Spring Equinox

The old saying in like a lion out like a lamb doesn't seem to apply to March this year. At least not in Nova Scotia! Today is the Spring Equinox and we just got 10 cm of heavy wet white stuff mixed with ice pellets and lots of wind. Sounds more like out like a lion to me...

We even got a 1/2 snow day! It is very rare for the University to close, so when it does you know it is bad...

I remember snow days as a kid in Ontario. Unlike here in Nova Scotia where they cancel school at the thought of snow, the only thing cancelled at my school were the buses. This meant that the teachers who could come in would and were paid to essentially babysit the kids that could make it to school. This meant that parents could drop their kids off if they chose but also all the kids that could walk, did. I cannot imagine all of the days off parents have to take in NS just because of school cancellations. Anyhow, snow days consisted of playing outside, board games, card games, music, fun science experiments, indoor gym, reading in the library and even music. Not all the teachers had to be there. Grade levels were combined and activities organized for everyone to have fun. They were the best days because they consisted of having fun with your friends at school ALL DAY and not just at recess. My snow day today consisted of shoveling snow and now posting here! Fun but perhaps not as exciting as building a snow fort and having a snowball fight with the English school across the ditch.

Despite the ugliness outside, there is some true beauty happening inside our house. I bought this orchid the other day because of its stunning colour! Sadly, it is not natural BUT it will have nice white flowers next time it blooms.

 In the mean time I will enjoy their turquoise and dark blue hues. Another of my orchids is putting out flower stalks for the third time in 12 months! I am looking forward to the 20+ blooms it will produce in the next couple of weeks. I also discovered another nice surprise the other day...

One of my cacti was budding! This beautiful orange flower opened yesterday and there is at least one more on the way!

I noticed that the heather on campus is blooming as were the crocuses. I am dreaming of gardening season!
In the mean time, I hope you are all warm and safe and enjoying the spring equinox, inside or outside!

What smells like a hyacinth but isn't?

 Obviously, Dracaena fragrans, or commonly known as the corn stalk plant. Actually, it isn't that obvious since I had no idea until last year when my plant flowered and was hit with this amazing scent that is reminiscent of hyacinth and stargazer lily.

It produces on long stalk of whitish flowers with many clusters in early February. The flowers are closed during the day and release no scent whatsoever. However, once the sun starts to sink on the horizon the flowers open up and release their strong scent that fills our whole apartment!

 The flowers take about a week to open up and each flower only lasts a couple of days. Since it opens up and releases its scent at night and it native to Africa, it makes me wonder what pollinator it is trying to attract... bats, moths, beetles, some small mammal? Whatever the pollinator is, this plant adds a wonderful atmosphere that evokes images of being in the mountain forests of Africa which in the middle of winter when it looks like this outside is always welcome.

The corn stalk plant is VERY easy to care for. I had the plant for about 2 years before it started to bloom and so far it has bloomed 2 years in a row. It needs moderate to bright but indirect light and moist soil. I had it for the longest time in an East facing window that only gets bright light in the winter because of the giant Norway Maple in our front yard that blocks almost all the light through the summer. It was obviously getting enough light since it was growing and flowering. I just moved it closer to a south facing window because of some furniture re-arranging so we will see how it does there. It can grow up to 6 ft tall and can live up to 10 years or more! It can also be propagated from stem cuttings, so once it reaches the desired height you can cut the top of the cane and root it like a stem cutting! I will soon be cutting mine and potting it with its parent since you can grow 2-3 per pot and cut them at different heights to get a layered effect.

The Calm after the Storm

I don't know what it is with me and Wednesdays these past 2 weeks...last week was crazy and this week was too but in a different way! This week was had a huge snowstorm on Wednesday afternoon/evening. They were predicting up to 45 cm of snow! So much that they closed the University (which almost never happens unless it is a state of emergency!) at 12:30 pm to let everyone get home safely. It was a good call BUT that meant that my 2:30 pm lab was canceled! So I stayed home to nurse my developing head cold and watch the snow come down...
The first 15 cm fell before 4 pm and the snow just kept coming. While shoveling I was hoping that the University would be open on Thursday (I have 2 labs on Thursdays!) and I wouldn't have to run 3 make-up labs...but definitely doubting that it would since the snow was predicted to continue through the night.
The next 15 cm fell before 9 pm and luckily the storm abated with 15 cm to spare. However, my head cold raged on. I slept for a total of 3.5 hours the whole night and woke up to this amazing sunrise!
Luckily, the University was open on Thursday and I only had to run one make-up lab that evening. After 6 hours of teaching and only 3.5 hours sleep, I was happy to come home to a delicious dinner (thanks Diego!) and a cozy bed. After 12 hours sleep, I feel refreshed and am happy that today is a University holiday! Today was supposed to be a day to work on my thesis but I think it will be a day of rest and taking care of my cold.

