Don't shit where you eat

So I've decided that I want to grow my own vegetables. There's a community garden that I've been volunteering at and it has helped me to see just how valuable for the body it is to eat a vegetable that just came out of the ground. I have a tiny outdoor patio at my house and I have been doing some research about gardening in small spaces - I have found something that I really love - called "square foot gardening" - www.squarefootgardening.com and the special thing about it is that you partition your garden space into square foot sections and plant your crop in that space. You never till the soil after the harvest - just add another layer of compost. -Saves alot of water and space and does not deplete the soil like traditional row gardening.

My friend Jonathan took me to a compost workshop today and we learned about the way to go about composting in your own backyard. San Francisco actually has a fantastic composting system - many people have their trash, recycling, and composting taken on the curb - and all of the composting gets taken to a huge industrial composting plant where it gets processed and turned into beautiful (black gold) compost. Another method of waste management was brought to my attention - "humanure" - composting your own feces! Its true it makes a closed-loop circuit of waste - but can you imagine feeding a tomato to your guest that you know was grown in your own dookie? Seems un-kosh. Anyways - here's a picture of a good composting bin and my second most cupcake painting.

If I try to interpret these paintings I would say that cupcakes are the quintessential food of happiness. They serve their purpose by being a sweet dessert that is specifically yours. There's no "sharing a cupcake" - it's personal, its a cake to call your own. I would say a cupcake is the perfect symbol for the way I would like to see the events of my life. Though sometimes the events that come may be seemingly negative or against the grain of what I want, the symbol of a cupcake I believe is something that can transform that moment and make it into something sweet, serving its purpose of creating happiness. It's a symbol of comfort and with it comes additional symbols - Thus far - the button: Such a tiny item that can keep two pieces of fabric together. A master of appearing humble, yet when put to work it does its job well.
And the drinking straw - a symbol of purposefully pulling the essence out of the drink of desire. In this case it is choosing to drink the cupcake of happiness :)