Monday, December 07, 2009

Apple for the Teacher

After finishing one of the Side Slip Cloche hats for Christmas (pictures after I block it), I realized that I really needed to reprioritize my Christmas creating! Carmen's preschool finishes up next week, and so it was time to make three of the Apple Cozies...

Here they are: Red Delicious, Granny Smith and Pink Lady!



As usual, after the third one I really felt like I had mastered the pattern. Easy to memorize, pain in the butt to knit. While I was knitting, I kept trying to put it on one of our apples to see how much felting would be needed. I guess this pattern is for non-organic apples, as the organic Galas we favour in our house are WAY TOO SMALL! I actually had to make a special trip to the apple aisle to buy apples that would fit. Crazy - these apples are the size of my head.



Another thing checked off my list!

My birthday was last week and I got spoiled rotten. A wonderful Rangoli dinner at home, sumptuous flourless chocolate cake with raspberries, copious amounts of Veuve Cliquot and wonderful people to share it with! My favourite gift is always the homemade card from my thoughtful hubby - this year he also gave me a 'free pass' to do a set of whatever type of classes I want (his suggestions: gambling, jazzercise, Russian History), paired with chocolate, some trashy magazines (love!) and a giant bottle of Baileys. My husband knows me very very well! Last time he gifted me classes, I did some singing lessons. Not sure what I'll pick this time... ideas?

Lastly, as part of my birthday gift, I got to go and pick out a new pair of BOOTS!!!! If you saw my post before about my boot dilemma, then you'll be happy to see that I got these mid-calf, asymmetric-cut, brown leather Italian beauties from Kalena's on Commercial Drive. Their little red friends are the cutest flats that I couldn't help but treat myself to, since the store was having a sale (buy one, get the second 1/2 off). Really, I SAVED money by buying them.



LOVE. RED. SHOES.

And to go so well with them, my neighbour Glenys just popped over with this posy that her friend, Kirsty of Re-Felt, crafted from reclaimed sweaters. Kirsty is selling them at a bunch of different local craft fairs. So pretty! Thanks Glenys!



My lovely pal Lisa also met me on the seawall this week with more Baileys (I'm sensing a pattern here...) and the great photocards she did for us for mailing out. I won't put them here because you might get one in the mail!! But I just finished sending out the last of 'em to friends in the U.S. of A. and UK. Another thing checked off the list!

All I need is some hot chocolate to put in my Baileys to get crafting some more...

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Santa's Little Helper, Rainbow Brite

Carmen was my little helper during Keira's nap yesterday afternoon and we had so much fun crafting play silks and ribbon streamer wristbands for some of Carmen's little friends!

For the play silks, we started with:

12 silk scarves (36"x36")
12 packs of Koolaid (3 of each colour)
2L of white vinegar



Putting our big mixing bowl into our larger sink proved to contain the mess and prevent stained countertops!

Pour 2 cups of vinegar, 3 cups warm water and 3 Koolaid packs into a big bowl.



Stir, then add scarves.



Agitate for a few minutes (you might want to wear gloves!), then squeeze liquid out when you notice that all the dye has been soaked up. So weird how the water turns nearly colourless again!



Rinse and hang out to dry!



While we waited for them to dry in the winter sunshine, we started the ribbon streamer wristbands. Carmen had a great time helping measure, picking the colours, then cutting the ribbons. I had to tie them all on, but she was definitely a better product tester...





Then we 'wrapped' the gifts up, two wristbands and two matching scarves. Soon we will have a whole bunch of dancing butterflies, caped superheros, magical wizards and exquisite princesses!



I'm not sure, however, when the dye will come off my hands. The gross orangey-green makes me look like an Oompah-Loompah!

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Santa Machine

I've morphed into Eco-Santa!

My Christmas theme this year is keeping it green, meaning at least the vast majority of the gifts I give are hand-made and that I am reusing materials or taking them from my crazy stash of quilting and knitting leftovers. It is SO MUCH FUN to see how far I can make everything stretch, and also great to see my stash clear out!

