... yet.

So the past few weeks I have been really making an effort to make at least one new thing a week. I've even made shopping lists! Two weeks ago it was Southwestern Cream of Chicken Soup - delicious the first night, but too much cheese to reheat well. Last week I tried Pork and Mushroom Stew, which was delicious, and quickly disappeared.

This week's entry was Chicken Chilaquiles Casserole. It looked so good that I meant to take a photo, but since I didn't you will have to take my word that it looked almost like the photo from the magazine! The recipe for two made plenty for two meals, so we will reheat it with chips or something over the weekend.

The real problem was that the promised 40 minutes to prepare was really an hour plus, and I used half the pots and pans that I own. Mitchell gallantly did the dishes since I had been - literally - slaving over a hot stove for so long. I liked the flavors, so will try to find a way to re-create the taste without the long prep time.

I have one more recipe chosen for next week and then it will be time to fall back on some old favorites - Chicken Chili, anyone?

10-10-10

Four Jazzercise programs, +0.5 pounds. Frustration.

Meet Miss Ellie

This elegant lady is spending the next ten days with us while her family vacations on Cape Cod. They will have many aunts and uncles and cousins and other dogs all camping together in a state park on the Cape, but both the twelve-hour drive and the hubbub are too much for this lovely lady, so she is camping with us.

As you can see from her gray muzzle and paws, she is no spring chicken. A hand-me-down dog her family is not sure exactly how old she is, but something around ten seems right. It is nice to have her sprawled on our hearth, or under the deck in the shade while I was gardening this morning. It brings back the good feelings that we had for so many years when we had our own dogs.

We are told that Ellie likes her twice-daily walks and will chase her ball - for a while. She had not been here fifteen minutes before finding the lily pond. By "finding" I mean, of course, "getting into". Somewhere there is a terrified frog! The pond is not a good fit for her, as the bottom is quite small with a large potted water lily taking up most of the available space. But she apparently found it cooling enough that she did it twice!

We already know that she is afraid of shiny floors. Our carpeted house is great for her, altho feeding in the kitchen may be a stretch. We have put throw-rugs from door to door in hopes of breaking up that huge expanse of shine for her. It also seems that she is a bit spooked by the open back of the steps coming up to the house. Although we have four possible ways to enter the house all require coming up to a deck and she doesn't really like doing it. A cookie made the deal this morning, so I am not sure who is training whom!

Somehow dogs seem to bring out the best in people. We show them the overt affection that we sometimes are too inhibited to show to the humans we love. It's easier to touch a dog than a person, and you can tell a dog your deepest secrets without fear of their going any farther.

So, we will enjoy a new routine for the next ten days - walks in the early morning and evening - and a presence in our home. It will be like old times with Jack, or Buck, or Mocha. But when she goes home we will no doubt be happy to have our quiet little house become quiet again.

Geezer Bee

Who knew? Apparently AARP throws a spelling bee for the 50+ generation. It was held recently in Cheyanne, Wyoming. Really.

Wasn't the spelling bee the best part of fifth grade, and sixth grade, and seventh grade? I grew up in a Scripps-Howard town, so we participated every year. I wonder if children in this era of electronic everything enjoy it as much? The geezers surely did. The last two contestants went head to head for 30 rounds. Go, spellers! Maybe I'll see you next year.

Locovores

We made our first run to the produce market this afternoon. Imagine a city park with 200 year old oak trees casting much needed afternoon shade. Imagine twenty or so little tent-like awnings (the craft show variety) pulled into a circle around a parking area with trucks or vans pulled up behind them, and a wealth of fresh produce, bread, jams, sauces and the obligatory craft or two, hand-lettered signs and professional banners. Then imagine 30-50 people arriving in their cars with fabric bags and baskets in hand. And, imagine varieties of veggies that you haven't seen before, but which look tasty and tempting. That's our new produce market. Mitchell and I agreed that it's what we imagine small town markets were like 200 years ago with everyone bringing what they had to sell into town on Saturday and then buying what they needed to take home.

What we needed was a few strawberries to get us thru until our CSA produce share comes on Thursday. What we bought was strawberries, bread, more bread, and beets. Only the fact that we have plenty left from last week's share kept us from buying more. Everything looked so good!

We are already experimenting with "new" vegetables this summer. I have discovered kale. The last time I ate kale was [literally] at Sequoyah Hills Elementary School in the first grade. In those days the only known way to cook kale was forever. My grandmother used to tell me that to cook greens one had to boil them until the smell got into all the closets. The fine ladies in the school cafeteria certainly used the same recipe. The resulting green slim made it to my very short list of foods I won't eat - and I am not now, nor have I ever been, a particularly picky eater! My friend Elizabeth gave me a more modern recipe for kale and I like it a lot. That's one veggie crossed off the do-not-eat list.

