Strawberries & Saxifrages

We love native plants. When we go hiking we take our native plant book and identify everything we can. A couple weeks ago we went to a talk at UVic about native plants. I was excited because the author of our "native plant bible" was actually going to be there!

After a woman spoke about how she did her entire yard with native plants Andy MacKinnon talked about medicinal and edible native plants (and Sasquatches...) and actually made the entire thing really casual. It was great. Afterwards there was a raffle and we won two native plants!!

When this little plant grows up he will be a Coastal Strawberry. Awwh!!


This is an Ovel-leaved Mitrewort. I am excited about this one because it's a Saxifrage and that is my favourite family. The flowers have gone to seed in my picture, but check out how awesome they are in the photo below.


These two guys are going to get their very own pots this summer on the balcony. The strawberry wants full sun and the Saxifrage wants moist shade so it will be interesting. Man, we really should live in a house.

Charly

Last night one of my best friend's cats passed away peacefully in his sleep. He was one on a super short list of cats who, in my books, were the best ever. (This list includes my current little buddy Ziggy and my childhood cat Luke.)

He was super pudgey and not ashamed of it. He had lots of freckles and considered himself quite handsome. He used to come over and hang out with me when I lived in a place that was infested with mice. He made me feel better.

He also had the mental personality that I consider essential in a cat. One of my favourite stories about Charly was when he was hangin' out on his neighbours stoop and two young girls came around the corner of the house. When they saw him they ran screaming because they either weren't sure what he was or they thought he was a raccoon.

I'll miss you little buddy.

Kale

Recently inspired by a post by Dana, I wanted to try kale. It's full of iron (which most women lack), it's a dark leafy green which is supposedly one of the best things you can eat....but it's also intimidating. When you buy kale, it feels like plastic, super hard and crunchy. What do you do with it?

You cook the hell out of it, that's what.

Everybody Loves Sandwiches, the best food blog ever came to my rescue for the 139th time. She posted this recipe and I had to try it. It's the perfect mixture: sausage and chickpeas. I'm so there.

This is now our absolute favourite meal. We make a bit of brown rice with it to stretch it out into leftovers. Even warmed up the next day for lunch - divine. I've tried lots, and lots, and lots of other recipes from this blog and she always delivers.

(Oh and her Etsy shop is amazing too.)

A new Neighbour

I got to switch spots at work this week. I'm sitting closer to a window now and I'm really enjoying it.

I'm also sitting next to a new buddy. Here is my new desk from her perspective. Do you think she minds sitting next to me?

Road Trip!

Today I got to go on a road trip for work. I drove from Victoria to Parksville. It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive "up-island".....as the locals like to say....when do you think I'll consider myself a local?

So I rented a car and got this! It was orange!

I've been working hard lately (ie: 12 hour days) so I really needed a break. Since I was going in the middle of the week on super short notice, I couldn't manage to take Brad with me and make a day of it, so I decided to take Chip the Canadian Beaver instead! Here we are in the car in front of my place getting read to leave.


It was the perfect day for a road trip - warm, sunny weather. I made sure my ipod was all loaded up with lots of Plastic Operator, Zoot Woman and Prince for the drive.

Not far out of Victoria I came across one of those pull-offs that looked like it had an amazing view of the island down to the ocean from the mountains....but I missed the turn off. I managed to pull off for this view though. Yeah, I know....

Here is Nanaimo, I drove through without stopping.

Next stop was Parksville - my destination! I went to the job site, spent some time there blah blah who cares.... and was starving by the time I was finished. I found a White Spot and had a burger and started a new book that so far is amazing. After that, time to head back....

....but I wanted to make one stop first...

...the beach!!! Parksville has gorgeous beaches. Years ago when I moved to Vancouver I went to a sandcastle competition there, it was amazing. Not much has changed.

It was getting colder and felt like it was going to rain so I didn't stay too long. I wished I had time to wander in the tide pools though - the kids down there were having a blast.

So I drove back home, it rained a little bit then was sunny and warm by the time I got back to Victoria. I had such a great day.

Sugar Free

So I've been told to try eliminating sugar from my diet. For one month.

Okay fine - I didn't eat wheat or dairy for over a year.....I can do this. Plus, I've replaced the sugar in my coffee with Stevia - a natural sweetener. (If I couldn't have coffee I would never have agreed to this in the first place.)

