I made a smoothie full of chard this morning, plus added the usual fruit and berries.

I've noted the positive correlation between high laziness and high daytime temperatures lately.

Anyway, I am going for my bike ride over the bridge to West Van now! Cooler air at 11pm; my time to shine.

Hot and Humid

(This photo is from yesterday. Yesterday was fun.)

Today (like every day) was all about me. I spent time with myself doing coursework and going for short walks (400-metre heats) before passing out on my bed for long naps. I didn't feel like eating during the day so I did laundry instead, drank a sugary banana-strawberry-cacao concoction midday and choked down 3 Capers chocolate chunk oatmeal cookies with cashew pieces for dinner.

While resting on the hill with a notebook and my ipod at English Bay this evening, a kind yet progressively familiar older tourist guy named Rick decided that I was showing all the signals for being open to long-talky-about-nothing-in-particular time. So he gave me a long chat spanning naturopathic medicine, energy meridians, the Vernon softball tournament, invasive plants, travel and the Brothers Gibb. I was polite, as I like to listen to tourists with whom I have nothing in common (...except for the items listed above) and learn about perspectives completely different from mine -- but I enjoy it for five minutes, tops. And from a healthy distance away, unless they're my type and this is a fantasy sequence of our first magical meeting or something. Anyway, he inched closer and closer and closer until an hour later he was brave enough to give me a hug and tell me that I reminded him of a German Mennonite. Thanks? I said thanks. He called me Martha.

I maintain that I do enjoy people and I'd rather be friendly than suspicious. Or friendly, then suspicious; I hear that the ones that emerge into this life with the greatest idealistic notions are the same ones that appear the most cynical later. (*Shout-outs to Goran and Lori. And Michelle.*)

;-)

Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me

Smoothies and sunsets today. Made my usual spinach smoothie for brunch and then biked the long, didn't-stop-to-ask-for-directions way through Stanley Park's many trails to Third Beach for an afternoon of hotness. I ate some local blueberries, Californian strawberries, My-Gardenian snap peas and Michelle's peach streusel-filled strudel (I kept calling it schnitzel; sounds cooler) for beach snacking.

Later, a veggie burger with all the toppings plus mushrooms & cheese, from Fat Burger... It tasted good at the time. I was in pain later though, haha. Really. My first time being in that much pain after eating a veggie burger -- exciting! Another heartburning moment happened while I was ordering the thing; I'd dropped my mastercard (and noticed, but didn't feel like bending over while talking to the cashier at that moment) and immediately a woman came over and politely told me that I'd dropped my card. I love people. I thanked her with an over-enthusiastic hug and some tongue; maybe next time she'll mind her own business. No, I just said 'thank-you' and hugged her with my eyes while feeling appreciative and appropriate. Another first!

Vancouver rained on me during my bike ride home. Exhilarating. I do love me a good downpour. Californian Lori doesn't appreciate this aspect of my character -- she said, "I think it's weird that you like being in the rain. It disturbs me and I just don't understand it, in the same way that a hardcore Christian might think of gay people as wrong and disturbing. And I don't want to understand." Yep, so I walked to Denman while still wet and purchased a chocolate frozen yogurt (with active bacterial cultures) after videoing the lightning action and orange sky brillance happening over English Bay at sundown.

This is yesterday morning's spinach smoothie, pre-vita-mix. Today I had the same thing, only at a few hours later than my usual smoothie time and with more cacao powder (I slept in).



Biked to 30th and Ontario last night and arrived as a dehydrated, sweaty mess to watch my first minor league baseball game at Nat Bailey Stadium: Vancouver Canadians versus Spokane Indians. The Canadians' winning strategy was to wait for the other team to make errors, and then to steal home several times. I ate some of Aaron's peanuts and one piece of Jordie's candied ginger.

Caring for two tiny coriander (cilantro) plants on my windowsill is more satisfying than neglecting a larger garden plot located two blocks away.

