Happy Canada Day!

Urban Chickens: NB

Well, even though our city council disappointingly decided against the tiniest of chicken coops in Halifax city limits, it looks like New Brunswick, our provincial neighbour, is taking a step forward. Good for them! Moncton, NB, is having a pilot project with 4 chickens in a coop in city limits.

Buy local - how much more local can you get than your own backyard! A great learning experience too, the "farm" will give tours to the public to see how it's run. They're hoping to learn from other urban farms in the country, and will make a full report when the project ends next year, adding to the information available out there on what works and what doesn't.

And then MAYBE Halifax city council will EVENTUALLY change their mind...when they see what a positive experience it can be! One day... I know I'd LOVE to have a chicken coup!

Read more on the CBC: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2009/06/29/nb-urban-farm-554.html

Pig Business

Thanks to Stephen Fry for tweeting this! I might not have heard of it otherwise!

It is HARD to watch, but it is IMPORTANT to watch. Pig Business is a new documentary film about the devastating effects of modern "farming" methods of raising pigs - which really is applying industrial production methods to animals. I love pigs, and bacon is probably my most favorite food in the world, so being face to face with how these animals are treated in the larger corporate farms is really hard to see. It is a great kick in the butt, though, for me to continue to track down and support small local farmers who treat their livestock with respect. These are living creatures after all, not cars!

I don't know when we'll be able to see the film in North America, but the UK has showings listed on the website, and also has a trailer for the film.

So check it out - it's tough, but it's so very important to know the consequences of how we're raising animals these days. http://www.pigbusiness.co.uk/

Photo Journal: Springtime in the City

Our first city spring in several years. Took a long time getting here, as there were steady snowstorms throughout winter. But the trees are finally in leaf, and the early blossoms of forsythia and crocus have all faded away. Finally, spring is really here!

We had a couple of lovely flowering trees in our yard, near the woods:




Chickadees are still enjoying our tiny birdfeeder:




The leaves on the maple trees are out, but not fully extended yet:



Casey's having to take time out during her play, in the shade of the bushes. Her black fur makes her overheat very quickly, and as soon as it got a little warm, she started having to take breaks. :)



And, on a not-really-related note, I bought a very cute little turnip at the grocery store, and decided to take pics of it. I had the knife in the shot for scale. Bahy Boy thought perhaps it was food time, and gently reminded me that he was there, and totally available for feeding. What a goofy cat. :)



So, that's been spring...bring on the sunny skies and sandal-wearing weather!

New Gift Shop!

I've added a second gift shop on Zazzle, called Ann's Ukrainian Gifts Too! It'll feature even more unique Ukrainian designs, on some of Zazzle's more interesting product lines.

Just in time for Father's Day, I've released a line of Ukrainian Neck Ties! Perfect for Dad on his special day, these ties feature Ukrainian folk embroidery inspired designs he's sure to love.

For American customers, the url is http://www.zazzle.com/annsukrainiangifts2*

But if you're in Canada, you can shop Zazzle's local url @ http://www.zazzle.ca/annsukrainiangifts2*

They have local urls for Australia and Great Britain, too, just click on the appropriate flag at the bottom of the page.

Finally, a trip to Hamachi!

Finally, after a whole year of dashed plans, my family and I got to go to Hamachi. There are 4 Hamachi restaurants with different themes in the Halifax area - we went to the one on Portland Street, Hamachi Grill & Sushi House.

The atmosphere was really nice in there. The staff were super friendly. The decor was very nice - very traditional, formal Japanese, not plastered with tons of stuff on the walls, but just a few well-chosen art pieces. There was a lovely Japanese water fountain, and a very cute sushi bar surrounded by a moat, where your sushi is delivered to you via "boat" (have to try that next time)!

But on to the food! I told my parents it wouldn't be a proper Japanese meal unless they had miso soup, so we all had some. It was really lovely, and my parents were pleasantly surprised by the taste (they heard the words "seaweed" and "tofu" and weren't expecting much good to come of it). But there's so much more to a good miso soup, of course, and all the wonderful flavors came together perfectly.

