Another gorgeous day to round out the month of April.  After a morning of strawberry/apple/cayenne/spinach smoothies and some cashews, I spent the afternoon on the seawall with Goran, watching seagulls swallowing sea stars and tourists.  I should add a comma or rearrange the wording there to remove the ambiguity from that sentence.  

Also enjoyed a salad with avocado, an omelette, 7-grain salad and veggie quiche.  None of which I photographed.

Le Softball

Smoothies and salads today. Yesterday evening we played softball, as mentioned.. yesterday. I had so much fun and felt a resurgence of my childhood anger that I might be wise to diffuse through other physical means with fewer witnesses. I take sports too seriously. Which is a good thing, because that brings the grand total of things I care about to: One. Later, I laugh at this fact. Anyway. I was first at bat in the lineup. You know, there to get us started and to set a good example, get the momentum going (umm...). So we're all pumped, talking dirty to the other team -- like not sexy dirty but just being all talk and no walk -- and half our team roster is dancing as I move toward the plate with great purpose, holding Purple Rain as awkwardly as possible to throw-off the other team and to convince them to move in. The other team's catcher is smiling at me as I approach home plate. This smiling thing throws me off a little, so, like a good Canadian, I smile back and make friends with the enemy. Just to throw them off, too. All equals!

She says, "Hello, Sonya!"

I say, "Hey! What's your name?" I feel a little weird saying that line. Each time I say it, I am back in kindergarten, where I feel okay with hugging people I don't know well, and showing spontaneous affection because I'm just so full of love I need to get it out of me or I'll die. Most people aren't kindergarteners, though. Judging by their reactions.

"I'm Angela. I don't know you, but your team is saying, 'Go, Sonya!' so I gathered that Sonya is your name." She seems a little embarrassed but not really. So to balance out the slight weird factor, I say something stupid. Yes, I say something weird purely as a selfless act of mercy. Right:

"Well, I was going to say, you do look familiar." Good one! Both predictably lame and forgettable.

"Oh, really?" She scrunches up her face and asks this seriously, trying to think of where we'd possibly met before, but at the same time afraid to mention anything incriminating. I'm projecting.

"No." I say this quickly and with a half laugh, before this gets out of hand. Then she totally dives in:

"Haa, well maybe you've seen me before -- looking in your window..." OOoHH she's taking it to the next level of WTF! Usually that's my role. I like the way this exchange is going. It's familiar, as though I'm having this conversation with myself in my head. So I tell her.

"I like that you said something weird like that; it reminds me of something I'd say. Now I feel comfortable. Thank you."

"Really? Well, good then." And I don't remember what else she said because right after this exchange, Aaron is on the mound ready to pitch. I step up to the plate and assume something like a stance. A strong, in between stance, unsure of whether to appear competent and then bat weakly, or to look weak and then hit it over their heads. Must choose one strategy and stick with it; right. Conviction is the defining quality of a stance; got it. I think too much. Then I hit a ground ball straight to the shortstop who throws me out at first. Awesome.

22-7 for the Killer Crew. But that's not the whole story. I'm going to go for a walk now before I write a novel about one game.

Yesterday was technically day 90! No photos today, again, but I ate:

a mango
a gala apple
some carrots
avocado, tomatoes and greens.
3 smoothies; two with strawberries, one with grapefruit plus the usual spinach/bananas/cayenne powder.

Then biked to the baseball diamond, played softball for a couple of hours, drank water, came home and ate a gala apple. No comments about how I'm not eating enough. It was one day, people!

=),
Sonya

For breakfast: a strawberry-banana smoothie. Some cashews.

Lunch: I don't remember; probably another smoothie. Yes. I was on the phone.

Biked to baseball diamond for softball practice. Fun afternoon. Drank water. Bruised wrist.

Dinner: A huge salad of mixed greens with avocado, red bell peppers, carrots. For dessert: a massive smoothie of spinach, mango, banana, strawberry, cayenne, water. I thought about adding blueberries, but the store I frequent didn't have any. They didn't have peaches, either. I'm guessing those berries and fruits aren't in season right now. Mmmhmmm.

