The Garden Chronicles vol. IV

As much as I wish we celebrated Memorial Day here in Canada too so that we could enjoy another day off from work and daily duties, for now the memories of last week's long weekend will have to do. It was a wonderfully relaxing time, and we were able to get to many of the things on our to-do list, while also enjoying ourselves and relaxing a little bit. For me, one of those things was to experiment with my new camera so, besides our visitor ducks, I also got a few shots of the flowers that are now in bloom around our house. Some of them are new this year (a Mother's day gift for my mom), but some are from last year and have come up on their own - easily one of the best surprises we've had so far this spring.

• Sadly, it looks like the end of the tulip season has already arrived in our parts •

Long Weekend Surprise

On Monday evening, as I was sitting on the balcony looking after Toby and mourning the end of the long weekend, I heard a noise behind me, in the pool, like something splashed in it. It was a little odd, given that we haven't uncovered it yet, but sure enough, when I turned around to see what it was, I noticed that something had indeed, splashed and landed in it. Actually there were two somethings: two ducks!

This was the first time I saw ducks around our parts, and how fun that they decided to take a breather in our backyard. They spent a little time swimming and looking for food in the water that's still on top of our pool cover, and even took a short walk around the pool.

I kept as quiet as I could so that I wouldn't scare them away and managed to get quite close for some shots with my new camera - among the first ones since my old camera broke. I don't know too much about ducks, but they seemed to be a couple, with the green-headed one leading everywhere.

Such a sweet encounter to end the long weekend, and it absolutely lifted my spirits!

Juice Enthusiast

Last summer I learned about the wonderful benefits of green juices, made from lots of veggies and some fruits. I tried a few recipes at the time but, once the excitement of my discovery dwindled, I fell off the juice wagon. As I'm working to transform my eating habits into even healthier ones, I decided that it's time to bring back the juice.

• Juice made from carrots (a great source of beta-carotene, vitamins and minerals that contribute to great vision), pineapple cores (very rich in the anti-inflamatory bromelain enzyme that digests protein) and orange (a vitamin C powerhouse) •

Two weeks ago, I made my first juice of 2013, a variation of my favourite carrot and apple combination in which I swapped the apple for a mix of orange and pineapple (tip: the tough-to-eat core of the pineapple works great for this!). When drinking it, I loved that I could taste each of the ingredients as well as their delicious combination, and it brought back my excitement for green juices.

• Juice made from apples (rich in pectin that removes cholesterol and toxins), carrots, romaine lettuce, parsley (blood cleanser), kale (high in fiber and antioxidants to help with digestion and protect against cancer), and pineapple cores •

To gather even more inspiration, I unearthed pictures of my favourite green juice of 2012. I made this one morning on a whim and kept adding ingredients as I found them in the fridge (and remembered their impressive benefits), and I was really surprised at how tasty it was in the end. I hope that all the juices I'll be making this year will come together just as effortlessly and I'm looking forward to developing an even greater love and appreciation of them.

I'd love to know, do you take advantage of the wonderful benefits of green juices? If yes, what are your favourite combinations?

Summer Tally

Throughout the summer, whenever we picked something from the garden, we did our best to weigh and record it on paper. It didn't take long to realize just how much our garden was repaying us for our hard work; we were very impressed with the numbers especially since the list only includes a part of the vegetables we picked from the end of July to the beginning of September. When that month hit, we were picking tomatoes and peppers, along with a few other things, faster than we could count them, so we gave up weighing.

From our experience these last few months, I'm now more convinced than ever that growing as many of our own vegetables as possible is the way to go, not just to make sure they're completely healthy and organic, but also because the amount that we gathered would have cost quite a bit at the supermarket, or even the farmer's market. I'm sure that we have already almost covered our initial costs of setting up our raised beds, which makes me that much more excited for next year's garden.

Now that the cold temperatures have settled in and our garden is not producing anymore, I've been thinking of and researching ways to bring a few edible plants inside for the duration of the fall and winter. So far, I've found quite a few interesting methods that I hope to share on here in the following months.

Did you plant a veggie garden this year, or have any plans for a few indoor pots this winter? If yes, what's been your experience and what have you learned in the process? I'd love to know!

Green Living By The Numbers

Blame it on my science background or the fact that I'm a more visual person, but infographs and charts always make more sense to me. I constantly stumble onto these, and I wanted to highlight a few of the ones that look at different aspects of living green - the kind that motivates me to keep going.

