Manspreading

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An Unremarkable Spring - yes I know it's the fall

I’ve fallen very behind on my posts. I have a few in the wings for the next while, but instead of trying to catch-up, we’ll just erase the spring, shall we?  It wasn’t terribly notable.  I travelled quite a bit, a garden was put in, but because spring took its sweet time arriving, and was so late and so damp, it was a less than stellar year. The yard is normally terrorized by unruly cucumber plants bent on world domination, but this year, almost half my plants drowned and the rest remained demoralised even after a turn in the weather. My tomatoes eventually flowered and fruited, but we will head into the first frost with green tomatoes and no Greek salads.

I did a read a few books, but honestly, only a few were particularly memorable. I know we knocked off Emancipation Day for bookclub. I remember being underwhelmed and though interested in the history presented about race relations in post WWII Windsor/Detroit, I found the supporting characters mundane and the main characters unsympathetic.  I also read The Girl on the Train at the behest of every newsstand kiosk, blog, best sellers list etc.  Honestly, the book was hard to escape it was/is so much the rage, but, the thing is, I could have cared less about the horrible people contained within the book and the misery they caused each other. Sure, you can never truly know another person, but good grief, that is an unbelievable level of manipulation and spineless addled-mindedness. Sure, maybe the two attract one another, but I felt only relief when the book was over.  Maybe I am too naïve, but there is no way I could accept the premise of this novel, let alone that such direly stupid people could function as contributing members of our society.

On the more positive side, I also furthered my Neil Gaiman experience by reading the classic American Gods (4*) and The Ocean at the End of the Lane (4.5*). Both are gorgeous reads, full of mind popping visuals and truly immersive worlds. I also had the pleasure of reading Aziz Ansari’s Modern Romance.  It was delightful as I feel Aziz himself is; quirky, cute, but holding substance. I didn’t find the results of the research particularly earthshattering, but the fact that he undertook the research was fairly remarkable.  What I know for sure is that I am grateful that I am not part of the Tinder revolution. I found LavaLife hard enough on the ego/self-confidence. A swipe? Icky.

With A God in Ruins, I was devastated that Teddy fathered such a reprehensible off-spring. My heart broke for him, and for me since Life After Life was as near a perfect story as could have hoped for. I know (no, really, I am full of a very deep understanding) that there are gross people in the world. I guess I just don’t care to read about the undeservingly entitled and unpleasant people in the world of fiction. I see too many of them in the grocery store and on the bus. Of course, we all have our stories, we all became the person we are today due to a series of defining moments of our lives. And we all have our own unique hardwiring which dictates how we will experience and allow those moments to shape us.  I guess my own wiring and defining moments harden me from accepting those moments as unredeemable.

March Bookshelf

Wow. I was completely convinced that I had already written this blog post until I got into a discussion this afternoon with a work colleague about a letter we were writing. My colleague wanted to use the phrase 'spectacular wilderness' in the letter, but I have a thing about the word wilderness, especially in the context of a National Park. I had planned on quoting from this blog post to explain my position on the word, but then realized that said post did not yet exist in finished form, just in pencil scratches in my notebook. So...

Boundless: Tracing Land and Dream in a New Northwest Passage, by Kathleen Winter

My interest in Boundless was piqued by a review I read in the Globe and Mail last September. At the time, we were in a Franklin Frenzy!! The announcement that after 170 odd years of the Franklin Expedition being 'lost', the Erebus had been 'found'. Don't get me wrong, from an archeological 'discovery' perspective - pretty huge (full disclosure, I studied archaeology in university, so I am in no way throwing shade at the field of study). But from the government's sovereignty perspective, claims to the North - strong and free - perspective, from an announce-able perspective: GRAND. Yes, I am cynical, because the thing about archaeological 'discoveries' is that they are a lot like anything else in the purview of white men and Western culture: someone not from that culture knew. Someone was a guide. Someone had a story. While it may be big news and all new to those guided and those that listened to the stories, it was not for the guide and the storyteller. I am often horrified by the continued under valuing of Aboriginal culture. It is a remarkably absurd hangover from our colonial past. How can we discover something that was already known?

Likewise, what is wilderness? In western culture, wilderness is bad, it is wild, untamed, it is the place of the deep dark forest where the big bad wolf waits to gobble-up wayward girls.

