Last weekend I returned from a trip to my hometown, Vernon, British Columbia, to my lovely adopted family keen to make granola. Although I’m more inclined to gobble down cereal and milk than sweet granola and yogurt, I couldn’t resist getting in on homemade baking.

I also couldn’t resist staying up until 1AM creating this video.

So, if you want to see the chihuahua tricks, or if Natalie has inspired you to wear neon, or if you want David’s enthusiasm all over your granola, or if you want to know more about Rebar and their cookbook – for goodness sake, leave a comment.

Not only is City Harvest an amazing organization (and does Vancouver have an equivalent?), but Hayden 5 has produced a beautiful short video to showcase their efforts.

Caught these red cuties picking strawberries out at Driediger Farms in Langley this afternoon.

It’s been raining all day. The Folk Fest was full of happy hippy Vancouverites. Like ducks in water. My gig as an Ambassador for our national broadcaster was very easy. Like singing with the choir. No preaching required.

What better, after a day of sharing griefs about federal budgets and smiles about programming, than to enjoy some crepes with my sister?

First we started with the savoury: sautéed mushrooms and zucchini with cottage cheese (me) or garlic Harvarti (Sam). Matched with a wee glass of Sleemans and a green salad.

Second round was dessert: caramelized bananas, nectarine and strawberries. What wonders a bit of real butter does! We split the last pancake, dolloped on creme fraiche, and sipped it all away with citrus mint tea from Davids Tea.

Digest and blog. Happy Saturday!

Birthdays.

Pool parties.

Smiles.

Surprises.

Live music.

Parks.

New friends.

New inspiration.

And it’s already time for another weekend!

Filmed at French Beach Provincial Park, just west of Sooke, British Columbia.

In the last two months much has happened. I lost two of my jobs based in windowless offices and gained a wicked fun job on a mountain. Turns out I’m a better person, mentally and physically, when I get to hike around in the fresh air with a team of people on a daily basis. So what felt originally like a blow to my confidence was actually a blessing. I’ve been given the chance for a career change; a change I’m not sure I would have taken on my own accord. (Because a job is a job, right? Mmm, not.)

at work in my festive kitchen

Christmas and New Years celebrations provided a dusting of happiness and love over the last two months. My family gathered in early December and I spent the actual holidays with my dear friends and lovely guy here in Vancouver. I hope, wherever y’all were, you were surrounded by love and delicious food too.

linocut wrapping paper

family feeding

faux fire on Christmas day

For 2011, self-education is my personal phrase. Having never been an outdoor education guide, my learning curve has been as tall as the mountain I work upon. From determining Amabilis Firs from Mountain Hemlocks, to leading power hikes, to informing Brownies about the adaptations of snow fleas, snowshoe hares and red-breasted sapsuckers, my mind is exploding [gleefully] with new content! Not only are my co-workers supportive and eager to help me learn, they are just my kinda people: quirky and keen. And we’re all foodies! Work is good on a mountain.

Oh, and I built my very first website!

obligatory cat photo included

I’ve registered myself in an Introduction to Web Development and Design course at the downtown campus of a local technical institution, BCIT. I just finished my second week and all I want to do is code. Like a maze, you can get lost in the opening and closing of tags, but boy is it fun problem solving how to display content by XHTML rules. (You have my permission to call me a nerd.)

New years also coincided with some personal decisions.

1. I’m moving.
2. I’m going to do a big bike trip this year. At least one will be with my dad.

The first decision came down to timing. And the opportunity for cheaper rent (an offer one cannot refuse when one has recently lost work). My OBSV pal, Natalie, has been living with a few friends in a Kitsilano townhouse for a few years and six months ago there was talk of me filling the room of one departing friend. That departure didn’t actually materialize back then but on January 2, 2011 I got an inquiry text from Miss Natalie asking about my living situation.

Was I happy where I was?

Meh, I’m ok here in my converted attic. I love the view of the mountains and the large, well-lit kitchen. But it’s been getting lonely living alone. And the heat is next to nothing up here. Oh, and it’s 700 bones a month.

Being in Mount Pleasant has been, well, pleasant, and I admit, the rent is a sweet deal for this highly-demanded hipsterville. Yet I’ve been here a year and I like to keep things different. The townhouse friend is moving out so I’m moving in. To save $200 a month, to live with friends, to have ensuite laundry, and to enjoy co-loving a chihuahua (you’ll hear more about Riley in the future).

The second major decision represents a change in my personal outlook. I announced to myself (and to those who care to listen to me) that I was not going to focus on a career. That is, a path of employment that seems to follow one industry, or one area of expertise. It’s just not for me. I love too many things and enjoy learning too much to stick with just one profession.

With that quiet announcement came a wave of relief. No more stress. Just the need to make money by doing anything I enjoy. And not even needing to make a lot of money. Just enough to live. To enjoy living. In relative comfort.

Sure, this choice comes with compromises, but everything does. It has not only reduced my stress but has freed up my time. And time savings, I find, are just as valuable as money savings.

So, with time opening up, I want to materialize the ideas I’ve been stacking up in my mind for ages. One of those is doing a big bike trip.

Originally I was gung-ho to join Global Agents for Change on their group ride down the Pacific coast of North America, from Vancouver to Tijuana, Mexico. A couple friends have done it over the past few years and I’ve been thinking about doing it myself ever since I once volunteered with the non-profit back in university.