So, the first few days weren't bad at all, I didn't think much about it. Then I just missed having something sweet after dinner.

Now I've entered the stage of curling up in the fetal position after dinner for an hour or more trying to ride out my craving. Brad offers me apples dipped in maple syrup, a banana....a cup of tea.....nothing will do.

I've heard of people doing this who have really bad cravings: Chocolate, pie, cookies... Not me, I'm craving the hard stuff - fuzzy peaches.

I have about 12 more days to go. Then I'm going to eat one of those gigantic cinnamon buns with that white icing slathered all over the top. Or maybe plan a visit with my pastry chef buddy.....

Fidgety

I lived alone for about nine years after I left home, and before I moved in with Brad. Nine years! You get used to things - you wash your own dishes, leave your socks where you want, pee with the door open.....

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining at all. I love living with Brad - but sometimes things get interesting....

We were settling in to watch some tv. Now, understand - we don't watch much current television at all. We watch older stuff that's already come and gone - old House episodes, old movies, old Magnum PI episodes (ha! ha!) - we watched the first three seasons of Lost on DVD. No commercials!

So when we do sit down to watch something, we're serious about it.

I've noticed an interesting habit of Brad's lately: he lasts about 5 minutes before he's up and roaming around, playing with Ziggy, cleaning up dishes, leaving the room in general.....and the other night - making cocoa?!

Then when he comes back he's all questions and confusion.
"Why is she leaving?"
"What is he doing there?!"
"How did they get in?"
"What's going on?"

He usually picks a perfect time to leave too. He doesn't leave in the boring soul searching scenes in House. Or when there is yet another boring love scene with Kate and Jack in Lost. Nope, he waits until Magnum is about to have a shoot out. House is about to have an epiphany. Or Desmond just missed pushing the button.

Which leaves me having to explain what's happened while he's gone. Try doing that when he wanders into the room at 9:15 - 15 minutes after Lost has started.

Intimidation

Has anyone read this book? Is it a good one?!

A friend at work has offered to lend it to me - well obviously because that's where it's sitting right now - on my desk at work.

This is the thickest book ever! The picture does it no justice, this thing is massive. Now, I'm no slouch when it comes to long reads, but what is intimidating me is the thought of carting this thing around with me for the time it takes me to read it.

The Folklore Bag

Behold.

My first project completed from the One Yard Wonders book. Of course it's a bag....

The pattern was pretty good actually. It was super cool and helpful to search the internet and find others who have made this exact project before and get their opinions before I even started. So after a few little hiccups like this picture below (what the HELL?!) it came out great.

If anyone cares - I'll offer up what I did to modify the pattern:

First of all, the straps were way too long, I cut off at least 3" from the length. The inside pockets were too small - unless all you're planning to store is lip balm and some coins. A 6"x9" piece of fabric is a better option.

There is a correction to the pattern that is vital. I would also strongly recommend using home decor weight fabric because the curved edges on the bottom are tricky to sew and the heavier weight fabric hides messy sewing nicely.

Also the instructions were nice and clear except when it came to the part where you attach the top pieces to the bag of the body. What the hell?! I can't imagine a more difficult way of doing this so I just assembled it the way I normally do and it turned out just fine.

One other thing - luckily I planned to make the lining out of a different material. The book says to buy one metre of fabric, but I'm not really convinced that you will get all the pieces on one metre of fabric.....probably best to buy an extra 1/4 metre or so if you're making it out of one piece of fabric.

The fabric I used is super heavy duty (almost like an outdoor canvas!) so I was a little worried it wouldn't even fit through my machine, but I have the best sewing machine ever so no worries. This thing will last forever.

Hiking Again

Today was a great day - went went for a short hike. I haven't gotten out hiking for much, much too long so it was so fantastic to go today. We found an easy hike just north of here at Goldstream Park. Managed to see some native plants...

(Western Trillium)*

....and take in some fresh forest air. There was a big storm over the weekend** and there was a little landslide along the path so we had to detour but the trail we ended up on was perfect!

(Salmon Berry)

We are wondering about the hiking/camping on the island and how busy it gets compared to Vancouver. There were hardly any people on the trails today but it's early in the season. We were fantasizing about driving for literally 30 minutes to a great campsite for a weekend and actually getting a spot. Do you guys have any advice on where to camp or hike around Victoria?

* Yup, these are my pictures!
**The storm also knocked down a tree in front of our building! So. Windy.