Merriam-Webster defines Wilderness as:

(1): a tract or region uncultivated and uninhabited by human beings (2): an area essentially undisturbed by human activity together with its naturally developed life community

But there are no true equivalents in many other languages. In fact, when many 'wildernesses' were being 'discovered' there were all manner of human beings inhabiting the tract or region. In Ucluelet, where I grew up, there are dense forests, stunning mountains, raging rivers and the thunderous ocean. Many non-aboriginal members of the community would refer to this area as 'wilderness', but the Nuu-chah-nulth word for the same area is "nisma" which would translate to our land.

Winter covers these topics with the tone of a lyrical storyteller. She is a witness to the experiences of those around her, and she eloquently captures her own conflicted feelings about the western values with which she was raised and the utter respect for the values and knowledge of her Inuit traveling companions, the interest and awe of following in Franklin's doomed footsteps and the utter absurdity of the reverence western culture holds for foolhardy exploits of a long dead white guy.

I highly recommend: for the lovers of Emily Carr and Margaret Laurence

Love at First Stitch: Demystifying Dressmaking, by Tilly Walnes

I love Tilly's blog, Tilly and the Buttons, and was excited when Mollie Makes reported that she would be releasing her first book. It doesn't disappoint.  Beautifully executed, the book is bright and colourful and as easy going as its author seems to be.  She has some wonderful tips for beginners, easy to follow patterns and straight-forward projects that can easily be modified with personal touches and whimsical fabrics.  If you're thinking of trying to build some of your own unique wardrobe staples, this would be a nice addition to your craft room. 

Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman

When I was in high school, I read a book by Deepak Chopra called The Return of Merlin. The premise is that many of the mentally ill homeless in our cities are actually members of King Arthur’s court, displaced in time and utterly confused by the displacement. The Fisher King had a similar theme, though, ultimately (SPOILERS) mental illness was the root cause of the delusion, not time travel. In Nevermind, the homeless and the lost fall through the cracks of London above into the dangerous and slightly out of phase London below. London below is filled with monsters and mystery, fiefdoms and courts, hardship and magic. Because it is out of phase with the topside world, topsiders only experience these monsters and mysteries as shadows and easily ignorable people and movement.

The Doctor (so many things in our lives are relatable to Doctor Who, if you try) has repeatedly told us all that there are reasons we are afraid of shadows (hello vashta nerada), what's under our bed (um, yay) and that thing you can't quite see out of the corner of your eye. But though fear may be a superpower, living afraid is no place to be for the long term, and Gaiman makes the case for sometimes being lost, sometimes being forgotten and sometimes being a hero in your own story.

 

 

Thank you for being a friend

And if you threw a party, and invited everyone you knew, you would see the homemade gift would be from me and the card attached would be appropriate to the occasion, but not homemade as I have too many interests already.

For better or for worse, I have been trying to make most of my gifts over the last year.  It certainly was a crafty Christmas.  If you nail the homemade gift, there is nothing more personal or treasured.  Of course, if you goof, there is nothing more awkward (and nonreturnable).  So, you've been warned.  One day, you may be gifted with an awkward and nonreturnable craft project that I slaved over and thought you would love.  And my earnest little face will shine as you stare at it in horror wondering what in God's name I was thinking.  And you will feel obliged to dig it out of the deep recesses of your closet to display it when you know I'm coming over, to avoid crushing my delicate soul.  But, hopefully, I'll knock it out of the park.

Christmas, birthdays, babies, weddings, housewarming are all fair game to my crafty gifts.  I've had a number of projects on the go, including:

My favourite recipes on cards and hand embellished tea towels for weddings;
Homemade preserves, teacup candles and aprons for housewarming/hostess gifts;
Quilts, sweaters and hats for babies:

Rainbow Quilt and log cabin pillow

And a little girl being carried away to dreamland

For birthdays, it really depends on the person.  For instance, I made my niece a little frock and crochet collar that looks equally adorable on the hanger, hung as it is meant to be worn, and on her with the collar worn as a crown, because, well, because.

 

My favourite of late has been an attempt at cross-stitch.  This is my first real foray into the thready arts since a mother's day project at Girl Guides.  I don't even remember if that was particularly successful, as I hated stitching (and given the number of badges I had, you would have thought I had gotten somewhat used to it - not so humble brag).  I preferred my crafts executable with a hot glue gun.

 

Picture it, Ucluelet, 1992.  We didn't have a lot in the way of TV signals making it to us.  One of the only consistent TV stations that we had was the CBC.  And, for whatever bizarre reason, despite being below the 49th, we only had access to CBC North.  This meant that we had nightly news that was based in Yellowknife and was often in one of the Aboriginal languages of the North.  However, everyday after school, my girlfriends and I would rush home for one particular program - The Golden Girls.  It was awesome, and it was in English.  Long before there was Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda and Samantha, there was Dorothy, Rose, Sophia and Blanche.  Oh, we loved them so.  In particular, my friend Z was taken with them. 