Pork Gyoza. The pork gyoza was spectacular. MAN, that stuff is good! I heard James Barber once say that every culture has a dumpling, it's basically only a slight change in dough, and whatever the culture chooses to stuff it with. Ukrainians and Poles are best known for perogies, of course, but Japan has its gyoza (delicious recipe @ About.com). Lovely with Hamachi's delicate vinegary/soya dip-in sauce.

Shrimp Tempura. Their tempura was above reproach. As I've often heard, proper tempura is really an art form, made in small batches with freezing cold water, leaving a few lumps of flour in so that upon frying, the batter puffs up light with extra crispy bits. We had shrimp, and it was lovely. Beautiful coloring, deliciously crispy.

Unagi Kabayaki. I had wanted to try eel for several years now. There's a day (the traditional "hottest day of the year" in Japan) that everyone eats eel on, as it's oiliness is believed to help you "beat the heat". So I finally ordered it. And wow, what an unexpected flavor! (But unfortunately, not in a good way, this time). I thought it would be rather chewy, but the inside really rather melted away, which was nice. Now, this is freshwater eel, mind - but it tasted like the sea! I can think of nothing that has ever elicited such a strong memory connection with the sea other than actually being there, breathing in sea air. It was astonishing! It tasted like ocean, it's the only way I can describe it. Not unpleasant like drinking sea water or anything like that, but as if you were actually able to eat ocean, and all the minerally, saltiness of it in a physical form. Dave had promised to eat whatever I ate, and so dutifully had some. Even my dad tried some. My dad and I also tried it in honour of our German ancestors, who came to Nova Scotia a few hundred years ago, and had to spend many a winter eating eel, as it was in abundance in the Lunenburg area. I applaud them for their courage. Or their desperation. I tried to like it. I really, really did. But it was such an extreme flavor, and it just didn't "chime" with me. Or my dad, or Dave. So we had to leave this beautifully prepared (I mean, it was gorgeous, and lovingly done, you could tell) food alone. We took it home to share with our furry family.

Beef Sashimi. The true treat of the night was the beef sashimi. Sashimi usually refers to raw fish, served with a dipping sauce, so I assumed (correctly) that this would be beef seared on the outside, but completely rare (or blue, as the server called it) on the inside. It was served super-thinly sliced, in a ponzu sauce. What an amazing experience. Holy moley! I put it in my mouth, and as I was experiencing this incredible taste sensation for the first time, I looked over at Dave and could see the range of emotions he was going through as he was hit with it. My parents were asking us eagerly how it tasted, but we both couldn't talk - I could tell he loved it as much as I did though! When we finally could speak, we both just oohed and ahhed, we couldn't even really put it into words. It was so delicate and tender, the meat just melted in your mouth, it was truly amazing, amazing. WOW. SO GOOD! The sauce complimented it wonderfully, and the whole thing together was the most incredible taste sensation. WOW.

My parents had sesame seed salmon, with a very unJapanese portion size. It was HUGE! BIG salmon, lots of sake grilled veggies and fried rice (traditional Japanese meals usually have MUCH smaller portions, but we're used to bigger here in the West, so I guess that's what they serve).

Dave and I had a couple different kinds of sushi, all impeccably prepared, of course! As I've said before, I don't think sushi will ever be my all-time favorite, but it is nice to have a little on a special occasion.

So, all in all, we had a lovely time, and will definitely go back again. My parents were nervous about trying a totally new cuisine, but I think they were pleasantly surprised. And there's tons more on the menu, so we'll have lots to try next time, too! So if you're ever in Dartmouth, be sure to check out the Hamachi Grill and Sushi House - you'll be glad you did!

Kotatsu time is quickly coming to a close...