For starters, for the many teachers in our lives, I am making 8 Apple Cozies with my last year stocking project's bright red and green yarns. Here are the stockings that took me until 9:30pm on Christmas Eve 2008 to finish (with my tinier 30-yr-old stocking on the right):



And here is what the Apple Cozy is supposed to look like, pattern borrowed from 'I Think I'm Gonna Purl':




For a few of the women in my life, I went to the library and got a copy of Laura Irwin's 'Boutique Knits' to craft the lovely Side Slip Cloche (as seen on the cover). I already went to Baaad Anna's and let Keira play in their great kid's area while I petted and drooled over all their great yarns! I finally picked out some nice Angora, which was even on sale. This was a bit of rule-breaking, but I figured the book was from the library and the yarn was on sale...



Recently re-inspired by Vancouver's own Little Bird Designs, I created some larger felt/pencil/make-up brush/whatever holders with Japanese-patterned fabrics from three different quilts I've made. Using a similar design, I also decided to try making a knitting needle holder for the new knitter Michelle, using scraps from a Thai silk dress that I had tailored in Chiang Mai, since I decided to shorten the floor-length dress to knee-length.




I made a similar roll-up organizer for myself a few years ago and my mom has been bugging me to make one for her so this year she's also getting one for her long straight needles, and a matching one for her DPNs. After the third organizer, my pattern was perfected and as I complete each one, I keep thinking 'this is my favourite!' - very gratifying to use up all those teensy weensy pieces of gorgeous fabric! All together, I'll have made about 14 different bags, and right now I'm on number 9!



For some of the younger kiddos... a few months ago, a bunch of us from the Homespun Salon got together with some plain white silk scarves from Maiwa and used Koolaid to dye them a variety of shades. This year I'm putting together a few packages of play silks that I've dyed, along with cool streamer wrist-bands (inspired by Karen) made with different bright colours of ribbon. So much fun for encouraging imaginative play and dress-up! My daughters use theirs for superhero capes, princess skirts, baby blankets, butterfly wings, you name it!



A few years ago, when I was pregnant with Keira and battling with Carpal Tunnel (again), I started a sweater for Carmen... well two years later, I finished it and plan to give it to Keira and start a matching one for Carmen. Of course, I will have to make it in some shade of pink or purple to make sure she actually WEARS it! Sigh. I love these colours, and they seem to fit Keira better anyways:



I finally finished the socks I started for Jason THREE YEARS AGO. This is what happens when you start something (in a pregnancy-induced haze), put it down, and restart three years later...



Somehow one of the socks is wider than the other. Really I should frog the entire thing, but one of his feet is slightly bigger, and I hope this works to my advantage! Otherwise, there is always blocking and felting! Tee hee!

Right now the spare bedroom downstairs looks as though a bomb has gone off with thread and yarn everywhere - in the upcoming break I hope to convert the space into a sleepover-ready spare room/craft room... my mind is buzzing with possibilities!

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Winter Nesting

I think we've skipped Fall and went straight into Winter. This could be based on the chill in the air today, or the feelings of nesting that I've been experiencing lately... It seems like the minute the rotting jack-o-lanterns are pulled from our front stoops, the Christmas lights come out - what about November???

A few weekends ago, my husband went away on a hunting trip to Valdes Island with some family friends. When he decided to take up hunting a while ago, I was skeptical but supportive, in the sense that I didn't bar the door or hide his Visa. After all, I am his wife and not his keeper - I adopted the same mindset when he decided to purchase a motorcycle a few years ago! Given the choice, I would rather that he had taken up basket-weaving or ballroom dance, but apparently my husband has a penchant for more dangerous hobbies. In his defense, his reasoning for taking up hunting was more philosophical than anything... in his words:

I read "The Omnivore's Dilemma" a couple of years later and Michael Pollon had a great chapter in the book about trying to put a meal on the table using a 'hunter - gatherer' technique. This meant that he was only going to use ingredients that he could either make or obtain for free - which included a wild pig that he shot in California. His dilemma seemed very close to mine. Since I can eat anything I want at any time - what is a good omnivore to do? I have tried the vegetarian lifestyle for short periods (maximum 2 months while travelling) and I have gone through peaks and valleys when it comes to the amount of meat that I eat in a week. But I couldn't help but feel that to make sense of what it is to eat meat I had to at least once go back, almost in time, to the basic idea of hunting and gathering. My plan was to shoot, clean, and butcher a deer which would then supplement my family's diet through the winter.

