Who in their right mind doesn’t love a bundt cake, much less a bundt pan? It’s that “dt” at the end that makes it all so satisfying. This pan was found at Bought and Sold, a seductive little antique shop (a branch of Lee Hartwell Antiques) in Callicoon, NY. The patina on this piece is more gray-black than what appears in the photo. It has a fragile quality about it that is irresistible.

Here’s a little peek into my new studio — the reading corner. I finally set up some bookshelves, as well as a chair and a lamp that I kidnapped from our place in Brooklyn. I hooked up an old stereo and, truly, I could not be happier!! It’s going to take awhile for all this to sink in.

Just to be clear, I’m not trying to be lewd here. To explain: One weekend before the holidays, I went into the local upstate Farm and Garden store to see if I could find some canning jars, and somehow ended up in the farm animal feeding section. There are implements and objects on the shelves that I have never seen before. And, furthermore, have no clue as to what purpose they serve. However, it wasn’t a big leap to guess at what these are. (One of the best experiences of the past couple of years was bottle feeding our friends’ baby goats. OMG!) Anyway, as I did a little more digging, I realized that there is an entire industry devoted to animal feeding nipples. All shapes and sizes. Each suited to a different species. As usual, the range and variation in shape of a single item is what’s got me hooked.

Nature has us all trumped. It’s hard to disagree on this one. Today’s vegetable — the watermelon radish — is brought to you by the good folks over at Willow Wisp Organic Farm in Damascus, PA, right across the Delaware River border from NY. They are amazing and smart and grow vegetables that make you remember how food is supposed to taste.

I wandered into my friend Lee Hartwell’s gem of an antique shop the other day and was caught mid-sentence by this utterly compelling specimen of design. Lee kindly lent it to me for a bit so I could take some quick photos. I don’t know much about this piece other than what function it performed. In my quest for further information I found a very cool site showcasing Soviet era camera equipment. They have one housing that is straight out of an early Bond movie.

Update: I looked a little harder and found this listing on ebay. The housing is made by Ikelite.