I don't know who'll miss the kotatsu more, the animals or us! Now that it's springtime, it'll soon be time to put away winter things.

Baby Boy was the biggest fan amongst the cats, enjoying sleeping on it while the sun was up, and staying under it the entire evening before bed. Whether it was on or off, Baby would be there, secure in the hope that at some point it would get turned on, and would get toasty warm. Lila was the biggest fan amongst the dogs, but didn't realize it could be turned on even when a person wasn't sitting at it. When we were sitting at it, she'd come in from the cold outdoors and dive right under, but if no one was, we'd tell her to go under, and even put her under, but she'd come right back out again, looking at us wonderingly, "Why aren't you going to sit down? I'm cold!". She always falls asleep under there, and you eventually either hear her snoring contentedly, or panting because she got too warm, but doesn't want to leave. Pretty cute.

We put the kotatsu together ourselves, using our old coffee table as the base. We bought a kotatsu heater off of eBay (from shop owner gyatei), and a stepup/stepdown power converter (from export depot). We used a large bedspread/duvet, but never did get around to getting a proper table top made for over it. We plan on getting a piece of MDF and painting and varnishing it for next winter. Hopefully it'll get done! Otherwise the duvet gets pretty dirty from us eating over it all the time. :) The heater was very easy to install, a few screws were all that was needed. It provided us with a great place to all sit down together as a family, bundled up and warm and toasty to watch tv, eat, or do hobbies. Good way to save on oil heating too! ;)

Want to make your own kotatsu from scratch? mantilo: a miscellany has a great post on his own adventures in kotatsu-ing.

Savings (with a little decluttering thrown in)

I love reading Maki's informative and entertaining blog Just Hungry. This month, she's doing some posts about financial frugality, and she did a nice little review of the Japanese educational manga Savings Techniques for Women Who Can't Save. She mentions something I've heard many times before, that reducing the physical clutter in your life can help reduce the mental clutter, and helps you financially, too. Check it out!

Pysanky Final

And here's the finished product! There are some things I'd change about it, like varying the line widths a bit more - but considering I was able to dig out only two sizes of kistky to use, I think it turned out pretty okay! Happy Easter Everyone!

Finally, Pysanky!

The sad thing is, I don't have as much time as I'd like to devote to pysanky these days - this is the first one I made all Lent! Spent a couple hours doing the white tonight, hope to finish it before Easter! :)



As per usual with the ones I make at the end of Lent, I didn't follow a set design, I prefer to make it up as I go along. Hopefully, it'll turn out pretty!

Change of Direction

For the last several years, this blog has been focused specifically on my ruralish life - nature photography, bird watching at our bird feeder, walks in the woods, and so on.

Moving to the city (and winter) has changed those aspects of my life. I still cherish many of the same things I did before, I just don't get to explore them much these days. And if I keep the blog as it is and only talk about those things, it'll be months between postings. So I think I'm going to move the focus to include a few of the other things that interest me, too:

Japanese television - they have some amazingly creative storytelling on Japanese TV, that you just don't see much of anymore on North American tv. I'll also discuss good foreign (well, foreign to North America) :) films I come across.

Organization - I'm trying to focus on reorganizing my space, and my time, to fit everything that I have to do, in! Somehow! BIG fan of Peter Walsh.

I'll still give regular updates on my gift shop, my art, and any ruralish behaviour I get up to! Hope you will enjoy the journey with me!

Its a brave new world

This is so awesome. I've been a fan of Obama's ever since I saw him give that amazing speech at the DNC back in '04. And he and his wife have taken it up yet another notch by planting a White House organic kitchen garden. Their main aim is to start dialogue regarding the fast-food/obesity issues many Western countries face, but it also sends a great message about consuming locally grown/seasonal produce and good-for-the-earth organic farming methods. All around, a great addition to the White House property, and a wonderful example for others to follow!

Read more.

Sardines, watch out!