He returned from his first successful hunting trip, having shot a doe and a larger buck. A few days after his return, we all went to butcher, package and label the deer, which was a huge learning experience! Thankfully his family friends have been hunting for decades, and so I had ample cooking instructions for the many different cuts of venison. I actually wrote them all directly on the freezer paper, so will have to put them in a notebook somewhere...

I am very happy for Jason that he was able to navigate through his questions about the philosophy of meat-eating, and have to admit that a freezer stocked with close to 50lbs of organic, grassfed, free-range, happy-when-they-left-this-earth venison is quite pleasing! I thought that the meat would be quite gamey and hard to prepare, but it is actually very mild (more so than lamb) and delicious. I made a rump roast the other night that turned out fantastically, with the help of my Lee Valley digital thermometer - works perfect every time!

There is a big knitting post that I need to write, but right now Keira is asleep and Carmen is at preschool... maybe I should just go knit instead!

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Two-Step Process

It seems that life these days is full of two-step processes.

For example, getting BOTH my kids to eat their greens! It's karmic (and my mother would agree) that my kids are kinda fussy eaters. It's also karmic that the thing that grows the best in our garden year-round, and the plant I know the fewest ways to prepare, is kale. There is always a giant bin of it waiting patiently in the fridge, curly, green and beautiful... so I happened upon the green smoothie idea this summer and have never turned back! Chard, spinach, lettuce, kale, mint, even cilantro have all made their way into our smoothies. Keira LOVES them, but Carmen - well she's just too smart for me to fool these days. She stands beside the blender and proclaims, "I don't like that KAY-YELLLL!" So I got a bit smarter too and, lo and behold, the green smoothie popsicle!



She hasn't figured it out yet.

This afternoon, after our popsicle and during Keira's nap, we decided to try cookie-painting, or painting with cookie cutters. These Ikea cookie cutters are getting a lot of mileage! I started with a cookie sheet of her paints...



I always add water to make the paint stretch farther (cuz I'm cheap like that), and have figured out the perfect order to mix water into my paint colours so that I don't have to wash the paintbrush in between: yellow, green, blue, purple, red, orange. That way, the colours are not all brown by the time I finish! Also, if you're putting them on a cookie sheet this way, if they run into each other then they still look relatively close to their original colours.



The painting was totally fun, and it was interesting to see that Carmen and I could look at the same shape and see a totally different animal... is it a whale, or a snail?



But then we got a bit bored and decided to take it to the floor for two-stepping!



While Carmen was painting her toes...



for the finale of my two-step processes today, I decided finish the last rows of my sweater and then block it. It took me almost two months exactly to finish knitting, but as you can see, the arms and bodice were sorely in need of some straightening out.



While I was knitting, I was a little worried about how the colours hand-dyed wool would pool differently in the arms vs. the bodice, since some was knit in the round, and some on normal straight needles. I think the variation is kinda neat!




And so, armed with garbage bags and straight-pins, I made my first attempt at wet-blocking a sweater. Apparently putting the sweater on bags rather than on a towel will help it dry faster, as the bags will not absorb any water (thank-you Knitty). Voila!



We'll see how it turns out.

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Reunion

It's been a week since Jason and I had our couple's adventure and if I close my eyes, I can still get a sense of the contentment and relaxation we both felt being on 'vacation', even for such a small chunk of time, and for such a short distance away from our home...