Ready for sleep.

(My photos are not uploading lately, so here's a photo from last year of some quinoa with tomato, avocado and steamed spinach and asparagus with flax seed oil. It was good.)

Another bike around the seawall today. Goran was in the mood for some burgers and shakes. (Several burgers. We have eating competitions.) But, at the last minute, we decided on Greek food: veggie falafel wraps. I was still full from this morning's omelette, salad and two smoothies -- and, combined with my Slowest Eater Ever status, it was no surprise that Goran inhaled his two wraps almost as quickly as I savoured my one.

Davie Village Community Garden Updates

From last week:

Dear Davie Village Gardeners,

Thank you for your continued patience as our new community garden gets set up. As you know, the Vancouver Public Space Network and Prima Properties (135) Ltd. had been working to try and resolve issues relating to garden design and administration, as well as legal and liability issues pertaining to the VPSN’s role as garden facilitator.

After a considerable amount of discussion, both parties have now agreed that Prima will manage the garden directly. As a result, VPSN will not be involved in the administration or facilitation of the garden.

The VPSN will be transferring relevant records and garden planning material to Prima. Prima will be responsible for finalizing the assigning of garden plots, contacting you about your plot, and finalizing any licensing matters in advance of first planting. Please note that this change in arrangement will likely mean a different leasing arrangement than the one that was discussed at the community meeting – as you will now be leasing your plot directly from the developer.

The Devloper’s respresentative is David Buddle, who presented on behalf of Prima at the meeting we had this past winter. You can reach Prima for issues pertaining to the garden at dvgarden@gmail.com

If you have any comments or questions pertaining to the VPSN’s work in community gardens, or other opportunities for permanent community gardens in Vancouver, please feel free to email gardens@vancouverpublicspace.ca. The VPSN will continue to arrange community garden workshops and activities throughout the city and will, from time to time, forward news of these events to you. Should you prefer not to receive these notices, please let us know and we would be please to remove you from our gardens mailing list.

All the best in the upcoming growing season!


For the Vancouver Public Space Network,

Emily Jubenvill
Community Gardens Coordinator
Vancouver Public Space Network

------------------------------

New e-mail today:

Dear Davie Village Gardeners,

Thank you for your continued patience as we work out the details to establish the Davie Village Community Garden for the 2009 Season.

We would like to first acknowledge and thank the volunteers from the Vancouver Public Space Network, specifically Emily, Andrew and Josh for the efforts and advice in establishing this Community Garden.

We are pleased to announce that the Garden Plots will be assigned in the order of your original registration on Saturday May 2, 2009 at 9:00 AM through to 12:00 PM

The Gardeners will be forwarded a copy of their License Agreement via email early next week and will be advised of their Registration # which will determine the approximate time they need to arrive at the Garden to sign their license and claim their plot. Please note that the license fee for 2009 is $10.00 (ten dollars) which will be used by the Davie Village Community Garden for garden tools and equipment, additional soils and administration expenses.

Additional soil will be available for Gardeners to augment their individual plots commencing Saturday afternoon.

We will be looking for 4-6 individuals to volunteer to establish the Davie Village Garden Committee. Please let us know if you are interested in helping out. This Committee will be responsible for Garden Rules, Garden Communication, and organizing Group Garden Events etc.

We look forward to seeing this Garden take life this season and meeting you at the Garden on Saturday May 2, 2009!

Sincerely,

Davie Village Community Garden

---------------


So it looks like we'll have a garden after all.... =)

Another sunny day, this time with a chilly wind. Sunburn last week, windburn today. As long as I have colour in my cheeks I'm a happy camper.

Seawall walk and then some chocolate chip banana bread and a masala couscous wrap from the Wholefoods-owned Capers store. Capers isn't my first choice for quality foods.  *Hi, Capers*  I do enjoy their veggie wraps and deli foods, though.  (Chickpea salad?! Yes please.)

I'm in a domestic mood.  I found some cookbooks with recipes to adapt as raw vegan dishes or lightly cooked vegan/vegetarian meals. One such book is Salt Spring Island Cooking, given to me by my Grandparents two years ago, and the other is... well, I have just one recipe book. Oh, and the vita-mix book that came with my appliance.  Plus my imagination.

