A few rusty treasures unearthed while cleaning and organizing our utility room today.
On the left, a massive old door stop, gleaned from the site of a former farm on Byrne Creek just a few minutes walk from our place. (All part of a municipal park for decades now. . .)
On the right, a spike from the late, lamented, electric Interurban tram line that ran near our place and all the way out to Chilliwack before it was sadly decommissioned with the rise of cars and highways.
What a loss!
I hear that the teeny Powerhouse Creek that runs a few dozen meters out our back gate and into Byrne Creek was thus named for having a steam-powered electrical generator for the Interurban back in the day. The wee creek taps an underground aquifer that runs to this day. . .
On the upside I just finished my first Byrne Creek ravine circumrambulation in SE Burnaby, BC, since I hurt my foot a few weeks ago, and it feels fine.
On the downside it was scary to see so many cedars drying out in the forest, and not even the middle of June.
A native plant garden was put in as part of a Stream of Dreams Murals Society watershed education and art program at a school in Coquitlam recently. We were happy to see this bee carrying a nice load when we checked out how the garden was coming along.
Had a great day in and around the Lynn Canyon Ecology Centre. I participated in a Simon Fraser University workshop on Ecopsychology — Experiential, Nature and Place-Based Learning.
Thanks to instructor Daniella Roze for her thoughtful, grounded training, and great techniques for reconnecting people, and particularly kids, to nature.
While she was not able to arrange for someone from local First Nations to welcome us, we acknowledged traditional lands and the impacts of colonialism.
We had a chance to try basket-weaving and braiding using local plants.
This is the magnificent tree I chose for my individual meditation period. I lay on my back with the tree’s roots cradling my head, and contemplated the crown gently swaying in the breeze.
My thoughts were that viewed horizontally at human level, the tree looked so deeply rooted, mature, strong and still, and yet looking up with my body stretched on the earth, I could see the trunk bending with the wind and the crown dancing youthfully in the breeze.
It was diminishing yet uplifting to think this tree had been here long before I was born, and with good fortune, will be here much longer after I am gone.
So in my reducing-the-eating-of-meat process, a friend recommended Gardein veggie burgers.
I inadvertently bought what is likely their spiciest product — Chipotle Black Bean patties. I am not a spice person, and nearly died eating the first two patties.
So two more patties had been sitting in the freezer, and today I figured out a way to use them in what we like to call “lazy cabbage rolls.”
Cook a bunch of long-grain or jasmine rice only about 2/3 done. Mix with chopped cabbage, carrots, mushrooms, crumbled chipotle black bean veggie burgers, whatever, in a large casserole and mix in a can of mushroom soup. Bake in the oven for an hour or so (the rice will finish cooking without becoming overly soggy)..
Still a tish on the spicy side, but edible for a wuss like meĀ .
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