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A Date with Hannah

Amber on October 18, 2010 23 Comments

On Saturday, I was invited^* to check out The Pod, a new art studio for kids in Vancouver’s Commercial Drive neighbourhood. Which is a lovely, vibrant part of East Vancouver, and not really earthy at all (cough Annemarie cough). Since my 5-year-old daughter Hannah considers herself to be a great artist, I couldn’t turn it down. And so Hannah and I headed out of the suburbs and into the city for some quality one-on-one time. And of course, I crossed my fingers the whole way that I wouldn’t have to do any tricky parallel parking. Luckily, I did not. Crisis averted!

We managed to find the studio and arrived on time. And we discovered that on this beautiful fall Saturday, we had the whole place to ourselves. I suppose that all the other children were out enjoying the weather. Suckers.

Hannah arriving at The Pod

We met Carlin Sandor, the creator of The Pod. She has a background in art, but worked for the government for years before she was laid off. While doing childcare to make ends meet, she was struck with idea of an art studio for kids. I love that she’s on her own Crafting my Life journey – I groove on people doing their Thing. And this is her Thing. She has dreams of expansion, and knitting circles, and sewing groups for teenagers, and a thriving centre for people of all ages to come and do art and handcrafts together. On so many levels, Carlin is singing my tune.

We made purses using bubble mailers and hockey tape. Before opening The Pod, Carlin did a bunch of focus groups with parents. There were two main themes that came out of those – make something useful, and don’t use glitter. I feel those parents – glitter is lovely, but evil.

Hannah colours before the class begins

Carlin shows Hannah what she’ll be making

Hannah cuts some tape, with a little help

Measuring Hannah for her bag’s strap

Hannah loved the studio. She was really quite disappointed that we only got to do one project. She wanted to make a robot and paint a rock and use the fabric scraps she found. Put a 5-year-old into a crafting paradise, and they could go all day, I think. Carlin graciously let Hannah take a piece of styrofoam home to use in a project. This piece of styrofoam has become Hannah’s Most Precious Thing. When I later asked her what her favourite part of the day was, she mentioned the styrofoam. 5-year-olds are really very cool, and sometimes surprisingly easy to please.

Hannah tucking her Most Precious Styrofoam into her new purse

When we were done at The Pod, we couldn’t just head home. We made our way to Commercial Drive and found a lovely bakery cafÃ©. I had a chocolate croissant and a cup of tea, and Hannah had a gigantic brownie and a cup of hot chocolate. She informed me I had chosen the wrong thing, because apparently the brownie was the best ever. She kept telling me how this was a great day, and how much fun she was having just the two of us. And I told her the same thing, because it was fun. Time alone with Hannah is tragically rare for me. Having a 2-year-old in tow nearly all the time has that effect. Just watching her enjoy herself was really pretty awesome.

Hannah and her chocolate

After we finished up at the cafÃ©, we stopped in at the vintage shop next door and ogled melmac dishes, old suitcases and gorgeous teak sideboards. Hannah settled on a vintage Hello Kitty mug. I managed to restrain myself, but I still sort of regret not buying the set of pastel melmac egg cups. They were just so pretty. Bygones.

It was great to get out and do 5-year-old stuff with my 5-year-old. To make art and explore a very cool neighbourhood and discuss the politics of kindergarten. I’m glad I did it. I hope to do it again soon.

Do you get one-on-one time with each of your kids? How do you swing it? And what kinds of stuff do you do? Tell me all about it!

^{* To be clear, we did not pay to attend the class, although there was no requirement that I blog about the experience.}

Filed Under: Blogging and Social Media, Kids and Parenting Tagged With: Beautiful BC, Bloggy McBloggerson, Kids, Parenting, The Pod, Things to do

Fair!

Amber on September 3, 2010 17 Comments

I mentioned a couple of days ago that my friend invited me to the fair, more properly called the Pacific National Exhibition, or just the PNE. The PNE is a Vancouver tradition going back 100 years. I love it, and before I had children I made it a point to go every year. I have entered draws to “Win a House, Win a Car!” I have eaten fair food and ridden on the rickety wooden roller coaster. I have watched chicks hatch and seen pigs race.

And then I got pregnant and took a long hiatus. The idea of taking small children into the big, bustling crowds scared me. Not to mention the many and various opportunities for whining that the fair presents to children. Rides we’re not going on. Treats we’re not buying. Games of chance we’re not playing. Old time-y portraits we’re not having taken. Oh yes, I could make a list as long as my arm filled with ways that taking children to the fair could go Very Badly Indeed.

Waiting outside the PNE gates

But. But. Having children in general can go Very Badly Indeed at anytime, even if you never leave your house. And it can also go Very Well Indeed, even when you least expect it. It can take something that is merely fun and make it amazing. Like, say, Christmas. Christmas was fun before I had kids, but now it’s something else entirely. Maybe the fair would be the same? There was really only one way to find out.

Watching the baby chicks

And so I found myself waiting outside the gate for my friends and their children. And then I found myself inside the gate with said friends and children. And we could barely contain the palpable excitement from the little ones. In fact, we couldn’t containt it, we could only ride along as they succumbed to the fair experience.

What would a fair be without carnival games?

We saw animals. The kids played farmer and got free chocolate milk. We ate junk food. We danced along with Dal Richards, who has been at the PNE for more than 70 years. We saw the Superdogs. We let the kids play a fishing game. We saw a monster truck. We nearly lost at least one of our children about 17 times. We left before things got too crazy, but not before buying even more junk food on the way out.

Jacob playing farmer

Hannah practices her roping

Was it kind of insane to take the children to the fair without my husband for backup? Probably. Was it worth it? I would say so. The PNE is such a huge local tradition. I love that about it. I love that you can go back every year during the last 2 weeks of summer and do it all again. You can eat the same food and see a lot of the same shows and walk through the same barns. And I want to share that with my kids. Yes, it’s a lot of work. No, I don’t get to see things on my schedule or at my pace. But it’s the PNE all the same.

The teeming crowds

Sharing events with your children is worth a little discomfort, I think. I’m glad that my own parents were willing to make that trade-off for me. And so I make the same trade-off for my children. And the reward for me, aside from eating mini donuts and re-experiencing the fair through my children? A good night’s sleep when everyone’s exhausted. $25 for 3 hours of parking is a small price to pay for an early bedtime, don’t you think?

Hannah and the dolphin she won

Me, still smiling as we head for home

In a few days it will be Labour Day, and summer will be over. But for now, we cling to our last days of freedom, and we go to the fair.

Filed Under: Random Awesomeness Tagged With: Beautiful BC, Kids, Navel Gazing, Seasons

Blackberry Lessons

Amber on August 18, 2010 30 Comments

Here in the Pacific Northwest, wild blackberries grow like weeds. In fact, they are weeds. Just try getting rid of a patch and you’ll find that it’s no easy feat. The plants line roadways and forest paths. In August, the berries grow large and deep purple, and it’s common to see people out with their buckets in parks and along the roadside picking berries.

I flatter myself, but I feel that I am a blackberry picker of considerable skill. And make no mistake, there is skill involved. The bushes have large, barbed thorns. If you aren’t careful, you can get badly scratched up. As a child, I got my finger caught on a thorn that I couldn’t get out. Not. Fun. There is an art to blackberry picking. As I perfected it, I have learned some life lessons.

Blackberries on the roadside in Birch Bay, Washington

Blackberry picking has taught me never to pay grocery store prices for something that grows wild, free and abundant. Why would I pay for flavourless, days-old berries, when I can pick and eat them fresh not 2 blocks from my door? And yet, blackberry picking has also taught me that you can’t get something for nothing. While I don’t have to pay to pick, I do have to invest effort and risk danger.

Blackberries on the vine

Blackberry picking has honed my eye, until I have become very adept at spotting the best berries in a tangle of thorns and leaves. It has taught me to look where other people don’t – down low and up high and in hard-to-reach places. And it has taught me to think ahead by dressing for the task and planning my approach. While a few scratches are par for the course in berry-picking, there’s no need to deliberately court them.

