Bread

I have always been sort of afraid of making bread. It has seemed to me akin to alchemy. Though I love baking, something about yeast and timing go against what I consider to be my skill set in the kitchen.

All that is starting to change thanks to a patient and dutiful teacher and a wonderful book called "The Laurel's kitchen Bread Book" specifically the loaf for learning. The writers of this book give beautiful and helpful descriptions and are so detail oriented I think anyone who gives themself enough time can't help but find success. I do reccommend a clip on timer though. Those things are life savers.

I have now made 4 loaves of bread, these two slashed one being the most recent. I am excited and empowered. If you have a day or even half a day at home try it, and eat it and then let's talk about how great bread can be.

Creativity

Yesterday I had a visit with one of the most creative people I will likely ever meet, my wonderful friend and pseudo auntie Edie. Together we listened to a song her son had written and recorded for her entitled "chasing trains with the car" about how Edie used to do just this, fuelling Nick's love of trains, and, perhaps, high speed chase?

I love their family and have learned a lot about creativity and the importance of nurturing it, from them. Here is a Ted talk by the author of the recent book "eat, pray love" which I have yet to read but which Edie recommended, and I recommend that if you have 18 minutes to kill you will come away inspired.

Return to the Land of Birds

In April I was asked to come and care-take for some people I met last year in Haida Gwaii. I was elated and though it meant postponing several other trips I had planned I hopped on a plane and arrived the 18th of May to start learning about the life I was preparing to lead.

The place I came to is an island, just outside of Queen Charlotte City, and my friends live off the grid relying on solar panels, micro hydro and a diesel generator for their minimal power needs. They run a greenhouse and supply the island with the most delicious tomatoes I have ever tasted. While they were gone my boyfriend and I took care of their place and feasted on all the wonders that surrounded us including clams, mussels, oysters, crab, sea asparagus, duck eggs, stinging nettle, tomatoes (Beefsteak and cherry), cucumbers, kale, arugula, nasturtiums, onions, parsley, oregano etc etc etc.

It was an amazing time. I have learned so much and fallen in love with this place and all its wonders.

Laskeek Bay

I just spent 2 weeks down in the park volunteering with Laskeek Bay Conservation Society doing research with some field biologists about birds. It was super interesting and has inspired me to look into doing a masters about the deer problem they have here. The deer are destroying the forest understory here which impacts the nesting sea birds as well as the other birds who have fewer berries and habitat as a result of all the munching. During our week on the water surveying for black oyster catchers we actually chased a couple of bucks off one small rocky island where it seemed they had been trampling on some oyster catcher and gull eggs.

I am thinking that the ideal long term solution would be to hunt the deer to get the population down to a number that is sustainable. According to what I've heard there are somewhere between 50,000 and 150,000 deer in Haida Gwaii and to get their numbers to a level that would be sustainable for the pre-existing ecosystem would mean taking 10-15,000 out of the system per year. I figure there are so many people looking for "organic" meat, and you can't get much more organic than this. Hunting these deer for meat would lead to fewer and happier deer, which are starving now and seen often eating seaweed on the beach due to the lack of greenery left to eat, and of course lots of happy eaters, not to mention jobs up here which would be helpful given the decline of the fishing industry. The only problem is of course, the law, which does not allow the sale of wild game. So that's what I need to work on :) I am planning on enlisting my brother and his poli-sci degree, but he doesn't know that yet...

Wood Heat

Seems strange to be writing about heating when it seems like North America is engulfed in a Heat wave. Even here in Haida Gwaii it is smoking hot.

Still, we all know it won't last, and I have been thinking about the wonders of wood heat, both as heating in the forms of amazing cast iron ovens and also for baking. The people I am staying with just returned from France and are inspired to build a community wood fire oven for people to be able to come and bake bread in. I Think it's a great idea, like a community garden but for bread. As of right now there is no reliable source of good bread here in Queen Charlotte, so seems like it could work.

I also just heard a podcast from deconstructing dinner where they spoke with the folks from Speerville Flour Mill who have a portable Panyol wood fire oven which they use to demonstrate the amazing breads their flours can make. Apparently just about everything you cook in these things turns out great.

Duck Dance

We love the ducks. We especially love eating the huge hard shelled eggs they lay with the glowing orange yolks.

