Local Season Begins!

June 1st makes for a perfect day to begin a season of eating locally. I`ve been in the winter rut of eating lately and it`s time to get back on the bandwagon. My two favourite & inspiring books are ``Animal Vegetable Miracle`` by Barbara Kingsolver and ``The 100 Mile Diet`` by Alisa Smith & J.B. MacKinnon. I read them every year. Together they create perspectives and resources from the USA and Canada. A great mix!

The 100 mile diet, if strictly followed, requires participants to eat food that is grown & produced within 100 miles of their home. This includes every ingredient in a product. Exceptions are allowed if we state them in the beginning. So my exceptions are:
1. Any Fair Trade products including coffee, sugar, spices
2. Ethically raised meat and wild seafood or fish.
3. Social Life Amendment (Meal invitations with family & friends)
4. Travel

So today I began. I visited my local farmer`s market and I spent time in my garden.

At the market I found:
cheese
salad greens (a variety of Fraser Valley leaves)
rhubarb
potato's
two tomato plants grown by Kwantlen College`s Horticulture Students

In my garden I picked:
chives
lettuce
basil

ZUMBA

ZUMBA classes begin tonight. I am excited to try a new activity! I love a new challenge and gaining exercise all at the same time will be an added bonus. It will also be nice to meet some new friends.

Off to Conference!

BC Conference meets this week in Penticton. I am leaving today and making the five hour trip up to the interior. This year I am on the Children at Conference team (again!). I am pretty sure it will be my final year. It`s time to hang up another hat and let other people have a chance to offer their leadership. Next year, Conference will happen at UBC. Nice and close to home. It will be grrrreat!

Victoria Day!

I love the silence of Sunday mornings on long weekends. The world around my neighbourhood is so still. It`s beautiful. All I hear are the sounds of birds. All I smell is bacon waffling through the windows of my neighbours. It`s probably one of the only times when the world wakes up slowly.

Tomorrow is Victoria Day. The day Canada recognizes it`s relationship with the Queen and England. It`s also unofficially the beginning of the summer season. For the first time in 21 years (21!!) I am not away at camp with a group of teenagers. It feels a little strange. Instead I am spending the weekend at home. In my town I am surrounded by the Cloverdale Rodeo. One of the last places I would find myself at. It`s interesting to see all the tourists in town.

Wedding 2

Looks like I will be officiating a September wedding! Tonight I met with a couple who were recommended to me by a mutual friend. I was really nervous but the hour went well and I think everything will work out just fine. The wedding will happen at a well known golf course on a Sunday afternoon. It will be Wedding 2 for officiating!

Circus!

On Saturday I took my 13 year old nephew to the circus. It was a youth circus and it was brilliant!! I was incredibly impressed with the entire, two hour show. All the participants were under 18 years old and were highly qualified in their areas of speciality. One of the teens from my church trains on the ladder. He balanced a ladder on his face and completed many other tricks. The neatest thing is that his photo made it into the local newspaper. How fun!

Global Experience 2011

It`s Official! I am heading to CHINA this summer!!!! My friends won a land tour package to China and they gifted it to me. Wow! I`ll be going on a 10 day Historic Tour through Beijing and Xi`an including the Great Wall of China, the Terra Cotta Warriors, Tiananmen Square and lots of markets. We will be taking a train from Beijing to Xi`an which should be very interesting. I am really excited. Time to get a tour book!