bring it on spring..

hurry up already! it's been so cold... i guess we were spoiled last winter with a ridiculously warm one. next to no snow at all.. crazy. we actually had a winter this time. for real yo. been keeping super busy planning for garden season, the SOUPgarden group has some fresh plans for 2013 including some community gardening, various urban plots throughout the city, and some minor guerrilla gardening and wildcrafting.

been spending some time at the local library parusing the ever growing collection of gardening books, and i found one in particular very inspiring. City Farmer by Lorraine Johnson is a story [rather collection of stories] about her journeys as an urban farmer, and much of her experiences involve community gardening and travelling to urban plots much like the ones i plan to help build and maintain this year.

trying to get my health back on track with a busy lifestyle has been a challenging task, but i'm doing my best. time to step it up this spring, lots of travelling to garden, garden building and maintenance, not to mention some trail running to cover the cardio. piece by piece i'm slowly incorporating new healthy habits into my lifestyle.

oh man there's so much going on i can barely keep up writing about everything i have planned for this year. gardening, learning, and some photo taking too, i'll be following around the car club again this year to photograph their charity events and city cleanups. and then there's a few other side crafting projects on the go, life is far too short to sleep!

the 'new' library

well it's not really new anymore.. it [finally!] opened this past summer. to be honest, since the beginning of the build i had a kind of 'spite' for the place.. the park it was built in had some of the few remaining apple trees from the orchards of the north end's past.. well, the whole what is now our city was once covered in orchards and vineyards. anyways, i spent many [homeless] nights in that park, especially in or around this one particular apple tree.

it once had a third main branch coming off toward us in the photo, the fence line for the construction was only a few meters away and some of the roots must have been disturbed in the dig which killed off that whole third section of the tree. it was once like a comfy hammock, that would cradle me [and probably many others before me] to sleep. the day i passed by on the bus and saw the fences go up i doubled back to see if the hometree was inside the fence line. i was hot with anger as i ran around the field in search of this tree.


there it was, just outside the fence. i came back once a week to sit inside the branches and watch the construction. i thought it would never end. i wondered for months what this thing would look like, this 'acquatic center' with an attached library [where they moved the grantham branch].

  so today was the day that i'd finally go in, and i'm glad that i did because ...it's beautiful. i'm in love with libraries, and i'm intrigued by the attached swimming pools.. i may look into getting a pass for public swim. but for now having access to a seemingly overlooked prime stash of gardening books is enough to help me dream away the next few weeks of winter with images and ideas of what's to come this spring.

there's a couple titles i hadn't seen before, and one in particular i've been trying to get my hands on for a while but it's always checked out, so i'm glad i finally got to grab it. it seems that the word permaculture is being used more, and finally working it's way into Niagara's gardening vocabulary. all i have to say about that is... awesome!

well i checked a few of these out and i'm quite absorbed in one of them right now.. i just wanted to take a break from reading to write about my score. soooo jacked for spring, already starting to see some green poking out in beds along my regular walking routes, and the smell of thawing earth is in the air :)

gettin' back on the blogger..

yea, it's about time. this blog was supposed to be my 'journal'.. look how well i kept up with that haha. ahem.. yeah. well, i gotta get back in the habit. so here i am, clackity clack. well first off, it's snowing like crazy outside, blowing sideways wall of whiteness.. so i'll probably be sticking inside for the rest of the evening. i got out earlier for some chinese buffet style, and i plan to spend the evening working out to make up for it.

i decided to take up a new sport... running. i started a blog to keep track of my journey, The Sage Thrive Challenge. it's about more than just the running and the training, but about an overall lifestyle change to get fit and stay that way. i did a lot of backpacking and hiking in my younger days which kept me in shape, but i've been more of an urbanite since i've been working full time and becoming more involved in my community.

what else have i been up to..? oh yea how could i forget... gardening!!! my absolute most favourite pastime ever. nutritious and delicious too! of course i spent plenty of time in the yard last year, took lots of photos and of course shared the bounty, but didn't spend as much time as i should have blogging and keeping track of the progress. i'm spending the winter months in hibernation catching up on the past crazy year, as i prepare for the one up and coming.

and in the spirit of winter and staying green, i put the bicycle in the shed and picked up a transit pass. it's been a few years since i've lived far enough from work to worry about transportation, and a transit pass was definitely a wise choice. i have once again managed to become a transit ninja, mastering the routes and transfers to get me around town in the snow.

well.. i think that's about it for my break from my workout.. time to get back to it! great things to come this year.. 2013 will be a year of postitive change for me, i can feel it! woop woop!

