Filed under: Hippy Shit, My Kids, Random Geekery, Sewing, The Urban Jungle | Tags: guerrilla gardening, Sewing, The Urban Jungle
I’ve been an incredibly crappy blogger lately. No good excuses other than “It’s Spring! Yay!”, “I’m gardening! Yay!” and “I have a desperate compulsion to design and sew dresses for little girls, despite having none of my own! Yay?”
Spring is awesome. I feel myself coming slowly back to life after the creative stasis of Winter. This means I’ve a list of projects longer than my arm and, quite honestly, not nearly the required time to see them to completion. I’m currently (finally?) installing the recycled patio-stone walkway in my front yard — the one I’ve been thinking and talking about since I did a big part of the one in the back yard. It’s coming along nicely, but is only a couple feet long. I need to find some more patio stones to smash up for it. If anyone has some they’d like to get rid of, let me know — I’m happy to come and get them with my van!
Filed under: Review Things, Things I Eat | Tags: BBQ, Presidents Choice, product review, reviews
This will be a post where, despite my vegetarian leanings, I will fully expose myself once and for all as a person who really enjoys her vegetables in flesh form.
I received a great little basket of President’s Choice goodies to review — just in time for BBQ season — featuring pork from their new “Free From” line, steak from the “Tender & Tasty” line, as well as the ever-reliable “Air-Chilled” chicken (though I should note that we actually had drumsticks). The basket also included one of the PC dish towels — always nice as a reusable giftwrap(!) — one of their salt/pepper grinders, a bottle of Memories Of Dad’s Grill sauce and a bottle of PC Steak Spice Marinade.
I have to qualify this review with a couple things:
1. Almost without exception, we purchase our household beef and pork from a local farmer and only purchase from a store when planning a BBQ or other event.
2. DH beat me to the steak and I didn’t get a taste — greedy bugger! Not only that, but he had to audacity to suggest I don’t like steak just because I don’t want to eat it every day! I love steak — but I like it much more rare than he does, so prefer to cook it myself and consume it infrequently.
3. I’ve not marinaded anything in the marinade yet. 
Filed under: City of Ottawa, Hippy Shit, Sticks and Stones, The Urban Jungle, Things I Do | Tags: guerrilla gardening, Hintonburg, neighbourhood, ottawa, urban jungle, urban spaces
The park at the end of our street is a wonderful space for kids. There are broad paved paths perfect for learning to ride bikes, a smaller play structure for climbing and sliding, lots of little hills to roll down and tables and seating to encourage congregation of families and neighbours.
About the only thing missing from this great little gem, IMO, are some kid-friendly plants with flowers to be enjoyed or picked that are hardy enough to withstand the heat from the asphalt and the love from the children. What the park accomplishes in fun and function, it sorely lacks in visual appeal. A few half-hearted efforts in years past have left a couple patches of mangy forsythia bushes, some enthusiastic daylilies, a couple random tulips, and violets that have self-seeded sporadically around the park.
Fortunately, I’ve a surfeit of Spring-flowering plants needing new homes.
Filed under: City of Ottawa, Diaper Fluff, Fibre Crafts, Hippy Shit, Random Geekery, Sewing, The Urban Jungle, Things I Do, Work, Work at Susie's | Tags: ottawa, knitting, urban foraging, cloth diapering, urban hippy, guerilla gardening, urban, soaker, ravelry, wabi-sabi
I resort to lists too often. Today is my first day in the house by myself for the full day, as DH started his new job this past Friday (and #2 is half days on Monday and I work on Tuesdays). I made a big list and only have one significant entry left to accomplish. Yay me! Yay lists!
Still, there are always more brief disjointed comments I can jot down about what’s going on with me:
