Much to our surprise, our visit in Toronto, coincided with the Monarch Butterflies’ last sojourn in early September before migrating south to Mexico. Monarch Abundance Not Far from Skyscrapers Quite frankly, I had no idea in advance, the number of monarch butterflies we would see in the city in several parks, with the city traffic…
Category: Garden
Escape to Arashiyama, Part I: Many Faces of Buddhism, Nuances in Zen Moss Garden
While travelling in Japan, I often felt I had not done enough research to swallow the meaning of sights and details unfurling before me. That feeling lingered when we wandered around in Arashiyama-Sagano. Arashiyama lies on the western fringe of Kyoto — an hour train ride away. We had initially just planned to see…
Magnolia and Cherry Blossom Cascades
I’ve always look forward to the annual spring burst of cherry tree blossoms in Vancouver. A cascade of delicate pink, sometimes white blossoms, sweeps across the city, in waves, for a month. Usually during the latter part of March into April. While cherry trees are busting out, larger petals of magnolia flowering trees are breaking…
Part 2. Food for Canadian Soul and Fans – Shaped by Climate, Soil, Water and Culture
I’ve been spinning my journey as a Canadian who has lived in several contrasting regions –Ontario, Pacific British Columbia coast and Alberta. Last time, I blog-galloped across our vast geography and rattled on about living in a place with many time zones and weather tantrums. So let’s talk about food now –what Nature nutures in…
Rising with Community Gardens: Three Cities
Vancouver’s Sole Foods: Bringing Back Dignity and Purpose to Emptiness Last year, a large dreary parking lot in downtown Vancouver was transformed with rows of bright green vegetables under the shadow of B.C. Stadium, elevated light rail viaduct and condo towers. It didn’t take long for rich green leaves to unfurl and cover part of the…
What Shapes Me: Neighbourhoods That Are Walkable, Cycleable
It isn’t just my genes or my lifelong, whole food cooking tendencies (thanks mom), that shapes me: I have always lived in walkable, cycleable neighbourhoods. That’s a long time. Over 55 years in 9 different neighbourhoods across 7 Canadian cities. I’ve previously trumpeted this fact in this blog, as a cyclist living in Toronto, Vancouver…
Cycling Greenways – Umbilical Cord to My Past Neighbourhoods: Prairies, West Coast and Ontario
A long bike route near home, joins my memories like a green umbilical cord, to places where I’ve lived and biked in Canada for the past 22 years. My green route curls and unwinds in Toronto, Vancouver and now, Calgary. To know and to memorize each twist, bump, hill and breathless plateau of a bike path at my doorstep,…
Nurturing Life: In Praise of Gardeners, Keepers of the Earth
As a non-gardener, I couldn’t help giggling at a tiny stand of flower pots for sale when we stopped by the University of British Columbia’s Botanical Garden Shop, during a bike ride last month. One of the pots had a garden ceramic sign emblazoned: Grow, damn it! Do expert gardeners lose their patience too? Respect for…
Cherry Blossom Ballet in Vancouver: Nature and New Mural Art
I had been wanting to highlight this new outdoor public mural that featured cherry blossoms against the backdrop of West Coast Japanese-Canadian and aboriginal history. The St. James Community Service Society mural was commissioned in 2011 by the City of Vancouver, as part of their new public art works in celebration of the city’s 125th…
Cesky Krumlov: Czech Interpretations of Medieval and Renaissance Architecture
For another architecturally rich visit in a quieter, smaller town beyond the hustle and bustle of Prague, is the town of Cesky Krumlov. It is 180 km. southwest of Prague –a pleasant train ride in old, but clean Czech trains. We stowed our bikes into the bike train car and settled into our seats to watch…
900 Years of Architectural Legacy: Why Prague is a Royal Empress
I had heard of Prague’s splendid old World charm. But I was unprepared for the city’s dizzying variety and historical compression of architectural centuries at each street corner and with each turn of my head. Good thing we could explore its astonishing richness of Romanesque, medieval, baroque, renaissance, gothic and art nouveau building wonders, by…
Kohl Rabi Memories and Redux
Kohl rabi is still one of those under performing root vegetables that hasn’t yet penetrated mainstream North American food consciousness. Or not even in too many other places world-wide. Let me know if my guess is wrong. This blog post is not going to be a rapturous paean to this pale green, bland-looking veggie. It’s…
Mosaic Park – A Creative Stream of Community Consciousness and Dreams
I have always been curious about the artwork at Mosaic Park which is not far from the Adanac bike route. I had seen vague photos of swirly mosaics in the ground and occasional close-ups of certain sections. It turns out Mosaic Park, was located only a block away from a bike route that I rode…
Canon Canada’s Gala Event: Supporting Community Gardens, Showcasing Excellence in Sport and Music.
What relationships would there be among community gardens, a world-class Winter Olympic athlete and an international star singer? Well, they are all good and they are all local. To celebrate the opening of its Vancouver branch office, yesterday Canon Canada hosted a gala luncheon event which included 2010 Olympic gold medal snowboarder Maelle Ricker and Canadian…
Cycling under Cherry Pink Flowering Bowers
When we first moved to Vancouver, I was struck by the ubiquity of cherry trees blooming in a lot more numbers than in Toronto. Vancouver has over 37,000 cherry trees of which some were given by the Japanese government 1930-1950’s from the cities of Kobe and Yokahoma. In commemoration of the Japanese-Canadians who served in…
People’s Oases: Community Gardens
Not far from home, there are more and more community gardens popping up each year. Some garden plots are quite tiny by the curbside, while others are larger and cunningly designed with a winding pathway, twisted tree branch arbour or even a park bench. Some gardeners must spend whole warm summer evenings basking in their patch of garden artistry…