Random Freshness

well.. it seems i took the year off from blogging.. lots to do, so little time. now that hibernation season is upon us, i'm finally getting around to sorting through my picture files. so far i've gone through the media stored in the SD card booklets, some of the CDs and still haven't touched anything saved to a phone.. that will be fun.

going through all of thse disks, i'm coming across photos i'd forgotten i had even taken, some random hikes and adventures, big city scenes and farmland chillaxin'. and garden... oh, soo so much garden. even other people's gardens! so my goal is this winter to play catch up, get back on the ball for blogging [though i was barely on it to begin with] and make some use of all these lightbeams i've been capturing.

i also found the rest of my travel photos, now i just have to find the journals to go with them. i started that adventure blog many moons ago and stopped in the middle of the east coast adventure.. and there's so many more journeys i'd love to go back and write about.

anyhoo.. time to jet for another random adventure.. i hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season... time to get excited for what 2013 brings!

Primus ETApower Camp Stove

the Primus ETApower camp stove is a highly efficient piece of equipment. i'd have to say, of all the gear purchases i've made over the years, this has got to be one of my favourites.


this stove comes with a 2.1L pot, which is large to carry around for just one person, but makes a perfect pot and stove for two to four. the lid doubles as a fry pan! i used a dollar store plastic spatula from which i cut the handle, and it fit nicely inside the pot to store. in fact, the entire stove, pot, lid, windscreen and pot gripper all fit nicely inside the insulated zip-up case that it comes with.. very handy for taking the hot pot right off the stove to carry into the tent on a cool rainy day.


my partner shawn and i took this baby on a two month backpacking trip across western canada. we purchased two of the large fuel cans.. which was completely unneccessary! the fuel cans last forever. we used the stove on average 2 times a day, we both needed moring coffee and at least one heated meal each day. from 2-3 minutes of boiling, to sometimes 15 minutes of simmering, one large fuel can made us through the entire trip! we're still working on the second can that we take with us on group hikes to heat up beverage on colder days.


one of the best features is the coil attached to the bottom of the pot. this captures the heat and allows the lightweight pot to heat up very quickly, boiling a full pot of water in 2.5 minutes. it has a spark igniter, and the fuel dial allows you to go from full blast to simmer very easily.



anything from tea, to soup, to full blown pasta dishes can easily be prepared with this stove, having the lid to also use as a pan helps with making multi-part meals. the non-stick surface is really easy to clean, which makes for efficient use of water while travelling.


dinner is served! i really love this stove!

The Permaculture Test Patch

this spring, The White House [on the corner] experienced the birth of the Permaculture Test patch. Shawn and i have been dreaming of building an off-grid community, and when we discovered Permaculture the fruition of such a dream seemed much more likely. before venturing off into the sticks with a herd of hippies and a sack of seed, we agreed that it would be best to start small.

Permaculture is about more than a vegetable garden.. the idea behind Permaculture is a combination of permanent agriculture, and permanent culture. building a sustainable, self sufficient food forest, and a community to live within it. not only do we have a space in the yard to attempt a sustainable garden, but we have a small community of people that are either tenants or friends of The House. we couldn't have asked for a better opportunity for Permaculture practice.


we started with a space of approximately 12 by 18 feet, which had once long ago been a vegetable garden, but has since grown over with grass and clover. the space was properly edged, scraped of grass [which was used to fill holes in the neighboring field], and dug to be mixed with 2 yards of triple mix. a visit to the local re-store scored us a cheap composter, and a nearby feed store had clover seed for 3 dollars a pound, which we decided would be our living mulch.


at first, introducing the idea of a vegetable garden to the house was welcomed with little enthusiasm. but as soon as the project began, we were surprised by how many showed to get involved. everyone in the house and many friends came together to prepare the ground and move the dirt. the garden has since become a gathering place. weeding brings groups together for a good conversation, or provides a relaxing solo meditation to clear the mind and lighten the heart.

it's now mid-june, and the garden is starting to take shape. early strawberries have already ripened, a large bowl of salad is ready every couple of days, and the herbs are full and plentiful. as the season progresses each week will bring forth a new bounty. the cucumbers peppers and tomatoes have all started to flower, and surprisingly even the blueberries are showing signs that they may fruit this year.


i plan to use this blog to keep track of our progress and errors, and to share and welcome ideas. and also, of course, to encourage others to give gardening a try. you can produce your own food with any amount of space, you don't necessarily need a backyard to grow. buckets on a balcony or even window planters can provide space for fresh herbs and veggies, there are even many species of vegetables that are bred to be grown in small spaces. grab some dirt and get your grow on!

Winter @ Home