I live & work in a corn field.

This seems like an excellent place to begin: with a virtual tour of my landscape.

In 2007, I–along with husband–discarded 15 years of of urban life to pursue our country dream. We moved to rural central NY state — the Finger Lakes region, known for its scenic beauty and excellent vineyards (over 100 wineries), where we bought 5.2 acres on which sits an old farmhouse, two big barns, some random outbuildings, a pond, and more.

Now, alongside the New Yorker and the NY Times magazine section, I read Grit and Small Hobby Farm.

How do I resolve these two dichotomies? It’s not always easy. At the same time that I’m learning to wrap my head around all this social online networking stuff (you can also find me on FB, Twitter, Flickr, and LinkedIn), I need to stoke the wood stove to keep warm. And I have a hard time believing it myself, but I do actually shovel coal into  my old kitchen stove, every day, to stay warm.

I’m a graphic designer, foodie, and (sophisticated) nature girl. My main interests in life are running my graphic design business (in an office in my barn); cooking, eating and writing about food; and exploring the Finger Lakes by foot and x-c ski, always accompanied by Aurora (aka Rory), my coonhound companion. In this blog I hope to examine all of these aspects, and maybe somewhere along the way I’ll discover the confluence.

I intend for this blog to be fairly personal and informal, in conjunction with my more professional online presence: Julia Reich Design.

Thanks for reading, I look forward to our conversations!