As the sun’s rays come closer to the earth and the sun on our faces feels that much warmer, and as the little boy stirs in my belly, I feel new creative juices flowing. So many new ideas for things to create, to sew for the shop (oh, so little time!) And around us, the life sap of the trees is flowing too. Oh the wonderful sweet sap.

Is this inspiration spontaneous and spur of the moment? Or is it the fruition of ideas and thoughts that have been brewing and formulating all winter long? Just like the plants and trees that build energy through the winter, preparing for the spring?

For the first time this year I thought of the sap time as being connected to the fertility of nature, to the cycles of life & energy.

There’s a wonderful place to visit within the Greenbelt of Ottawa, called Old Log Farm. Lots of great hiking trails, a log house + farm built in 1854 to explore, and old school bucket maple tree taps that children can help with, using buckets to collect the dripping sap.

Maple syrup is so precious – seeing each drop of sap drip into your pail, and then seeing how 40 gallons are boiled down to just one… just one gallon of beautiful golden liquid…. makes you really appreciate it.

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These early spring days in Ottawa are delightful.

Right now, we see the warming grass breaking through the last bits of ice.

 

The first bits of green.

Raincoats and wind jackets instead of woolens.

Little icebergs breaking off from the Ottawa River ice, charging through the chilly waters.

We just can’t seem to wait to grow things outside, so we started a little windowsill garden.

And made a gear box with a cracker box, shish-kebab stick, some potato pieces and toothpicks.

And baked some delicious Sally Lunn (for all intents and purposes, a challah) bread.

And made our own rainbows with the fabulous Stockmar window wax crayons… and some recycled ones of our own in the tiniest little muffin cups I’ve ever seen.

And delighted in the warming sun.

 

And the growing boy.

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Every year Ottawa has a fantastic winter festival called Winterlude. Inspired, perhaps, by the longest outdoor skating rink that snakes through our city (the Rideau Canal), it is a really great way to celebrate the white stuff. And the cold. And the ice. And a sweet reason to sip hot chocolate.

And to take incredibly fast rides down sheer ice slides. 

(The baby boy and I waited at the bottom).

photo at the top via Flickr

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I’ve been thinking about how it is that we find out “news”. The days of reliance on the morning paper are long gone… so few people even get a newspaper anymore. And what even qualifies as news or editorial in a newspaper is an entirely other story.

(photo, above, via Flickr here)

Now we can construct news feeder tubes to our computers and inboxes, effectively siphoning off only the categories and subject areas we’re interested in. More than ever, I wonder, are we living in information silos?

In Canada, in recent months, there has been a half decent amount of newspaper coverage of BPA (bisphenol A), the hormone-mimicking chemical that is considered to be probably toxic and set to be banned in this country. But so few people read the paper. In order to find out about BPA otherwise, I suppose one might have to be following some eco blogs and internet news providers like the Daily Green.

Hmmm.

We don’t generally take cash register receipts anymore because most of them have BPA (molecularly loose BPA) on the surface of the carbonless paper. That means that the BPA on cash register receipts is far more readily absorbed into one’s skin than via, let’s say, BPA-containing plastic.  And I usually try to remember to ask local store cashiers and owners whether they have considered ordering BPA-free receipt paper.

I’ve been surprised by the number of blank stares I’ve gotten in return. Even from a local organic bed company, no less.

But one organization that seems to be taking BPA very seriously in Ottawa is the Ottawa Public Library. I found out this week that – for sure – the receipts used at the library are BPA-free. That’s every library in the system. How fantastic is that? As I glanced at the piles of books “on hold”, marked with names on receipt paper taped to the books’ edges… I felt incredibly relieved. Some honey – lots of delicious honey – for the Ottawa Public Library.

(photo above, via Flickr here)

But some horseradish is on the menu for other local shops and businesses, many of whom could act to protect themselves and their customers, but choose not to.

And it’s not just limited to BPA.

A local pregnancy-oriented massage business and I had a bit of a run in a few weeks back when I asked to see the ingredients of their so-called entirely non toxic massage cream. Parabens, phenols and a slew of unpronouncable ingredients were listed on the bottle. Pregnant women are more vulnerable to such toxins (because of the potential for these chemicals to affect the fetus and baby) and somehow I thought there was lots of information about there about reducing toxicity for expectant mothers.

I guess there’s (a really) long way to go, baby.

(photo above, via Flickr here)

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Oui, oui, oui.

Les macarons, ici a Ottawa!
(Yes, yes, yes… macarons… in Ottawa). Said with much, much glee.

I can’t even remember how I stumbled across the Urban Baking Co. but I’m ever so glad I did. I’ve admired macarons for ages, especially the glass cased display of them at the Sunday Lansdowne farmer’s market in Ottawa.

But the artifical food coloring always (almost always) held me back. Wendy, the baking force behind the Urban Baking Co., is starting to use vegetable-based coloring this week and will be using that much eco and health friendlier colouring in her bake shoppe. You can check out her selection online (she also has a Facebook page here) and pick them up from her in Kanata.

Wendy started the company in the fall of 2009, after making a career change from the high tech sector when she became a mom.

In her own words: “I aspire to bring awareness to the need for more eco-friendly products in the baking industry. Where possible, I use local products (e.g., fruit, honey, maple syrup) and unrefined and/or organic ingredients… this is evolving as I am continuously seeking out new local/organic suppliers.”

She supplemented the baking instruction from her mom and grandmother with courses from Le Cordon Bleu (Ottawa) in Chocolate and Pastry.

Now if I could get married all over again (to the same Mister Mister of course) I might well be tempted by her Macarons towers. Wow.

Using these macarons as props for pieces in our shop was really the excuse, but we thoroughly enjoyed the salted caramel macaroons she’s just introducing. I’d say they were our favorites.

And the idea of macarons inspired these organic cotton + vintage French lace napkins (now for sale in our shop)… and made me really, really want to spend a weekend, or 2 or 3, in Paris.

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Last week we went to a concert in honor of the Peace Festival happening in Ottawa. Held at St. Paul’s University, it featured Ottawa artist Jeremy Sills to start off. I had heard lots about him from friends of mine in the yoga / Kirtan circles in the city, and I had always wanted to experience his music.

(photo above, via Flickr)

It was a wonderful, enlightening experience.

(photo above, via Flickr)

Here’s what he says on his website (he says it far better than I ever could):

“Jeremy has developed a mystical healing voice and sonic awareness that inspires a remembrance of  the deep and silent space within each of us.  As spontaneous co-creations, his crystal bowl concerts weave a deep tapestry of high vibration frequency, in which profound awareness, transformation and healing may occur.  A trained multi-instrumentalist, Jeremy’s cast  includes crystal singing bowls, tibetan metal bowls, eclectic vocals, overtoning, gongs, drums, flutes, guitars & piano.”

He invited the audience to breathe deeply and exit the breath on a note and mouth sound to help us relax – the same sound we often make at the end of the day, that “ahhh”. It was enriching inside, and softening.  His voice was amazing, especially in terms of its clarity and depth of sound.

You can here an excerpt of his work here.

I sang in a choir for many years, and had a meticulously trained voice for many of those, and spent decades playing the piano and clarinet. So I’d say that I’m musically inclined. But sound healing – this is an entirely new and different way of thinking about sound, and silence, and connections.

What a new & very interesting world this is!

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There’s a little place in Ottawa that makes me fibre-happy.

It’s chock full of roving, and spun wool, and felt, embroidery and dyeing materials, and much, much more. And there are fantastic classes happening here all the time.

Having a fantastic store like Wabi Sabi is no small feat for Ottawa. Despite being Canada’s capital city, it’s really a very big town, largely populated by those involved in two major lines of industry – high tech and government with a small ‘g’. (Funnily enough, I used to work in the latter, and my Mister Mister works in the former). So Ottawa is not, you see, a very edgy, progressive place, though it attracts people who want to live in a more green city, somewhere full of nature where cars are not necessary and very close to a huge provincial park.

All that to say that I really appreciate Wabi Sabi. I’m so glad it’s here, and I hope it stays around for a long, long time.

Do you have a place like this near where you live? If so, please leave the info in the comments, so we can all have a look. Thanks!

p.s. you can still enter our giveaway over at Sage & Style!

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