Two units to go + final exam, then stats course = finis. This evening I walked to the park @ English Bay for relaxing times in the sun, but eventually noticed that thousands of people were hanging out & violating each other's personal space on the beach. Fireworks night! Some police on bicycles convened beside my park bench to discuss whose turn (of the three) it was to go for a dinner break. That reminded me to go home for my own dinner celebration of light. MMMmm, drank the sun in liquid green form. Greenest smoothie ever: mizuna, spinach, chard, banana, cacao, cayenne, strawberries, blueberries, water. And three cherries on top to remind myself where the real party was at, yo.

Carotenoids and Skin Health

While eating mostly raw and whole foods, I've noticed I tan more easily. (Or maybe my golden tan-orama owes thanks to my Lifestyle of Leisure and Vancouver's unusually sunny summer.)  At any rate, I found this study from 2002 and thought I'd share it.  The take-away message is... I'm not going to tell you!  Read the damn study, you ADHD generation.

But first, some background on carotenoids (carotenoids are fat-soluble substances, and as such require the presence of dietary fat for proper absorption through the digestive tract.):

What do carotenoids do?

Carotenoids, the colorful plant pigments some of which the body can turn into vitamin A, are powerful antioxidants that can help prevent some forms of cancer and heart disease, and act to enhance your immune response to infections.  In human beings, carotenoids can serve several important functions. The most widely studied and well-understood nutritional role for carotenoids is their provitamin A activity. Deficiency of vitamin A is a major cause of premature death in developing nations, particularly among children. Vitamin A, which has many vital systemic functions in humans, can be produced within the body from certain carotenoids, notably beta-carotene (Britton et al. 1995). Dietary beta-carotene is obtained from a number of fruits and vegetables, such as carrots, spinach, peaches, apricots, and sweet potatoes (Mangels et al. 1993). Other provitamin A carotenoids include alpha-carotene (found in carrots, pumpkin, and red and yellow peppers) and cryptoxanthin (from oranges, tangerines, peaches, nectarines, and papayas).

Carotenoids also play an important potential role in human health by acting as biological antioxidants, protecting cells and tissues from the damaging effects of free radicals and singlet oxygen. Lycopene, the hydrocarbon carotenoid that gives tomatoes their red color, is particularly effective at quenching the destructive potential of singlet oxygen (Di Mascio et al. 1989). Lutein and zeaxanthin, xanthophylls found in corn and in leafy greens such as kale and spinach, are believed to function as protective antioxidants in the macular region of the human retina (Snodderly 1995). Astaxanthin, a xanthophyll found in salmon, shrimp, and other seafoods, is another naturally occurring xanthophyll with potent antioxidant properties (Di Mascio et al. 1991). Other health benefits of carotenoids that may be related to their antioxidative potential include enhancement of immune system function (Bendich 1989), protection from sunburn (Matthews-Roth, 1990), and inhibition of the development of certain types of cancers (Nishino 1998).

Here are selections from the study, found online @ Dietary Carotenoids Contribute to Normal Human Skin Color and UV Photosensitivity:

Although these studies indicate that much of the variation in tristimulus L*a*b* values is under the influence of hemoglobin and melanin in the skin, there is also considerable evidence to suggest that a third class of pigments, carotenoids, which are ingested through the diet, also have a significant influence on human skin color. Carotenoids such as ß-carotene, lycopene and lutein are highly colored (yellow-red), fat-soluble antioxidants that are found in a wide variety of fruit and vegetables. Consumed as part of the human diet, they enter the blood stream and are distributed to various organs throughout the body, including the skin, where they have been detected in all layers including the dermis, epidermis and stratum corneum (11 –16 ). A high dietary intake of carotenoids (usually in supplement form) has been shown to significantly increase the skin’s endogenous level of UV photoprotection by reducing its sensitivity to UV-induced erythema (17 –20 ). An often observed side effect in these kinds of dietary intervention studies is a noticeable yellowing of the skin (also known as carotenodermia), which is caused by the accumulation of carotenoid pigments in the skin (17 –19 ,21 ). However, although it is clear that ingestion of very large quantities of carotenoids (particularly ß-carotene) can alter skin color in the short term, much less is known about the effect of normal levels of dietary carotenoids on human pigmentation and UV photosensitivity.