They are Peking ducks, like Aunt Jemima Puddle duck, though without the dashing cape and bonnet. They are very social and hang out in a little pack. At dinner time they come quacking, looking for someone to feed them and put them back in their pen. Here is a video that Dan shot of this routine, to the tune of a song called "Brain Enthusiast" by his band The Bad Fate. I think it's pretty swell. Hope you like it.

Wind Warning

Woke up today around 7 to the whips and snaps of trees being thrown around in the wind. Dan and I were planning on going into town today while Ryan came out to do some work in the greenhouse. Looks like nature has other plans for us. There is a wind warning with 60 to 70 km winds. The sea looks like it's laughing, rolling and shaking over some wind whispered joke.

When I told a friend of mine that I would be coming up here I remember her saying to me that it would be exciting to be in a place where nature still reigned supreme. Today I am feeling the power of that statement. So often we take things in the city for granted, the power, the water, our food. When George was first explaining to me about the amp hours in the batteries that hold the energy for the island, I felt like he was speaking Greek. I just had to watch him, and learn the steps to starting the generator, memorizing following. Now it's all staring to sink in, not just how things work, but the significance of self sufficience.

I jumped out of bed and started working through my to do list:

1) bathroom

2) Light the fire in the house stove

3) greenhouse, check temperature, assuage worst fears by checking for wind induced holes in plastic. The wind was whipping the plastic around and making those terrible sounds, like sails in the wind that ought to have been taken down, like the cracking of whips. For once I am grateful for the indestructibility of plastic.

4) turn on generator

5) Mix tomato food and put in water

6) Mix micronutrients and put in water

7) Turn on computer (an ancient and indestructible IBM)

8) Feed the ducks and Geese and collect the duck eggs

9) Call Ryan

10) Turn composting toilet

11) drink tea

12) eat breakfast

And here I am. Watching the confused humming birds hovering around the feeder, which has been torn apart by the wind.

Full Belly, ready to start the day. Ipod almost charged with days worth of audiobooks, podcasts and tunes to give my mind something to chew on while I commune with the plants.

Beans, Beans the Magical Fruit

I am embarrassed to admit that I have never before used dried beans.

Today, on fantasy island, Dan and I soaked a bunch of them after looking up the how-tos online.

Step one: rinse beans and take out broken ones and pieces of dirt.
Step two: put beans in a container and cover with water, enough so that when they expand they will still be covered.
Step three: put them in the fridge (or in our case, the back porch, which serves as a ridge)
Step four: leave them like that for 6-8 hours. Apparently soaking them for longer like this makes them less musical, bonus.

Alcohol can save the world

While visiting my friends in Grand Forks we watched a movie called "alcohol can be a gas" which is a talk by a permaculturist and ecologist who talks about how we can make alcohol on a small scale, and in doing so, support local small
scale agriculture, end our dependence on fossil fuels as well as the control exerted by large fossil fuel companies, and drive cars and produce power without having to feel guilty all the time! Check it out at alcoholcanbeagas.com

New Hair

The reactions to my new haircut have been very interesting. Lots of screaming and laughing and hands cupped over mouths. My favorites though have been from the kids. Here are some quotes:

"you're not Alicia anymore" (I heard this twice from two different kids but when I asked them who I was now they didn't seem to know, i suggested they could call me Ali, since that's short, like the hair)

"that's a boy haircut"

(from the same girl over the coarse of 2 days):
looking confused "I like your haircut"
then later "I liked your long hair"
then the next day "you look like a rockstar"

They seem now to have accepted that I am in fact the same person as before, though this person takes less time in the bathroom :)

ministry sustainability course content

sustainability course content here! http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/greenschools/sustcoursecontent.htm

My "Birds Bees and Biodiversity" Workshop at SPEC

nature scatter

While researching home made bird feeders I came across this one, which is made from either solid castings of bird food, beeswax and ash or rotationally moulded with the ash encased inside.

A pretty morbid way to feed the animals...but the feeders themselves are beautiful...and well, I can think of worse things than being eaten by birds...like being eaten by worms for example?

Found it here

Growing Power

I am likely going to attend a talk by Will Allen, CEO of Growing Power which focuses on using urban spaces to provide all people with access to fresh unprocessed food. He can speak to it better than I can so take a peek at the video and come to the talk if you're interested!



