Things I Love Thursday – So many things. Books, Art, Videos, World Record Achievements

I’m glad I’ve got writing TILTs as part of my routine on Thursday. We’ve been back from our not-honeymoon for a few days and I feel like I’ve been playing catch up with the real world, projects, life stuff, house stuff, and foster cat stuff.

West End Food Co-op CSO

This week I picked up the remainder of the West End Food Co-op Community supported orchard program preserves I had amassed during the last CSO summer season.

For anyone that has considered signing up but been put off by the initial cost – I think it’s worth it, especially if like me, you eat a lot of vegetables. Even splitting it amongst friends would leave you with lots of amazing preserves and treats for the rest of the year. The experience, the community, and the education at the WEFC Community Kitchen/Community Cannery is amazing. Future classes and events.

On Tuesday, Doug McNish was also demoing his newest book Raw, Quick, and Delicious, so while I was there I picked up a free copy as a thank you for being one of the testers on this book. I’m not the most enthusiastic about making raw food usually – mostly because it’s typically so time consuming. So when testing for this one I was pleasantly and genuinely surprised at how actually quick (and delicious) many of the recipes I tried were.

I’ll have to dig into the book again soon. Check out his demo on Breakfast Television

Flowers

My parents left Toronto while we were cottaging, but before they did, my mother filled our house with fresh cut flowers. Now, while I prefer potted flowers, it’s just so nice to have these bright and cheerful reminders of spring in the house (Thanks Ma). While I picked up some handmade paper ones from Good Catch a few weeks ago, and they are awfully cheerful too, it’s just not the same. Hopefully, if we can wrangle up some of our potted centrepieces from wherever they are right now, I can keep the plant love alive for a little longer.

Wondering what the Fox said? Halloween Edition.

I’m unabashedly a fan of this song. We played it as the second song at our recent wedding reception, and it got people moving a little bit. (Well most people – I saw some of my pals stand off to the side looking too cool to dance to this one – I know who you are!)

So this Halloween decoration take on The Fox by Ylvis is pretty darn entertaining (to me.)

Our Wedding.

I hope to have photos from the wedding soon, I might end up sharing the wedding story sans photos, because there are going to be a lot of them in the next few weeks. But I really really loved it. I never thought I would get married, but after actually doing it, I can finally understand the appeal. Plus I’ve never had my picture taken so often in my life, and it’s nice to see so many of them contain photos of JC and I with the biggest smiles on our very very happy faces.

In the meantime something that put a huge smile on my face was Kailey’s blog about our wedding celebration (She’s the person behind Soul to Bowl sauces) about being one of our wedding crashers, It’s so weird (and I really mean that in the best possible way) to be blogged about. It also seems like the natural result of inviting semi-strangers to our wedding through this blog.

Being a part of this

I was one of SO MANY PEOPLE at Marineland Animal Defenses’s Opening Day Demonstration, and one of many many people that participated in the folding and creating of origami whales. Vijay started something incredible and even though his name couldn’t be on the Record, I hope he knows how inspiring he was to others (even others much older than him.) It’s so cool to have been there for this, and so cool to have been part of this.

Beautiful Political Art

This painting by Fanny Aishaa. It’s based on a photograph by Ossie Michelin a photographer and videographer working with APTN, and is an image of Amanda Marie Polchies, a member of the Elsipogtog First Nation, who was among hundreds protesting a fracking project outside Rexton, New Brunswick last week. This image gives me chills, and it so powerfully captures struggle against oppression. Fanny Aishaa is going to make prints of this to help with the Warriors Defense Fund, but details are still coming together so follow her facebook page for more information.

This painting by Fanny Aishaa. It’s based on a photograph by Ossie Michelin a photographer and videographer working with APTN, and is an image of Amanda Marie Polchies, a member of the Elsipogtog First Nation, who was among hundreds protesting a fracking project outside Rexton, New Brunswick last week. This image gives me chills, and it so powerfully captures struggle against oppression. Fanny Aishaa is going to make prints of this to help with the Warriors Defense Fund, but details are still coming together so follow her facebook page for more information.

Book Club

Book Club meeting is coming up this week on Sunday afternoon at 3pm. We will be talking about Jonathan Balcombe’s book Second Nature: the Inner Lives of Animals. Everyone is welcome to attend, just send me an email or join the group on Facebook for more information.

What do you love today/this week?