Still... I do feel better when I eat all raw all day.

"Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing." (Troilus and Cressida)  I'm posting this here so I remember it for later.

Softball (Not to Eat)

State of relaxed eagerness.  Watched a video about elite athletes and their routines.  Massages are important.  Why?  Relaxed, elongated muscles have greater contraction potential and therefore more strength.  And yeah, I've noticed that most often the strongest runners/swimmers appear the most relaxed....  

Biomechanics 101.  When I'm at bat and I want to kill the ball, I have no power if I'm strangling the bat with all my might.  When I'm tense, my muscles have no potential force left as they are already (almost) fully contracted.  So, when I'm relaxed, holding the bat lightly (but making sure to have a firm grip -- I don't want to throw the bat at the pitcher...) I can take advantage of a greater potential that now exists by squeezing mainly when I'm actually swinging and about to make contact with the ball.  Also, I put most of my weight on my back foot and raise my front foot a little so my toes are still on the ground, then naturally transfer that weight to the front and balance as I swing.

Physiologically, tense muscles relate to uptightness in emotion, and vice versa.  Calm head, calm body, optimal ability to respond accurately.  Nice and easy saaawwwiinnng.

So yes.  Mentally, I feel in control when I'm relaxed.  Really what that means is that I feel in control when I surrender control, haha.  Anyway.  Going with the flow, resisting not, only channeling energy into something I want... sunny days bring out the Optimist in me.  I'm sure there's another word for it but I like Optimist.

Menu: a mixed greens salad and two strawberry-spinach smoothies thus far.

Smoothies and Omelettes Again

Today, while listening to the saddest songs I could handle on replay for 17 minutes, I made myself an omelette. Twice! Immersion speeds up the process of learning. The learning is that omelettes make me want to sleep, so I shouldn't eat those in the morning. Soporific. I'm exercising my vocab.

I was out of bed before 7 a.m. today, which was a surprising feat for me. Happy dance. Building momentum. Finally submitted my résumé to a couple of places. I erased the "shows initiative" stuff just to keep myself aligned with my current truth, as my truth I think is the most important thing with which to align. My truth is the source of my power. POWER. Mmmhmm. I didn't mention that part in the résumé, though; I like to exercise my good judgment on occasion, just so that it's ready for action in case I ever decide to call upon it in an emergency.

Oh right, this blog is about food. A green smoothie for breakfast! The grapefruit is doing a number on my teeth sensitivity-wise, so I opted to halve the number of smoothies today and double the number of omelettes, as mentioned. Good call. Good thing I was productive in the morning. Follow-through! A concept attractively foreign to me yet intoxicatingly effective. I just threw a bunch of words together for that sentence to see what would happen. I suggest taking more care when it comes to choosing the components of one's life, otherwise the result might not make sense, or worse, say something you don't actually intend. Luckily for me, everything always works out in my favour.... Perhaps I shouldn't end this with an ellipsis.

"Omelette Me in the Kitchen, Please"

It is 1:30pm and I am still waiting for my roommate to leave the kitchen. It'd be nice if he'd leave the apartment, in fact. It seems that each time I want to go in the kitchen, he's already cooking something or having a party in there or cleaning up. And of course I don't tell him I want to use the kitchen; I simply let the resentment build until it gains enough momentum to roll into a grenade of unfounded anger and then I blow up on anybody who upsets the delicate balance by looking at me. Or, what is more common, I implode and baffle all bystanders who don't know what the &*$& my problem is. Such is the Way of Woman, right? I'm kidding.

Too many cashews.

---------------

Okay -- made it into the kitchen. Everyone survived.



Here is my omelette, made complete with the most expensive eggs I could find. That must mean they are the best. Also: red onion, garlic, red bell pepper, spinach, campari tomatoes (lightly cooked in olive oil with the onion... I know one is not supposed to cook with olive oil...), medium cheddar without the food colouring; avocado on the side. Very nice.

Earlier, for breakfast: a spinach-strawberry smoothie.