Tuesday, July 13, 7-9pm
Croatian Cultural Centre
3250 Commercial Drive (and 14th)
Vancouver, BC
(Transit: Take the #20 Victoria bus from the Commercial/Broadway skytrain station)

This event is free, however new registration is required. The previous date was sold out so please register early.
Click here to RSVP now!

MOBY garden day with Mosaic daycare kids

The other day I went and did a little preschool session with Tina from MOBY community garden and the kids at Mosaic daycare. It was lots of fun and she did a great post about it that I will lazily link to here.

Rainbow Art

It all started with a white snow art activity I did with the kids. I just found everything I could that was white and arts and craft-able and put it on the table, giving the kids some remnant white matte board as background. They took it from there.

Then I found out that one of our kids was struggling to learn his colours, as well as basic shapes etc and that because of this he was being held back from the pre-kinder program. The teachers were doing their best to help get him up to speed but it was slow going. One day after nap I noticed him waking up right at the time when all the other kids were heading off to pre-kinder. I noticed he was crying. This boy is very stoic and this broke my heart a little. Then I got the idea to do colour art to help him learn his colours. That afternoon we did red art, using the same principle as for the "snow art", in that I covered the table with red items, red tape, red markers, red feathers etc etc etc. The next day we did Orange, then Yellow, and so on. Here are some of the images.

Awesome Possum

Just read an article in VICE magazine which seems to have a new editor and have become vastly less negative and sardonic and once again a pleasure to read. Here's the article about Dolly who is an inspiration on how to live cheap, be resourceful and quit your job. Here are some videos about Dolly that were done a couple of years after the publication of her book (which she wrote at 18) called Possum Living: How to live well without a job and (almost) no money

part 1
part2
part3

She's amazing. I'm inspired, though I still don't want to go shooting the heads off of turtles.

p.s. she dropped out of school in grade 7, and, after writing a book at 18 went on to work for NASA as an aerospace engineer, till she got sick of it.

Jaime Oliver on Ted

This Ted Talk with Jaime Oliver is more than worth watching. A friend sent me this link. I love it when people do that, makes my day to think that something like this made someone think of me that's an amazing compliment.

Leadership

A recent study suggests that there are leadership styles that are consistent with the abilities, characteristics, and skills that are regarded as contributing to or inhibiting leadership.

The specific findings include 6 clusters. The first 4 contribute to outstanding leadership and the final 2 inhibit leadership.

· Charismatic / Value Based: all cultures recognized this as substantially contributing to leadership. It includes visionary, self sacrifice, integrity, decisiveness and performance oriented.

· Team Oriented: this emerged in second place and emphasizes effective team-building and implementation of a common purpose or goal among team members.

· Participative: this is the degree to which others were involved by the manager in decision making and implementation. It is the opposite of autocratic and non-participative.

· Humane Oriented: it reflects supportive and considerate leadership, but also includes compassion and generosity. It was only moderately associated with contributing to effective leadership.

· Self Protective: this is intriguing as it was newly identified in the study and is linked to being status- and class-conscious, evasive, ritualistic, procedural, normative, secretive, indirect, self-centered, and asocial. Importantly, it is not associated statistically with contributing to outstanding leadership.

· Autonomous: this is also newly identified in this study and is not viewed as contributing to outstanding leadership. It refers to independent and individualistic leadership, what Daniel Goleman in his work on emotional intelligence might call pace-setting leadership.

critical design

TERRARIUMS!

Paula Hayes is agenius

FORTS!

in an hommage to the new wild things movie there was a fort making contest! Check out all the submissions here, and check this other amazing website started by a former Emily Carr student http://www.booooooom.com/sorted/projects/

Marimekko cont...

Just realized why Marimekko rang a bell. It was thanks to my friend Nora, who passed away May 9th of last year at the age of 27 after battling adrenocortal cancer. I miss her very much. Here is a link to her blog entry where she talks about Marimekko, and the beet soup that reminded her of it. She and her wonderful family have great taste in all things, especially cheese, prints and books. I hope to make it back to Minnesota to visit them.