Another new food for me is turnips. I believe I never had the opportunity to eat one before. Nonetheless, I knew I did not like them so they were on the DNE list, too. I believe this is a result of my parents not liking turnips. I am fairly sure that if parents don't eat something, their children are likely to inherit the dislike, since they don't get the opportunity to taste. I sauted them once and liked them fine that way, but really like them raw in a salad. Today at the market we found little turnips in both white and a lovely purple - definitely tempting.

We are still experimenting with Swiss Chard. It's the symbolic joke of the CSA group and represents all the veggies that we don't know how to cook. In fact, we have only gotten one meal of Swiss Chard so far. Mitchell didn't like the way I fixed it, but I have another recipe to try the next time we get some.

We do like beets and bought some today, but we stuck with the "normal" red beets. Another vendor had orange and yellow beets. Next time I want orange beets and a purple cauliflower. I'm really getting into this new food thing.

Other vendors had breads of several kinds - french baguettes, foccacio, various grains and sweet breads. Again, we bought at the first vendor and I wished we had waited. We could have bought bottled sauces of several kinds, and lamb or beef, or eggs, or plants, or cut flowers, or even barbecue! There were craftsmen with carved wooden bowls [very well done and reasonably priced] and stained glass [some pretty suncatchers], handmade jewelry, and several others that we did not really visit.

Everyone from whom we purchased thanked us for buying locally, or for supporting small farmers. That was an interesting experience, but it underscored for me that we want to continue to do it. While it's not possible all year round in our climate, we can certainly do it six to nine months a year. So call us locovores - at least until October.

Join the No-Poo Revolution?

I've never considered myself a revolutionary - well, not since the Vietnam War- but it turns out I am. About a month ago I joined the "No-Poo Revolution".

Some weeks ago over Mohitos a friend [nurse practitioner in a family practice] mentioned to the tennis team that she had attended a dermatology conference at which a doctor suggested that women "of a certain age" [over 50] need to stop using shampoo and let their hair return to a more natural state. According to her instructions one just stops using shampoo and rinses her hair as needed, using conditioner now and then. Since I have the least hair of the assembled group, I decided to give it a try for the good of the order.

My hair is fine, short and stick straight, so it would be hard to look noticably worse! Over the years I have tried perms and do-it-yourself color with no real improvement - well, I loved the auburn, but my husband did not. At the time I went no-poo I was using a national brand "for brunettes", but without a conditioner. With my fine hair, I had not been using conditioner because it seemed to weigh my hair down. I am also a daily hair washer. It's easy with short hair and I do a lot of sweaty yard work. I like to shower when I come out of the garden - sometimes up to three times a day. It never occurred to me not to wash my hair a lot.

So, I just quit using the shampoo. After five days I was not thrilled with the feel of my hair - it was plenty clean, but felt odd. So, I bought some conditioner - also for brunettes - and my hair immediately felt really good! I am no fool. I realize that any product "for brunettes" is putting a small amount of color on my hair, and I don't mind that a bit!

After three weeks it occured to me to google "no poo" and you would not believe the amount of information on the web. Apparently the "revolution" started three or four years ago in Australia and there are all sorts of blogs devoted to not washing your hair. I will try to summarize:

There are at least two groups actively trying no-poo - those who are trying to reduce the chemicals in their lives, and those who are trying to have better hair. I guess I fall in the latter group, but I certainly think that the shampoo was stripping the oil from my hair and making it dryer. For those with more hair than I have, it may also be causing them to produce extra oils to counteract the stripping.

There are several "plans" for going no-poo and several goals. The big two are:

WO = water only. By happenstance I fall into this group, but it seems to be the smaller cohort. I have not yet felt the need to use anything to "cleanse" my scalp, but that may be because my hair is so short. I am guessing that the longer the hair, the more this is an issue.

BS/ACV = Baking soda and apple cider vinegar. This is clearly the most popular recipe. You make a paste from BS and water, rub that into your scalp thoroughly and then rinse with a diluted ACV. The idea is that BS is alkaline and vinegar is acid, so the combination returns your head to "neutral". I actually want to try this combo sometime. I used vinegar in high school as an alternative to cream rinse - before conditioners became widely available.

Other: some folks add honey to the vinegar - I don't get that. The people who do it love the way it feels, but I have visions of ants and bees! And, how do you get it out completely? There are also several, perhaps many, "natural" soaps and other ingredients that people say work well for them.

From the blogs it appears that success with no-poo is largely a matter of your own hair, your own preferences, and your expectations. Many with curly hair said it curled better; many with fine hair said it felt fuller and had more body [I agree with that]; and many hated it. It apparently it takes from five days to five months to get thru the aclimation period. This is a highly personal experience.

No one else in my tennis group has tried it, but my friend Garland has. Like me, she has fine, straight, short hair and she says she likes it so far. So, if you want to give it a try, I would definitely google first and read what others have to say.

For me, it's too soon to say that I will remain poo-free forever. But, right now I see no reason to go back to soaping. I like the way my hair feels and it sure is easy! How about you? Want to join the revolution?