This is truly amazing video. A school of sardines is attacked by dolphins, sharks and birds, ALL AT ONCE! It's freakin' crazy!!

I don't usually watch "hunting" videos (I feel too bad for the hunted - I know it happens in the wild, I just don't want to see it), but since (1) the fish are teeny-tiny (2) there's tons of them and (3) there's no blood, I made an exception in this case. So glad I did, it is really must-see video.

It's like "Wild Kingdom" on steroids. To watch the school twist and turn in unison to evade, the birds turning into missiles diving into the water, the sharks NOT eating the birds, it's just...wow.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7921119.stm

Local Restaurants & Farmers Meet

A good idea, I hope more places can come up with programs like this. It's a meeting where farmers, Nova Scotia chefs, government marketing representatives and a group representing restaurant owners all got together, with the aim of getting local restaurants to use more locally-grown produce. Getting everyone to meet face to face like that is great, everyone gets to meet and know each other, opening up new networks of local supply that everyone can trust and feel comfortable with.

Read about it on the Chronicle-Herald.

I can't resist good design!

I saw this at work today, and HAD to get one myself and give it my own tiny financial support.



It's called a "Wishbone" soap dish, and I wasn't surprised to see on the packaging that this design was the winner of the Umbra-Pratt Design Competition. It is a fantastic looking design, and if I guess right, it'll be wonderfully functional, too. Instead of like many soapdishes, this one won't have a sloppy mess underneath, because the air will be able to dry most of the bottom of the soap, through the "ribs" of the fish. Very cool!

www.umbra.com

Moonlight through trees

Spooky-looking night out there tonight...

The Future is Now: Tracking Songbirds

It's pretty amazing how small we can make trackers for wildlife these days. All the miniaturization in technology is enabling researchers to get new insight into the travel patterns of many animals, including tiny songbirds.

The more we learn, the more we can see how environmental changes, airplane traffic patterns and more are affecting the wildlife around us.

Learn more on the BBC!

Site Down for a time

As I discovered while I was trying to update my shop today, my hosting provider is having some hardware/network issues which has caused my site to slow down, and now stop loading completely. I think it was out long enough it might have lost its DNS entry, so it might take some time after they get the servers up and running again for everyone's computers to be able to see my sites again. This affects shop.learnpysanky.com and www.learnpysanky.com, as well as some of the images on this blog.

I'm very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause!

Stoats 'n' Stuff

Dave had a ferret several years ago. Her name was Jessica, and she was the sweetest little thing. If you want an entertaining pet, get a ferret. Unlike kittens, who keep their playfulness while young, but often grow lackadaisical when older (like Baby Boy, who prefers to just roll over and get a belly rub rather than chase a string), ferrets stay just as active and crazy when they're in old age as they were when they were young.

I remember seeing a video of wild cousins of the ferrets sitting together out in the wild, then one of them darting over and giving a young bear (minding his own business eating berries in a field) a bite on the butt! Then the ferrets ran off, chortling and bouncing away like it had been the best joke in the world. That's a ferret mentality for you: fun first, think of the consequences later. The bear was annoyed, but didn't chase them for long. :)

Stoats are also wild cousins of the ferret, and this really cute video shows him gamboling about in a garden in the UK. It's pretty hilarious!

Chickens in Halifax, update

I got an update the other day from the Facebook group set up for people in favor of being able to raise chickens in Halifax. The study done by the city is nearly complete, and they say the study looks like they're going to continue to ban raising chickens locally, which is really unfortunate. Read about the slowly ongoing saga:

chickens-in-city.html
chickens-in-city-update.html
chickens-in-halifax-update.html

If you happen to live in a place that does allow chickens, why not consider raising some? You get a great source of fresh eggs, that have been produced by chickens you raised and feed yourself - talk about quality control! And often, you'll have enough extra eggs to offer to neighbours - building community relations!

Mother Earth News has an article on raising chickens for first timers, check it out for more information. I think it'd be a lot of fun - I would if I could!