I’ve managed to stuff my weekend to the brim with various events, from Juno festivities to enviro-political discussions, and a possible, long-overdue trip to the market.
Here’s what’s going on!
In 10 hours, Avaaz’s new petition asking the federal government to support the CBC has garnered over 25,000 signatures. Please sign the petition and pass it on to your friends!
The Winter Farmer’s Market is on again at the WISE Hall (1882 Adanac St. in East Van) from 10 am – 2pm. Well, technically it’s spring now, so there are some fresh surprises:
Good-bye winter blues (and flus!) — spring has sprung at the Vancouver Farmers Market and what better way to celebrate than with the arrival of spring crops. Brian Patterson of Shalefield Gardens will have several varieties of sprouts including Broccoli, Mustard and Red Radish, as well he will have Micro Greens, Jerusalem Artichokes, Strawberry plants, and Nettle, oh my!
Still fighting off that winter cold? Don’t forget to pick up some garlic, which Brian says his customers are most excited about. His favourite recipe? Garlic broth soup, with celery, carrot, and nettle. Don’t forget to also visit Langley Organic Growers, for their selection of spring greens, including Baby Kale, Arugula, and Mustard Greens. Join us at the Market for this delicious start to spring, but get there early if you want the greens! — Facebook event page
SFU Surrey Campus (at Surrey Central Skytrain), Rm 5140, 13450 – 102 Avenue, Surrey.
1 – 4pm. Free, pre-registration is not required.
The Tar Sands megaproject in Alberta has been described as the most environmentally destructive project ever built. But many people don’t know about the pivotal role proposed BC projects could have in facilitating tar sands expansion and fueling demand for tar sands oil.
Join us for a short video, presentation and discussion on the ways tar sands plans depend on proposed projects in BC. The presentations will focus on the Tar Sands, the Proposed Enbridge Gateway Pipeline, and the Gateway freeway and port expansion schemes.
Presenters:
Harjap Grewal — Council of Canadians: The Gateway and other proposed tar sands pipelines.
Eric Doherty — Livable Region Coalition: The Gateway freeway and port expansion proposals.
Jessie Schwarz — Greenpeace: The environmental and social impacts of the tar sands.
A reminder that it’s Earth Hour from 8:30 – 9:30 pm (local time). Granville Magazine lists 21 ways to spend Earth Hour sans power. I will be observing it at a large party with candles for each person, which should be lovely! I think I missed it last year so this may be my first one. I enjoyed the Globe and Mail’s article about getting creative for Earth Hour.
Continue reading More events: Save the CBC, Earth Hour, local food, tar sands talk, and more »
Last night I finally attended my first Philosopher’s Cafe, on the topic “Sustainability—is it compatible with free markets?” It was a good discussion and, despite us all being pro-sustainability, we still differed on enough views to promote some argument. I’m an idealist but used my realist friends’ perspectives to offer some critique. (Sorry that you weren’t there!) I won’t make it to the next one at that location, because there is one that interests me even more in New Westminster: “The ethics of the hundred mile diet” is on April 15 at Heritage Grill, 7pm. A discussion on “GMOs: The complex difficulties of Frankenfood” happens there June 17… but that’s a ways off!
Here are a couple upcoming FREE events for folks interested in sustainability and social media.
Audacious Visions for Vancouver
Friday, March 20 (tomorrow!)
Pacifica Photography Studio, 821 Powell St, Vancouver
“A World Cafe style dialogue to discuss the future of Vancouver. How do we make Vancouver the greenest city in the world by 2020? Come and contribute your thoughts in an afternoon of creativity and audacious thinking. A collaboration of the SFU Undergraduate Semester in Dialogue and the City of Vancouver’s Greenest City Action Team.” Details: audaciousvancouver.com
Register online for the first portion beginning at 1pm, or come down at 6pm for some casual conversation.
Vancouver Net Tuesdays – Remixing the Web for Social Change!
Net Tuesday is a regular gathering of bloggers, social media folks, designers, non-profits and other folks interested in the role of the web for social and environmental change. It’s been going on in Vancouver for about a year.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
5:30pm – 7:30pm
WorkSpace, #400-21 Water St, Vancouver
Presenters (confirmed thus far):
Raul Pacheco – Social Media in Sustainability and Public Policy
Grace Carter – ChipsNotDeadYet.com (BC Children’s Hospital Social Media Case Study)
Doug van Spronsen – MakeGood.com
Steve Williams – Data for Good
Joe Solomon – The future of the Green Web — Joe is the Net Tuesday organizer
Host/MC is Darren Barefoot. Yay!