Happy Friday!

Winter Sunrise

This was the scene over Halifax on Monday at 7:30 am. We haven't seen the sun since and are getting ready for another round of snow tonight.
A feathered friend also stopped in around 9 am. This is not a sight we see everyday, seagulls don't usually hang around our neighbourhood. Doesn't he look just a little mischievous...About half an hour later I caught him on the deck....
Now the crows have also discovered my compost stash...They must be getting really hungry and a little mess is the least of my worries if they can get a little morsel out of it! I guess I will have to clean it up before the snow flies!

Snow!

We have had a LOT of crazy weather this year. The amount of flooding and heavy snowfalls in other part of Atlantic Canada has been unprecedented. We have been fortunate as Halifax has come out mostly unscathed. We have had a greenish winter so far but finally had a couple of significant snowfalls this week and I thought I would share some photos of our walk in the snow on Sunday.
We have an old cemetery close by and it is a quiet refuge from the city. I go there often for a walk, run or just to admire the old stones and read about those who lived here before us. Joseph Howe and Alexander Keith are buried here!

Finally, I saw this little guy in the park...don't you just love his hair!
Typical of Nova Scotia, it has warmed up and rained a little. So a lot of the snowmen around the city are looking sad and shapeless. It may not last much longer, so I am glad we got to enjoy it!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!

Image from: http://fireworksfx.com/display.html

Ok, so maybe this wasn't take last night but it sure is a beautiful display on the MacDonald Bridge in Halifax!

Wishing you all love, health and happiness in 2011!

Sunshine and Warmth = Dread and Frustration

It has been wonderfully sunny and warm here this last week. I, like many, am awaiting the Spring with baited breath. However, this early warm weather and the flowers coming up in the gardens has mixed feelings for me. For me Spring is about renewal, everything coming alive after the cold and dark of winter gives me joy and fills me with love and life...well that is how it used to be. Increasingly, the good feelings are mixed in with feelings of dread and frustration.

DREAD because this mild winter with very little snow, crazy snow and rain storms and early spring all scream CLIMATE CHANGE. The changes I have read about in the scientific literature are becoming more and more obvious to me. One thing that really drove it home to me was this post by Sherrie over at 22 Pleasant. The snowdrops in her garden are coming up a full month earlier than they were 4 years ago! That is one week earlier per year! THAT IS A HUGE CHANGE! With very little snow and rain (so far) this year, the forests are dry and lots of forest fires are on the horizon. We saw first hand on April 30th last year right outside Halifax what that can mean for people when we had that huge forest fire in Herring Cove.

Halifax skyline on April 30th 2009. Photo from CTV.ca

DREAD because Canada is getting warmer. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change synthesis report (you can download it here) and book, Keeping our Cool: Canada in a Warming World by one of Canada's leading Climate Scientists Dr. Andrew Weaver (who is also on the panel) all point to increased events of severe weather, drought and fires with increased warming. Snow and rain are predicted to come in storms where lots of it is dropped all at once rather than over time (sound like this winter?). Rain events like this have been happening more often, this causes flash flooding and land slides and it doesn't soak into the ground in the forest. When you have heavy rainfall or rapidly melting piles of snow, it is just too much water all at once to be absorbed by the soil and it just runs off. You can try this with your own garden or houseplants. If you water them with lots of water too fast, your pot overflows but if you slow down the water but still give them the same amount, it soaks in. So these events don't help the dry forests...

We are also predicted to have a very HOT summer this year. I don't know about you but, I live in a second floor flat and it get unbearable sometimes... this will just cause more people to go out and get airconditioners which consume huge amounts of electricity and in Halifax, our electricity comes from coal...so more CO2 and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) feeding climate change.

Halifax's Coal Burning Power Plant.

FRUSTRATION because of the belief in the general public that this is an issue still being debated in the scientific community. THERE IS NO DEBATE IN THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY ABOUT THIS ISSUE, WE ALL AGREE THAT CLIMATE CHANGE IS HAPPENING! There has NOT been one study published in the peer-reviewed literature that does not point to significant changes in almost ALL ECOSYSTEMS OF THE WORLD!!! Those who put doubt in the minds of the general public, if you dig deep enough, can all be traced back to being funded by those individuals and corporations with a vested interest in the status quo.

