jen_stotland

This is my path

2009-12-30T03:18:50Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsyjfJn0kb4

:-D

in other news I've made it my life's goal to not read the Dindsenchas. Note how I'm not *vowing* to not read them, that's just stupid.

jen_stotland @ 2009-12-25T21:58:00

2009-12-26T01:58:41Z

Christmas with my in-laws is always overwhelming, but I'm used to it now. The first time I met them was in Christmas 2004 (5 years already, wow) and on top of the regular Christmas explosion they were also trying to impress me. Fortunately Cape Breton is basically about vast tracts of unspoilt forest so there's always somewhere to run to. We also arrived this time on the 24'th so most of the preparation hubbub was avoided and the rest of our stay will have gotten the 25'th out of the way.

I got 3 books this year, two of them poetry anthologies *dance*! Aaron and I worked off two vast dinners by climbing Coxheath mountain this afternoon. However I think Ive picked up a virus and hiking has brought it to a tipping point so I'll be turning in early this evening. I've lost the desperate feeling I had in the city, from the change of scene and being in the forest. I hope I can keep enough perspective to get work done on this film before it returns. I am seriously considering leaving Halifax now for somewhere far more rural, where I can experience the forest more often than the once a month I do now, and I might persuade myself to live up here, who can tell. There is a physical and mental stillness that comes from having next to no population for more than 100 miles on any side of one. the energy is very clean up here.

my first speech

2009-12-13T03:42:17Z

well the interfaith event went off swimmingly. it was cold out, with a strong wind, (-10c, 15f) so we ended up doing it inside the church nearby city hall. there was a good crowd, at least 100 people, CTV and 3 politicians. My condition for speaking was that I shoudl go first, so I wouldn't piss my pants in anxiety waiting for other people to speak. It turns out I was the only one dressed up, everyone else was sort of in sweaters and dress pants. It was very much the speakers were on the pulpit and the congregation didn't say anything, but still a cool experience and a very beautiful and sombre ritual. I shortened my speech a bit to match the others but a number of people in the audience expressed gratitude at having a pagan there, having a chance to learn more about the faith and expressing interest in getting more involved. One of the fellow speakers heard that this was my first public declaration of my faith and called it an important milestone. I might be invited to more interfaith events.

One man came up and said, so you're Celtic trad, eh? And wanted to exchange contacts. He was Shambhala, but wanted me to be introduced to some shamanic groups on the south shore. After the ritual I hung out with Jocelyn at her house helping cook a feast and we broke her 7 day fast together.

supporting the Climate fast, Jen makes friends with a priest

2009-12-10T18:43:50Z

So I went down to help out the Interfaith Coalition for Climate Justice today, some members have been fasting since Sunday and visiting offices of members of parliament, environment canada, that sort of thing, and helped with sign holding. I did know some of the people there who have been helping with some of the other actions. My buddy Jocelyn who is a memeber of my community garden was also fasting.

I fell into conversation with a fellow named Russ who told me he was a preacher, in the course of the "so what do you do" conversation ( I at last have something somewhat cool to say in response to that question). It came up that I was going to be speaking on Saturday and he asked what church I was with and I told him I was Pagan. I braced myself, this was a conversation whose coming had only been a matter of time. He said he was excited to meet a real live pagan, for all he had heard about us. I said I was just a follower and not leader of any group, that the scene in this city have recently imploded and not gotten back into organised groups yet, it goes in a sort of cycle. "Oh so they're like Presbyterians" he said.

He impressed me with his knowlege of druidism and early Irish Christianity, and seemed to speak of Catholic syncretism in Cuba and South America as a positive thing. Which might mean that he'll understand who I'm invoking for a blessing at Saturday, hmm. I asked him how he fit climate activism into his beliefs as a Christian when he believes in a Day of Judgement and an afterlife. He anwered that there are more references in the bible to a heaven existing on earth and not in another realm, and that he doesn't believe in a Day of Justice perse, but that the bible can be taken as a series of metaphors.

And then he bought me a juice so there. I had a discussion with a friend who was going to attend the candlelit vigil until he heard that it was going to be an interfaith event and feels squidgy about it and is now not attending. Ouch. So we discussed whether this action is going to be helpful after all and whether strengthening the faithful in our actions is worth alienating some people from the movement or whether it is actually destructive to put a faith label on what is actually a scientific issue. the truth is faith groups do still influence politicians, in some ways more than sciences, though ever bit helps. Perhaps because churches represent far more people than universities even, and make a direct appeal to the conscience of leaders. Anwyay my friend said atheists would certainly not worry about the response from the faithful in any actions they might take, so I needn't worry about thiers. Also if an atheist is convinced of the reality of climate change an interfaith event isn't going to change their mind.

