caffinarabanner
Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Much Anticipated

Posted by Melanie at 18:42 1 comments spring is coming

We are off to Vancouver for work and a holiday. Maybe when I get back home next week the snow will be melted. Those are tulip buds in the picture. I wonder if the Grouse Grind is open?

Labels:

 
Sunday, April 26, 2009

Slush Cup

Posted by Melanie at 20:25 0 comments

Today I watched a bunch of kids leap into an enormous hole full of slushy water. It stopped snowing just in time, the sun came out, the sky turned blue, the kids shed their snowsuits, some put on bikinis (shiver) shorts and t-shirts. They hiked up to the fifth tower then skied or snowboarded down as fast as they could in attempt to remain upright and sort of waterski to end of the slush filled hole, a distance of maybe twenty feet. Most of them sunk like a bag of books the second they hit the fridgid water. A couple of them managed to remain upright long enough to make it to the opposite bank and clamber out, their skis still attached.

It was a lovely day the snow was soft and even skiable in the trees. Too bad it is their last day. I'm sure with conditions as good as this we could be skiing there well into June. Maybe we will just have to go back there with our skins. I'm still waiting for that quintessential spring ski day, you know the one, where you strip down to your t-shirt, turn your face to the sun and lie in the snow after lunch soaking it up.

Labels:

 
Friday, April 24, 2009

How far have I run...

Posted by Melanie at 18:29 0 comments

I used to drive my car around my running route using its odometer to calculate the distance I was running. Since the distance I run varies and is also increasing in length every week using the cars odometer was sort of overkill, then I heard about runnersworld.com

If you join their site you can keep track of all kinds of running related things. The main thing, for me, was to be able to use google maps to calculate how far I was running. However, signing up on their site was a pain. When I finally succeeded I mapped my run by clicking my mouse at intervals along the road. It told me the total number of miles I had run. Mileage or should I say killometreage is also available in killometres which I prefer. I saved my map and logged out. Later, when I came back to the site to make another map, or rather gloat about the extra distance I was now running, the site refused to regognise me. It told me I did not exist, even though I entered my coordinates a couple a times, fearing typos. Humpf.

So, I went to map my run.com. This site was a lot easier to sign on to. It’s interface is bigger and easier to read and when I came back to it the next day it remembered me.

Both these sites offer the option to make your running routes public so you can share them with others.

Knowing how far I’m running is useful to me so I can guage my progress. My aim is to run the Emperors Challenge. Maybe not till next summer. My short term goal is a ten k run at the beginning of June although I will probably be running further than that before I do the race. After that or I want to try something from the Prince George roadrunners schedule. They have an interesting program of races of varying length in Prince George and surrounding communities.

The other thing about running, I’m learning, is that you don’t run the same distance everyday or even run everyday, not that I've been doing that. The clinic I‘m helping with, not really, gave us a training schedule. It tells you how far too run each day, when to do cross training and which days to rest. Admittingly I’m not following it to the letter. But sort of reinterpreting it to fit my life.

I’m really enjoying the twice a week clinics which involve timed runs, hill runs and running up stairs. Even the stretching at the end of the class is fun and a workout just in itself. My volunteer position at the YMCA gives me a full fledged membership. I really should try out some of their other classes or maybe rent a racquet ball court.

Labels:

 
Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Earth Day 2009

Posted by Melanie at 19:34 0 comments

This morning it was relativly warm and sunny. I thought I would celebrate Earth Day by hanging my laundry outside on the washing line. Despite the snow on the ground I thought the air temperature would be warm enough to dry it.

From this

Seven hours later I came home too this.

To this

Labels: ,

 
Monday, April 20, 2009

I'll be your Master Gardener

Posted by Melanie at 20:35 0 comments

Now I ‘ve finished my Master Gardeners exam I get to start volunteering, 70 hours worth, for the next 2 years. When I'm finished I get my certificate. Most of the volunteer hours are done by hanging around gardening related events and answering questions from the public.

The exam was on Saturday. We spent 2 hours cleaning up the gardens at REAPS, the local Recycling and Enviromental Action Planing Society. We took all the dead leaves off the garden bed, exposing Crocuses almost ready to flower, emerging red Tulip shoots, Primulas and even Rhubarb. We pruned all the shrubs and trees getting it ready for real spring. After that we sat inside with all our books from home, trying in vain to identify what looked like black and silver twigs and a conifer. I’m sure I identified the conifer as for the twigs I gave up.

If I hadn’t had to do this I would have gone to Vancouver to try my legs at the Sun Run

Labels:

 
Friday, April 17, 2009

Retro And Useful

Posted by Melanie at 17:09 0 comments

I‘ve always been attracted to classic fifties and sixties interior design. Nowadays midcentury furniture, houses, appliances and fabric design are back in vogue. Marimekko, a Finnish company founded in 1951, is still making their retro fabric designs into clothing, pillows and other household things, if only their fabric didn’t cost $46 dollars a metre. A cheaper alternative is to download the fabric swatch to use as wallpaper on your computer desktop. They have twelve designs, via apartment therapy.

If you have a Mac, you know you can click on the time in the top right hand corner of the menu bar, another menu drops down displaying the date. Now, thanks to this clever fiddle from Geek Sugar via unplggd, clicking on the time to see the date is so yesterday.

Labels:

 
Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Sewing and knitting

Posted by Melanie at 20:42 0 comments

Easter weekend was a bit of a washout. I only got out once to Sugar Bowl on my skis. The snow was too slushy, actually terrifying. Coming down through the worst of it we decided to keep our skins on since its difficult to turn let along stop when the loose snow is 6 inches deep, wet and heavy like mashed potatoes.