FRUSTRATION because of our lack of leadership in the Government. There is nothing I despise more right now than Stephen Harper's face, especially with his fake smile. We had the chance to be a leader on this issue but instead we faltered and blocked much of the progress on a global scale. Dr. Weaver goes into detail of the politics of the issue in Canada (very interesting indeed). The bottom line is that the Conservative Government DOESN'T CARE about this issue. They abolished funding agencies within the government designed to support climate change research not only in the natural sciences but also in social science. They have no goals or target and essentially ignore the issue. This is an issue that affects ALL of us and we cannot deny it any longer...when will we act? When countries run out of water? When there are food shortages because of drought? When there is war because of both food and water shortages?
Despite all of this dread and frustration there is still hope, this is what Dr. Weaver's book has instilled in me. If you haven't Dr. Weaver's book yet, get it from the library or a friend, or buy it if you have to but if you care at all about this issue or if you aren't yet convinced you absolutely NEED to read it! It explains the science in a very clear, easy to understand manner. This was written for the people, not the scientists, remember, we already know it is happening!!! It also goes in depth into the "debate" in the scientific community, the media's role in disseminating the science, the politics and the covert tactics of those with a vested interest in continuing to emit GHGs to create doubt in the general public about the issue. I think it is so IMPORTANT for EVERYONE to understand the science, media and politics of climate change. Once you do, you will no longer be able to deny or ignore it. Although this book is sad, scary and frustrating, it is hopeful and we CAN CHANGE THE COURSE OF GLOBAL WARMING but we need to force our Government(s) to ACT NOW!!

Do you think Stephen Harper would read it if I sent it to him?

Happy Award!

Teresa over at Life Homesteading and Everything gave me this award 11 days ago but have just gotten around to it now... THANKS Teresa!! I am honoured!

The rules to this award are to list 10 things and 10 blogs that make you happy.

Things:

1) Snow days like yesterday! We got 30 cm of snow in the night and the University was closed...a great day to go for a walk, make some soups and work on my thesis... This is the view from out our back door in morning!
2) Cooking! It is so relaxing and rewarding. My body always feels better with a home cooked meal! This is a cream of broccoli soup I made last week...delicious and not a lot of cream!
3) My fish tanks...I already posted about those here and here.

4) My blooming orchids! I took these photos this morning...I love the light that reflects from the snow.
5) My first cup of coffee in the morning.

6) Singing birds when I walk to work.

7) Sunshine streaming in my window in the morning.

8) Swimming. I do this at least twice a week and it is so relaxing and calming. I LOVE being in the water!

9) Practicing Yoga. I am taking this amazing Vinyasa Flow class twice a week and I supplement with some Ashtanga 1-2 times per week. It is so calming and invigorating at the same time. My body and soul thank me every time I do it.

10) Last but definitely not least....being madly in love with Diego even after 7 years!

Blogs that make me happy.

1) Lisa at Eco Yogini. She is always so informative and candid. Her honesty is refreshing! :)

2) Barb at Mammy's Love. Her journey through whatever life throws her way is inspiring!

3) Sherrie at twenty-two pleasant. Her energy level, recipes and craftiness keep me coming back for more. Not to mention her cute little boy P...and Boy #2 on the way! :)

4) Vickie at Frenchy Addict. I strive to have her outlook on life now and keep it as I age. Not to mention she is such a talented knitter!

5) Sarah C at Blooming Where I am. The anecdotes and things to be thankful for really make you be thankful for your life and surroundings!

6) Little House in the Suburbs. SUPER Informative on anything from making your very first vegetable garden to homemade beauty products and cinnamon toast!

7) Cake at Whistling Leaf Blower. I love reading about her adventures and great recipes! Cosmo always makes me smile!

8) Parikha at Sixoneseven. Great recipes, gorgeous knitting ideas and beautiful baby D.

9) Ingrid at Words Starting wiht "P" are Cute. A very talent woman, spinning her own yarn! Any news on the newt?

10) Teresa at Life, Homesteading and Everything. Back at you Teresa! I love your blog...the homeschooling stories, anecdotes, recipes, all keep me fed and laughing!

Don't feel like you have to play along but I wanted to let you all in on a little piece of my happiness! :)

T-squared

So obviously this post is about two things that start with T....

We got a big winter storm on New Year's Day here in Halifax. We were having dinner and playing The Settlers of Catan (Christmas gift to ourselves) with some friends.
This is not technically one of the T items but definitely deserved a photo! :) If you have never played this game run out and buy it now it is AWESOME!

