Yikes! Ca fait deux semaines dejas? Hmm, qu'est ce que je peux vous raconter de mes dernieres deux semaines?
J'ai acheter un coupon, tu sais les 'groupons'? Les sites qui vendent un deal a chaque jour, souvent deux repas pour un, ou un manicure a motie le prix. Cette fois ci, j'ai paye $19 pour 10 kilos de fruit. Wow, exciting, right? Vieve bought a coupon for fruit. But wait, there's more!
Now, I was thinking, 'What a deal! 10 pounds of fruit for only $19!' It wasn't until the boxes showed up on my door step that I realized my error and cursed Canada's bipolar measurement system. I was staring at 10 *KGs* of fruit. I read 10 kilos when I decided to buy the coupon, but my screwed up mind visualized 10 pounds. Il y a une grande difference entre 10 livres pis 10 kilos.
Alors, qu'est ce que je fais avec mon temp libre maintenant? De la confiture! There is no way I would be able to eat 22 lbs of fresh fruit before it rotted, so jam it is. Jam and chutney and fruit vodka... oh my! Des photos bien tot.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Monday, January 16, 2012
It often amazes me how quickly some veggies grow. I planted radish seeds about 3 weeks ago and now have big, beautiful, yummy, organic radishes I can just pull out of the ground and munch on whenever I want. If you have a small space and want the biggest bang for your square centimetre, radishes are a must. And there are so many kinds to choose from!
On the other hand, I started the broccoli from seed, inside, 3 months ago and am just now starting to harvest. Definitely worth the wait, tho. Last night my supper consisted of a head of steamed broccoli and cheese sauce. Nom nom nom nom.
It's my first experience growing broccoli, and for the longest time that part of the garden just looked like a jungle of big, green leaves. One day Mr R was poking around the veggie patch and exclaimed that he saw broccoli heads. Sure enough, the bastards were hiding! All cutely tucked into their forest of vegetation. It must have been awfully traumatic when I unceremoniously cut them from their stalks. Watch out brassicas of the world! Vieve the veggie hunter is on the loose with her opinel garden knife. Mwahahaha!
On the other hand, I started the broccoli from seed, inside, 3 months ago and am just now starting to harvest. Definitely worth the wait, tho. Last night my supper consisted of a head of steamed broccoli and cheese sauce. Nom nom nom nom.
It's my first experience growing broccoli, and for the longest time that part of the garden just looked like a jungle of big, green leaves. One day Mr R was poking around the veggie patch and exclaimed that he saw broccoli heads. Sure enough, the bastards were hiding! All cutely tucked into their forest of vegetation. It must have been awfully traumatic when I unceremoniously cut them from their stalks. Watch out brassicas of the world! Vieve the veggie hunter is on the loose with her opinel garden knife. Mwahahaha!
Friday, January 13, 2012
Windy Wellington!
Il y a un vent malade a Wellington aujourd'hui pis les oiseaux s'amusent. J'ai pris ces photos pendant mon lunch. C'est une des plages sur Oriental Bay. Je m'inquiete un peut des plantes dans mon jardin, le vent est si fort.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
What is X-Mas?
It's kind of a funny word, one that I use instead of Christmas. I guess 'X-Mas' is a way for me to comfortably participate in the secular aspects of a Christian holiday.
I've been thinking about this a lot over the past few weeks. For the first time in my entire life I'm separated from all but one person with whom I spend time around December 25th. While I don't adhere to the belief systems that celebrate the birth of Jesus, others in my usual crowd of family and close friends do to one degree or another. This got me to questioning myself while I was out shopping for that one, non-religious person left from my inner circle. Does this mean all I really am is a consumer whore who's been hiding behind the skirts of the believers all these years?
It's hard to face the idea that all I am is a member of the mindless horde combing the stores for stuff, regardless of how thoughtful and/or useful the gifts are, in order to justify time off work for a statutory holiday that has nothing to do with my beliefs. But after some soul searching I can answer the above question with a wobbly, 'no.' The following are the reasons why.
I love giving. Truly and honestly love giving. The receiving isn't bad either, but for me it's about spending a lot of time thinking about what I can make or find for that other person. While I didn't do so well making gifts this year, I generally craft up to 75% of what I give. I think it's understandable that that percentage is a big, fat, round 0 this year. I've been a bit more than busy. Those gifts I do buy tend to be in support of smaller, local businesses that often don't have the large pull bigger, international stores do. Yes, that part is definitely consumerism, but it's also a way for me to support an economy I believe in. (Didn't do so well with that aspect this year, either, sigh.)