More details on Facebook or MeetUp.com
abundance
(22 november)
what an amazing day.
the sun is warm happiness radiating
at the market voices buzz and twitter
I talk at length with four people
and indulge my vices
apples crisper than ever imagined greet me immediately and yes, kind sir, I will see you again soon.
the hall is stuffed with scents and warm colours that suggest the turning of fall into Christmas. I cannot wait for the next two.
at the market I move in slow motion, with thoughtful decisions and careful handling of the earth’s most sacred gifts for which I have a delectable passion.
suddenly the presence of honey, maple and bread intermingle with curiosity and my senses urge me without hesitation to ask for a plump loaf of sourdough which I shall with butter enjoy later.
hues of pumpkins, squash and apples overflow amongst varieties of mushrooms, potatoes and dried fruits, all the colours and textures singing the plenty that is the harvest here, even so late in the fall. this is abundance.
I leave with luscious beet greens slung across my back and deeply enjoy the sight from the corner of my eye.
it makes me feel somewhat of a peasant or… something special… a collector of sorts.
a perfect day for a walk.
to pass time I follow people to a cluster of studios in the most unlikely place for the Eastside Culture Crawl which I had not planned to attend. when I am wealthy I will buy other people’s art and gourmet cheese. today my wealth is my experience.
happily timed my bus arrives and I cradle my earthly belongings.
a young man strums an acoustic guitar at the back of the bus, a surprising reminder of when I once did the same.
sunlight pours in across the city and the trees, between the branches, the dead leaves
it’s a perfect day
november moon
(19 november)
it was dark inside, and outside the fog had rolled in, shrouding everything, and through which the neighbour’s light glowed softly. and yet I could still see shimmering clearly a star — nay, a planet — in the black sky. the moon lit up the top of the fog’s arm that stretched over the inlet, yet I could not see the moon. little time had passed since I saw its reflection, perfect and white on the still water. its face looking downward and half hidden, the moon played hide-and-seek behind the thickest part of the cypress, thick enough to block it from entering the house. but I knew it was there; on the sparkling dotted glass its shape blurred and crackled. tonight it was shy but it will soon light up the darkness like a second sun, come fullness.
This afternoon I saw my second* feature-length film at the Vancouver International Film Festival, Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis (Welcome to the Sticks), directed by Dany Boon, who also plays one of the main characters.
In a desperate attempt to appease his unhappy wife with a transfer to the French Riviera, Philippe Abrams (played by the very charming Kad Merad) instead gets sent to the middle of nowhere. The town of Bergues to be exact, in a remote corner of northern France called the Pas de Calais. Here the locals have their own way of doing things, and saying things. The townspeople speak a dialect called Ch’ti, which to Philippe’s ears is little more than gibberish. At first, Philippe has trouble understanding what anyone has to say, let alone being able to make any friends. But as the rural eccentrics gradually worm their way into his affections, he comes to appreciate the gentle pace of life in his new home. — From The Guardian, via VIFF.org
Continue reading VIFF film review: Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis »
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 »
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 »
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 »
Photo by Rob_ on Flickr
Yesterday I joined my sister and my little nieces to one of several Car-Free Vancouver festivals. It was almost surreal to see a chunk of Main St. filled with people, “dancing in the stree-eet,” with absolutely no cars. The warm air was filled with various music, voices, children’s laughter, and sometimes the crashing and bumping noises of skateboarders on the half-pipe. We enjoyed a live performance from a guitarist/singer + DJ/violinist duo that would probably be called lounge jazz pop? The kids had some fun dancing to it. While the next band set up some dancers moved to, I think it was flamenco music, with various dance props (ribbons, etc.) The girls had their faces painted — a butterfly and a lovebug (ladybug on one cheek, heart on the other) — and posed for some adorable photos!
Continue reading Car-Free Vancouver Day »
Near the entrance to Granville Island on Saturday I was stunned to see a heritage trolley car on the old tracks at “Granville Station.” They have tours every weekend now — did anyone else know about this? What a pleasant surprise!
On Saturday, I went to the EPIC expo at Canada Place. The main attraction for me was a talk by Adria Vasil, author of a best-selling book I adore called Ecoholic. In her inspiring presentation, she gave us a history behind the book’s development and noted how the green movement was virtually non-existent when she started her column in 2004. Organizers of EPIC apparently wanted to put on this event back then but there was deemed to be a lack of interest in green issues.
Adria offered some great advice and encouragement for greening one’s lifestyle: choose three things every month and do them. No matter how good you are already, you can do even better. My three things? I decided to no longer buy greenhouse-grown produce, I switched to compostable plastic bags for my garbage and replaced some of my soap with a locally-made, more natural product (and it smells divine, too!) Adria emphasized the importance of individual actions and how even little things add up. Case in point: the government’s new green product claims regulation is consumer complaint-driven, meaning it’s up to us to call in and report on products that (we think) are making false claims. So things are looking up, anyway. Adria is very lovely and was happy to sign my Ecojot notebook (I had not brought my copy of Ecoholic).
Continue reading EPIC – Sustainable living expo »