Inspire your prayers

One day, I was on the twitter and someone posted a set of prayer candles emblazoned with these remarkable women.  I immediately started an Etsy search, but alas, they had sold out.  I was now convinced, like a sign from St Estelle Getty herself, that I needed to make a gift by hand.

 

I've been thinking of starting to explore embroidery for some time.  I love the look of a little bit of embellishment on the corners of napkins, little flowers on pretty dresses, and the woolly tattoos that Dottie Angel has been busily adding to her thrifted finds.  However, as I have explored elsewhere, I don't really have a ton of patience and my hand stitching always starts off ragged, becomes great and ends rushed.  But whilst searching out gifts for Z, I came across a cross-stitch pattern for the Florida quartet, and I knew I had to give it a whirl.  It took time, and I got annoyed (and stabbed) but in the end, I think it turned out magnificently.  And while I'm in no rush to get there, I do look forward to being a subversive senior, running amok with my besties.

Depression Lies

 

The little beast sits on your chest and pretends to be your friend, looking out for you, nourishing you, but it is in fact feeding you lie after lie.  It has an answer for every rebuttal because it does not need to live in the world of fact.  At first, it feeds you what you need, a little soul pablum, and then it feeds you what you think you need, a little mind candy.  But soon enough, it's dosing you with poison.

 

No one cares about your stupid crafts.

No one reads these posts.

Your voice isn't worth listening to.

You're not a good writer, so why are you even bothering?

 

And you listen.  And you stop.  Ideas come, but you don't act because it likely wasn't a good idea anyway.  Maybe, you tell yourself, when I feel more like writing and feel more brilliant, I'll get back to writing.  Spoiler alert >>>>>

 

With depression, you never feel like it.  IF you feel at all, it's certainly not a get up and go kind of feeling.  It's certainly not a, hey, let's open up and expose our vulnerability kind of feeling.  It's actually easier not to feel at all.  Bottle that shit up, lock it down, stick a smile on your face, laugh at every joke.  But it's not in the eyes, if you really look, it doesn't reach the eyes.  Maybe that's why I still don't have crow's feet.

 

This winter was a tough one.  There was no reprieve.  It was relentless and ugly.  I had a bad fall, and I'm still recovering from the resultant injury, still in pretty constant pain.  The world has seemed to be a particularly gross place this winter/spring too.  Perhaps I'm just feeling it more, the world's psychic pain is hitting me harder at the moment.  But the gross people, and the gross things they are doing and those gross things being justified and excused away by other, sometimes grosser people. 

 

And in some ways, being someone with mental health issues is harder, the stigma larger, even though as a society we're trying to talk about it more and normalise it.  But then you have folks blaming mental health issues for acts of terror and murder, and how does that make talking about it easier and safer?

 

Anyway, I don't feel like writing.  I don't have any answers or solutions to gross.  I'm not looking for any external validation, because as I've said, the beast doesn't work in fact.  I am however, going to write because we all must be warriors against the gross.  We have to fight the exhaustion and the despair.  We have to push back against the cynicism and anger and find the love and the patience to continue to fight.

 

Say no to gross.

And say yes to summer, finally.

Menu Monday - BC Travel

It's been a busy chunk of time for me.  This is a large country and I am on my third trip across it is 3 weeks.  No matter how good the meetings are, how comfy the hotel bed, travel is exhausting.

Can't beat the view in the lounge at Long Beach Lodge.

 

My last trip took me back to my old stomping grounds in BC.  The westcoast is a culinary playground.  Adventurous, quick to adopt new ideas, tastes, flavours and sitting in a confluence of cultures.  To top it off, Vancouver (and surrounding areas) are blessed by earthly riches and the bounty of the sea.  The sum of which is a foodie's dream.

 

Tuesday - Hotel Georgia Lounge for a roasted baby beet salad.  For dinner, before heading to the Canucks game, Omission Ale and halibut tacos.

 

Wednesday - Proved more food for the sole (new shoes!! Fluevog) than for the tummy.  I opted to grab some gluten free bars and fresh fruit from the local organic grocery on the shopping go.

 

Thursday - A beautiful spring afternoon spent on south Granville St at the delightful Heirloom.  I had the soup of the day (carrot and ginger) and Kale Caesar.  Best caesar ever.  My girlfriend and I then walked across the Granville St bridge and had a flute of sparkles on the patio of the Vancouver Art Gallery before I headed to my second Canucks game.  See, it's that paragraph right there that makes me miss Vancouver.