After my seawall walk and baseball-throwing evening: cashews and water (again).

Cashews

This morning I slept in, ate the remaining salad mix, biked to Depot 32, bid on a few routes despite my low seniority, ate 2 strawberry-grapefruit smoothies, biked around the seawall with Goran, was ready to eat a horse, bought a bunch of groceries to make a nutritious and filling dinner, walked home all excited to make dinner tonight but made it in the door just seconds after my roommate and his girlfriend; they took over the kitchen so I had some cashews with water and am now going to bed.

Ants (Not to Eat)

This is a photo from yesterday. I ate the same things today, with the addition of a salad + avocado and campari tomatoes.

Today was so fun! I always look forward to softball team practices. Our first game is on the 28th... the day after I've completed my 90 days of mostly raw (64 consecutive days I think of completely raw salads and smoothies, etc.). Woohoo. I'll continue to eat mainly fresh plant foods, especially since summer is coming to Canada shortly and I'll have flavourful home-grown foods to appreciate.

Anyway, the rain held off for the Vancouver Sun Run and for most of our afternoon practice. A wispy shower started on the walk home, and tonight the rain is coming down with conviction.

Dinner: Some seeds and a smoothie with strawberries and grapefruit. And water. Water is my friend. The sound of rain is distracting me -- I can hear it on the pavement outside. Ah, ideal sleeping weather. Almost too good. I'm aiming to wake up by 6:30 a.m. tomorrow so I can bike to depot 32 and do my weekly bidding....

Also, here's an unedited clip of Michelle talking about the possible explanations for the strange ant behaviour we witnessed this afternoon after softball:


And here's the distorted edited version that makes me laugh:

Smoothie, Seeds, Nuts, Balls, Panini

Guess what I had for breakfast?! A banana-strawberry-cayenne-grapefruit smoothie. I didn't add any leafy greens today. Later in the morning I popped some assorted seeds with dried cranberries before biking to 801 W. 22nd to learn the rules of 4-Pitch at the Vancouver Recreational Softball League's umping clinic. I didn't expect that people from our team would be too eager to attend the clinic, so I volunteered. To my delight, four Re-Ups showed. Represent, yo. After the info session we played some ball, y'all. Okay I'll stop that.

Ummmm I'm out of shape. But getting better! Doing some biking & basketball yesterday + biking & baseball today feels really good. For the past few months I'd been forgetting to push myself. "Do what is easy and life becomes hard. Do what is hard and your life becomes easy," some sadist said. I thought about this as I biked uphill today. Anyway, I should still be able to bike around the seawall faster than Goran can inline skate the same distance, right? Right. And I can, but as I found yesterday, it required a sustained effort. What is a sustained effort? According to my school transcripts, I don't know firsthand. I think it means sticking to one thing for long enough to actually do well at it. Or something. La la laaa. I'm kidding. I'm good at everything I do the first time I do it. Because I visualize first. He ha ho.

Lunch: vegetarian panini at Trixi's Crepe & Coffeehaus on Cambie.

Biked home down the blessed hill. Much easier and breezier than the scenic way I'd taken to the Community Centre. I'll skip that story.

Home food: a banana-strawberry-cayenne-water smoothie and a handful of assorted seeds and cashews. No photos posted for today; my usb thing is currently not talking to my computer. A domestic issue; I expect it to blow over soon. My computer claims that it doesn't recognize my usb card reader, but we all know that that isn't true. Well, I did give my harddrive/tower a bump yesterday when I was moving things around in my room, so who really knows.

Throwing a Ball

Maybe I should eat a steak -- then I'd win in this display of whatever it was we were displaying, for sure....

Vegetarian Chicken, Strawberry Smoothies, Salads

I caught the sun this morning on my 8am walk to Safeway to stock up on strawberries for the day. Made a kale-strawberry-grapefruit-cayenne drink. Now we have clouds of inspiration rolling in. Must make the most of 'em.