I don't plan on becoming strictly vegan but I am committed to eating healthier, which means many vegetables and fruits, and much less meat and animal products than I eat now. To know that this is better for the environment too just adds to my motivation. You can see the full infograph here.

Though I do have quite the sweet tooth, in my research about eating more healthily, refined sugar kept popping up everywhere as something that needs to be off limits. This infograph (you can see it entirely here) paints quite the picture and is one of the resources that convinced me to look for healthier, more natural sweetener options.

Fashion is a big passion of mine, but so is protecting the environment, so this year I made it my goal to be more mindful of our planet when it comes to my clothing choices. I've been doing well so far, but whenever a quick trip to the mall makes me want to buy half of the store I step into, this kind of information - there's more here - keeps me on track.

The Garden Chronicles vol. II

• Radishes - sadly, out of all this we only got 3 or 4, because the rest didn't develop •

In the last few months, I've hinted at our plans for a vegetable garden a few times - I talked about the seeds and soil we're using and I also gave a little sneak peek at the process of building the raised beds - but I had yet to show any pictures of it and share a bit about its progress. Over the weekend I took some time to compile pictures I took recently, and looking at them makes me so proud of what we have created in our backyard this year. We have had some challenges along the way, but in the end we still succeeded, and these days we are starting to enjoy the fruits of our labour.

• Sweet & hot peppers - one of my favourite vegetables, I can't wait for them to ripen! •

• Zucchinis & cucumbers - these are two staples in our meals, and they'll be thoroughly enjoyed once they're all grown. We were tempted to use some zucchini blossoms on top of a pizza, but decided to let the zucchinis grow instead •

• Tomatoes - we planted many different kinds, both big and small, and have already started eating them, but unfortunately I forgot to photograph the ripened ones before picking •

• Green onions - they're tiny but so tasty! •

*You can see what our garden looked like last year in The Garden Chronicles vol. I

An Active 23

For my birthday this year, which was almost two weeks ago now, my family got me a wonderful present, something that I had been wishing for: a new bike! I talked about the bicycle of my dreams a while ago, but at such a steep price, I knew it wouldn't be mine anytime soon. I also thought I knew that I wouldn't get to have one remotely as pretty, because the ones I had seen in stores didn't even compare.

Well, I was proven wrong at probably the second or third store we went to, because I fell in love with the Everyday Kensington bike the moment I laid my eyes upon the tiny picture of it on the price list. To clear things up, this bike wasn't actually mounted in store, and having it mounted would have required an additional few days, so instead we just took a slight leap of faith and bought it in the box. I'm glad we did because my dad and my brother put it together quickly, I realized that I love it even more than in the picture, where it looked like it was a combination of black and yellow, and I can now enjoy it to my heart's desire.

With the scorching temperatures from this week, I haven't gotten the chance to actually ride much yet other than a quick trial ride. So, in the meantime, I'm building up my excitement by looking at beautiful images of ladies who bike because, to be honest, this will get me to go on a ride much quicker than the idea of exercise that I'm not always very fond of.

• Images via Flickr, From Me To You, Sweet Thing, Trent Bailey •

All this looking around has me thinking I should add a nice basket to the front of my new bike, to carry my water bottle, handbag and whatever else I might want to bring along.

Lately

June has proven to be quite a busy month: between the many celebrations, looking for work and doing lots of things around the house, there hasn't been much idle time. This is part of the reason why the blog has been so quiet; but, more importantly, the silence is due to the fact that I've been spending time learning and working on some behind-the-scenes aspects that I'm hoping will help me transform this space over the summer into the one I have been dreaming about since the beginning. During the few spare moments that I do have, I've been trying to keep up with my favourite blogs, and I've actually stumbled upon quite a few eco-focused posts that I wanted to share.

• Images via Glitter Guide, The Wellness Warrior, Crafting a Green World •

Natural Ways To Get Rid Of Tired Eyes by Glitter Guide: This post, written by Lauren of L.A. in the Bay - my latest favourite blog find, dishes out quick solutions using common household items to refresh the eye area when it's not at its best.

My 48-Hour Liquid Fast by The Wellness Warrior: In this post, Jess shares a very mild option for a liquid fast - something that I hadn't seriously considered until now although I was aware of its power to detoxify the body. She talks about her experience and gives great tips on how to do it safely and with great results. 

Clean Cotton: 16 Organic Cotton Resources by Crafting a Green World: I've been dreaming of sewing up lots of things lately, and in my wildest dreams I'd use only sustainable fabrics. However, I've been researching sustainable options and, sadly, wasn't able to come up with much, so this post couldn't have come at a better time!