Don't get me wrong - it's not like our marriage is in trouble by any stretch! And we are very lucky to have family nearby for date nights here and there. We both have hobbies supported by one another; Jason's Tuesday painting nights, my Saturday singing mornings. And our kids - they sleep! They behave in restaurants! They are pretty darned fun to be around!

But there's something about going to sleep after a blissfully exciting night out NOT worrying that one of your kids is going to have a bad night, or that you're going to be woken up at the crack of dawn, groggy and fuzzy from too much wine. Or going for a morning coffee stroll without having to juggle your mug, a dog on leash and a stroller full of squirmy kids. Not thinking about having enough snacks in the diaper bag to tide hungry mouths over until the breakfast order arrives. Not having to go to a restaurant that has booster seats and high chairs.

Last Saturday night Jason and I ventured out onto Commercial Drive in search of wining, dining and dancing. We were not disappointed! We stepped into the Latin Quarter at about 7pm, were deep into conversation over appies and cocktails by 7:30, salsa and cha-cha'ing our butts off by 9:30, and stumbling home weary and sated just after 1am! It was romantic and exciting and exactly what we both needed.

We spent the drizzly Sunday morning with coffees in hand, combing Commercial Drive for a breakfast joint that opened before 10am - NOT Little Nest!! We sank into our diner seats and continued our conversations from the night before, laughing over our boogie adventures and loosely mapping out the day ahead. We snuggled on the couch where we were staying, watching 'Silence of the Lambs' on cable - maybe not the most romantic movie, but we were too busy being blissed out by the silence of the house to notice!

But the best part was our trip to the Miraj Spa. Oh, so heavenly. Such attention to detail - you feel like you are the only couple there, and won't see another customer during your visit. Sumptuous in every way. Delicious, even. I encourage every couple to eek out the bucks (shared Christmas or anniversary gift? forgo JJ Bean for a few months?) to try it. You will NOT be disappointed - it is a relaxing, amazing, sexy (!?!) reunion with your partner.

That is, unless you don't like being naked around strangers. You ARE getting scrubbed down in the buff, but it is so professional and SO freakin' fantastic!

Now if only I could wrangle some freebie hammam passes in exchange for testimonials...

A girl can dream, can't she?

Monday, October 26, 2009

Tired of Pink

Oh. So. Tired.

Of pink.

I've done everything I can to introduce to Carmen the beautiful colours of the spectrum. I bought gender-neutral, put her in boys hand-me-downs... we play with trains and trucks and blocks and dirt.

WHY WHY WHY am I cursed with PINK???

And pink princess-mermaid-butterfly-fairies riding on pink unicorns?

AGH.

For Halloween, Carmen wants to be a princess. In pink. BIG SURPRISE. She was a princess last year.
So what do I do? Dress her in a costume she wants to be in, or something creative and cool that I have to force her to wear, that will probably get torn off the minute I have my back turned...

Now as I reread it, I realize this post is awfully whiney, and the answer seems obvious.

AND YET.

Pink.

Urrrrrrrrgh.

UPDATE:
Disaster Averted! Carmen and Keira will go as 'The Paperbag Princess: Before and After'. Keira will be dirty and messy and paper-baggy and Carmen will be pink and princess-y. Lame? Jason and I like it!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Calling All Fashionistas...

Help a girl out!

This weekend, my mom is coming over from the Island to spend the night in our house with the girls and the dog (thanks Mom!) meaning... we can leave together! Overnight! For the first time since Keira's been born!

Yahoo!!

Our plan is to crash Auntie's beautiful and vacant-for-the-weekend house (thanks Auntie!), to make use of her guest room and amazing location - just off Commercial Drive. We're going to go out for a nice dinner, drinks and dancing! Any suggestions for locations?