The warm walk around the quiet Stanley Park seawall tonight featured two seagulls choking on sea stars, a man kayaking the calm waters, Goran accidentally throwing his racquetball ball into the ocean area (@ low tide) when we both missed the ricochet off the centre divider, and Goran trying to find a way to reach the ball while I videotaped. Before the rains came, we ate what tasted like real chicken at Hon's Noodle House. It was vegetarian chicken with vegetarian prawns, broccoli and mushrooms. Tasted so much like how I think chicken tastes. Das Unheimliche.

Same menu as yesterday. I have an abundance of grapefruit in my kitchen, but no grapefruit diet on the horizon for me. What, pray tell, are the fruits that are in season following strawberries? Don't get me wrong -- I do enjoy my strawberry smoothies... 3 times a day, 8 days week... (if I stay up late and get up early, I gain an extra day).

Sat in the park on a bench this afternoon and felt the sun gently tan my skin to perfection (positive expectation). Farmer's tan perfection.

Seawall Baseball Cashews

I'm snacking on some cashews while making my strawberry-cayenne-banana-(and a little bit of organic 2% probiotic yogurt) smoothie. I'm adding the yogurt as an experiment. I ate a ton of raw garlic on Sunday so I was thinking that I'd possibly killed all my inner flora and fauna. I hope there wasn't any fauna to begin with. Anyway, I had intended to post a blurb here about probiotics and internal flora but all of the results of my search on page 1 are linked to a product so I'm skipping those, and now I'm tired. So I'll provide a definition from wikipedia that sounds equally credible: "Probiotics are dietary supplements of live bacteria or yeasts thought to be healthy for the host organism." Well, I think a lot of things that aren't true, soooo....

I had a lot of fresh air and fun today: played catch with Goran at Second Beach, videotaped Vancouver's scenery to persuade my family to visit and on top of it all I even got some work done. Breakfast was a mixed greens salad with avocado and tomato. I had a couple of smoothies and grapefruit during the day before my playtime. Also viewed several TED talks (while doing work...). Vilayanur Ramachandran spoke about the brain and how memory and visual signals interplay with cerebral tissues to make sense of one's experience. Visual input/feedback is important. (Creative/positive visualization is important to one's well-adapted functioning in the world. Think Maxwell Maltz et al.) In this talk: phantom limbs; the fusiform gyrus; sensory conflict; he slams Freudian theory; woohoo. "Ramachandran’s early work was on visual perception but he is best known for his experiments in behavioral neurology which, despite their apparent simplicity, have had a profound impact on the way we think about the brain." [bio]

To bring the quality down a notch -- this video is for my Mom: it's the accidental intro to the longer "wow, Vancouver is so great; come for a visit" promo. In it, I appear extra-flirty (re: sporty fella running joke) plus it looks like I interrupt Goran, but really he was done. This video has nothing to do with food so don't watch it unless you're my MOM.

Sporty Brazil Nuts

Added grapefruit, brazil nuts and sunflower seeds to my daily routine of smoothies and kale + avocado salads.

Vive la Brazil Nut: "The proteins found in Brazil nuts are very high in sulfur-containing amino acids like cysteine (8%) and methionine (18%) and are also extremely rich in glutamine, glutamic acid, and arginine. The reason that Brazil nut concentrates selenium is probably that this element is very, similar chemically to sulfur. Sulfur is frequently deficient in Amazonian soils, especially after decades or centuries of Brazil nut harvesting and export from the casthanais. If the soil contains significant amounts of selenium, this is used by the plant instead of sulfur." (24.10.2006)

Brazil nuts are the richest source of dietary selenium and are also high in fat. I read somewhere that selenium contributes to feeling good; I read somewhere else that too much selenium is linked to type II diabetes and toxicity, etc. Do your own research. Or "eat a well-balanced wholesome diet" as Goran insists.

Speaking of Goran, I went for another seawall walk with him yesterday afternoon. I've heard through the Mom grapevine that my Grandmother thinks that because Goran is a "sporty fella", I will fall in love and marry him. It's sad. Goran and I joke about this. I like Goran, and I appreciated that he could help when I needed a screw removed from my harddrive's case, but we're friends. Until he sees that I've posted this:

Throwing a Disc, Literally and... Literally/Figuratively

Everybody says "literally" when they really mean "figuratively"!  And everybody over-generalizes!  ;-)

Below, a photo of my morning green smoothie caught in blenderiffic action.

