Summer Toes

Me and my pretty toes are heading off on holiday. I will be floating in several Okanagan lakes over the next couple weeks. Blog posts will still miraculously appear, but they will be minimalist. And yes, sometimes vanity trumps the environment.

Dead Birds Falling

I heard on CBC Radio this week that dozens of paralyzed crows and ravens had been found in the northeastern corner of BC, near Dawson Creek. What was curious about the report was the focus on the wing and leg fractures. Veterinarians, who had ruled out West Nile virus, said […] Read More

Recycling Time

For those of you who live on the west side of Vancouver, a reminder that you can recycle all your “beyond the blue box” items like soft plastic wrap (cheese, pasta), foil (all those Miss Vickie’s chips bags), trays from the take-out, the plastic lids from all those pizzas you […] Read More

Innovation to Spare

The little bulb on my mini Maglite finally burnt out. I couldn’t find any shopkeepers in the neighbourhood who knew how to change the bulb, let alone sell me a replacement. So back I went to Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) where I bought the flashlight probably ten years ago. The […] Read More

Containing Homelessness

Atira Women’s Resource Society previewed their latest social housing project this past week. The 3-storey complex is made from recycled shipping containers. The 12 units are roughly 280 square feet, with all the important conveniences (bathroom, kitchen, even in-suite laundry). It costs just over $82,000 to build one of these […] Read More

A Pride of Rainbows

  We celebrated Pride week with a colourful roar in this month of Leo. We didn’t just paint the town red, no we went technicolour! These permanent rainbow crosswalks are at the corner of Davie and Bute, in the heart of Vancouver’s west end. Rainbows are the universal symbol for […] Read More

Cognitive Dissonance

We had a potluck for the final day of my Appreciative Inquiry course. Some of us had been talking about “cultivating our own gardens” (referring to Voltaire’s Candide), in the sense that it is more important to work on transforming yourself than on trying to change others. In tribute, I […] Read More