As 2006 winds down and I get ready to rock New Years’ Eve with some high fidelity Karoake (Kenny Rogers, anyone?), it’s time to take stock of the past 12 months in order to gain some perspective. Where have I been? What have I achieved? And what small triumphs can I celebrate?
It’s fabulously humbling […]
In the spirit of all things sustainably frivolous & celebratory, here’s a video of an immense disco on wheels. (And no, I’m afraid I don’t know who built it, but I think it’s doing the rounds at the Burning Man Festival…)
If I could grow up to be as cool as Grandma Gatewood, I would consider my life well-lived. Long before the days of “low-impact tourism” and “sustainable travel”, this woman was knocking back one of the toughest trails in North America without a scrap of fancy gear or high-tech equipment.
Emma Gatewood (known as “Grandma”) […]
How’s this for sustainable travel? A little winter treat - one of my favourite songs (Style Council’s “My Ever Changing Moods”) featuring retro gear…
See this article in last week’s New York Times about findings released by Canadian researchers regarding the threat to wild salmon stocks in British Columbia from parasites from intensive fish farming. (This has been an issue at the forefront of environmental discussions in B.C. for a number of years, but this week had the […]
It’s true, I’m a terrible speller. I blame this weakness on my uneasy suspension between British English, Americana, and le français de Quebec via Southern Ontario. Whatever the excuse, this realization is a blow to my delicate ego, as I spent years thinking that I was sharp with words of all types.
But today, I […]
I am not, nor have ever been, a big design gal. My “personal style” is generally slovenly, a mix of Goodwill grab bag meets hobo market. My apartment is decorated with a fascinating mix of thrift store pillows and bachelor-y piles of books that I need to read.
Slobby as I may be, I can […]
24 chickens, a two-legged dog, a wood-burning stove…it’s not an elaborate joke, it’s just another adventure in the life of Rita Golden Gelman, writer and self-described “modern-day nomad”. The author of Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World , Rita kindly honoured me with a fabulous phone conversation about her adventurous […]
This week, I was thrilled to see that Treehugger.com featured an article on the “Bambulance”, Design for Development’s new pedal-powered ambulance created for communities in Kenya.
Made of locally-produced bamboo, the bambulance provides cost-effective and sustainable transportation in rural areas, where roads are often in poor shape and cars or bus transportation is often unreliable […]
I’m realizing that part of living life with a bit more audacity means confronting my fears, often on a daily basis. And, as I am a self-proclaimed wimp, acknowledging my inner demons isn’t always an easy process. Instead of facing my fears, I’m more inclined to crawl into bed and sleep, or eat too much […]