  Enjoyed several smoothies, salads (with dulse and walnuts), cashews and brazil nuts today. Threw a disc around with Goran this evening and did something weird to my lower back, entire butt and upper leg region. Okay, actually I'd pulled a muscle earlier today while dancing to the radio in the bathroom and doing a patented move where I turn and jump at the ceiling. Exuberance aplenty.

I am extremely excited for summer. Tomorrow I'm up early for a roadtrip to the Skagit Tulip Festival with Crista and Sumit to look at 15 miles of tulips. I'll bring a book. Anyway, even if it's snowing/raining in Washington, my good mood will persist! Summer is coming....

Yesterday, spinach and kale smoothies plus avocado salads with kale and grapefruit rounded out my stomach.

Today began with the sound of rain, the impulse to do nothing, the realization that I'd ordered 5 books online last night at 1am and the accompanying excitement that soon my books will arrive! I opted not to buy any raw food uncookbooks -- most of the recipes are kinda crap; also, from my browsings I've decided that half the books are recipes for salads and smoothies, areas in which I feel confident to experiment on my own. If you hold my hand.

So I bought a book on permaculture (def.= "Design system and philosophy that uses land in a way that integrates human dwellings and activities with local natural ecologies") and urban agriculture since those are my family roots: stewards of the land or into the building business. My grandparents don't practice permaculture farming methods, though. They like machines and fertilizers and Monsanto seeds. *gasp* I'd like to show up on their farm, inappropriately dressed, fresh from the city, and tell them how to farm properly: show them how to make effective use of their spaces without using poisonous chemicals and without depleting the soil of nutrients (throwing at them the pages of knowledge I've collected from all my book-learnings) -- but I don't really know anything. I'd be willing to try and see what happens! And I'm sure they'd enjoy the gloating when it becomes obvious that I don't know what the hell I'm doing with a million acres of land. So it's a win-win. (Note: my grandparents wouldn't gloat; they'd ask, "Are you done yet?" and then they'd get back to work.) I'll have to persuade them that there's a better, more lucrative way to farm by doing it myself. It'll be a summer project. A smaller scale project. Project Hubris.

Ultimate is Okay

I woke up thirsty so I've been drinking more water lately. It's the summer heat, I tell ya. For breakfast I managed three cups of the hottest cayenne smoothie ever (with a soothing banana, strawberries, spinach). Two grapefruits from Kin's Market later, then some handpicked cashews earned a spot on the menu because I like them.

Spent the afternoon at the beach doing my 'work'. Came home and made a good ol' kale and avocado salad with tomatoes and cucumber for dinner.

After dinner, played frisbee ('threw a disc' for the purists) at Second Beach with Goran. Goran is the ultimate Ultimate player, and I am not.

Naturally, he didn't want to be seen fraternizing with me.    ---------------->

Post-disc smoothie: banana-strawberry-banana-cayenne-clementine-spinach-water. What a fan-freaking-tastic day! (I used to be a sarcastic kid. I still say the same things as I did back then, but now I mean them.)

The usual: blueberry + strawberry + cayenne smoothies and salads today. Also cashews and lots of greens with a latenight quesadilla.

I overslept this morning, and then when I did wake up I could barely lift my legs out of bed. My neglected hamstrings are showing me who is boss. I need to get back into sports.

Walking around town in the sun was the cure. The walking went well except for the initial funny-walking-awkwardness that always makes me think I should explain to people on the street.

Davie Village Garden Update

Good afternoon Gardeners!  

Thank you for your continued patience with the development of the Davie Village Garden. 

Recently, Vancouver Public Space Network (VPSN) representatives had a meeting with Prima Properties (the Davie Village Garden developers). Our hope going into the meeting was to finalize the license agreement between Prima Properties and VPSN, and to determine if the developers were willing to make the changes to the garden bed structure that we had proposed.