The reward – a bucket of berries

At least once on every outing I find myself snagged on some vines and stuck. And when that happens, I’ve learned how to get myself out with minimal damage. Blackberries have taught me to be slow and deliberate. They have taught me, above all, not to panic. And they have taught me that a little bit of risk is worth the reward.

A jar of homemade jam, so that I can enjoy blackberries all year long

Blackberries reinforce life’s transience. Blackberry season lasts a few weeks at most, and then it’s over. There’s no dilly-dallying if you want to enjoy your share. And when you have a bucket full of berries, you need to act fast because they won’t be that good for long. Make hay while the sun shines, and all that jazz, or your harvest will spoil before you can enjoy it.

Me being me, of course I had to make blackberry ice cream

I love picking wild berries. It feels like a part of my heritage, a piece of my childhood. I feel confident and at ease in a way that I don’t feel when I’m inside working on a computer. I love it. I hope that one day my children, too, will feel that way. That they will learn their own lessons from the blackberries.

Do you ever pick your own berries? What sorts of things have you learned in the process?

Filed Under: Random Awesomeness Tagged With: Beautiful BC, Food, Navel Gazing

Visiting the EcoDairy

Amber on July 31, 2010 24 Comments

Last weekend I was invited, along with my family, to tour Bakerview EcoDairy. I am always interested in learning more about where my food comes from, so I jumped at the chance. And what I saw while I was there has left me thinking a lot about agriculture in general, and dairy farms in particular.

The EcoDairy is a demonstration farm, which means its purpose is to teach the public about dairy farming. You can visit 7 days a week, all year round. Because it is open to the public, you know that the animals and the facilities are well cared-for. They also lay out the operation in such a way that it’s highly visible. I learned a lot about cows and dairy production during my tour. For instance, did you know that the average dairy cow produces around 30L or 8 gallons of milk a day? That puts lactating humans to shame.

Exterior of the EcoDairy

Bill Vanderkooi, who created the EcoDairy, has a background in animal science, specializing in dairy cattle nutrition and physiology. He grew up on a dairy farm, which is currently run by his brother. When he graduated, he wanted to use his knowledge to develop innovative nutritional solutions for dairy farmers. In the process, he created Vitala milk, which contains DHA Omega-3 and higher levels of CLA.

Look, milk!

To achieve the DHA and CLA levels in the milk, the cows are fed a special diet. They receive a specific mix of grasses, silage and grain, as well as flax seed and small quantities of tuna oil. Bill is committed to feeding the cows food from natural sources, so they don’t receive any supplements or artificial chemicals. When I saw the cows eating, it all looked pretty hay-like to me, but I admit to feeling a little bit squeamish about the tuna oil. It doesn’t sound like something that cows evolved to eat. Bill did tell me that it is locally sourced and tested free of mercury and other contaminants, and that feeding cows animal meal has a long history and many scientists consider it to be good for them.

The cows eating their special diet

The cows live in an ‘indoor pasture’. It is a large open space, with big windows, lots of light, rubber floors and special ‘cow mattresses’. The 40 or so animals that are currently there are free to roam around the space as they please. There are temperature and humidity controls, and the cows have access to an automatic brush and a robotic milker, so they set their own eating, sleeping, grooming and milking schedule. Each cow has a transponder so that they can track her milking, but Bill told me that most cows choose to be milked 2-3 times a day. We saw a line-up at the milker while we were there.

One of the cows checks out the automatic brush

One of the cows uses the automatic brush

While cows are being milked, the machine monitors their output specifically, checking flow rate, volume, temperature and white cell levels. This lets them know if a cow is sick, in which case her milk is dumped and she’s attended to. It also lets them know when her milk production is starting to slow. And over the course of a milking, it lets them know when she’s done. The robotic machine actually detaches from each teat individually when it stops flowing. This means that instead of just milking a cow for a specific amount of time at specific hours, they can really follow an individual cow’s pattern. As a nursing mama myself, I can appreciate that individuals vary.

The cows greeting Hannah. A few seconds after this photo, the one on the right licked me.