The aim of the current study was therefore to determine whether carotenoids play a significant role in regulating skin pigmentation and UV photosensitivity in an unsupplemented human population, and further, to investigate whether tristumulus (L*a*b*) color measurements can be used to accurately and noninvasively predict carotenoid status and UV photosensitivity in human skin.

Reactive oxygen species are induced in the skin by solar UVA and UVB radiation and have long been suspected of contributing to the deleterious effects of cutaneous photodamage (32 ,33 ). Species such as singlet oxygen and superoxide, as well as hydroxyl and peroxyl radicals are believed to promote lipid peroxidation, protein oxidation and cross-linking, enzyme inactivation and DNA damage (32 ,33 ). In addition, it has been suggested that singlet oxygen mediates UVA-induced upregulation of interstitial collagenase in the skin, through induction of the inflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-1 and IL-6 (34 ,35 ). These properties of reactive oxygen species can result in compromised cell viability and biological function as well as increased degradation of the dermal extracellular matrix, all of which may mediate the appearance of two key phenotypes associated with cutaneous photodamage, i.e., photocarcinogenesis and photoageing (36 ,37 ).

Dietary carotenoids such as ß-carotene, lycopene, zeaxanthin and lutein have potent antioxidant functionality and are among the most effective naturally occurring scavengers of singlet oxygen and peroxyl radicals (24 –28 ). Reflection spectrophotometry has previously been used to detect the rise in skin levels of such carotenoids after elevated dietary intake of carotenoid supplements or carotenoid rich foods (14 ,15 ,19 ,20 ). This effect is preceded by 2 wk with a significant increase in the serum levels of these antioxidants (12 ,14 ,15 ,19 ,20 ). In the current study, we used the same spectrophotometric methods to quantify the levels of carotenoids in the skin of unsupplemented Caucasian men and women and compared these values with objective measurements of skin color and UV photosensitivity. Our findings suggest that there is a significant relationship between normal, unsupplemented levels of dietary carotenoids in the dermis and epidermis of Caucasian skin and endogenous UV photosensitivity as determined by MED (see Fig. 2 ). This supports the view that carotenoid antioxidants from a normal, unsupplemented diet accumulate in the skin and confer a measurable photoprotective benefit that is directly linked to their concentration in the tissue. Our data also suggests that the yellow component of human skin color, which is quantified by the tristimulus b* value, is closely associated with carotenoid levels in the skin of the back, forehead, inner forearm and palm of the hand (see Fig. 3 ). These observations are linked by a third finding, which suggests a selective and positive association between skin MED measurements and b* values. These data suggest that in Caucasian skin, carotenoids (and by implication, other skin antioxidant defenses, both endogenous and exogenous) may play an important role in mediating UV-photoprotection.
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In recent years, a number of studies have suggested a close association between diets rich in carotenoids, and a reduced incidence of cancer, cardiovascular disease and macular degeneration in the human population (38 –41 ). As well as being informative about the skin’s antioxidant status, dietary intervention studies have suggested that skin carotenoid concentrations are also quite closely associated with circulating serum carotenoids (12 ,14 ,19 ). Therefore it is possible that simple measurements of carotenoid concentrations in skin could also be informative about long-term circulating levels of carotenoids and thereby overall carotenoid status in the body. It is then conceivable that simple skin color or spectrophotometric measurements could be used in conjunction with dietary carotenoid intake data in prospective epidemiologic studies to determine the effect of tissue carotenoid status on the risk of developing cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Re-Ups won another sweaty game tonight. (Yes, my face always looks red when I'm playing a sport, even when I'm not about to pass out from softball excitement on hot diamond in middle of dry summer.) Fun game; way to go, people! A dusty diamond coupled with zero energy called for water and a banana-mizuna-blueberry-strawberry-cacao-hemp seed smoothie for dinner, balanced with some sweet peas (from my garden) for dessert.

Currently drinking bags of mizuna and chard in my morning smoothies.