Sunday morning we'll sleep in and have a breakfast out, and then it's off to Miraj Spa for their Couple's Hammam, Gommage and Massage - I've had a gift certificate for nearly a year now (thanks Melina!) that will finally be put to use. If you haven't been - it is the ultimate luxury... someone else giving you the best, most vigorous scrubdown EVER after a ridiculously hot but refreshing 15 minute sauna. All in a totally private marble grotto-esque cavern, which Jason and I will be sharing. Then a 30 minute massage, followed by hot mint tea and honey cakes in a gorgeous lounge with lots of new shiny magazines that no child has slobbered on, ripped apart, or coloured on!

Can you sense my excitement?

In preparation, I hurried out to the Oakridge Mall's Bay to find something to wear... I love shopping there because they have a lot of major labels (Mexx, DKNY, etc), but always at a huge discount! I have to admit to a major penchant for clothes, although my fashion sense is still developing. I usually call on the help of friends, sales assistants and store personal shoppers (so much fun) but was on my own - ACK! After trying on 40 (I'm not kidding, 40) different dresses, I settled on one that I knew would turn my hubby's head!

Being winter and all, the Kensie knit dress is long-sleevey, turtle-necky and blacky-browny-tan. Perfect for me since I'm always chilly. It calls for what Carmen and I refer to as zip-up boots, but I am a little directionally challenged and also suffer from TTCS - Twist-Tie Calf Syndrome. My legs (especially in tights) have always resembled pipecleaners no matter how many squats, lunges and calf raises I do.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not being down on myself - I do have a pretty good bum and am overall pretty fit. But realistically, I got a little shafted in the leg department and suffer immensely during boot season. The standard knee-high boots require legs to fill them out, and they tend to sag out on me besides being way too tall. I usually end up buying mid-calf length boots that look like knee-highs on me. In fact, my friend Lisa and I both bought the same boots last year (hers knee-high, mine mid-calf) and they look the same on us!

After trying on about 12 pairs of boots I gave up, totally flustered.

I went home and tried on a pair of tan Mag boots from my closet. I bought them in 2002 while vacationing in Belgium and loooove them, but have only ever worn them with jeans. I think wearing trendy-in-2002 boots is pushing it. My husband seems to think they are great, but I think maybe he is just too busy looking at my bum... Whaddya think?



Be HONEST. I promise not to be offended or take it personally! There are many situations in which fashion intervention is necessary!!




And if you think they are hideously out of style now, or just look goofy with a skirt, I need you to tell me what to buy, and where I can find it! If you feel more comfortable, just email or message me with your suggestion...

And please don't say Gravity Pope, unless you are willing to show up with your Visa to pay for my purchase - in which case, please do! I've been saving my pennies, but that place is soooo out of my price range...

As an aside - nice bras at the Bay are only $24.99 right now! Triumph, Maidenform, Bali... for some reason I actually had another $5 knocked off the new Bali bra I bought, yay! My size certainly changed a lot after 3 years of breastfeeding... feels nice to buy something that fits, what a treat!

Friday, October 16, 2009

Not Better or Worse, Just Different

I was at a community centre playgym this morning with my girlfriend and our gaggle of kids and was chatting with another mom that had recently given birth. She looked at my twosome and then looked at me and said, "Boy are you going to have your hands full when your due date comes!"

I just giggled and walked away, not sure how to respond. Sure I was wearing a fairly flowy and ambiguous blouse, and was standing with pretty sloppy posture. It was uncomfortable because I didn't want to embarrass her by letting her know that I wasn't actually pregnant, but what really bothered me was the surge of emotion that welled up inside me as I walked away.

The funny thing is, I'm okay with the changes in my body since having my girls - or so I thought. Why, as a society, are we so hung up on this? Why, as an active and healthy woman, am I?

In almost every prenatal class, I have one or two pregnant clients that are very anxious about weight gain. They ask me questions like "How long did it take you to lose your pregnancy weight?" and make comments like "You're so lucky to work out for your job, you must have gotten back into shape so quickly!" In the same vein, I have postnatal clients that are shocked to still look pregnant in the early months postpartum, as if by giving birth they should have noticed a more drastic change in their body weight and distribution. They are relieved to show up and see that almost everyone else in the same boat!