In order to keep the quantity and quality of the milk consistent, the cows are kept inside while they are producing milk. While the barn was very clean and lovely, it kind of upended my traditional view of what a dairy farm looks like. I grew up in dairy country, and I am accustomed to seeing a lot of cows out roaming pastures, at least over the summer. This is probably the thing that I wrestled with the most. I have no doubts that the cows are well cared-for, and that they have far more self-determination than the average cow. But would they be happier if they were outside? And does thinking of ‘happiness’ in human terms even make sense for a cow?

A video of our visit

The barn that the cows spend their days in is built do be as comfortable as possible. It’s also built to be environmentally friendly, too. They used recycled tires in the rubber floor and low-energy environmental controls and lighting. They have a green roof on one of their buildings, and collect rainwater off another. They are almost finished building an anaerobic digester, which will convert the cows’ waste into energy for the dairy and high-nutrient fertilizer. And they used pine beetle timber in their building, which is effectively salvaged wood.

I really believe that a lot of thought has gone into the EcoDairy and it was very educational for me to see it. It left me thinking a lot about farming and my pre-conceptions. That’s a good thing, I think. Knowing where your food comes from, and how the animals who produce it are treated, is important. And now I’d like to hear your thoughts. What do you think makes for a good dairy farm, or a good farm in general? What makes for a good quality of life for a cow? I’d love to hear!

PS – As you may know, I have started including a link-up with my monthly reviews. The reviews are an informal listing of a few things I learned in the past month. My July review will go live at 6am Pacific on Monday, August 2. If you want to play along, write a post on or before August 2, come here, and link up!

Filed Under: Random Awesomeness Tagged With: Beautiful BC, Enviro-Mama, Food

Little Qualicum Cheeseworks

Amber on June 26, 2010 14 Comments

One of the best parts of going on vacation is all of the blog fodder it provides. This was certainly the case with the trip we took to Parksville a couple of weeks ago. Fun! Togetherness! New places to talk about! It’s really win-win, I think.

One of the places that we checked out in Parksville is Little Qualicum Cheeseworks. We visited the farm three years ago when we were in town, and I loved it. I am a fan of cheese, what can I say? So when we were back in the neighbourhood, I knew I had to visit again.

Jacob meets some goats on the farm

Morningstar Farm is the home of Little Qualicum Cheeseworks and MooBerry Winery. Since 1999 it has belonged to the Gourlays, who started milking cows and making cheese there in 2001. All of the milk for their cheeses comes from their own herd of cows, and all of the cheese is made on-site at the farm. They also grow berries for their fruit wines, and make all of the wine on site as well. The fruit and berries for the wine that aren’t grown on the farm are sourced locally.

The cows, hard at work

The cheese, wine and pork that they produce and sell at the farm is not organic. However, they are definitely dedicated to sustainable practices and quality local food. Places like Little Qualicum Cheeseworks are the reason that I often opt for local over organic – by talking to people you can get a much better picture of the practices they follow than by reading labels. The Gourlays are dedicated to the local environment and to farming lightly. Although they do have some certifications that I appreciate, like the SPCA Certification that they treat their animals with great care and Environmental Partner Certification from The Land Conservancy.

The milking parlour

We toured the farm and peeked through the window into the room where the cheese is made. Jacob got up close and personal with a goat. Hannah got up close and personal with a bunny. We saw some of the cutest calves ever. We tasted cheese and I tasted wine. And I got to chat with some of the folks about their farm.

The outside of the cheeseworks

The cows at Little Qualicum are pasture-fed as long as the weather co-operates every year, and then they eat silage. Their milk is left raw for ripened cheeses and pasteurized for soft cheeses. Apparently, raw milk results in a more flavourful cheese. The pathogens that can live in milk have a lifespan of 60 days. So cheese that is aged for longer (like ripened cheese) will not contain live pathogens, but soft cheeses may and so they pasteurize that milk first. This is why pregnant women are cautioned against eating unpasteurized soft cheese.

The cheese

Living in the suburbs of a large city as we do, I don’t get to see the operations of a dairy farm first-hand. Or any farm, for that matter. Visiting Little Qualicum was a great chance for me, and for my children, to a get an up-close look at local agriculture. While I have bought Little Qualicum cheese at my local farmer’s market, the experience can’t compare. And the fruit wines, that you can’t get at the farmer’s market, were fabulous, too.