The little West Valley Produce store I frequent for berries (local blueberries), located at Bute and Davie, gave me (what will grow into) a cilantro plant. It's amazing how appreciative I am of their showing appreciation for my millions spent in monthly patronage.

Remember the other day when I went swimming in the surprisingly un-packed Sasamat Lake on the hottest Saturday of the summer, and thought that everyone was staring at us in awe at how far and long we could swim so gracefully out in the middle of the lake? -- I just found out that the lake was actually closed that day due to high levels of fecal coliform.

Yeee-ay.

Another beautiful Vancouver day, started right with a mizuna-chard-banana-peach-mango-cayenne-cacao smoothie (not pictured here, unfortunately). This afternoon I walked to Jericho but stopped briefly along the way to snap a shot of pro beach volleyball at Kits. Walked around Jericho to check out the Folk Festival and all the people. Walked downtown and picked up a chocolate frozen yogurt treat on Denman that gave me the hiccups. Walked halfway around Stanley Park, sat on a bench; walked home.

Yesterday, a good time was had. (That's an example of a sentence in passive voice.) Brought my textbook with me to guard my towel while Goran and I went swimming in Sasamat Lake (we scored the perfect spot on the beach + the beach wasn't as packed as last time), then successfully executed a midnight re-up on salad greens, beans and snowpeas -- all harvested from my community garden plot under cover of darkness and 15-feet tall sunflower plants. I am surprised at how fast everything has flourished in that garden... so many peas and beans and greens ready to eat! On the walk over, I hadn't planned on harvesting anything. I'd intended to just take a peek at the plot, but when we found the plot I couldn't help but stand and admire nature's bounty: handfuls of beans weighing down stems, resting on chard gone to seed; snowpeas hiding in the bolting arugula; oxheart carrots stunted by the shade of a mizuna forest. Ah, the dynamics of a young city. Co-operation gone wrong. But the result that anything survived at all is still admirable, and admiration beats taking action. Especially when the action is to shove as many green beans into our shorts' pockets as possible without arousing the suspicions, or admiration, of people who'd notice. 20 minutes later, we were walking down Davie at midnight with dirty hands, pockets bulging, trailing pieces of peas and chard, hands full of plants gone to seed, stepping in time to the bass beats emanating from nightclubs, not making eye contact with other walkers, trying to keep a straight face in the face of pulling off a ridiculous image. All perfectly normal for the time and place.

This made much more sense to me before I wrote it out.

This morning's smoothie of green consists of: a banana (I bought approximately a hundred pounds of bananas (rounded down) for 39 cents/lb.), a peach, some cacao, mizuna and chard. It wasn't that gross! I could have added more water.

Mizuna: Low in calories, high in folic acid, high in vitamin A and carotenoids, high in vitamin C, and contains glucosinolates which are antioxidants that help prevent certain cancers [or are toxic to humans in high doses].

Chard: "If vegetables got grades for traditional nutrients alone, Swiss chard would be one of the vegetable valedictorians. The vitamin and mineral profile of this leafy green vegetable contains enough 'excellents' to ensure its place at the head of the vegetable Dean's List. Our rating system awards Swiss chard with excellent marks for its concentrations of vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin C, magnesium, manganese, potassium, iron, vitamin E, and dietary fiber. Swiss chard also emerges as a very good or good source of copper, calcium, vitamin B2, vitamin B6, protein, phosphorus, vitamin B1, zinc, folate, biotin, niacin and pantothenic acid."

Biked over the Lions Gate for some exercise tonight at midnight. 45 minutes of fresh air with my rear tire flattening with each chorus of Love Songs I hummed to myself. I love my green smoothies. Except lately I've been feeling like my blood sugar is a bit elevated. Must go outside and play some more so my cells suck up that glucose. Mmmmm.

Green Drink

Between doing work and studying, I've been reading my very own Raw Gourmet recipe book (the one Michelle thoughtfully gave to me) by Nomi Shannon. The most common question people ask someone who largely subsists on raw vegan food is, "What the hell do you eat?!"