Childhood Games

At the risk of sounding cheesy, these days going into the backyard and looking around reminds me of the summer days of my childhood. Back then I would spend the entire day outside playing and having fun, only coming back inside when it was time for lunch or sleeping. I love remembering some of the silly games we used to play, and I now realize how resourceful kids can be, that most of the time they don't need anything else to keep them entertained but their imagination. Though I don't think I'm quite a grown-up yet, I definitely don't get to spend my summers playing outside all day anymore either. So to remember those times, here is one of my favourite games from back then, that I still enjoy now.

All it takes is to grab a grass seed head (there are lots of them around if you forget to cut the grass for a little while, or find a patch of grass somewhere that is not cut regularly!) in between your fingers, try to guess what it will be - hen or rooster - and pull up to see if you were right. You can tell them apart by how big the "comb" is: if it's not noticeable then it's a hen, otherwise it's a rooster.

In some parts of the world, today is Children's Day, so make sure to take some time out of your day to play, have fun, and let out your inner child!

Hungry For Change

A while ago, I heard about the Hungry For Change documentary and luckily, at the time the film was being premiered online, which meant that I could watch it entirely for free. An hour and a half later when the movie was finished, I bought on impulse a limited time package that included the movie DVD, a recipe book and some other goodies. I generally don't do this because I end up regretting most impulse purchases, but the message here was so powerful to me that I was really happy to support it, even if I'd end up not liking anything else in the package other than the documentary. The movie confirmed everything that I have been researching and learning about healthy eating over the past few months, and encouraged me in the best way to keep going.

• Image via Peter Broderick •

The recipe book proved to be a wonderful resource as well. Most of the recipes in there are really easy; I made the Sweet Potato Fries the same week I received my package in the mail, and I have my eye on so many more. Coconut Chai, Raw Creamed Fennel Soup, Zucchini Pomodoro and Avocado Chocolate Mousse all sound - and look - so good! As I'm working on cleaning up my eating habits, I feel like this book is a great first step in that direction.



I thought I'd end with a few quotes from the film that really resonated with me:

"We are not eating food anymore, we are eating food-like products"

"Studies have shown that if you drink diet soda, within a couple of years you'll be fatter than when you first started drinking the diet soda"

"Don't turn in to a diet. Keep the focus always on adding [...] the best strategy we've got is to just add in the good stuff. Eventually it's going to crowd out the bad stuff"

"Freshly extracted juice is the 15 minute nutrient express to health"

"The skin is a true symbol of our health, because it's the last place to get nutrition. If you can drive all those nutrients all the way through to the skin, then you know it's gotten everywhere else too"

"Exercise - taking a walk 3-4 times a week - is as good as antidepressants for mild to moderate depression"

"Something happens when you take care of yourself, you realize you're precious"

Did you see Hungry For Change yet? If yes, what did you think of it? If not and you still need more convincing, you can watch the first 20 minutes of it online for free here.

Green Better Or Worse: 14.05.2012

My purpose for this site from the very beginning was - other than encouraging others to live a green(er) lifestyle - to share my own journey to becoming more eco-conscious. I have realized that I haven't done too much sharing so far, and for a few months now, I have been brainstorming ways to reveal more about my day-to-day victories and struggles. I think I have found the way through this new series called "Green Better Or Worse", in which I will talk about both successes and failures that I experience on my way to being more eco-friendly. The way I see it, living green is a serious, lifetime commitment, and so the title seemed to fit just right.

My family and I have many dreams and plans in mind, some of which are already in the works, and as a result, this seemed like the perfect time to kick things off.

This week:

• we have started building our raised bed vegetable garden; my brother and my dad are making the boxes mostly out of reclaimed wood, and we are filling them with organic soil that we bought a few days ago - the first batch (of 3) was delivered just yesterday! The land that our house sits on is very sandy, and as a result we didn't have a great payoff from our small garden last year, but are hoping that all our efforts this year will make a difference.
• as a Mother's Day present, we bought two (still little) lilac trees yesterday to add to our already generous amount of flowers. Our spring is about to get a lot more colourful - and better scented too!
• even more flowers are in the plans, as my brother is building planter boxes to be filled with colourful blooms and hung onto the fence surrounding the house.