What were we eating you ask? We were eating the Tourtiere I made before Christmas!! Which is the 1st T item on my list.
Tourtiere is a meat pie that originates from Quebec (the official French Province in Canada).
It is traditionally eaten as part of the Christmas eve revellion (a party after midnight mass that lasts into the wee hours of the morning), Christmas and New Year's meals. It can be made with ground pork, veal or beef or a mixture! We traditionally eat it with ketchup in our family but it is wonderful with a tomato chutney too. Since Teresa requested the recipe, I will divulge our family secret and give you the Thanase Tourtiere Recipe (with some Alli modifications for extra flavour!).

INGREDIENTS (MAKES 2 REGULAR PIES OR 1 DEEP DISH - crust recipe not included but I can post the one I use if there is demand...let me know)

1 lb of each of ground pork and beef (I use lean)
1 large onion, thinly diced
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/4 cup of water
4 pie crusts (or just 2 for deep dish)
ground cloves
cinnamon
sugar
salt
pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

Fry the onions until tender. Add garlic and fry until just before it turns brown (~1 minute). Then add the pork, beef, water and spices and simmer for an hour adding water as necessary to prevent drying. Do NOT overcook the meat or your pie will be dry. So here is the thing with the spices...the recipe says a pinch but I use a lot more than that (not to mention there was no garlic in the original recipe...oh the plain recipes of the past)... I would say at least a teaspoon of each of the cinnamon, salt and pepper, 0.5 tsp of cloves and 1.5 tsp of sugar. Play with the spices to get it to your liking but this is my best estimate. It should be flavourful but not overpowering (especially the cloves)...so definitely add a little and taste as you add more. Once the meat is done, put it into a pie crust, cover with a second and cut some steam vents on top (see my photo below...they are so beautiful, I thought to post it again...).
Place in a preheated oven at 425F and cook for 20-25 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Bast the top with egg white to get an even brown top. These pies freeze very well. Freeze them in the raw pie crust and do not defrost prior to cooking. Just pop them in at a lower temp (~350F) for longer so the top doens't turn black before the centre is cooked. Monitor the internal temp with a thermometer...you just want to make sure it isn't still cold in the middle without risking burning your finger (trust me, I've done it before and it is not pleasant!).

So after, we finished consuming said pie (among other delicious gooddies brought by our guests), we looked at the HUGE pile of snow outside (like 25 cm!!) and decided it was time to go TOBOGGANING!!! It was the first time the sleds went out this winter and it was a blast!

(me on my crazy carpet!)

We went to the Halifax Citadel, a National Historic Site located on the top of a glacial drumlin.
See all that green grass... well all that gets covered in snow in the winter and some areas are really steep. We we flying down the hill on the side with the trees in the summer photo above. It was perfect for an evening of shear FUN! I highly recommend it to anyone living in Halifax! We left our place at 9 pm and came home at 1 am. We sure worked off that pie!

Happy Tuesday!

Happy New Year!!!

Wishing you all Health, Wealth and most of all Happiness in 2010.

Chirstmas Eve

I cannot believe it has been another month since posting...and that it is Christmas Eve already!!! What have I been doing you ask? Well I have been busily trying to get myself organized and ready for teaching next semester so that I can relax for a couple of days and finish off the first chapter of my PhD thesis! When not working I have been busily preparing the house for our Christmas at home. We typically go to Mexico or Ontario, but this year we decided to have a Halifax Christmas. So I got some pine and cedar branches, and large pine cones for some festive decorating.
I really wanted to keep this Christmas as low impact as possible. So we used our Norfolk Pine houseplant as our tree. I finally got around to decorating our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree!
Do you see the resemblance?
Our Norfolk Pine is only about 60 cm tall (with the pot!). I was afraid to put more than the felted snowman, santa and candy canes for fear that it would break in half. It is leaning sadly over just like the one above...but it is better than no tree!

To keep with the sustainable theme, I made all of my gifts. This was a labour of love and took a lot of my evenings and weekends to get them all ready for giving. I made 200 peanut butter balls, 3 dozen molasses cookies and a batch of my memere's (endearing word for grandma in french) sucre a creme (or fudge in english).
Here they are after their chocolate bath!
I couldn't resist a molasses cookie...
I also made my own honey sweetened apple sauce with the apples we picked in the fall.
I also made some cute labels for my creations...I also made an orange scented body lotion using this recipe on Healthy Living with a Twist and a revitalizing (peppermint scent) sugar body scrub using EcoYogini's recipe.
Last but not least are little aloe plants I received from a friend and decided to share in little "pots" purchased at Value Village, a second hand store.
I also wanted to make Christmas as traditional as possible...well actually a melding of 3 cultural traditions...French Canadian (my mom's side), English Canadian (my dad's side) and Mexican. What better way to do that than through food...
Here I am making tourtiere, a french Canadian meat pie...
The finished product! We will likely eat these on New Year's eve. Last night we ate Mole Poblano (chicken with a spicy chocolate gravy) with homemade corn tortillas. I made it in my new enamel cast iron dutch oven! Thanks Mom!!
Typically, mole poblano at Christmas time is eaten in a dish called Romeritos. This is a typical dish from Mexico city that has dried shrimp and a plant that is called romerito and resembles rosemary. I am not a fan of shrimp and romerito is hard to come by in Halifax, so we went with chicken.

