As August draws to a close, I reflect on past summer’s-ends and my documentations of such in previous posts. (Search for “transient skies of summer” for my 3-part photo series from 2006.) This weekend in Vancouver was a welcome return to normalcy after a week or so of dreadful rain and mist. The last time it rained hard, after a long dry spell, I thought it was fascinating but this time was just simply unfair and, in fact, abnormal! The PNE recorded more rainy days than average and we had 50% more rainfall than is the usual for August. So it makes it all that much harder to accept that summer is drawing to a close, with longer shadows that seem to abruptly take over the yard having lost a week or so’s transition period.
Continue reading A beautiful end to August »
Yesterday I attended my first Slow Food Cycle Sunday, in Pemberton. Whew, what a ride!
We arrived in Pemberton Village rather on time considering the road construction on the Sea to Sky Highway. (No rockslides, thankfully!) Treacherous road, but man, what a view! The parking lot at Signal Hill Elementary School was rapidly filling up when we unloaded our stuff, packed up our saddle bags and took off in the direction of the Community Centre which would be our official starting point. It was obvious then that there was a huge turnout, and in fact the count thus far exceeds 2000 riders! It was mildly sunny and cool, but the weather didn’t do what was forecasted. It did the exact opposite, without the potential thunderstorm that seemed imminent.
Continue reading Slow Food Cycle Sunday Recap! »
I learned of this annual event when I naughtily “borrowed” my landlady’s Westworld Magazine to read a few interesting food-related articles before I delivered it upstairs. When I finished reading the article about Slow Food Cycle Sunday, I wrote down the event details and without hesitation decided I would attend. (Do read the article, a PDF complete with tantalizing photographs!) Now the date is finally approaching — not that I wish summer to pass quickly as it has been, but I’ve been looking forward to this — and I’m training daily now for the tour.
Training?
Continue reading Slow Food Cycle this Sunday in Pemberton »
How do two weeks go by so fast?
So much to do, so much time, for a change
Avoiding most of it in favour of sleeping, reading and
6 hours a week of Dexter episodes
My god, when it’s not on the TV screen it doesn’t feel like it’s TV
6 hours in a weekend of transit riding
I forced myself to take a break, stay home, catch up, rest, revitalize, restore
And caught up on Dexter episodes missed the previous nights
Fed by Darkly Dreaming Dexter, its parent which
so inspires more writing, more creativity with its intricate words but somehow
when I want to do any of it, there’s something else to be done…
like going to bed. Or not waking up sleeping children downstairs
(as is the case with the piano).
Feeling ambitious but lazy, motivated but tired
Energized by long bike rides, sexy design and a potential purchase
that had to wait because dinner would be better than sitting on a bus.
Two weeks’ absence feels like less when I write snippets in between,
pieces that are waiting for completion as I contemplate them further
and think of things to add.
Ahh — I have one.
Continue reading Silence and noise »
Feeling inspired, I’d like to start a meme on what actions you’re taking, or planning to take (a pledge!) to help the environment. This is a broad-reaching scope, and encompasses anything and everything: choosing organic food, taking transit, composting, donating to an environmental organization, recycling unwanted goods, installing solar panels, or even just educating yourself on issues and solutions. Is there a particular action that tops your list? Or one you’ve been eager to try?
For brevity’s sake we’ll keep the list to 10 items. You can divide it up between “doing” and “intend to do” in whatever ratio you like.
So here’s my list, in no particular order:
Right now, I:
1. Eat local
2. Use cloth bags and compostable plastic bags
3. Advocate for revival of the Interurban community rail
4. Reduce, reuse, recycle!
5. Use strictly natural cosmetics and soaps, with recyclable packaging and no chemicals
6. Use strictly natural cleaners (baking soda, vinegar, water, the occasional lemon)
7. Use a reusable stainless steel water bottle
I will:
8. Reduce waste by switching to Lunapads products (they’re local!) — immediately
9. Live in a walkable neighbourhood with frequent, accessible transit — 2 to 3 years’ time
10. Buy a cradle-to-cradle, toxic-free sofa made from natural materials — 2 to 3 years’ time
Continue reading 10 things you’re doing/will do for the environment »
After two weeks of sunshine I’m surprised to not see “hospital gown green” smog nestled into the corner of our view where Mt Baker peeks out from behind Belcarra’s trees. On this particular day, just a few days ago, Mt Baker is barely visible even in a close-up shot. That has been the case many evenings. Other evenings, as the sun is going down, the glaciers on it are lit up in subtle pink and it resonates against the sky. Sometimes on a clear day I cannot see it at all.
Continue reading Smoggy »
Before writing this post it occurred to me that I may not have the kind of readership that would be interested in a post like this. I’m of course aware that blog readership evolves on a mutual network, but I realised that almost all the blogs I read are on sustainability, climate change, transportation, and green lifestyles. So it became apparent, when I still had the desire to write about it, that I just love to write! While a month’s absence from blogging doesn’t appear to correlate, I think I just needed the equation time + something to get excited about = passion –> creativity. Well, it must have hit a backlog because now I have a couple on a waitlist here waiting to be written! (While I think of it, I should mention that Monday lunch blog posts fizzled in the last few weeks because I haven’t been working.) In this post I anticipate some of you will find issues and feelings to which you can relate. If you’ve grown up, moved out, and even moved back in, you’ll understand!
Continue reading The Urge to Purge / A History of Drawing »
My family — mainly my oldest niece and I — have been enjoying the edible gifts borne by our favourite local park and other nearby forests. This summer’s crop has been especially fruitful and we’re expecting a ridiculous bumper crop of blackberries soon(!!!). I go crazy for salmonberries and introduced the avid 7-year-old berry-picker to the fine art of picking: get a grabby stick, dress the part, and get into the shrubbery! The two of us went on a little adventure, avoiding mud and trampling on dry brush, then hiking up the hill to safe ground when turning back to return across a log and over a creekbed seemed like a more difficult option.
If we’d had more time and more adults we could have probably matched the huge amount my friend and I picked last year. We missed out on picking at Green Timbers this year and I can only imagine how many berries must have been there. At any rate, over a few trips to the local parks here we yielded a significant amount for desserts and snacks, which the family enjoyed. Early in the season my cousin and his Korean girlfriend were here. She hadn’t tasted salmonberries before and the two of us went nuts!
Continue reading Bunches and bunches of berries »
In case you’d been wondering, I didn’t die, fall ill or otherwise lose the ability to post to my blog. The desire, somewhat… but moreover I was too busy doing and thinking other things to even remember to post, and when I did I didn’t feel up to it or there was something of higher priority. (I had my New Entry page open, blank, for 12 days.) So why have I been so quiet? Long story short (long story is hopefully coming later but don’t hold your breath), I moved back to North Vancouver from my co-abode in Surrey. That was almost a month ago (my how time flies when one is busy!) and my new-old bedroom is still a mess so it’s been my priority over many things. Everybody here (my middle sister and her family moved back in two days before I did) has been in purge mode and digging through my old stuff I left behind has been eventful and interesting. The cause for the move back home I don’t wish to discuss in detail — so please don’t ask — but is simply that the two of us aren’t together anymore. Nothing simple about that but it’s a straightforward reason. More specifically I guess I could say I moved back home because living solo in Metro Vancouver is incredibly expensive if not unaffordable. So I’m here waiting out the housing heat wave and am trying to be optimistic about it.
On Monday I had a little adventure I’d like to share with you. It needed the above introduction to fully make sense of the context, but it’s kind of like the 8th story in a series because there is much to say for the previous weeks. We’ll start here for now.
Continue reading Topsy-Turvy or, I’m Not Dead »