Then there are the socks. You know what I'm talking about. The wild and crazy socks I've been knitting over the past decade or so. If you haven't received a pair yet it's just a matter of time. Now those, I do for myself. Yup, I'll admit it, the socks are a bit of a selfish gift. I love making them so much I usually have a massive smile plastered on my face from the time I start hunting for the wacky yarn to the moment I finish tucking in the last of the ends. Does it help make it seem less selfish if I say that I'm smiling because I'm imagining the grin on your face every time you pull on your handmade, rainbow-striped, fuzzy socks?
Ok, so I'm a thoughtful gift-giver. It kind of justifies the gift part of the holiday. But I'm not sure it's really necessary to find a reason to support giving gifts. So what's left?
I think the key element is quality time with the people I love. Family is a big part of the meaning behind x-mas for me. And I don't mean just my bio-family, I'm including an extended set of chosen family in this definition. If the government is going to give me time off with pay so that I can spend hours cooking, eating, debating, laughing and all the other things I do with the people who are most important to me, then I'm going to say, 'thank you!' and leave it at that. Which makes X-Mas another date on the calender reserved for my family, along with Thanksgiving and Easter.
Reading over this I'm realizing that I've stated the obvious. It was even obvious to me in the past (I guess the change of scenery has sparked a re-evaluation of my habits). I'm happily molding someone else's religious day to suite my own needs. Isn't that what the Christians did when they moved Jesus's birthday to it's current date? If they can justify rearranging their calendar to blend better with another culture, then I sure as pie don't need to worry about ramifications for my adaptation of Christmas.
After all that, I just want to let my family know I'm thinking about them. I'll have to send out the socks later, tho. It's hard to motivate the little knitter inside when it's summer in December.
And now for photos!
I've been thinking about this a lot over the past few weeks. For the first time in my entire life I'm separated from all but one person with whom I spend time around December 25th. While I don't adhere to the belief systems that celebrate the birth of Jesus, others in my usual crowd of family and close friends do to one degree or another. This got me to questioning myself while I was out shopping for that one, non-religious person left from my inner circle. Does this mean all I really am is a consumer whore who's been hiding behind the skirts of the believers all these years?
It's hard to face the idea that all I am is a member of the mindless horde combing the stores for stuff, regardless of how thoughtful and/or useful the gifts are, in order to justify time off work for a statutory holiday that has nothing to do with my beliefs. But after some soul searching I can answer the above question with a wobbly, 'no.' The following are the reasons why.
I love giving. Truly and honestly love giving. The receiving isn't bad either, but for me it's about spending a lot of time thinking about what I can make or find for that other person. While I didn't do so well making gifts this year, I generally craft up to 75% of what I give. I think it's understandable that that percentage is a big, fat, round 0 this year. I've been a bit more than busy. Those gifts I do buy tend to be in support of smaller, local businesses that often don't have the large pull bigger, international stores do. Yes, that part is definitely consumerism, but it's also a way for me to support an economy I believe in. (Didn't do so well with that aspect this year, either, sigh.)
Then there are the socks. You know what I'm talking about. The wild and crazy socks I've been knitting over the past decade or so. If you haven't received a pair yet it's just a matter of time. Now those, I do for myself. Yup, I'll admit it, the socks are a bit of a selfish gift. I love making them so much I usually have a massive smile plastered on my face from the time I start hunting for the wacky yarn to the moment I finish tucking in the last of the ends. Does it help make it seem less selfish if I say that I'm smiling because I'm imagining the grin on your face every time you pull on your handmade, rainbow-striped, fuzzy socks?
Ok, so I'm a thoughtful gift-giver. It kind of justifies the gift part of the holiday. But I'm not sure it's really necessary to find a reason to support giving gifts. So what's left?
I think the key element is quality time with the people I love. Family is a big part of the meaning behind x-mas for me. And I don't mean just my bio-family, I'm including an extended set of chosen family in this definition. If the government is going to give me time off with pay so that I can spend hours cooking, eating, debating, laughing and all the other things I do with the people who are most important to me, then I'm going to say, 'thank you!' and leave it at that. Which makes X-Mas another date on the calender reserved for my family, along with Thanksgiving and Easter.
Reading over this I'm realizing that I've stated the obvious. It was even obvious to me in the past (I guess the change of scenery has sparked a re-evaluation of my habits). I'm happily molding someone else's religious day to suite my own needs. Isn't that what the Christians did when they moved Jesus's birthday to it's current date? If they can justify rearranging their calendar to blend better with another culture, then I sure as pie don't need to worry about ramifications for my adaptation of Christmas.
After all that, I just want to let my family know I'm thinking about them. I'll have to send out the socks later, tho. It's hard to motivate the little knitter inside when it's summer in December.
And now for photos!
Some more pix of my garden in bloom.
The neighbourhood in bloom, bumblebees hard at work. 
On my way to work.
Ahead is work.
Behind is the way home.
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