You can also check out the video my lovely husband Jon made of our visit on YouTube:

PS – As you may know, I have started including a link-up with my monthly reviews. The reviews are an informal listing of a few things I learned in the past month. My June review will go live at 6am Pacific on Friday, July 2. If you want to play along, write a post on or before July 2, come here, and link up. I have a feeling this is going to be fun!

Filed Under: Random Awesomeness Tagged With: Beautiful BC, Enviro-Mama, Food, Travel

Sea Water, Children and Cameras

Amber on June 18, 2010 33 Comments

As I type this, I am on vacation. In fact, as you read this I am likely still on vacation, although in the process of ending it. I spent this week in Parksville, a lovely seaside community on Vancouver Island. Jon and I visited twice before with Hannah – once when she was 6 months old and once when she was 2 1/2. We got a smoking hot deal on an oceanview townhouse since it’s currently Tourist Week, and so we took the ferry over on Sunday.

Jacob hiding his face from the wind

Vancouver Island has a population of approximately 750,000 people, and pretty much the only way to get here from the mainland is to take BC Ferries. I can’t count how many ferry rides I’ve taken in my lifetime, but I’m guessing it’s on the order of at least a couple of dozen round trips. Boarding the ferry is an experience that reminds me of my childhood. And in many ways, it hasn’t changed much in the past few decades. There’s an almost institutional feel to the ferry, but in a good way. And taking it always means that I’m getting away.

Hannah revels in the wind on the ferry deck

Ferry travel with kids is really great. There’s food, space to run, a playroom with some climbing equipment and children’s TV, and all of the excitement of being on a boat. 22-month-old Jacob totally lost his mind when we started moving. He kept screaming, “Boat! Boat! Boat!” in jubilant tones that I’m pretty sure half the ferry heard. When he saw other boats out the window it really put him over the edge. 5-year-old Hannah, on the other hand, was particularly excited about playing in the wind on the deck. I can see that both of my children are also building fond memories of the ferry.

Rathtrevor Beach in Parksville

Our time in Parksville has been fun. I got to spend a day at the spa. I totally didn’t ‘get’ spas pre-kids, but now I can see the appeal of a quiet space with fresh fruit, herbal tea and people who give massages. Really indulgent, and a total luxury, but I loved it. We’ve visited playgrounds and beaches and markets and a cheeseworks. We saw goats on the roof in Coombs, and possibly the most amazing market ever. I dropped my camera into a tide pool and didn’t realize it until some time later, and then had to find it again.

Jon on the beach

OK, so the camera part wasn’t so fun. When I finally found the camera, which is not even a month old, it was face-down in the salt water where it had spent at least 10 minutes. My shiny new toy, fallen victim to too much going on and the harmful effects of salt water on electronics. The lens was open and half-way extended. I cried. I swore. Jon raced to town for a bag of rice to attempt to revive it. Luckily, I was at least able to salvage these photos.

Me on the beach, with Jacob in the background

Unfortunately, after 24 hours in the bag of rice the camera was still kaput. I put in a fresh battery and … nothing. Not the slightest bit of life. If I could rewind 5 seconds of my life, it would be 5 seconds in that tide pool when I was trying to wrangle kids and beach gear and take photos at the same time. You had better believe I am never taking another camera on to a beach again.

Hannah is none the worse for salt-water exposure, unlike the camera

The beach at low tide

Aside from the camera loss, the trip was good. I didn’t totally unplug during the vacation. The whole trip wasn’t just one idyllic scene after another, but it was wonderful all the same. There was getting away. There was togetherness. There were moments of tranquility and bliss. There was a ferry trip. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Just one of the extremely healthy local deer population

Now, please, make me feel better. Tell me that you have managed to drop a camera into a tide pool, too. Or maybe a bowl of soup. Or a cup of coffee. Or if not a camera, a new iPhone or a laptop. I need a little bit of commiseration over the whole episode.

Filed Under: Random Awesomeness Tagged With: Beautiful BC, Travel