But after doing what I do best — thinking, a lot — I realized a big group ride wasn’t for me. (Also, and no offense to GAFC, I don’t agree with fund raising $2000 for a cause I am not personally connected with by virtue of geographic displacement. How can I pitch to you, my friends and family, to throw $20 each at a Kenyan youth poverty alleviation organization that I know little about but that my bike ride organizers have decided is the place our funds will go? Nah. I’m into local community building. I can speak passionately and act fervently for my immediate community and country, but not so easily for another. I will contribute to the global citizenship in other ways.)

Plus, there’s this guy in my life who I’ve known since birth and although we have a pretty good relationship, I’d like to know him more. And cycling is kind of his thing.

You see, my dad has already cycled across this vast country — solo. He’s done ‘credit card’ tours with his buddies where all they pack is their plastic monies, some snacks and water, and take off from from their families to the Rockies for a couple days. He’s completed an Ironman. He’s run The Death Race across three mountain summits. He broke his foot recently taking on a new sport, Cyclo-cross. He taught my sisters and I how to cross-country ski. He helped my ex-boyfriend try adapted skiing, no questions asked. He’s won multiple races, all various versions of 24-hours of adrenaline, mountain biking, intense nonsense. My dad loves to be outside, being active, and eating.

Sound familiar?

A couple years ago I logged away the dream of doing a bike trip with my pa. In that time he’s supplied me with two bicycles and been quick to help answer any of my maintenance questions or curiosities. I started commuting by bike to work last summer and have always enjoyed going home to visit my parents for a bike ride and some communal cooking.

This year, with time allowance for enjoying life, I asked my dad if he’d do a trip with me this spring or summer. His reaction was so positive, he’s already drafted some routes around BC for us!

So that’s me, relatively, to date. How about you? Did you make resolutions or decisions intentionally or just by chance this new years? How is your January starting off? I hope you’re keeping life interesting too. And I hope you’re ridding yourself of stress. That stuff’s no fun.

Do you ever feel like you’re meant to be somewhere else?

I struggle with this feeling regularly. More so since the temperature dropped in late August.

I reckon it’s an annual, seasonal thing.

Each winter I get this urge to be closer to family. You might nod your head in empathy, Yah, Christmas’ll do that to you. But it’s not just the yuletide sentiments that pull at my heartstrings.

It’s the feeling of knowing that no matter what adventure you set out on that day, no matter what hard day you had at school or work, no matter how horrid the rain-turned-snow-turned-slush — there is a group of people in a warm home waiting for your arrival.

They’ll be busy with their own thing but you can guarantee someone will be in the kitchen, someone will be on the computer, someone will be putting on their shoes to take the pooch for a walk. And they’ll have you join in. (Or tell you to go away if they happen to be your younger sisters but that hasn’t happened in what feels like a decade. Hooray for maturity!)

So that’s why I’m heading to the Island today. Like the mini mushroom growing strong through the cracks of my attic’s deck, I’m doing ok but know I’m a little out of place. I want the warmth of those I love and an established house with real furniture to rest my confused bones. Oh, and my parents have a hot tub.

Have a good weekend, folks. And to my Vancouver friends, let’s take our time with this white stuff. We all know we’re a bit panicky when the rain changes shape.

And the Vancouver snow ferries deliver!

Back in October, when I was spending far too much time in the windowless office and thus ignoring this blog, I was fortunate to have one of the best mornings of my life. Wow, you say, that’s quite a statement. Oh, it is. And it was! Inventive food, table drawing, a large window with perfect lighting, and superb company. I ask for little else.

Having done no planning apart from “I’ll text you in the morning when I wake up”, we winged the menu. Cam arrived with a sampling of apples recently purchased from the UBC Farm Market and the best Concord grapes, in three different shades!

We took stock of my fridge and pantry. Some cheese, some cinnamon, eggs and milk. “Crepes!” I cried and raced to the book shelf for the recipe for my father’s staple dish.

As many Saturday mornings as I can remember being kid, my dad would cook breakfast. Nothing fancy, he’d say, just some rolled-up pancakes. That’s what we called ‘em — rolled-up pancakes. Then he’d reach into his memory and tell me about my Oma making him pancakes with soup for dinner when he was a kid.

While I whipped up the crepe batter (2 eggs, 1.5 cups of milk, 3/4 cup each of all-purpose and whole wheat flour), Cam prepared our apple stew. He added no sugar that I saw, just three types of apple, cinnamon, and whatever other spices he found in my cupboards. I think it really is texturific when the skins are left on the apples before stewing!

We tried the first crepe with just the stew and some grated gruyere. Savoury, yes. Good, yes. But not exactly what we had in mind (if coming up with a dish on the spot constitutes having something particular “in mind”). A factor was missing. We pondered. We smacked our palettes.

Something nutty?

Something garlicy?

But of course — hummus!

So into my food processor we dumped a can of chickpeas, dollops of tahini, some lemon juice, garlic and water from the peas. Blend to a state of cream. And the result?

I wish I could show you the video reaction from Cameron as he assembled and consumed the first combination of these flavours. The natural sweetness of the apple mixed gently with the nuttiness of the gruyere and garlic of the hummus. Paired with strong cups of milky coffee and sharp, juicy grapes, the two of us doodled away across my kitchen table.

A morning I continue to savour.