Ravishing Beasts

Went and saw the "ravishing beasts" show yesterday at the museum of Vancouver. The show is about taxidermy, and for the uninitiated, the museum is located at the planetarium, at Vanier park. It was an amazing show and they have a craft show coming up that opens on the 13th of January and it's called "art of craft". Totally worth checking out, and come to the craft night there on the 21st. I'm not sure if they have a new curator there or what but seems like there is some fresh energy that is doing great things there, like the show about cycling, which I missed, which included a screening of the triplettes of belleville in the park outside last summer. Hooray for forward thinking curators and museums!

Marimekko

Just wasting some time on ebay and found some cute mugs with a name that rang a bell... "marimekko" a few google searches later i found a store in Vancouver that sells their many gorgeous wares. The print designs are gorgeous and remind me or huntervasser, warhol and 70's band posters all rolled into one.

The Botany of Desire

I have found myself recommending Micheal Pollan's book "the Botany of Desire" to several people. In recommending it I discovered a website about the book, and the DVD, which I didn't know existed, but do thanks to PBS. It has video clips, lesson plans, and of course a store where you can buy the book DVD etc. Check it out by clicking here.

Love Train

Went and saw my uncle perform as part of a gospel choir a few weeks back. They were awesome and the performance ended with the entire chapel full of people singing and clapping along to love train. Tonight, I wanted to hear that song again, feels pretty appropriate for this time of year, it's dark, it's cold, time to join hands and join the love train.

Much love and happy holidays

-Alicia

Thoughts on the Downside of Documentation

I had such a good day today. I worked at the preschool I have subbed at for the past 8 years or so. It was so calm. The kids were amazing. We made star ornaments, I mesmerized them with LED lights to celebrate the solstice, we played monsters, we sang carols, we made a hopscothch, we played hockey, we drew and when I tried to write their quotes on the backs of their sheets they were confused and, in some cases annoyed. One boy told me to close my eyes and erased everything I had written, including his name. It made me think that maybe too much documentation can seem/feel like scrutiny. There were moments when I wished I had a camera so I could take pictures of the amazing block fortresses they were building, or the drawings they drew, but not having one also allowed me to just revel in the moment with them, instead of feeling weirdly voyeuristic and paparazzi-esque. Bottom line, kids are awesome, and I think they are extra awesome when you give them an environment that is safe, relaxed and calm. There were quiet breaks in the day. No workplace is perfect, but I have to say that the feeling, at least for me, was a really good one. Felt like being home, and home at this time of year is a pretty good place to be. I feel like having this blog as a personal place for reflection is very valuable, and I am happy to have had a crash course to intense documentation, and happy to have a break from it :) at least for now.

More Dance inspiration

dance parties and channeling rough play

Lately at my job we have noticed the older boys are really into rough play. As teachers (and perhaps especially as mostly female teachers) who want to keep things as safe as possible, and roughhousing can feel like an affront to our sense of security, however, there is research that shows that this kind of rough play is an integral part of development. Check out this Ted talk by Stuart Brown, here is an expert on it

A pioneer in research on play, Dr. Stuart Brown says humor, games, roughhousing, flirtation and fantasy are more than just fun. Plenty of play in childhood makes for happy, smart adults -- and keeping it up can make us smarter at any age.

We have been wrestling with how to channel this rough play in pro-social ways. One example is that during the dance parties, many of the children want to roll on the floor or sort of "mosh" into one another. We have thus far said that this kind of "dancing" was not allowed as it risked being trampled upon for hurting others. I was talking with my friend and mentor Susan Swanson about this and her imminent trip to Brazil and we thought about the possibility of introducing the children to Capoeira, the Brazillian dance/martial art. Susan and her husband showed me some amazing videos online of adults and children doing Capoeira. I was mesmerized by the spinning limbs moving in sync with the music and bridging the line between dancing and fighting. The most wonderful thing? The dancers never actually make contact with each-other, and when a pair is dancing the others stand on the side so as to give the dancers lots of space to move around. I was discussing this yesterday with Ms. Pamela and Ms. Zahra and it turns out that Ms. Sammy does Capoeira! How perfect! Perhaps this can be integrated into outdoor circle where there is lots of room? I think it could be a wonderful way of channelling rough play while also working on gross motor coordination and development, singing, percussion and socialization!

Here are some videos you can check out if you are interested in what Capoeira looks/sounds like:

kids: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM1EQuPgV8M

pros: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJDwHpNylZE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8xxgFpK-NM