Tomorrow, we will have turkey with all the trimmings! I have been busy but promise to keep up over the holidays!

Merry Christmas everyone! May your holidays be filled with the warmth of family and friends!

Love,
Alli

Yipee!! Snow!!!

Diego and I went tobogganing on Citadel Hill last night in the thick of the snow storm! We didn't bring the camera for fear it might get busted on our runs down the hill on our bellies!! We were alone for the first 40 mins or so and just as we were contemplating going for a beer and snack at Freemans (excellent pizza place on Quinpool RD) a gang of teens showed up. So after a final couple of runs we headed off for our beer. Lets just say, we were covered head to toe with snow and Diego's beard...totally white! They didn't turn us away at the door though! : )

It is beautiful and sunny here today. The calm after the storm. Everything is melting. I saw these 3 crows out my window this morning, although "warm" they are all puffed up. It is amazing that they can survive outside in the minus double digits! No wonder down jackets are so warm!

Enjoy your Sunday! : )

Warm Winter Glow

I am working from home today and this is what I saw on my kitchen table when I turned to get a cup of tea.
The afternoon sun shining on my bunch of yellow tulips. The yellow glow makes me feel warm and happy. So, I thought I would share a little warmth on this cold winter day in NS (-19C in Halifax).
Happy Tuesday!

Weekend of Celebration!

After having had a busy week full of computer work, I decided to boycott my computer and celebrate other people's achievements...as well as my own...my meeting went well and I am set to move forward with my research!!!!

It was my friend Alessandra's 28th b-day on Friday. She threw herself a party and cooked amazing Italian food! We celebrated until the wee hours of the morning. : )

Saturday, we celebrated out friend Roberto (from Mexico) who just got his Canadian Citizenship! Way to Go Roberto!! So we had an afternoon celebration with his family of 4 and friends! Thank goodness they have little ones and we left relatively early (10:30 ish). We were pooped from our night of carousing on Friday! We came home a snuggled up to an episode of The Jacques Cousteau Odyssey (my x-mas gift to Diego!).

Sunday, the sun was out and we were well rested and decided to head out into the wilderness! We went to hike the Salt Marsh Trail in Cole Harbour, NS. It was sooo cold! It was amazing to see the ocean frozen over along the shoreline!

Although dressed for the weather, it was cold enough to chase us back to the car after an hour.

This week in my organic veg box I received an eggplant. I have never really cooked eggplant outside of ratatouille before...so Alessandra invited me over to learn an Italian recipe that resembles a lasagna, except you use eggplant instead of noodles. It was delicious.

Here is what she taught me.

Wash two medium sized eggplants and slice into rounds. Spread them our on the cutting board and sprinkle with salt. This gets rid of any bitterness. Then to prepare the tomato sauce, get a medium sized sauce pan and fry a large chopped onion in a generous amount of olive oil. Take a large can of organic whole tomatoes and blend until smooth in the blender. Pour the tomatoes into the sauce pan with the onions once they are beginning to brown. Add three pinches of salt and two of baking soda. This removes the really acid taste of the tomatoes, it works better than adding some sugar. While the sauce is cooking, cut thin strips of soft mozzarellla cheese (we used 340g Silani brand mozza) and grate some parmesan (200g of fresh grated). Once the flavour of the baking soda has faded away the sauce is ready. First take a large glass baking dish (or any dish you use to make lasagna) and drizzle the bottom with olive oil. Add a layer of slightly overlapping eggplant to form a bed and drizzle lightly with olive oil. Laddle on some sauce, we used 2 laddle-fuls per layer, then divide your cheese into 3 portions. Each layer of cheese doe not have to cover all of the eggplant and sauce, the chees will melt throughout. Repeat until you have finished the three layers. You can more cheese to the top layer if you like a thick cap on top. We put the same amount in all layers and it covered it all just fine. Bake at 425F for 40 min or until the eggplant is soft. Serve with a salad and some lovely red wine!! Delicious!!

Hope you all had a great Monday! : >