Junuary

It is the middle of June and I am in my long underwear. What gives? The sunny days that punctuate this cold spell are savored with frenzied enthusiasm. But we have another forecast of a rainy and cold weekend. It's crazy making.

This week was a culmination of much gardening activity for the school which saw the building of many funky trellises, weeding and transplanting. It was also the wrap up week for our choir, singing our final concert at a senior's home. I will miss the gals who sing around me and are great to giggle with. Now I have to get back to the uke!

My aunt who is 87 years old flew from Saskatoon to Vancouver to go to an Amnesty International conference. She was in very good form. She has become even more enthusiastic as she ages, and cares deeply about social issues. I made her a lentil curry on brown basmati, knowing she has been having teeth/denture troubles. She scarfed a huge plate and was very appreciative.

We are expanding our curry repertoire and Peter is downstairs making chapatis right now. The aroma is awesome.

I was at Whole Foods yesterday and there was this group of three people at one of the tables. They made themselves right at home to the point that one of them was sitting on the big communal table. I was incensed at how rude and stupid this was and really had to exercise a great deal of control to make a snarky comment. Arghhhh. I think I've been around too many people with big egos lately and I need a retreat.

It was also the week of amorous insects. I asked the students to meditate and observe bees and they saw copulating flies and ladybugs all over the school yard, making hay while the sun was shining.

Rumor has it that a vegetarian place is going in where Cipriano's used to be. Fingers crossed it will be good. The Nutella cheesecake at Mobius is awesome. Butter Bakery is now selling fudge. Shaktea is going to update their menu with more snacking plates. The garlic soup at Trafalgar's is to die for. Chai restaurant is now open on main after six pm. There is an amazing upmarket bakery in the DTES called Cadeaux. We've sampled some of Lucky's doughnuts and my favorite so far is the coconut bismark, but I think if they put the meringue from that doughnut on top of a lemon bismark that would be a most amazing thing. I'm also loving Organic Lives lemon coconut macaroons. (No, that is not a spelling mistake.)

Hail and Damnation

Just this morning I was admiring my brave, robust nasturtiums and now they are battle-torn and bedraggled. Some have lost the good fight. There were other casualties. I could cry. Not one, not two, but three hailstorms this afternoon while the sun was shining in one part of the sky. Bizarre. Sad. Frustrating. We prairie people know the heartbreak of weather damage. Not enough sun, too much sun. Too much of this, not enough of that and just when you thought to reap the bounty, the locusts arrive. Luckily I have more plants started inside. I was planning on putting them somewhere else, but they will replace the wounded and the dying.

In spite of this weather disaster, today was a good day. Another seedball workshop. The (almost) end of another residency. Aujourd hui, ça va. I feel I have clawed my way to the top of another learning curve. Life is never as pleasant as the new age self-helpers would have you believe. Life is full of migraines, stress eating, sore body parts, insecurities, people who look at you with disinterest, dislike, and hatred. People who use you up and chuck you up like a LOL cat hairball. But there are days when you feel you can rise above it all. You can go beyond all that grimy human crap and feel good about what you have accomplished. Today is such a day. I have great colleagues, friends and family. I live in a cool city with a pretty awesome climate. I like my work. It's almost June. I have new leopard print pajamas.

I've been watching Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes episodes which are just amazing. I think I will use some of his gestures for my next performance. Still trying to get through a Margaret Grimes novel about horse racing. I must admit I don't like stories about race horses. I find them extremely boring and they seem to be all the same to me--one big yawn. I think it's a stupid sport. So there.

Stella!!!!

It's rainy dreary days like this that make me want to stand outside my door and bellow "June!!!!" the way Stanley Kowalski hollers for his wife outside their apartment. "Stella!!!!!" Only it doesn't work as well because June is only one syllable and I am a woman and therefore would be immediately diagnosed as loony. Junie!!!!??

I have been staying up late watching episodes of The Supersizers from the BBC on UTube. Highly reccomended. A food critic and a broascaster/entertainer eat the food from a period in history for one week. They are silly, highly irreverent and sometimes downright funny when the humor is not contrived /over-produced. It would have been interesting to see a bit more from the chefs who struggle to make the food from each period, sometimes without the help of recipes, as in the Roman period where they seemed to put a condiment from rotting fish guts on just about everything.