simplicity

On a stinking hot, packed and slightly funky smelling skytrain ride home yesterday, I read this article (http://www.straight.com/node/223383) about this 30-something couple living the urban lifestyle who decided to move themselves from the hustle and bustle of the city to a half acre plot north of Pemberton to grow vegetables and live off the land. Nice. That was all I could think. I was completely mesmerized by the story.

The quote from the article " Urbanization is over, she told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview from Pemberton. At 32 and 35, the couple represent Canada’s ruralization pioneers: an economically and environmentally driven movement away from big urban centres" sent me into a fuzzy daydream about life beyond the city.

Not only have I always been secretly obsessed with people who leave everything behind to live with little, I have always had an idea that part of me really is a country mamma who would love to live a much simpler life. Growing up, I watched and read anything I could find about families who left their city life behind to build their own home, grow their own food and enjoy the company of their loved ones with gusto. My favourite books and movies (as a youngster) included Wilderness Family, Swiss Family Robinson, Born Free, Grizzly Adams all the Little House on the Praire books and a number of others that I cannot recall titles for (Disney did a lot of films in the late 70's early 80's around family units changing their lives by coming together and moving to rural settings). The theme that was consistent with all of these books and films was enjoying and being fuelled by ones surroundings, nature and simple pleasures.

Although I am not about to pick up my family and move them into a hand built homestead without electricity, running water or plumbing (don't worry Mum and whomever else may read this!), I do know that it feels important to me to have experiences that remind us of what it is like to live simply. Growing our vegetable garden has been a huge pleasure for me and since the girls are getting a bit older it is becoming more important to me to show them what we are cabable of growing and how good things taste when they come from the ground in our back yard. I get such pleasure in the summer months when I can gather everything we need for a gourmet dinner from our yard and garden including both fruits and vegetables. I get gidddy over my thriving and lush herb garden!

Being invited (how thankful are we!) to our friends island cabin to enjoy the rustic setting and the work that goes into daily activities like meal preparation, bathtime (in the kitchen sink for the children) or bedtime with light thrown from the gas lanterns in the sleeping cabins is always a treat. There is something so empowering about "hunting and gathering" even if it is not quite as rudimentary as it would have been years ago. When the boys row out in their little boat with their crab traps, those of us on shore, watch and feel a sense of anticipation for what we may be eating later that evening. Nothing tastes better than fresh caught crab. OR maybe it is just because we caught it. We did the work. We prepared it. Maybe.

In the end, I just know that reading about a return to a simple, rural lifestyle gives me a little wave of yearning, and a little space in my "bucket" that I will continue to try to fill in my own simple ways.

Worlds Colliding

Two sisters with many similarities and many, many differences saw their worlds collide last night with a resulting lost front tooth. Granted, the said tooth WAS starting to get a bit wiggly, but as Sophie cried, holding her little tooth in the palm of her bloody hand she said "I feel like I have lost a friend". She clearly wasn't ready for the loss.

At a lovely family gathering and birthday celebration with a BBQ on the deck, Sophie and Bridget decided that the long, yellow slide in the back yard should be used in two completely different ways (of course). Bridget had decided that one should use a slide in the conventional manner (from top to bottom) and Sophie had decided that convention is overrated and she would crawl up the slide. The collision happened mid-slide. Bridget's head and Sophie's front teeth had a rude introduction and the result was two crying children, snot, blood, and a missing tooth.

The drama continued with Sophie not wanting anyone to see her and not wanting anyone to talk to her and the demand that she be taken home "Right now!" meant that we made a very hasty departure. Once we got home and got Sophies face cleaned up, Bridget in bed and the tooth in a small zip-lock baggie, we began the long process of convincing Sophie that her world was not SO different (even though I too felt that our world had changed and crying might feel pretty good).

In the span of 4 months my little girl had changed. A lot. Gone were her baby blond locks, replaced with a little, brown, Beatles-Do. Gone were her soft, round baby cheeks, replaced with a little narrow pixie face and finally, gone were her two, little, pearly white, front teeth, replaced with one wiggly solitary tooth and a gaping hole.

Lying next to Sophie in her bed last night, stroking her head and talking to her quietly as she poked her finger over and over again into the hole that had been the home of her tooth, I remembered very clearly when I had lost my front tooth and what it had felt like. I remembered being a bit scared and a bit excited all at the same time. I asked Sophie, very quietly "Soph, are you scared?". She knew what I meant and replied "I look like and idiot with only one tooth and I can't talk right. I sound funny".

"I know" I said "but it won't last forever and I think you are beautiful no matter what".

She closed her eyes, sighed and went to sleep. I sighed and watched her, thinking about my "little Soph" and how much I love her.

Courtesy

This week I watched:

2 20-somethings give up their seats on the skytrain for older people
1 man hold an older womans arm so that she wouldn't tumble while standing on the moving (jarring) skytrain
1 man pry open the skytrain doors so that a young Mum and her toddler could get onto the train
1 couple move out of their seats for an older pair of people (who were clearly tourists)
1 lady pick up a pair of sunglasses that another lady had dropped (and hadn't noticed that she had dropped them).


All in all I witnessed 6 courteous acts during my commute this week. Nice.

Very nice.

Bridgets Day

At the end of a VERY busy day with parades, scavenger hunts, pig decorating, cake, candles, presents, friends and family, everyone is either fast asleep or wearily cleaning up and hurrying off to bed. Today was Bridget's third birthday and, by request, she had a "Pig Party". I asked her tonight if she enjoyed her Pig Party and she said "Yes, but we didn't play pigs-in-blankets", to which I replied, "well, actually we ATE pigs-in-blankets when we ate those hotdogs today at lunch. You know, the ones that were wearing "blankets" of pastrey". Her response was appropriately disconnected when she said "next year, I want a duck party".

At least she has given me a full year to plan.

What I love about our Bridget

1) I love that she calls sleeves "sweeves" and Granville Island is "Grandma Island"

2) I love her laugh

3) I love how she snuggles into your neck

4) I love that she is fiercely loyal to her sister

5) I love "Bridget's World" and the stories that Bridget tells. She is clearly a storyteller beyond her years (ask her about going to Africa and listening to the drums and seeing the dinosaurs)

6) I love that Bridget knows exactly what she wants to wear and how she wants to wear it

7) I love that Bridget sings to herself all day long (like her Daddy)

8) I love that Bridget will tell someone she loves "You are the best Mummy/Daddy/Sister/Cat/Simone etc in the world"

9) I love that Bridget lights up a room with her smile and her twinkling eyes

10) I love that Bridget is our beautiful, smart, kind, loyal, funny daughter and that she is not afraid to be herself.

Happy Birthday Bridget. We love you.

Mummy, Daddy and Sophie

Dressing Mexican style

ok, ok, ok....This blog is going to be long on practical and short on whimsical. I recognize, as I get older and older (don't like the sounds of that!) that most people fall into four categories when it comes to food.

1) Can "cook" and "cook" well without recipes
2) Can bake and bake well with recipes
3) Can bake and cook if following recipes
4) Can't cook or bake to save their lives


Me, I generally fall into category #1. I can cook fairly well and generally never use a recipe. I cook by taste and smell and texture and imagination. Being that I use my imagination when I am cooking I almost automatically exclude myself from the #2 Category. I am a lousy Baker. Recipes are not my friends and when it says 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda and I throw in a pinch and bit, it just doesn't seem to work.

Having said this, I have a couple of my own recipes that I have made up over the years that are now staples in our eating adventures. I have done my very best to actually put together some directions to make both "lazy day dressing" and "Mexican Beach Cheat"

Lazy Day Dressing
1/4 cup of olive oil
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1 large clove garlic (pressed)
3 tablespoons (approx) of plain yogurt
2 tbsp lemon juice
3 teaspoons (approx) sugar

Mix all of the above ingredients together (add more sugar or yogurt if necessary) and toss with mixed greens, toasted slivered almonds, halved baby tomotos, slivers of Red Anjou pear and shaved parmesan cheese.

*Any left-over dressing can be stored in a jar (with lid) in the fridge.


Mexican Beach Cheat
8-10 eggs
2 tins of refried beans (with or without chilles depending on your taste for spice)
wine chorizo sausage, sliced and slightly browned in a pan (remove from pan when browned and place on paper towel to drain any extra oil)
1 jar of Chuncky salsa
about 2 cups (total) of cheddar and monteray jack cheese (grated)

In a rectangular baking dish put down a good layer of refried beans. On top of the beans put a layer of chorizo sausage slices. Cover the chorizo with a layer of chunky salsa and then crack the 8 - 10 eggs on top of the salsa (move them around, gently, so that the yolks are evenly dispersed). Once you have the layer of eggs you sprinkle on the grated cheese. Put the whole dish (covered with foil) into the oven set to 350 degrees. Cook for about an hour or until the dish looks bubbly and hot all the way through. Before serving, turn the oven onto broil, remove the foil and broil the dish so that the cheese is slightly golden and the eggs are cooked through (you can push the cheese aside in one area and make sure the eggs are done). Serve the dish hot with warmed, soft tortillas, side dishes of sour cream and salsa and slices of cantalope with lime wedges. I have just made myself very, very hungry.

*This dish can be made the night before and placed in fridge.


Bon Appetit!

Mum

On the Eve of Mother's Day, I want to write a little story about my Mum. Although she is at quite a distance at present, she is never really far away. As I did when my own daughter, Sophie, turned six, I have written a little list below of some of the things that I love about my Mum.

1) I love that my Mum always smells of warm hand cream and that her skin is so soft
2) I love the shape of my Mum's fingernails. I always loved to look at her nails when I was a little girl
3) I love the one tooth on the left-hand-side that sticks out, slightly
4) I love that whenever I think of calling my Mum, she was either waiting for my call or has already picked up the phone to call me
5) I love that my Mum calls me "love"
6) I love my Mum's cooking
7) I love that my Mum thinks that I am always too skinny even when I am far from it
8) When I was little my Mum would stroke my head when I was going to sleep. I still remember, clearly how her cool hand felt on my skin
9) I love that my Mum is just a little bit dramatic. It makes me always know where I came from
10) I love that my Mum loves me, unconditionally and with all of her heart and that I always know it

Happy Mothers Day, Mum. I love you.

Trousers, trousers everywhere

My new life (day 15), with my new job (11th working day done today) is so very different from the life that I knew that I sometimes stop and actually have to think about who I am. And then I remember, I am now "Trouser Lady"

You see, for the last 10 years, working in a lovely little creative nest, nestled deeply onto the coast of West Vancouver, I have been locked away. Completely and utterly disconnected to "DOWNTOWN". Today, I am in the city center and I work in a building that houses some of the giants of DOWNTOWN (Vancouver Sun, The Province, Electronic Arts blah, blah, blah). It is as foreign to me as you can imagine and the biggest and most apparent change for me is that I now have to think very carefully about what I am going to wear each day. It is a curse.

I no longer have the option of throwing on my comfy and trendy skinny jeans or my casual olive denims. I have to wear trousers. Or skirts. And shoes that go with trousers and skirts. Oh how I long for my flip-flops.

Despite the fact that I have to go out and spend a fortune on new "trousers" there are some good things about working downtown. I am still discovering all of the unique and interesting little stores and cafes in Gastown. The seawall beckons me when it is sunny and warm. The harbour planes and cruise ships are constantly coming and going and the people are humming about with things to do, people to talk with, messages to send, ideas to twitter about. It is hard not to get caught up in all of the energy.

So, if I can get over my issue with trousers and the fact that I now have to share my morning commute with all the other people riding the skytrain (ok - this is another thing I have a hard time with. Since I was born with some kind of crazy sense of smell, the proximity of people on the skytrain (nose to back or worse) is really concerning. There are so many "sniffs" assaulting my poor nose on the train that I might have to take my friends advice and put two discreetly placed globs of Vicks under my nostrils each morning. Seriously.

Ok, so, this is a completely disjointed, rambling entry but I am tired and just really wanted to write something so that I don't feel that I am giving up on everything! (I have not done my on-line homework in over a week...I suck).