On Two Wheels

I have never particularly enjoyed riding bikes, but for some reason, last fall I started dreaming of owning a classic, European-style bike. I was thinking that it would make for a nice (and much-needed!!) workout, but beyond that, I was dreaming of exploring my neighborhood on it, taking in the sights and sounds. Now that it's spring, that dream is coming back, and it's been stronger than ever from the moment I saw the Creamcycle bike, made by Public Bikes. I think it would make for such a great ride, that I wouldn't even mind the soreness that's sure to come with the first time getting on a bike in many long years. Sadly, at almost $800, it's bound to remain a dream, and instead I'll have to check some local sites for a worthy but much cheaper replica.

A Beautiful Planet

I have been so busy keeping up with school, blogging and life in general, that I didn't even realize that today is Earth Day until just a few days ago. I honestly think our planet should be celebrated every day, but I know very well that our always-on-the-go lifestyles don't necessarily allow for that, and that is why I think today is such a special occassion: a day when everyone turns their attention towards our precious planet, and (hopefully) becomes more mindful of it, even if just for a little while. My hope is that this blog plays a role - albeit a small one - in keeping the celebration going all year round. I've thought of writing a post today with advice and tips about going green, but I'm sure they're being dished out from all directions; so instead, I thought I'd draw attention to a reason why we should do it, and that's the remarkable beauty of our world. So, if nothing else, today I urge you to go out and take a minute to admire this beautiful world we live in, and get inspired to do your best to protect it.

Now that the flowers in our front yard have started blooming, I'm reminded of this beauty everyday. I'm so excited for a summer filled with colourful blooms all around our house!



Finally, while looking through my Twitter feed on Friday, I found a link to this incredible documentary, Home. The stunning views in the first part of the trailer took my breath away - I thought that they show exactly the beauty that I've been talking about in this post, and I can't wait to watch the entire movie.

Happy Earth Day!

Spring Buds

I have mentioned this before (here) but I couldn't be more excited about spring. Granted, we've had a short and mild winter, but the prospect of warm, sunny days when nature comes back to life is absolutely thrilling to me. In fact, what I'm looking forward to the most is seeing beautiful flowers pop up everywhere. Late last summer, my brother and I spent an entire week-end planting bulbs in our front yard, and this week we've seen for the first time the outcome of all our hard work, as many of those bulbs are growing and making their way up from underneath the warm layer of mulch that kept them cozy during winter. I'm happy as can be that soon enough my camera - and blog! - will be filled with photos of beautiful blooms from our own little piece of land and in the meantime, I'm keeping inspired (on my Tumblr) with tons of stunning flower pictures from around the blogosphere.

• Photos via I Am Khatu, The Rockstar Diaries, This Is Glamorous, The Rockstar Diaries •

Raw Bites

A recent bout of flu that lingered for more than 2 weeks and affected our entire family convinced me just how much I need to change some things in my life. For one, I absolutely need to incorporate some kind of physical exercise into my daily routine and secondly, I have to start following a more healthful diet - something that I have read a lot about in the past few months and which for me, means eating as many raw meals as possible.

• Photo via TreeHugger •

Being home with the flu, I had the chance to try a few raw recipes, and every time I was amazed at how easy and quick they are to prepare. So, on my journey to a more healthful diet I thought that it would be a lot of fun to share some of the foods I try my hand at, in a new blog series called "Raw Bites". Stay tuned for lots of raw goodness ahead!


❤ On this day last year, I revealed my love for pastels and picked a few eco-fashion favourites: Pale in Comparison

The Light Of Day

This week-end was wonderful. There was nothing special about it, in fact it was filled with mundane things and activites: study sessions for an upcoming exam, time in front of the computer and TV, and basically all sorts of things around the house. But it wasn't the way we spent the days that made them wonderful - though they were wonderfully quiet and relaxing days - it was the days themselves. From the moment we woke up until the sun set, we were blessed with wonderfully clear, bright skies. I found myself countless times gazing out the window at this beautiful sight.

The sun shined constantly and the snow kept melting, letting little bits of the ground we haven't seen in months show through. It was the warm temperature, the bright blue skies, the happy rays of sunshine - the promise of spring and nature's return to life - that made these days wonderful.

I often complain about winter and dream about living in places where warmth and sunshine are a constant presence. But to be honest, I don't know if I could deprive myself of these first hints of spring and the hope they bring with them. Almost like a new year on the calendar, spring to me is a new beginning, another chance to start over. These days fill me with happiness. They fill my heart with light, warmth and hope.

Welcome spring! We're so glad to have you here again!