Well, in her book of raw foods and nori wraps and yam pies and liquid aminos, Shannon provides some answers! (...while raising questions in my mind about my desire to make raw meals, hah. I prefer to prepare simple foods for myself that require at most a peel or a wash. Guacamole is gourmet for me. To my credit, I suppose I've made some of the salads in her book, by accident, on my own. And the recipes do look easy enough. Okay, I'm excited again.) Anyway, her sample meal plan features the famous Green Drink that is an integral part of daily life at the Hippocrates Health Institute in West Palm Beach, Florida -- and green drinks, I can do.

Typical Daily Meal Plan:
Breakfast - Watermelon or Green Drink
Mid-AM - Green Drink
Lunch - Some sort of dark leafy green salad or other recipe in her book
Mid-PM - Green Drink
Dinner - Dark Leafy Green Salad (with dulse, hemp seeds, whatever veggies you like) or other recipe

The Green Drink Recipe: Really, anything goes. Make sure you throw in some dark leafy greens (the essential ingredient).

If you like, you may add some cored apples or peeled lemon and lime to sweeten the taste. This recipe calls for a juicer (to make juice), but if you have a vita-mix or high-powered and a bit of water, the result is sufficiently liquified.

1 tray of soil-grown sprouts (sunflower, buckwheat, broccoli, etc.)
Celery, cucumber
Kale, spinach, cabbage, carrot tops, mizuna, parsley, edible weeds or any other dark leafy green

Right. So, my smoothie of choice is the standard spinach smoothie -- a banana, some berries, optional other fruit I have in the house, water and lots of baby spinach (baby spinach purportedly contains lower levels of oxalic acid -- the stuff that combines with nutrients like calcium to form salts called oxalates that make your teeth feel clean/funny and which can prevent your body from absorbing iron and calcium. To improve iron absorption, spinach should be eaten with foods that contain vitamin C (fresh lemon))... it works for me.

Here are some comments I've been thinking about from an Oprah-related site (re: Dr. Oz's green drink episode). [It's a heartwarming message. Unless you read only the first comment.]:

Maureen Eastwood Says:
November 6th, 2007 at 11:00 am

At 73 I am so unhappy with my life. Fat, alone, and just miserable. I try to walk but it hurts when I am so fat. I used to use my above gr. pool. Too fat now. I saw this green drink and I want to live and be healthy so I will try it if NO MATTER WHAT IT TASTES LIKE. I have all the ing. here now so with Gods help…. I will get back with you in a week and let you know how I am doing. I am the only one in my family ALMOST healthy,,, just fat. Sister and Bro. have had heart surgeries, one has pulminary fibrosis, daughter trying to get into Mayo Clinic with serious healthy problems. Wish Me luck God Bless

Ally Says:
November 8th, 2007 at 2:51 pm

Maureen,

DON”T GIVE UP! There are a TON of us out here who support you 100%. For what its worth, I recently met a 67 year old man who told me the most amazing story.

Apparently at 61, he was fat and balding and getting old (well, that had been happening for a while, but I guess he suddenly woke up and realized it). He had just had a grandson and could barely play with him, because he lacked the energy. So one day, he just started walking. The first day, he walked to the house next door. Then to three houses down. Then to the end of the block. In a year, he was running a mile. By the second year, he had lost 100 lbs and ran his first marathon. When I met him, he had run 17 marathons and now he focuses just on swimming (since its easier on his knees) and yoga. What he told me was that firstly, you need determination and a goal, and you need to go SLOW. Don’t push yourself too hard and don’t get down on yourself.

I took his advice. At that time, I had injured myself horribly, and I’ve been swimming/walking regularly since then. Its true. You CAN do it. Just believe in yourself, start slow and do something that feels good and right everyday.

Menu! Spinach smoothie as pictured above, some cherries, leftover chickpeas and quinoa. I was overflowing with tons of energy to burn, so I opted to bike uphill to Willow and 26th for our suspenseful yet ultimately victorious Re-Ups softball game this evening. Softball and biking are my meditations. Two of them. In highschool I used to read The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius; perhaps I'll revisit his words. I wonder what kind of foods were his favourites...? (Can you read through that attempt to make this tangent topical?) Anyway. After softball we (Re-Ups) headed to Anna's and Duncan's place for a viewing of major league baseball bloopers while I sat and ate too many salted pistachio nuts. Afterwards, biked home, stayed up too late and am now going to bed! A good day of good food and good works and good peoples.

