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Vancouver

Word Vancouver 2023

I hadn’t been to Word Vancouver for several years. This year exhibitors were in the ice rink and readings and panels took place in the adjoining UBC classrooms and on the pavement level above.

Here we see a typically Vancouver spin, with tai chi practice at the edge of the literary exhibitor area.

And on my way to the venue I’d passed an outdoor yoga class in the courtyard of the former Nordstrom’s department store. But my main business at the event was overseeing the volunteers who had kindly offered to sit at the table and answer questions about the Writers Union of Canada, for which I am currently BC/Yukon representative.

We shared a table with Joy Kogawa House; good neighbours to have! And luckily for me, almost all the volunteers arrived on time, and I was able to catch a few of the readings and panels, including one featuring two Victoria writers, Lorna Crozier and Eve Joseph, who with Vancouver writer Tara McGuire were discussing Life After Loss, with Vancouver poet Rob Taylor presiding. At the end of the day, I managed to catch the very end of a panel I’d wanted to hear, featuring Hilary Peach and Kate Braid, with Heidi Greco, discussing their writings about working in trades as women.

Author Esmeralda Cabral works a shift at the TWUC table
4 people at conference table
Life After Loss – Rob Taylor, Lorna Crozier, Eve Joseph, Tara McGuire
womans face between two turned heads
Lorna Crozier speaks on loss
5 women seated beneath canopy
Hilary Peach reads; Heidi Greco, Kate Braid. Vancouver poet laureate Fiona Tinwei Lam listens

 

Winter Market, Vancouver

I’ve made a couple of delicious visits to Riley Park Winter Market and here are some of the sights I’ve seen…..

My first foray was in early March, when Vancouver had received an unwelcome dump of snow. Which didn’t deter shoppers or stallholders!

 

Market stalls and people with snowy foreground

Baker at market stall
Lisa Virtue, baker
Different varieties of winter squash displayed in boxes
Lovely winter squash
Cabbage and assorted radishes in boxes at vegetable stall
Exotic radish varieties
Carrots and root vegetables on display at market stall
Roots!
Different boxes of apples on display at market stall
Organic apples
Customer filling bag with stinging nettles at market stand
Self serve nettles
Mobile cheese seller
Say cheese…
Whistler Harvest mushroom seller with boxes of mushrooms
Mushrooms!
Cardboard box with mushroom assortment
Shiitake, Lion’s Mane, Oyster, Maitake (Hen Of The Woods)

Roots & shoots

Rainforest, mossy trees
Vancouver has an abundance of parks, and I’ve been enjoying many a forested stroll in Pacific Spirit, but also got a nice walk in somewhere up the side of Cypress Mountain, on the north shore, which has many trails.

At Pacific Spirit Park I’m particularly taken by the determination of young trees to grow from the stumps of the old giants who were long felled here. The elders nurture the new growth until they dissolve, leaving the youngsters to sort out their root system which is far above ground level.

Tree roots covering a stump Roots covering a stump Roots covering a stumpRoots covering a stump

 

 

 

Permaculture & poetry

The last couple of weeks have swung past in a mainly permacultural haze.

The first screening at a new permaculture film night series was Anima Mundi, a bit of a collective disappointment for the 20-odd souls who crowded into the Community Microlending Society office, but a cheery networking session, lively discussion and helpful information share ensued.

I went for my second round of Permaculture Design classes last weekend, in which we built a hot compost bed in a classically low-maintenance permacultural manner (meaning: let nature do its thing). We prepared the ground by sheet-mulching with layers of cardboard; built a hollowed shell from horse manure; filled it with weeds and seriously rotten kitchen waste; and then covered it with more horse manure. Rats apparently don’t care to dig through manure to get to rotten food. You can then plant squash on top, which keeps the weeds down and thrives on the nitrogenous waste beneath. And harvest fresh soil in a year’s time, when the hill will have sunk to about ground level. Or leave it in place and plant something else there.

 

 

 

 

 

Later we went for a forest walk with Brandon Bauer in order to test our powers of observation and  taste a few ants. Very tasty indeed. A sharp organoleptic explosion that Brandon likened to tamarind or vinegar; I’d say a very acerbic sorrel.

 

 

 

 

 

There’s a nice-sounding workshop I won’t make it to this weekend, An Introduction to Home-Scale Permaculture with Elaine Codling; and the Duncan Seedy Saturday takes place that day as well.

And finally, back to poetry. I read with Ruth Pierson and Ted Blodgett at Vancouver Public Library last night and a good time was had by all, I’d say. I read food poems to one of the most responsive and delightful audiences ever, and sold lots of books, including the last few copies of Sunday Dinners. If you have one, you can now officially treasure it as a rare book.

Ruth Roach Pierson
E.D. Blodgett

Vancouver’s urban farms

Time, food and agriculture never sleep, at least not where interesting stories are concerned.

There’s a link here to a rather beautiful brochure  shows that shows you who’s growing what and where in twenty-six urban farms in Vancouver.

And a nice story about the loneliness of the the farming life which I suppose applies to urban farmers as well; it offers a reminder that we are often in too much of a hurry, and too accustomed to shopping anonymously for food, to thank those who provide it.

And some good news for Victoria food shoppers, with a new whole/local foods store opening, conveniently situated near the wondrous Capital Iron.

A wrist-slapping lesson in public consultation for Stephen Harper whose decision to bring to fruition his longtime plan to dismantle the Canadian Wheat Board was declared illegal by a federal court.

And an opportunity for British Columbians to participate in a public consultation on a province-wide ban on cosmetic pesticides is open until December 15. Anyone who cares about the continuing health of honeybees and other wild pollinators, other species in the food chain/eco system, as well as pet-owners and parents should take a moment to speak in favour of this ban.

The soil is the thing: the EU Soil Report warns about what the soil Soil: Worth standing your ground for from The European Environmental Bureau