But it's all relative. Some clients come to class a few months postpartum looking like they haven't changed at all from their pre-baby selves. They certainly aren't given any sympathy, even though their old 'normal' might have Ultimate frisbee twice a week and marathon training three times a week and now they can't run without peeing themselves...

Time and time again, I remind clients that growing a baby takes 40 weeks and advise them to be equally patient with their postpartum bodies. We talk about how most women notice lasting changes in their bodies postpartum that have everything to do with with new and different habits postpartum. While our weight may be similar, our shapes can be totally different. Beautiful mommy muscles appear in the upper body with the lifting and carrying, soft curves from maternal fat stores shape our breasts, butts and abdomens. Strong glutes and quads from pushing strollers increase our lean muscle mass and sometimes push our weight above pre-pregnancy numbers even though we are fit and toned. In fact, some new moms talk about being in the best shape of their lives because they are so much more active as parents, and so much more invested in being good role models.

Do they weigh less or fit into their old clothes?

Does it matter, if they can still run and jump, play and laugh?

I've often referred clients to a great website called 'The Shape of a Mother', a blog that numerous women have contributed to in order to dispel the myths surrounding the postpartum body, and to give a little perspective on what is 'normal'.

Truth be told, I haven't stepped on a scale in a long time. I have no idea if I weigh the same or not (probably not), and I gave away the majority of my pre-baby clothing because it didn't suit my age or my lifestyle. Again, it's all relative to what your old 'normal' was. Waaaay back when I used to train for triathlon, I went over a year without a menstrual cycle due to a really low body fat percentage. In fact, to get pregnant and regain my cycle I had to lay off the training and put on a few pounds. Since then, I've taken pleasure in having a little curve below my bellybutton - it's what allowed me to have babies in the first place.

It's not better or worse. It's just different.

In the beginning of each of my prenatal classes, we do an 'around-the-room' of who we are and where we are in our pregnancies. Recently I asked the women to tell me something about pregnancy that has empowered them and one of the women said, "All my life, I've been very self-conscious about my body - but now I am really in awe of it!"

Her answer still makes me grin from ear to ear.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

The Calm After the Storm...

Gobble gobble!

Thanksgiving went off without a hitch at Chez Camp! Hurrah!

Jason took Keira in the morning while Carmen and I prepared the veggies and stuffing. In the afternoon, he took Carmen hiking with the family while Keira napped, the 18lb turkey roasted to perfection (toot toot!) and I sipped wine and knitted. It was AWESOME. Around 5pm, everyone returned, tired from the hike... Melina brought 3 different types of homemade bread and beautiful pumpkin tartlets with pumpkin seed brittle, Paul brought some amazing prawns and cheeses for appies. There was lots of wine and beer, a crackling fire and, of course, a round of "Why We are Thankful". Oh, that and two boys running after each other downstairs with a 15lb maul, but I digress...

Before everyone left, the dishes were done, the turkey bones stripped, care packages were distributed, and the leftovers stashed away in the fridge.

The next morning (slightly cloudy from too much lovely vino) I woke to a reasonably clean house and was attacked with the craziest urge to nest - seriously, I thought I might be going into labour soon, it was that crazy! Starting with the turkey bones, I made about 16 cups of gorgeous stock. I wanted some yummy soups for the freezer to go with the nice breads, so I made:

Turkey Noodle Soup
Cream of Broccoli and Turkey Soup
Potato, Leek and Thyme Soup

And then for dinners:

Turkey Pot Pie
Pasta Shells stuffed with Turkey, Goat Cheese, Sundried Tomatoes and Fresh Basil

We had leftover prawns and appies for dinner last night, and we STILL have leftover stuffing, meat and gravy. Dinner for the ENTIRE WEEK!!!

We should have Thanksgiving every Sunday.

But for now, I am pooped from the insane day of cooking and am looking forward to sitting on my butt, enjoying the fruits of my labour!! Gonna go grab one of those leftover beers...