How to Make a Tasty Filling that Won't Gag Too Many People

Hey. I've been busy with stuff.

I'm cleaning up this blog and keeping only the educational-anecdotal posts -- and, being that there are very few useful posts, I imagined that this would be a quick and easy job to pull off in an hour. And it was, until I realized that I want more than five posts remaining here. So I've started here&now to relay what is useful (as that is the usual point at which I begin things).

I have probably mentioned before that my typical daily Feel Good Menu consists of a morning green smoothie, followed by a salad with avocado and other salad toppings and sprouts, maybe some seeds or cashews as snacks, lots of water, then another smoothie at night or a salad or something vegetarian-like if I eat out with people. Too much fruit does not work for me -- sugar overload. Eating dark leafy greens in salads does work. Other fulfilling activities = getting lots of fresh air and moving my body around every day and learning and giving and enjoying good times with good friends. Also hugs.

Enough of the useful information. Now I share with you today's menu:

Today I made a banana+cacao+blueberry smoothie (not recommended), a spinach-banana-peach-cacao breakfast smoothie, a salad with avocado and sweet cocktail tomatoes, water, a couple of bananas and steamed some chickpeas and quinoa that I'd sprouted for a week. A day of whole foods.

I'm thinking that it is as easy (and requires just as much work) to live a life I love, as it is to exist in a directionless one; so, I might as well put in the fun-effort to know what I want and feel the satisfaction of knowing I'm doing this for a conscious reason and go for that than to put in a scrambled-effort to avoid something I fell into unthinkingly when I realize I don't want that mindlessness later. So profound, and non sequitur-ial. Am I still waiting for someone to tell me that now is the time to start living my life? Hmmm. You might wonder what all this reflection is doing in a food blog. Well, what I eat is an investment in myself, and what I think/do is an investment in who I become. (Plus I suck at cooking, soooo....)

The magic that builds momentum is in all the small things. All of this inspired by smoothies (and Tony Robbins audiobooks, no doubt).

My chickpeas are growing up so fast -- I don't know what to do with them yet. Raw hummus, or perhaps something from my recipe book.... Day two of quinoa soaking/sprouting is going well. The seawall adventure tonight progressed without a hitch. I love my life so much. Saying this makes some people want to gag, but whatever. Sometimes making people gag is satisfying. I love my life.

Happy Birthday, Michelle!

Today is Michelle's birthday! Everybody went to So.Cial for afterwork martinis but I went just to celebrate Michelle. Okay, and I had a sip of pear martini and now I can barely type this.

I ate the same foods as yesterday, plus a little bit of pasta. Here's a photo of the smoothie I made after eating some seafood fettuccine (sorry, Duncan). I also ate a mango for dessert after the smoothie. I know Michelle loves how I overdo it on the close-ups. Especially the blurry ones. Happy Birthday!

Back to Raw

Yeow! What a great day. A great day of rain, which means my garden plot is watered for the week.

Thanks, Michelle, for giving me a raw gourmet recipe book a few weeks ago -- now I feel inspired again to be living in the raw. Life is so good. I should really wait until I'm feeling depressed to write in this blog, since that's when I'm at my most articulate -- otherwise, it's all, "YES! LIFE IS SO fun. Hug me."

Foodwise, last night I soaked some organic chickpeas and kept them in my room overnight. I like the popping noises the beans (I mean legumes) make as they sprout tails throughout the night (and then I wake up and forget where I am and what's happening). I enjoy the reassuring sounds of life. Sometimes I take a handful of beans and close my eyes and feel the life coursing through them... they're so cute. Not sure yet what will be the delicious fate of my chickpeas. (When I was a kid I used to think the phrase was, "cursing through [me]," which I would say when I'd let a colourful phrase slip at my grandparents' house: "Nature is cursing through me!" I could do no wrong.)