I wonder sometimes if this sort of interfaith all-religions-are-valid viewpoint isn't some sort of gathering together against secular society, as though it took all this time to find one common enemy that would unite the world's disparate creeds n a last gasp concession/attempt to adapt before the new age of enlightenment. It's a pessimistic view and a stretch I know, but something Iv'e been chewing on.

warrior

2009-12-05T15:32:45Z

This word floats around my life most of the time. I mostly notice it more due to certain aspects of my spiritual path, often it comes around from other people in my life having the conversation "what is a warrior" or "I am a warrior". In fact these are questions I've successfully avoided asking for some time, but I came to a place where I am finding ways to make my practice make more sense and am testing these waters.

Select[lj-cut text="warrior stuff"] Im hoping this can start a bit of a dialogue on what is a warrior, what distinguishes hir from others, if anything, what is the good or the bad of being one,

I was involved in a conversation with some of my husband's friends, and they came to the conclusion that Warriordom is exclusively reserved for physical fighting, ie, a person is not a warrior if they are fighting cancer.

At a party some months ago an acqauintance gave a bit of a speech on his identity as a warrior, that it involves personal integrity and defending those weaker than one's self.

I've recently read Way of the Peaceful Warrior, in hopes of clearing up some issues for myself. I wonder if I am expected to be a "warrior" and what that might mean. At the end of the book I had gotten some good ideas and there were worthwhile bits of wisdom but I still don't understand why the protagonist or his teacher were warriors. By the end of the book both had acchieved a life of satisfaction in the simple things, and detachment from the dross of consumerism and the red herrings of modern society, and a sort of enlightenment. It was never explained why the author departed from the traditional meaning of the word to mean these other things.

Conversing about this book a friend of mine defined it as "being able to take physical action to defend one's self and those weaker than one's self if necessary". That seeems to hit the mark closest.

Recently a good friend of mine called me "Warrior" because I'm putting a good deal of activity into climate activism these past few months.

Here is why it sticks my craw:

the inevidable connection to violence.
Folks were warriors if they fought a "fair fight", they also were if they impaled civilians. How do we know if a war was just if history is written by the victors? One side is always going to win because they have more resources, usually those with less resources are going to be the losers, and they to lose yet more resources. In cases like the French Revolution and the Second World War it can take years for all the information to come out to make a value judgement and sometimes centuries to decide if the war was just or not. Is one a warrior if one chooses to embark on such fuzzy moral ground, and tackle such karmic complexity? Most people who call themselves warrior seem to think the moral issues very cut and dry. To me it seems they've swallowed a party line.

it smacks of patriarchal values
See above. yes there are historical incidences of female fighers but they are not many. All too often "warriors" rape and pillage. I've no doubt that academics could produce smarmy arguments about the good of spreading genetic diversity and promoting strength through competition but I doubt any of these have ever been raped.

hierarchism
If there are warriors then there are not-warriors. What shall we call those? Sheep? The first use of fighting men and standing armies were to preserve the position of men in power. At times in history yes this kept the peace in a turbulent world, but it's a crude solution, a reaction to instability. Can you differentiate the man with a rifle supporting a military coup and the knight in shining armour?

I brought this up with my Lady of course, and got the answer that

most folk see it as something to aspire to and not necessarily to do always. it is just a word. to be a warrior is to be most things that make one human, and that one does already, or might do and a warrior is what a man calls himself when he wants to slay.
she should find her own meaning and follow it

(with the implications that my own definition to the word warrior might help motivate me in my life's work, if I can find a definition I can live with)
Does this mean I have to do this or that it would be adviseable?[/lj-cut]

Is this an identity that has been useful in your life? How do you define warrior?

The fight goes on

2009-11-17T17:25:15Z

yes there have been petitions, maybe you've signed them. This one is to the UN urging a stop to development around the M3 motorway at the Hill of Tara. Perhaps you can help stop stripmalls and gas stations on the bones of the kings and the patriots.

here's the petition

www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/505705543/taf

tech me

2009-11-10T21:52:17Z

How do I get the bouncing moods icons, of kittens or stars or whatever?

jen_stotland @ 2009-10-23T09:35:00

2009-10-23T12:45:37Z

So they're going to make another version of The Crow, but not a reshoot, the script is going to be different somehow, but not a sequel. The question on everyone's minds is who will succeed Brandon Lee this time in playing the lead?

I'm going to put forward Dawd the Bounty Hunter, in commemoration of that first Dawd the Bounty Hunter, who repo'd that Brown Bull, fool. I'm also curious if he will die in a redux of that bizarre curse/sacrifice/accident that plagued the first film. Just to get the point across would it be something even more obvious such as falling onto a church spire and vomiting blood in the full view of times Square leaving behind a young wife and baby and one on the way? In some ways I feel like a guy named O'Barr should've known better but maybe not, people get away with all kinds of crazy before it gets called in to be made an example of..

Come to think of it, Thornrose have you watched The Crow? It might make you feel a whole lot better about a lot of things...

Edible Art Show a pumpkin smash!

2009-10-21T00:09:04Z

It wasn't attended by throngs but there was a steady trickle throughout the night. I was unreasonably nervous beforehand. I recalled later to the Edible Club president that this was the first performance I've done *in a gallery*. Somehow that makes it scarier than in a class or in public. But nobody shot me down or called me a bad person or whatever I was expecting.

Setting up, Jesse forgot the hot plate and I forgot cooking oil and rushed to the grocery store to get some. I was afflicted with strange nausea this morning and hadn't eaten anything but toast so while I was in the store I decided to get more normal kale and mushrooms to stirfry as well.
I might not have explained to everyone that I was cooking and serving mushrooms grown in bank ATM statements and Kale grown in (safely) composted humanure.

I had enough art-meaningful food for people to try but not enough for a meal. And many people did try them. A couple politely declined but some (Art students and my husband) had no problem with the idea. I did write up a two page statement on why this is safe and healthy, and my mom, a microbiologist, wrote a little disclaimer for me, with all official titles and degrees. She's so awesome!

During the show we were visited by a troupe of Brownies, and I was put on the spot to explain my art to little girls between the ages of 8 and 10! None of them made any reaction to my face, but a few "Eeew!"s were heard when they thought i couldn't hear. The leaders thought it was great, and all the kids thanked me quite politely.

There were 4 other pieces, and we didn't really fill out the cavernous gallery space. I saw an old friend of mine Jesse James (her birth name), who had made a model cow's stomach out of transparent plastic filled with shredded plastic bags. Jesse, who curated, had made a vast quantity of Pumpkin soup for Nocturne festival but it had never gotten served, so we partook. He had also collaborated with a distant friend to create a man out of food, laid out on a table. We were invited to pick away at the man, destroying the implied body by removing the food. Jesse is not at all one to express how pagan-as-fuck this all seemed to me, he just wanted to imply the absence of his friend. jesse also baked El Dia de los Muertos bread (which I didn't know existed before now) to contribute to the man. I pondered how celebrations of the dead often involve food, offered to those who cannot eat, out of plant matter that is itself dead, and that the festivals of the ancestors seem to happen around harvest time, in the European traditions at least (I'm told it happens in the summertime in Japan?)

Jesse expressed disappointment that there werent enough people to dismantle the man completely so we struck out through the school. I made an announcement to a night class that they should take food from this man and the teacher said "we should go right now!" I forgot how cool NSCAD is. So the show closed with a festive atmosphere and I gave the rest of my kale to a student who hadn't been able to get groceries for weeks. And I took home a bunch of food from the man so it all worked out.

I ran into my friend Jennifer W whom I hadn't seen since the spring, which is silly because we live less than a kilometer away from one another. So we resolved of course to keep in better touch, and possibly do some video collaborations.

Morgaine Nightshade and Jen Stotland refined sugar challenge

2009-10-18T15:39:14Z

Thus begins an epic 5 week journey in which two witches forgoe refined sugar for 5 weeks, excluding sundays, and "unrefined sugar" such as agave nectar and the like. Can they survive Halloween hoopla? Stay tuned!

farewell to summer

2009-10-13T13:12:30Z

well I managed to make it through Thanksgiving feast without drinking wine :D due to a combination of the mushroom and some tasty drinks I brought for myself. I find that people don't make a big deal about it nearly as much as I expect, and are often happy for a designated driver.

We have our thanksgiving in October because by November the harvest is long in and it looks christmassy and people aren't in the mood anymore, but they would be jeolous of the Americans if we didn't have an excuse to overeat poultry as well.

Frosts and flurries are being predicted, we need to heat the house at night, it's time to put the plastic stuff on the windows. Goodbye summer, I did pretty good by you. Time to retreat and muster for the next season.

I'm in the newspaper

2009-09-24T14:13:11Z

My article on foraging wild plants in the city has come out.

http://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/city-diner/Content?oid=1290693

let me know what you think. I thought Leslie was a bit scattered and still managed to make me look like a weirdo, but at least she is writing on the subject at all.

Forestry doc project a go!

2009-09-18T22:38:38Z

Wow, a lot has happened since I've blogged here last, I'm on the planning committee of a climate event that's going down on the 24'th of October doing PR work (because, you know, I wasn't feeling busy enough!). I'm most likely going to be taking the next 6 weeks semi-off (I've still got 15 hours a week of work to do until Samhain) to improve my video portfolio and possibly make something of all my Irish footage I've had left over from my graduating year.

I guess the most noteworthy news is that the EAC has given the sustainable forestry documentary the go-ahead! So either I have permission to seek funding or they are going to fund me, I'm not sure which. Either way, yay!

millions of peaches

2009-08-29T00:11:45Z

Yesterday I canned peaches for 8 1/2hours and I will *NEVER* do it again. Or at least I will buy my preservables in smaller quantities so that I won't have to take days off work to prevent the lot going bad on me. I only broke one jar, and I hope that they all seal properly or I will cry. I'm not sure having a stove on max for 8 hours actually saved any power compared to trucking peaches from chile, considering that I don't buy much of a variety of fruit in the winter typically. But then this was also about building the resilience of our local food supply. Check out my flickr account for more details of my recent exploits.

never keep garlic next to your mushroom box

2009-08-23T20:40:35Z

and never try to lactoferment cauliflower. It seemed like a good idea but I guess they have too much air or water or something. Perhaps this is why we pound the cabbage first when making sauercraut? I tested a small amount and it seemed fine after a week but now the whole pot has spoiled. Luckily two other pots I made last night are still fresh and I will blanche and freeze them.

The garlic from my garden was covered in green fuzz (penicillium I believe) as was a mushroom box filled with mushroom spawn and coffee chaff. The boxes with bank statements were still fine, and producing fruiting bodies and beginning to eat the box Yay! Which leads me to believe that while boiling the statements for ten minutes was fine to sterilise them, microwaving moistened chaff for 3 minutes was not sufficient. Sorry to the online source that said this was the way to go!

I peeled the garlic and blanched them too. some I put in a jar filled with olive oil and the rest went into pesto. Which is to say another day spent in the kitchen!

I intend to post the photos of the progress of the mushrooms when they are installed at the Edible Art Show. I'm hoping I can dry them and reconstitute to make the soup for opening night, and trying that out with a small piece. If not, I will try to grow wheat in the mushroom compost and just post pictures and ensure people that I really did eat money.

It's a warrior thing, you wouldn't understand

2009-08-15T21:25:08Z

Friday August 15

Dave is a lot happier than Alex; he has two hired hands and it was nice to spend time with people my own age who do things I do like listen to music, and take a break when we are tired. I stayed up a bit with them and we talked politics, and I turned in around 9:30. Having not been offered a room, I slept in the tent. I tossed and turned though until 2. I think that the waning crescent moon has become a bit of a cue for me though, as I rarely see it unless I'm uneasy and awake at 2-4 in the morning, in a sleep deprived state and of recent years that means "wonnky". so I endured fevered dreams until I remembered that I had Benadryl in my pack, and took one to fall asleep. Thus it was that I slept in. I took a tour around the farm with Dave in the morning and saw his lands, his horse and his woodlot. The soil is in a sad state after generations of growing hay without fertiliser of any sort, so he is growing crops to plough back under for a few years. Breakfast was more zucchini cake and fairtrade coffee with unpasteurised cream.

I made Windsor in good time. A complete stranger knew my name in a cafe where I bought iced coffee, and I faked a conversation until I turned to go and she said "blessed be" and I realised it was the girl who had run the winter solstice ritual. she was hitchhiking with a friend and going to Cape Breton. I ate at the Spitfire, and had a misunderstanding with the waitress when I gave her a $5 and she thought I didn't want change back. I still tipped but I asked for 50c back.

It was a hot day. No rain. there had been a ring around the sun all thursday and i was concerned. an hour outside Windsor the land began to climb. The rivers went from red and muddy to swift and blue. The continental divide was as high as Gaspereau mountain but less steep and longer. Halfway up I realised I hadn't filled my water since Hantsport. At the top there had still been no stores or gas stations and i was long out of water and on the verge of heatstroke. Redfaced and wheezing I charged into the first place I found, a horseback riding school, and begged for water.

While the instructors went looking for the owners I doused myself in well water from the bathroom. An older man with a British accent strolled over and said "you look hot, you've been up that hill? Oh, good job. There's water in the kitche and a pop machine, have you brought a swimsuit? Well no matter, here stay a while in our pool!"

After 20 minutes of blissful cool water I reluctantly remembered how tired swimming makes one, and I was only halfway home. If you're ever in Ardoise NS (not the Ardoise in Cape Breton,the other one), stop on by the Boulderwood Stables.

By Mt Uniacke I was in rough shape and had a muscle spasm in my hips. From here it was all downhill but I had to stop to rest every half hour. I tried calling Aaron in Bedford and again in town but both phones ate my quarter, exactly the amount I didn't tip the waitress in Windsor. I finally went into a gas station and I must have had a fierce look in my eye because they immediately let me use their phone. I called Aaron to come get me, and he walked me the rest of the way.

I've since learned that professional ecotour bike trips won't do more than 6 hours, or 60 km in a day, whereas I'd gone nearly 90. I don't know how many miles that is.

I often wondered why I keep doing these things to myself. Am I searching for something Real? Am I still trying to prove what I can do and still doubting myself all over again? Why do I seek these uncomfortable situations? Perhaps I just didn't know. And so now what have I learned? Distances are farther when you're not in a car, I can live comfortably on 40 lb of gear (but Tara taught me that). I can use the same soap for my body, my hair, my clothes and my teeth. What Alex said is true, there are not a lot of people farming in the country, but I think if we all used the land already cleared to its full potential we could easily feed the province and then some. I can leave the city without a car if I want to, if I need to flee I can do no more under normal conditions than 80 km.

I did it out of curiosity I suppose
I skipped yoga and took the bus to work today and am taking it easy.

it is more strenuous to cover the mile-paths

2009-08-15T15:14:58Z

Good morning, I'm sorry I haven't posted before this but I was without internet Thursday night (boy do I get alot of e-mail!) and last night I was too poopered and was really focussing on bathing, eating and watching Garth Merenghi's darkplace. should I go in chronological order? Here's what I wrote Thursday:

Last night I went to bed at dusk and woke up at dawn. the Avon valley was full of mist like a bowl. i worked the kinks out of my back, washed the dishes, looked round the farm and was off.

Alex suggested a shortcut through the gypsum quarry, which he said was closed due to the economic climate, and would shave some km off my journey. Along the dirt road a spoke reflector got jammed in my wheel and I had to get down and fix it. Turns out this was a warning but I did not heed it, as I continued on I had a bad feeling that grew on me and then suddenly a large truck came barrelling toward me, just as a pannier got jammed in the wheel somehow. i was less afraid of being run over than evicted, fined or possibly arrested, but I find being a pretty young woman gets me out of a lot of scrapes, or he just didn't care. I abandoned the shortcut and rejoined the main road. As a parting shot the spoke reflector got caught again and snapped in two with a loud but harmless bang.

The worst part of thursday was right after that, when I biked for a half hour in the wrong direction and a half hour back. Going the right way toward Windsor was stunningly beautiful, rolling gypsum ridges topped with white pines in between red mudded tidal rivers.

Halifax was settled because it was defensible, and strategic militarily and economically. It was not settled for being fertile or clement, and tends to recieve the worst the north atlantic has to offer. Find a satelite photo of Canada at night and in nova Scotia you'll see a string of lights running diagonally from southwest to northeast. This is the Anapolis valley, a long microclimate between two long and slender mountains which is one of only three regions in Canada where we can grow grapes, peaches, pears, cherries and orchards. I foresee the towns in the valley becoming much more populated and important in the next few years.

I reached Windsor at noon ,and was stunned to see the Spitfire Arms pub. This was a traditional lunch spot for Aaron and I when he was going to school in the valley. We considered it a short stop before Halifax and not 6 hours of hard going and 2 days of my labour.

I was saved in Hantsport by a wooded stream in which I bathed and ate the chokecherries there. At the river Avon I was forced to rejoin the freeway as the only means to cross. Shortly after this was Wolfville, and the Just Us fairtrade coffee roaster; my almost-there landmark and lunching stop. I zoomed down the hill screaming in delight until the patrons stared at me.

I was much delayed from getting lost and a long stay at the cafe. I knew now that to camp on cape Blomidon and try to make it from there to Halifax in one day would be madness, and resolved to camp out on Dave's lawn whether he let me or not. I finally reached Dave by phone and he said I was welcome to let myself into his house ,but he might not be there as he had 2 farmer's markets to go to.

Cape Blomidon is the most noticable landmark from a great distance and was seen as a home of Glooscap. So I did my little ritual within view of it, in the backyard of the good vibes of the cafe and force for social change. I'd brought sweetgrass sage and tobacco I'd gotten at Tara, but had no way to burn it.

Dave had warned me that his house was at the top of a steep climb, so I wasnt unprepared. Halfway up I got off the bike and walked. 3/4 of the way I stopped to rest and rubbed wild thyme on my legs for the menthol. I had to get some energy from a tree to make it to the top. But at the house I could take a bath and call Aaron.

8 pm and sunset rolled around, and still no sign of Dave. I had set up my tent and was about to turn in when a car pulled up and out came Dave and two assistants, who straight away offered me pesto zucchini pizza and zucchini brownies. I watched them move furniture into the house and wasn't able to help out but I was asked to help chase the chickens back into the coop.

Wednesday evening checkin

2009-08-12T20:08:16Z

I have arrived I am alive, although I may never have exerted myself this much in my entire life. Jyelle told me she biked 150 km in one day painlessly but I don't believe her. By the end of upper Sackville (city limits ) I was in agony, and despairing of ever getting here, but it turns out that I'd been going uphill for a couple hours and that soon after the land levelled out into a comfortable routine of uphill-downhill. Still I was mighty glad to see Mt Uniacke my halfway point, and to stop in a terrible restaurant for lunch and caffeine. Before this had been a stretch of some miles vacant of any human presence, and I had to remind myself that I had everything to meet all my needs for the next few days on me, as well as a car passing me every minute.

After Mt Uniacke the woods became of a better quality, in an intermediate healthy stage rather than scrub. I became aware that I was going up and up again. Up up up. it was gratifying to see a radio tower as if it was saying, you're not imagining things, this is really high. This became evident as the watershed divide and then down down down for 1/2 hour into the transfiguringly beautiful Fundy valley.

My home for the night is an organic farm horses, chickens, ducks, geese and lots of insects. gypsum mine in the distance and alkaline herbs to collect, nettles and elecampane. they want their compuer back

bike trip

2009-08-12T00:47:23Z

I leave tomorrow at 10, will probably get into windsor around 2 or 3 pm AST. I will confirm arrival as soon as I can politely use a computer and possibly again to assure Ive made it through the night. I'll be incommunicado from thursday afternoon until friday night as I'll be in the mountains, or on the road.

toodloo!

Rick White. Jen goes to an Indy show

2009-08-07T12:11:35Z

the days are hot and sunny and we keep our houses cool by closing our windows in the daytime. the box receipt project is trucking along and the spawn are exploring over the new paper territory with their mycellia. I might have to go collect more receipts. I haven't gotten caught yet and I'd like to keep it that way. However it is another weekend coming up. I am doing video work at 10 at CFAT and hoping to have time to do paid work before blueberry picking. I plan to work through the weekend to finish this project.

We saw Rick White last night. I came from CFAT, picked up money for my ticket from the house (advance tix were sold out) and walked to the North Street Church. Rick white was talking in a circle of people outside and I asked if he had played yet and he said he was up next. THe church was sweltering hot, and filled with brightly dressed youth sitting politely on the floor. The only concession was water for $1. A man was playing acoustic and singing something about love and Paris and Aphrodite. He did perform valiantly with a minimum of props or backup or anything but his body, voice and the guitar. He epitomised the sort of indy I don't like but was enthusiastically received.