Better Paper

Though it's the reality right now, I don't like seeing how wasteful our society is (you can get a pretty shocking visual of the situation here). Lately though, I've noticed some minor improvements in the attitude towards this precious environment of ours; over the last few weeks, I've been thrilled to come across lots of paper goods made out of recycled paper - ones that I didn't even expect or choose intentionally.  Every single time, this discovery has made my day a little better because to me, it is a small sign that we are taking notice of our bad habits and working to change them for the better. There is a long way to becoming truly sustainable, but from the looks of it, we're on the right path.

• My new 2012 agenda. •

• Some envelopes I bought for sending little packages. •

• The Christmas Card we received from extended family members. •

Green Christmas

Now that the hectic holiday season is over, it's a good time to reflect on all the happy moments that occured. One of the fondest memories I have of this year's Christmas is the day that my family and I got our Christmas tree. In the past 3 years, it has become a tradition that every December we go to a local farm to pick the tree we like best and then cut it - we always choose the tallest and fullest one that we can fit in our home!

It was a wonderful outing on a mostly bright, sunny day at a farm that sits on an enormous piece of land. It was truly picturesque walking around the snowy trails and among endless rows of trees - we even spotted a lake on the side of the road.

As far as I'm concerned, I think that beyond being a wonderful family outing in nature, this is one of the greener ways to decorate for the holidays, seeing as only those trees that are actually used are getting cut.

This year we got a little carried away and picked our biggest tree yet, so we had to cut quite a big chunk off it, in order to fit in our living room. Since we were all very busy until a couple of days before Christmas, I ended up decorating the tree all by myself for the first time on Christmas Eve. I was really proud with the result and even shared a picture of the entire tree on Twitter but just for fun, here are a few detail shots of the "residents" of our tree.

Fall Loves

This fall has been one that I have truly enjoyed. I'm generally sad when summer ends, but this year fall seemed so charming that I quickly forgot about my sadness and did my best to enjoy the transitional weather. It definitely helped that the mild temperatures lingered on for longer than usual. Now that winter is ready to make its appearance, many beautiful memories remain as well as a heightened appreciation for nature and life in general - which finally seems quite wonderful despite the occasional hurdles and setbacks. In the same spirit, on this day when the holiday season officially begins, I wanted to reflect on the past months and share a few blog posts from which I gathered unending inspiration, written by women who I now look up to for so many reasons, along with a few of my own posts that I've written this beautiful fall.

Photographs via A Beautiful Mess, Bleubird Vintage and Girl & Closet

• How To Style A Hair Bow by A Beautiful Mess: An easy, no-heat hair tutorial with no chemical-filled styling products required that I'm confident even I can follow.
• D.I.Y. Pom Pom Wreath By Bleubird Vintage: A post from a couple of years back, but one that started my DIY obsession this season and the perfect ocassion to use bits of leftover yarn with spectacular results.
• Look Book: Red Tights & Comfy Cable Knits... by Girl & Closet: Veronika blogged this outfit just a few days ago, and I almost gasped in awe at its sight; to me, it is a quintessential fall outfit, and I will most definitely be on the look-out for some eco-friendly pieces to help me recreate it. *the pictures on Veronika's blog look infinitely better, this collage doesn't do them justice 

• Handy Work: An array of beautiful bags big enough to carry at school that got me excited for classes to start again.
• Mild November: The outfit that I was most proud of this fall.
• Make/Remake: This was the season when I fell completely in love with DIY projects, gathered plenty of inspiration, and looked at my own things to see how I can use them.

Healthy & Green

On the search for a cake recipe earlier today, I rediscovered the Rodale website. I had bookmarked a page off the site a few months ago but then life got in the way and I completely forgot about it. After I finally found the recipe I wanted - a healthy one too - I got lost in their articles that cover everything from health and food to living, environment and fitness. Just like the catch phrase suggests, it truly is a place "where health meets green". I could have spent much longer on there, but instead I decided to tackle my to-do list for the day and share a few of the articles that caught my attention; as it turns out, plants of all kinds - edible or not - are on my mind:

• The Nickel Pincher: Enjoy Your Fresh Herbs All Winter Long - Once the cold weather arrived, I was sad to see the vegetable garden that my family and I planted go; this article has some great tips about how to keep a green thumb throughout the winter by growing some fresh herbs inside. 
• The 6 Best Plants for a Healthy Office - Though I don't work in an office - unless the desk in my room can be counted as one - I've been particularly enjoying our indoor plants these past few weeks, and it was interesting to learn which of them are best for cleaning the air or lifting a not-so-good mood.
• The Wonder Herb You Aren't Using - This article talks about the benefits of lemongrass - an herb that I indeed am not using; how did they know? - and shares a few ideas for yummy, healthy recipes that incorporate it.