The rest of the time, except when I was running, I stayed indoors. I had a long talk with my daughter, started a new cardigan. I’m using the easy peasy top down cardigan pattern from laura Chau. The wool I’m knitting with is much thinner than the stuff called for in the pattern thus my needle is thinner and I never thought I would say this but its getting a bit boring knitting seemingly endless rows of stockinette stitch while waiting to have enough fabric so I can divide the sleeves off from the body. This pattern was the one I used to make my first sweater.

Blue

After a long search I finally found some funky brown fabric on Etsy. I made it into new cushion covers for the dining room chairs. This is their fifth incarnation. That’s the best thing about DIY (do it yourself) you get to make exactly what you want and usually it’s better made and cheaper.

new cover

I cut out a tank top and a dress out of some linen fabric I've been hoarding in the hopes there will be some hotter days in the future. linen is such a comfortable fabric to wear when it is hot. In an effort to use up all my fabric scraps I dedcided to make another quilt. Inevitably there won't be enough fabric for rhe quilt so I have to buy more, get carried away by the pretty prints and colours, buy too much and of course end up with more scraps.

Labels: ,

 
Saturday, April 11, 2009

Grey Day

Posted by Melanie at 20:30 0 comments

I spent the day waiting for the rain to stop so I could go for a run.

Ate chocolate Easter eggs for breakfast and lunch.

Baked Hot Cross Buns with the same recipe I’ve been making for 20 years. Find it here.

Sewed new covers out of a saffron yellow sari remnant, replete with silver sparkles, for the extra pillows on the bed.

Cut out some squares, from leftover fabric, for a quilt top.

Dinner was roast beef, gravy made from the pan drippings, carrots roasted in the oven until they caramelized, Yorkshire pudding and green beans.

Labels:

 
Thursday, April 9, 2009

Sow And Tell

Posted by Melanie at 18:48 0 comments

The Jewel Box Garden, Thomas Hobbs second book, is everything I hoped it would be. After reading his first book, Shocking Beauty I just added this book to the stack in my arms when I saw it on the shelf yesterday at the library. The prose is opinionated, which I like. The photos are colourful and inspiring.

The book did it’s job, get me excited about the impending gardening season, so much so I transplanted all the Portulaca seedlings from the grow op in the basement into their permanent containers. I put all the Geranium cuttings which did very nicely in the grow op/nursery into their permanent containers as well.

annual flower seeds

I did the transplanting on the deck. Despite all the snow it was warm enough to be outside wearing only a polertec jacket. I had to dig around in the pots exposing all the dried up soil so it could get evenly soaked with water before settling my tender plants into their summer lodgings. Next on the gardening agenda I’m planting marigolds, Cosmos and Daisy seeds to give them a head start. The rest of the seeds I’m saving to direct plant in the garden.

Labels:

 

It was the best of times it was the worst of times

Posted by Melanie at 10:46 0 comments

After listening to Nora Young, from Spark, interview Jason Kottke I decided to change my about page.

I've been thinking about it for months. I suppose it was the interview that finally tipped me over the edge

Read the new page by clicking on About, above, or clicking here

Labels:

 
Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Running Shoes

Posted by Melanie at 20:48 0 comments

Volunteer work at the YMCA started today. I got to be a leader for the beginning running group. My feelings of trepidation were mollified when I realized I didn’t need to know anything about running or stretching or training schedules. All that was required of me was to run with the group and keep an eye out in case anyone got hurt or fell too far behind.

They have a regimented schedule where they alternatively run for a set number of minutes and walk for a number of minutes. Luckily someone else is keeping track of when it is time to switch. This is not something I do or plan to do when I run by myself. My philosophy is if I’m going to run then I’m running. I can run almost seven killometres now without feeling like I’m dying.

I really enjoyed the social aspect of the running group. It’s different than listening to podcasts on my ipod while I run by myself. The group runs twice a week. The other good thing is the stretching they do at the end of each class.

Labels:

 
Saturday, April 4, 2009

All The Diamonds in This World

Posted by Melanie at 07:55 0 comments

Book Review

I’ve just finished reading Elizabeth Hay’s wonderful novel, Late Nights On Air. I found the writing to be as compelling as the story is appealing. Set against the back drop of the extreme and beautiful northern Canadian landscape the story brings together several unlikely Characters who all work at the local CBC radio station in Yellowknife, a place I’m longing to visit someday.

Elizabeth successfully manages to match her characters temperament to the landscape or maybe it’s the landscape that is dictating her characters behavior. The Mackenzie valley pipeline, threatens to rip open the vulnerable arctic landscape, displacing its fragile native culture. Harry, a venerable but failed CBC personality from down south comes north to work in radio. One night he falls in love with an unusual female voice belonging to Dido, who in real life is much more than he imagines.

These two are only part of the CBC contingent of characters whose stores, past and present, weave together the fabric of the novel. Like radio their voices are suddenly intimate yet aloof, exposed yet covered as they are heard over the vast bare expanse of the Canadian Arctic.

Elizabeth’s beautifully constructed sentences combine delicate imagery and keen observances. I think Late Nights On Air is Elizabeth’s best book and deserving of its 2007 Giller prize status.

Labels:

 
Thursday, April 2, 2009

Stop Snowing Already

Posted by Melanie at 08:27 0 comments

You can't tell from the picture but it snowed all day yesterday and is still snowing. The tops of the posts you can see are part of the fence surrounding the vegetable garden.

April 2 still snowing

After tomorrow the weathernetwork is predicting sun and above zero temperatures. Its disconcerting to see that temperatures are below seasonal norms.

Labels: