Oh Canada!!

Nick and I went to Canada for a lovely vacation with our friends, Tim and Lindsay. We drove up to Abbotsford, British Columbia and flew from there to London, Ontario. It took us the whole day to get there and we hit the ground running with a visit to Toronto the very next morning. We enjoyed perusing the exhibits at the Toronto Science Museum; then went to dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant and attended a fantastic Celtic symphony.

Thursday was a down day for everyone. Lindsay and I enjoyed a lovely time at the standing indoor market in London, ate a divine lunch and then relaxed at a local spa. The guys spent the day playing computer games and enjoying themselves as well.

Friday morning we drove to Niagara Falls, Ontario, and spent the day enjoying this spectacular site!! The day started out cold, misty and overcast and we were disappointed that Maid of the Mist was not in the water yet. However, we decided to experience an indoor version of Maid of the Mist and attended the 4D movie of "Niagara's Fury". We were rained on, "snowed" on, the floor shook and the sound was deafening; however, that did not compare to the awesomeness of the tunnels underneath Niagara Falls itself. The roar of the falls was unbelievable and it was breathtaking to stand 127 feet below the top of the falls. It was a lot of fun to make our own, personal candy bars at the historical Pop & Lollies candy store at Niagara Falls. We stayed the entire day and ate dinner at the beautiful Watermark Restaurant that afforded us a spectacular view of the entire falls (American & Canadian sides). It was fun to watch the falls be lit up by giant spotlights that night as well.

On Saturday we spent the day enjoying the indoor market in London, reading and relaxing outside in the gorgeous weather.


Our last day in London was spent touring the beautiful carved trees and sampling poutine - which I am now addicted to!!

Nick and I headed home on Monday morning and spent another day traveling back to the U.S. We did spot one last carved tree in the airport on our way out. With shot glasses, personally made candy, lots of photos and wonderful memories in hand we made it home safely. Now to make some poutine!!

It's a zoo out there!

Nick and I hadn't been to the zoo in forever and this trip was a lot of fun because Seattle decided to show her true colors and create a beautiful day for our family get-together. We met some of Nick's family at the zoo for a picnic lunch, sunshine and some good ole' zoo action!

I had a great time feeding the birds:


With little ones in tow Nick's family headed home before us, but Nick and I stuck around and I'm so glad we did because we got quite the show from these two:


Spring at the zoo - everyone's twitterpated!!

Hopeless or inspiring?

Nick and I have been on a major documentary kick recently and after watching the most recent one, I posed that this is becoming significantly hopeless and depressing. At what point do you stop watching and start doing? When do you become a policy maker or work to enact change? How do you get off the couch and put action behind words? Nowadays, the little man has to fend for himself; we are all becoming fledgling politicians. You can sign petitions online, contact your local representative, stay informed, march with organizations, volunteer and so much more. It seems that every day there is a new story of earthquakes, floods, famines and disaster. Many say that in 2012 the world will end, others are saying that the second coming is at hand; while all of those might be true, I would like to do something about these happenings versus sitting by and waiting for the curtain call.

Here are a few of the documentaries that have been inspiring us:

Gasland

Frontline: College Inc.

The Corporation

In Debt We Trust

Frontline: The Spill

Food, INC.

Fuel

Plant a garden, convert to biodiesel, buy a rain barrel, plant a tree, write a letter to your local representative, eat local food, support farmers, donate to a cause that is striving to make a difference.

Through action we can create hope!

Composting is for the worms

As many of you know, I've been working on composting for a couple of years and have been failing miserably. This year, I'm done with failure and have made two compost bins - one for food waste and one for yard waste. For the food waste bin, I will be purchasing red worms and they will be making the compost for me. The yard waste bin, I have to do the work myself. I have promised Nick that I won't make him touch it since he was such a wonderful man and built the bins for me (and he gags easily!). The worm bin has a nice little bed of starter material in it (moldy food scraps, shredded paper and torn newspaper) and just needs some very ugly red worms added to it.

The yard waste bin is done as well. We put in some moldy food, shredded paper and the top part of the heinous, galvanized trash can composter gone bad material that was salvageable. Oh, that's a story in itself - I shan't gross you with the details. Let it be said that if you want to use a galvanized trash can, you must punch holes at various levels along the sides and then bury the bottom 2 feet so the moisture can drain out.



The best way to get started composting is to research what works best for where you live. The galvanized trash can works well for yard and food waste, but remember the tips above. Check out this hilarious article about making a worm farm. Here are some great resources for finding out about composting and worm bins:

• www.composters.com
• www.digitalseed.com/composter/index.html
• www.urbangardencenter.com
• www.compostwashington.org

My amaryllis finally opened and it is GORGEOUS!!!

Gardening Season - it's started!

In case you were unaware, gardening season has officially begun. I received my most favorite seed catalog from Seeds of Change back in January and have been drooling over the pretty pictures. I organized my seeds from last year and found what I could save and use this year; threw out what didn't work last year (FYI - Nasturtium attract aphids like crack); made my list of new seeds I'll need this year and have been outside getting things ready. I need to still empty out 3 of my gardening boxes from last year and will refill with new compost from Cedar Grove and will refresh the rest of the boxes with said compost. The awesome thing is that my tomatoes I planted way back in the fall are now almost 3 feet tall and itching to bloom - which means (crossing fingers) we might have tomatoes come April/May. I've planted my indoor starts - peppers (sweet and chili), cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, pear tomatoes and eggplant. Next month I'm going to plant my cold hardy seeds - lettuce, broccoli, carrots, potatoes, onions and squash.

Nick and I built our first compost bin which will be used for food compost using red worms. I've decided to try my hand at using red worms and I cannot wait to see what my pretty white box will yield. We'll build the open-air yard waste compost bin this next weekend.

I'm working on something new and exciting with a work buddy, involving food and health and I can't wait to see what will happen - stayed tuned!

Love is in the air...

I married an amazing man 11 years ago and we'll celebrate our anniversary in August this year. However, 15 years ago he gave me my first flower from a boy - it was a carnation, a pink carnation (which means "I'll never forget you") and I've been smitten ever since. Over the last few weeks he's been doing some amazing things around our house - created a "treasure" hunt of hearts (exactly 32 hearts for my 32nd birthday) that were hidden all over the house. Then a few days before my birthday, I came home to a house strung throughout with yarn (no pictures as a new camera was at the end of the yarn trail) and various darling treats in pretty bags scattered throughout; the kicker though was the words along the trail, 32 in all, that he felt described me. Talk about making a girls heart go pitter-patter!!

Valentine's was a love filled weekend of favorite food memories (chocolate covered strawberries, epic sandwiches, etc.), construction of a compost bin for food compost, working on my Jeep and much more...

I am so blessed to have this man in my life that sometimes I feel like my heart will burst. He is definitely "THE man". As one of my favorite bloggers said, "Now, I have my very own Valentine, and it is Mr. Tomczek (I changed the name to my honey). And all he has to do is smile, wink and slap my behind as I walk by, and I am hopelessly in love." That's real love people!!