Biking

In case you peeps arn't aware, I have been spending the past almost 3 months on (and off) my bike. We have become joined at the hip, and as a result we have created a blog of our own all about my biking adventures. SOOO, catch up on whats been happening by going to: http://tebike.blogspot.com/.

Sorry to have left you in the dark for so long, I hope you will forgive me!

In Victoria!

Hey everyone, yes, I have arrived in Victoria! It was a long three days of train, then sky-train, then bus, then ferry, they bus with 2 big bags and a bike, but I made it! During the travel from train to ferry I received much help from many awesome other travelers who helped me with my bags and bike, seeing that I was struggling and in need of help. So, people are awesome. With a few mixes up with meeting times (my friends don't have a phone and the train was 4 hrs late) I finally arrived in Victoria, met my friends at the bus station and enjoyed the awesome meal they had prepared for me!

Yesterday I went for a long walk and serendipity arrived upon the park (Moss Hill Park) that I went to with my family when I lived in Victoria when I was 12 yrs old. It was fabulous, and the view was out of control! I love the ocean.

After my walk, I went back home, did some emailing and left with my friends to food not bombs with my friends, a block party, and china town! It was a great day. But its not over yet...

I then went for a run, had a wonderful dinner with my friends(I love eating with people) and went outside to contemplate the stars, and life while sitting in the hammock in the backyard.

And now its today. Thanks for listening, today is about getting ready for the bike trip! We have already had intense conversations, and now for buying of equipment. During the tour I will try to keep you updated with happenings via this blog as well, however, hopefully I will make a few more posts before the tour begins!

Plane or Train

As many of you know, I am soon going to be heading to the coast for some sweet bicycle touring! I am super excited, yet today I forced myself to face the pearals of plane vs train. Unfortunately I missed the opportunity to get the crazy cheap train tickets (~$130), which would have made this decision a no brainer. There are many factors wieghing into this decision, let me break it down for you:

1. I have a bike which I am going to be taking out with me, therefore the cost of checking a bike matters (however, I discovered, both train and plane charge $20)

2. Monetary cost. I am monetarily poor(in other ways I am rich, but money I have little of).

3. Environmental impact. I love the environment. Its a sexy beast and I want to inflict as little pain as possible within reason (i.e. if the plane cost less then half that of the train, then I may op for the plane, cuz well, I am poor. I know thats feeding the devil...but!!)

4. Seeing canada. I really like the fact that on the train we would get to go through the rockies!

OK! So there are the options, after doing some research I discovered that the plane was ~$260 while the train was ~$360, so $100 diff. As well, I discovered that to take the plane would mean I would be emitting 10 times the CO2 as if I took the train, euw! Finally, airports are NEVER central to a city, so there would be added costs of taxi or shuttle, making the price difference probably closer to $50. For those of you that know me, I think you know what I have decided....

TRAIN IT IS!!!

Chew chew, beautiful rocky mountains, sleepless nights, and conversations with fascinating people in the bubble car here I come!!

Canvasing in Nature

I just had to write about last week when I was canvassing. We are currently working in a nieghbourhood on the outscurts of Winnipeg and guess what I saw....a deer and its baby! They were beautiful and I was able to catch a few good photos! Although I loved seeing the deer, it also made me sad to think that we have invaded so much land that was once untouched that the deer are living within our backyards. That is, no doubt, not there natural habitat, and impacts there lifespan, number of children they have, and stress levels.

None the less, they were very pretty.

The Garden is Growing!

KOLOROBI!!

OKRA!!

My excitment is explosive! The garden is so beautiful! Everyday I visit it I can't help but smile. There are tomatos (although still green), sunflowers, lots of greens, peppers, and...OKRA!! The okra makes me really happy cuz first of all its a special brown type, and second of all its the type of plant that breaks down those stereotypes that certain plants can only be grown in certain areas of the world. True to an extent, but often we don't give the plants enough credit.

I look a bunch of photos of the garden which you can see below.

TOMATOES!!

Also we have been included on an inner city garden tour of Winnipeg! I found this super exciting because, 1. Its my first time gardening, 2. It celebrates the hard work of the other volunteers, and 3. It will show off the garden to people of Winnipeg and hopefully build the gardens strength so that they wont build a building on it (yes they are considering doing this!).

SUNFLOWERS!!

Thanks for dealing with my explosive excitement!

What's Up with Lawns Anyways?!

The other day I got somewhat perturbed with lawns. Why do we have them? The grass commonly used is not native to North America, and therefore requires a lot of water to keep it green. So why are we wasting all this water on these lawns that do not feed us, do not provide much of any sort of habitat for bees, butterflies and other insects, AND we spend hours mowing them using often gas (do I need to rant about this?) or electrical (not really an environmental alternative unless actually generated using renewable source) mowers.

After having my own little freak-out I decided to research the topic and find out why we have so many of these darn lawns in Canada!

So here it is:

"The lawn" originates in Europe (surprise, surprise), which makes ecological sense because the grasses grow best in less extreme climates. Lawns were associated with wealth, golf and lawn bowling.

Slowly, as the rich and the famous of North America took vacations over in England, Scotland, and France they began to want lawns in North America, mostly so they could play golf and lawn bowling here. So, in 1915, the US Department of Agriculture and the US Golf Association (yes there's such a thing, crazy!!) collaborated to create the right combinations of grasses that would be suitable (with a lot of watering, fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides of course) for the North American climate.

But still this lawn business didn't get picked up by the masses till the industrial revolution and invention of the rotary lawn mower and watering hose. These two inventions made it possible for the average Joe or Jill to have there very own lawn, YIPPEE!! However, there was still not much desire for lawns until...the American Garden Club applied the peer pressure. They said that it was one's civic duty to have a well kept lawn...and well we all know how effective peer pressure is. So lawns began to emerge everywhere. And as cities got bigger and people couldn't have their own lawns we created communal lawns called PARKS! I'm not going to get into suburbs though, thats a whole other ball game!

Wasn't that fascinating? I thought it was. Lets make lawns extinct!

Art Junction

I just discovered Craft Heaven for me!! It is called Art Junction! Located across the street from Red River College in Winnipeg this is a haven of creative and usable junk! Anyone that knows me knows that I love making things out of what others would see as junk or garbage but I see as POTENTIAL GOLD! And well, I hit the gold mine! This place is full of scrap fabric, paper, wood, boxes, thread, faux flowers, basically anything and everything! And best of all...its all free!!

Its awesome cuz now I don't have to collect all this "garbage" under my bed, I can drop it off there for others to parooz too! And when I'm feeling crafty, I can just head on over and take my pick!!

SWEET!!!