 

Friday - I flew to Vancouver Island via Harbour Air and rented a car to drive over to Ucluelet to visit my sister and her family.  I made a stop in Qualicum to visit my grandparents and then drove my favourite drive through to Ucluelet.  It was perfect: clear roads, no slowpokes, a little bit of torrential rain and the smell of life pumping through the air exchange.  My sister and I ended up having a bite out at Hanks.  And odd little spot, which was a bookstore for years, a few more windows would certainly perk things up a little.  However, the BBQ was very tasty.  I had the Pork Cheeks and they modified my plate to accommodate the gluten free/dairy free.  I had a hankering (get it!?) for some gooey, fall apart meet after all my clean living in Vancouver.

 

This would have been Jeff heaven. 
Instead, I took a little heaven home to him.

Saturday - My sis and I had a girls day, and headed up to Tofino for the afternoon.  Interspersed with shopping and manicures (and a lot of gabbing) we managed a couple of stops.  One was at Wolf in the Fog where I had the soup of the day (a coconut, chickpea curry) and Heather had the amazing looking Albacore Tuna Melt.  We then headed to the Tofino Brewing Co.  Having abandoned Jeff in Halifax with the wiener dogs, I want to pick him up a souvenir.  One tee-shirt, one pint glass and three of their beers carefully wrapped within my checked luggage:  Coffee Porter, Kelp Stout and Hoppin' Cretin.  We then did a quick dash to the Long Beach Lodge for a glass of wine over looking the surfers, and then a pop back in to town for dinner at Shelter.  It was absolutely pissing rain by this point, but we sat on the covered patio with the propane heaters and a couple of fleece blankets.  It was awesome.  Both Heather and I opted for the mussels and frites (they have a dedicated fries fryer); I went with bacon, Heather with Thai coconut curry.

Sunday - After reluctantly pulling myself away from my nieces and nephew, I drove back to Naniamo, after a visit with my great aunt.  I flew back to Vancouver and checked myself into my stellar hotel room at the Pan Pacific.  I opted to use Hotwire, a roll of the dice, but with all of the nice hotels in the city, I figured my odds of lucking out were pretty high.  I was so right.  Not only did I get a great deal, but the front desk upgraded me further.  I had planned on meeting some girlfriends for a beverage, but instead ran out to the liquor store so we could seat in peace and look out over a truly great view.  Hotwire - roll the dice!

Safe and delicious travels to all!
xo
s.

Panoramic windows overlooking Burrard Inlet and the Coast Mountains. 
A delightful snack of edamame, cucumber avocado roll and sesame crusted tuna.

TBT - Easter

The Easter Bunny is a weird one.  I get that both rabbits and eggs are symbols of fertility, but together?  No sense.  We should all go Aussie style and have the Easter Platypus.  Is that a thing?  I suppose I could Google it, but I'm lazy and far happier believing it is a thing, because the Easter Platypus is awesome.

 



Finnegan is saddened by chocolate holidays.  He feels they are discriminatory.

Anyhoo, the whole confluence of weird that is zombie Jesus, fertility festivals, painted eggs and Easter Platypuses/ Platypi/Platypodes makes for some brain twisting magic.  However, any holiday that gives you days off and chocolate is a friend of mine, regardless of root.




I loved the hunt.  And the chocolate.

Growing up, my sister and I weren't often the recipients of treats (no mom, banana chips don't count), and those treats that we did get were hoarded and rationed by yours truly so that I could get some sugary satisfaction every day, in between the seasonal mother loads of Valentine's Day, Easter, Halloween and Christmas.  But Easter was the most fun.  Painting the eggs was fun.  Trying to find them hidden in the plants and behind cushions (how long should eggs be out of the fridge once cooked?), and following the trail of jelly beans and chocolate eggs to find solid chocolate bunnies was the best!





I'm still a pretty big fan of magic, and an even bigger fan of sweet treats.  Guess I'll have to pull my apron on this weekend an bake me some platypus cupcakes.  I'll bet I can find them on Pinterest.

Happy Easter, in whatever form you celebrate it!
xo
s.

From Real Simple, April 2013.  I made the following adjustments:
remove 1 1/2c. APF, and add:
1/2c. brown rice flour
1/2c. quinoa flour
1/2c. coconut flour
remove cream cheese, and add
Tofutti "better than cream cheese" in equal amount.
To decorate, I iced and rolled cupcake in shredded, sweetened coconut,
used a jelly bean for the nose and chocolate chips for the eyes.  For the ears,
I split a hand made marshmallow, and dipped the sticky side in lavender sugar.