Rick was onstage with just a guitar and some mics, There was also a small camcorder on him. It was a more intimate show than I can remember. For She is the Path he created some sort of fingerpicking where he changed frets like 16 times a bar. when he acchieved the chorus I felt my hair stand on end. By the end of the song he was crying a bit and so I was I. Rick played a few songs about living alone in the woods and friends who have committed suicide and covered a song about a man who dies in isolation, it sounded like a Beatles song. I hope he's ok. After the set I didn't have the heart to see Julie Doiron and took my leave and watched the moon rise over the sea.

wild foods

2009-07-26T20:52:09Z

I've been wildcrafting seriously for about 10 years and I've decided that it's time to stop being afraid of species that resemble poisonous varieties. yes, wild carrots may look like hemlock but they don't look *that* much like hemlock. i can easily tell the difference in appearance and odor, the roots are different, the leaves are different. So after waiting for a specimen to bloom at the community garden and observing the flower I took a small bite of a small leaf. No creeping paralysis. I'm going to take a sublethal dose of the root and slowly build up my own confidence.

Similarly mushrooms. We've been eating mushrooms for thousands of years, members of my own family have taken me mushroom gathering but recently I haven't found one person willing to take me mushrooming (with the exception of Ken, who worked exclusively with chanterelles). It is a strange North American panic that prevents many of us from gathering mushrooms from the wild or eating anything other than button mushrooms or the odd shiitake. I've got some inky caps I've gathered today and Im going to give them a try.

Obviously I' m going to thoroughly research everything I intend on eating, and to stick to varieties that I know and that won't look enough like a poisonous variety to fool the experts, or be poisonous in some locations and not in others.

In other news I've got a functioning sourdough culture (yay!) and can start making my own bread again.

I found my wedding ring today in the garden, exactly where I left it: 6" below the surface of the soil by the tomato bed, while I was pulling out weeds. I guess some things were just meant to be. what's that? I didn't tell you I lost my wedding ring out of my own sense of personal shame? that's right.

landshare on the up

2009-07-14T01:49:14Z

Halifax landshare just got *another* grant, for $150 from the PIRG. And we have another 2 listings. Hopefully we can acchieve a critical mass this year. Things are working out. Why am I surprised?

Oh, Los Angeles has a branch of Sharing Backyards now. They've been busy.

happy 4th

2009-07-04T13:35:08Z

Aaaand happy Independence Day. Thanks for showing the British Empire that their days of uninhibited expansion were over, in spite of other empires to be established at later times by other players. We wouldn't have had a country if England had been prepared to fight another war.

Happy July 1 from Waterland

2009-07-02T03:25:40Z

Happy confederation day everybuddy. And remember, we torched the White House during the war of 1812. Not that we would do it again, even if we could. Because we wouldn't really want to hurt anybody. Don't take our water.

our 1 year anniversary and their year zero

2009-06-19T01:52:32Z

We've arrived in my hometown of Ottawa and I feel uniquely comfortable. It seems fitting that we should end our trip at the Nation's capital after exploring perhaps 1/5 of it (though after more than 2500 km in 10 days it feels like more). We are staying with Aaron's cousin Stefan who is the groom-to-be. the couple are exceedingly relaxed considering the wedding is day after tomorrow. We will be heading out for drinks, I've just had a shower.

Bruce Point was awesome and incredibly beautiful. We came home from camping 12 hours early because the blackfly season had been delayed by our unusually cool spring and they are all coming out *now*. Bruce Trail has a sort of epic status in my mind because my mother had a Bruce patch on her backpack when i was growing up. It's about 800 km end to end and some people do the whole thing at once. This is something I might have to do at some point. I figure it would take about a month.

Besides bugs the park had some beautiful limestone caves that we could swim in, and a fossil beach, which was old-hat for me but cool for Aaron. Yesterday we explored an Alvar habitat, existing only in Sweden, Bruce Point and Estonia. It seems organic acids eat pitts into the limestone sidewalklike exposed rocks and create pockets of soil that "freeze solid in winter, bake dry in summer and flood in the springtime" as well as being highly alkaline. There are some plants here that only exist in the prairies (to which I have never been). The park is also the only part of Canada to host *rattlesnakes*. We didn't see any.

I had a respite from sickness while in the wilderness and I've made a sort of peace with my god, though I still don't know really what's going on or what i'm going to be doing about it. I finished reading the Serpent and the Rainbow and I was impressed with the role played by the Lwa in the Haitian war of independence. I also am drawn to mention this specifically

* What you believe can be done magically likely can be undone magically.

* It's never a good idea to over-dramatize or over-romanticize a negative situation.

* The more energy (emotional, magical, etc.) you put into a situation -- which includes thinking about it, fretting about it, etc. -- the more highly charged it will be.

...yeah.

I should go be social now