And don't worry - I haven't fooled myself into believing my preschooler will eat any of it!

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

How to Host a Thanksgiving Dinner for 12 in 401 Easy Steps!

This year we are hosting Thanksgiving Dinner for 12, and I'm determined to make it as stress-free as possible! Am I deluded, you ask? Maybe slightly, but by hosting the dinner it means we get to sit back and enjoy some wine and a crackling fire after the kiddos go to bed at 8pm, instead of either frantically dining and dashing to get them in bed at a decent hour, or trying to wrangle tired, cranky kids if we decide to keep them out late.

Plus, it means we can both roll our wine-soaked bodies only metres to bed, rather than have to designate a driver! The truth emerges...

Anyways, in order to actually enjoy myself on Sunday, I'm trying to outsource as much as possible and spread the cooking out over the week. Grammelina's ordering and dropping off the turkey and making pumpkin pie tarts and breads, Paul's bringing appies... I actually really like making use of the 'big half' of my oven for large turkeys and doing the stuffing, mashed potatoes, etc. A little intimidating to cook for this crowd, as Paul and his wife own a well-known Fort Langley restaurant and both Paul and Grammelina are amazing artists in the kitchen! But I'm confident I can hold my own...

Today Carmen and I were roasting veggies for the first course - Roasted Butternut Squash and Parsnip soup. It was really fun to get her dirty in the garden digging out the super stubborn parsnips, and to let her practice her knife-wielding skills. She is really good with her small-motor skills and I like to see her have fun and confidence in the kitchen!




Tomorrow we will actually puree the soup, as running the Cuisinart will wake Keira up from her nap!

Jason's also been doing some prep - he went out to a secret spot close to Squamish to buck some already-felled trees for firewood. There's nothing sexier than your man splitting wood!



Boo hoo, there are only 2 squashes left from the garden! I will have to plant more next year...

Sunday, October 04, 2009

Brraaaahhhhhhhhhck!

Well this year's pet project was the garden and greenhouse. We had a garden the year before and had some success, but were gifted with a used glass/aluminum greenhouse from some old family friends, so our existing garden underwent a total rehaul. We were lucky enough to use almost all recycled stuff (even the wall plaques!) to complete the project - minus the intricate watering system and seeds. Such a steep learning curve, but the rewards were well worth it.

From start...






To finish...





And in between...






What did we learn? That broad beans are aphid-magnets and the end product was not worth our time. That beets, parsnips and potatoes dug fresh from the ground and newly cut broccoli were oh-so-sumptuous compared to even the stuff at the Farmer's Market. That tomatoes in the greenhouse are finicky, but so worth the 12L of sauce and heaps of dehydrated and canned tomatoes for the rest of the year! That there is such thing as too much zucchini. That kale tastes good in blueberry smoothies and pole beans grow until mid-October if you harvest them regularly. Obviously I'm missing a few things, but you get the drift.

Next year's project is CHICKENS! Yay, chickens! Did you know that the bylaws will be passed this October for Vancouver backyard chickens?

I grew up eating fresh chicken eggs and I remember my brother having to help my Grandpa Dumas kill his huge flock of chickens every year. I remember the tiny fluffy chicks in the box with the heat lamp. I remember going next door to collect eggs and getting paid in candy. I remember having to help clean up our own chicken coop, although my brother would argue that only he ever did!

Today, Keira and I attended a Backyard Chickens Workshop with Heather Havens and it was great. Super informative, myth-dispelling, and very inclusive of all the basic information you need to keep backyard hens locally, including feed and pullet/hen suppliers, veterinarians, etc. All by donation! If you're thinking of going, I would highly recommend it! I don't know if Keira learned much, but I certainly did.

After snacking all week on the delicious dehydrated apples that Carmen and I made, we decided to revisit the apple trees and pick more.







Jason and I turned it into a bit of a date night with a roaring fire, wine and The Apple Machine...



Yum!