on the home front

Just over a week ago we moved into a new home. Which means a lot more space and a bigger studio for Pollen! This move has been a long time coming-we've been living with K's parents since we moved back from New Zealand a year ago. It was a wonderful year of unconditional family support, getting to know K's family on a much deeper level. I don't know where we'd be without them.

So now it's just the two of us again, living quietly without a television, and very few possessions. I so enjoy listening to KUT in the evenings with the windows open, both of us exhausted from long days of creating. Our back yard is mostly bamboo-the perfectly green, waving in the wind type-that makes even the grayest day seem bright. The dining and living room windows look out over a raised garden bed that the previous tenants put in. I've already planted tiny seedling for strawberries, tomatoes, zucchini and herbs. And I couldn't stop myself from getting seeds for okra, dill, zinnias and dahlias. Lots of baby coleus and dusty miller to plant for cut flowers, too. This will be the first garden I've ever tended, but our neighbor seems to be an expert, his white sweet peas are already at the top of the fence. I'll have to borrow some neighborly advice (and tools).

Our little home is situated in central Austin, Hyde Park to be exact. I've lived here before-I was living just down the street when I finished college, figured out my career and met K. I know the FreshPlus grocery, the gelateria Dolce Vita, the laundromat where I ran into my ex boyfriend while doing an inopportune load of unmentionables. And now there's a specialty cheese shop called Antonelli's, which has the most heavenly cave-aged Gruyere. Very dangerous.

Spring is the best in Hyde Park. Everyone is out and about walking their dogs and little ones around the grid of numbered and lettered streets. Shouldn't every neighborhood be this easy to navigate? The houses are Craftman-inspired, the trees are big, most of the people seem interesting and environmentally minded. It's a place I can't wait to share with the little one I might have some day, ambling five blocks to Shipe Park where all the other moms go.

The other recent development is that I'm four months into eating a sugar-free and gluten-free diet. It's been both easier and harder than I thought, but with resources like Gluten Free Girl and the Chef I'm eating pretty well. The sugar cravings went away after a week, which has never happened to me before, I used to be a sweetaholic. I had to buy all new clothes I lost so much weight (not that I was trying for that), and I feel so much less bloated! I was thrilled yesterday when I cooked one of my favorite things-rhubarb-with some stevia and it tasted great with plain yogurt. I feel like I'm making meaningful adjustments to my daily life, homing in on the life I want.

What's blooming in your life this spring?