I made a couple of salads after an afternoon trip to Choices Market: salad mix, dulse flakes, hemp hearts, avocado. An almost-too-ripe mango for dessert. I really enjoy the warm salty taste and texture of dulse seaweed in salads with avocado. Note to self.

Before bedtime smoothie: banana, cacao powder, strawberries and raspberries with a pinch of cayenne and a cup of water. MMMMmm yes. And now I remember that cacao keeps me up late at night.

Spinach Blueberry Raspberry Strawberry Smoothie

This is the best smoothie yet: spinach, banana, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, water.

Ants and other things you don't want to know about

I met a lot of ants today. Let's not discuss what I ate today. I have noticed that since deviating from my raw vegan ways and adding junk-like food to my menu, my body is not playing by the rules of the 28-day cycle I had grown to appreciate in all its predictable glory. Now, I just don't know when nor where. TMI.

Aaaand goodnight.

Ambleside

For dinner tonight: two vegan garden patties and mizuna with an oxheart carrot from my garden -- woohoo. Threw in half of an avocado I'd let brown a little overnight.

For dessert, I made a smoothie ode to a warm summer's day: peach, gala apple and banana with water.

Sat in the grass all afternoon at Ambleside in West Van, the most pleasant place to be on a day like today.  (Other than somewhere else that is also nice and nature-y, with good people.)

Watched the little leaguers play on the diamond, some punks throw a football and catch it almost half the time, older people walk by with lawn chairs and good reads, young families putting on too much sunscreen, soccer players practicing their moves, and lots of other people I'm too lazy to describe according to first impressions.

Sasamat Lake

Today I enjoyed my usual spinach smoothie (banana, grapefruit, peach, spinach, water, cayenne pepper, strawberries, water) for breakfast and for my afternoon snack.  For lunch, 'twas a veggie steamroller and stats.  For dinner, a dip in Sasamat Lake and my physiology text.

 

The shark didn't eat me.

More Community Garden

Vancouver is on a roll with all this sunshine. Today I remembered that I have a garden plot at the community garden and that I haven't been watering it lately. Actually I haven't watered it, ever.

So this afternoon I grabbed a plastic produce bag and walked the few blocks to see my plot, intent on salvaging as much mizuna as possible, and then to run like hell before anyone yelled at me for plant neglect.

When I arrived at my plot (after getting disoriented with all the new colours and textures that have sprung up all over the garden since my last visit), an unexpected healthy-looking clump of mizuna, chard, peas and beans greeted me.  Yay!  Tall plants, some gone to seed already; oops. I suspect that a thoughtful community member has been watering my plot, or more likely the bar people pee there, because everything I'd planted was growing strong. Anyway, there were a few gardeners tending to their plants, so I chatted with the friendly bunch for awhile about how great the community garden initiatives are, and how many people are sharing their bounty with churches and people who like to eat.  I went to my happy place when the topic changed to discussing whose zucchini is the biggest, and then as per usual I tuned out all chastising comments re: letting my plot grow wild and free.  I like that my plants do what they want to do.  One gardener guy boasting seven or more plots and zero free time, said to me, and I quote, "That's child abuse."  Then I went home and ate my delicious babies (mizuna and chard) with two garden patties (no soy, woohoo) and avocado. 

Happy Unobtrusive Canada Day

Today is Canada's (1867-2009) 142nd birthday. Holy. I just realized that I remember Canada's 125th anniversary -- I was 10 years old, watching the 'it's Canada's 125th birthday' announcement on television. I still feel like that same kid in a lot of ways; it's weird. "Every seven years you have all new cells -- therefore, you're only ever seven, at most." Anyway...

Spinach began my day in my usual smoothie, and ended it on two slices of Uncle Fatih's veggie-topped pizza pie. Also on the menu earlier today were two garden patties with salad and campari tomatoes, plus cookies from Capers. Michelle got vegan cookies -- I feel better about this entry now that I've included that tidbit.