On both counts, it appears there is still work to be done. Unfortunately, we were not able to resolve the needed changes to the license at the meeting. Our concern with the license as it stands right now is that too much liability (for example, the risk of slipping and falling by the general public) is being put on to VPSN, even though we do not own the property.

Since VPSN is made up of volunteers, we don't have the ability to bear that risk or to insure against it in order to protect our volunteer organizers. Ultimately, if VPSN cannot resolve this issue with Prima - we will have to re-assess our role in the Davie Village Garden going forward. In light of the outcome of the meeting, we are reviewing this licensing issue - and the potential for further changes - with our Board of Directors.

Concerning the garden's design, Prima has said that they are not able to make the changes to the garden beds that we proposed. You will recall that we felt that raising the beds and installing vapour barriers would be important and needed modifications - both to ensure that your plants will have sufficient growing medium, and to mitigate any potential concerns regarding contamination arising from the site's former use as a gas station.  

Prima has suggested that they will speak to their suppliers to see if any donations of materials are available; however, it appears that this will not cover the costs of building raised beds (lumber, brackets, etc.), or labour costs. We has hoped, given that the site is temporary that the developer might be willing to invest in these additional capital costs. However, in an attempt to try to move forward on this point, we agreed that we would ask the gardeners how they felt about paying an additional materials cost to help on this front.

I've created a two question survey to collect your responses, please fill it out here - Survey 

Please note that this survey is only to get a general sense of whether people are supportive of paying an additional materials cost to raise the beds or not. No one will be required to pay based on their response to this survey.


We understand that you are probably eager to get gardening and understand that the resolution of these aforementioned issues has, thus far, taken longer then originally anticipated. We will do our best to update you on the situation in the next week or two. 

Please feel free to contact me with any further questions,

Emily Jubenvill
Community Garden Coordinator
Vancouver Public Space Network

Summer Salad

Yesterday, smoothies and salads sustained me throughout the afternoon as Goran and I walked along the Stanley Park seawall and discussed morbid findings in forests.

Saturday is hereby decreed my Go Wild day -- enjoyed a veggie quesadilla with avocado and mixed salad greens piled ontop; later, a vegetarian burrito from Red Burrito. It wasn't that tasty.

Today: a banana and blueberry smoothie, a banana, too many cashews. Baseball! Deliciously sore knees and hamstrings from running, which is a motion I usually try to avoid.  Biking is easier.  Anyway, I'd missed the feeling of exhaustion after the first practice of the season. It was so much fun!  I'd forgotten what fun feels like.  A moment of silence in remembrance.  Also forgot that to have muscles that work, I can't simply read about how they work -- I must put them to use regularly and with vigour.  It only hurts the first time. 

Drank lots of water. Biked home over the popular False Creek seawall (so enamoured with the sun and happy people and pretty landscape that I forgot take photos) and made a kale & avocado salad with cucumbers and tomatoes.  Mmmmm, tastes like summer.  Three clementine oranges for dessert.

Tomato Dendrites

Hello; today the menu featured more smoothies and several unoriginal spring mix salads.

Ummm... I've been lazy in the food-making department. Come spring, I shall put forth an effort into making something pretty. Right -- technically we're into spring here -- but I maintain that during tonight's bike ride the air didn't feel springy. Sure, the sun wasn't sharing its warm rays here at 11pm, but is the sun ever really shining here?

For April Fool's Day I had some tomato sauce with cooked golden nugget potatoes, as I am (formerly) a potato fiend. I don't know what happened, but either the potatoes or the sauce tasted "off". Not as tasty as I'd remembered it being from yesteryear. Plus the digesting it part was not so hot. I know, I went from 2 months of raw greens and fruits with some nuts to cooked starch, so what did I expect? Well, I expected cooked starch to be easy to digest, really. I'm reallllllly hoping that later when I eat the far east Thai fare it fares better by far.

My daily meals revolve around fruit and green smoothies, and kale & avocado salad. Simple is best. And: "Freedom is obedience to self-formulated rules" (Aristotle). Here's some more Tim @ northern Malibu for a September XTERRA race (I will visit this beautiful place. On my bike! And run through the hills... so much fun!):