A Little Pick-me up

I'm in dire need of a bit of a visual and mental pick-me up. Normally one would go out and buy a new pair of shoes, but that's really not happening on a student budget. 3 pairs of shoes is enough, right? One for walking, one for running, and one for working. The rest are just decorations. I do have boots to add into the equation. 4 pairs. Hiking, caving, snow, and pretty. Wow, now that I write them down, I feel much better about my shoe collection. Do you think I could count my climbing shoes as a pair, and maybe my skates... Anyways, I digress, the real reason I'm writing today is Charlie Harper, illustrator extraordinare. I'm going to stop blathering, and let you look at his wonderful work here in Todd Oldham's book on the great naturalist/modernist....

One of My Favorites

I just received my boxes from my shipment that I sent AGES ago. Its very exciting to open all of my boxes. Its like Christmas, but its all of my own stuff, and its all just what I wanted! I found something worth noting when I opened my book box. Marian Bantjes... I love what she does, and being reminded of her I meandered over to her site for a little update. Lots of more beautiful things! The pics I've included are from the book I have from Fox River Paper... and the link to that part of her site is here. Enjoy the visual feast, while I'm busy rediscovering all of my favourite things!

Stain Teacup

Before

After

I've had my eye on this little number for awhile. I absolutely LOVE it. No other words to describe my feelings towards this little cup. I kind of wish I could get it in other colours. I will someday break, and just purchase it. But for now, I will admire it from here. You can checkout Bethan Laura Wood's other work at her website here.

Radium... Not the good kind

As most of you know, my favorite place in the entire world (of the parts I've seen anyhow), is a little place called Radium in BC. Now, luckily this post has nothing to do with that Radium, but it does have to do with a small place named Port Radium in Nunavut. There is exploration going on for Uranium reserves pushed by France's nuclear industry, click here for the whole story. I'm starting to really believe that Canada needs to move away from the exploitation of our natural resources, and become more of a knowledge based economy. The north is taking a beating lately. The polar bears are struggling to survive, and this horrible story about the oil sands in Northern Alberta, and now increased uranium mining. There have been concerns of an increased occurrance of cancer in the area because of the mining. Check out this article for more information. Thanks treehugger for keeping me up to date!

Things that Annoy Me

Increasingly I'm getting more and more annoyed with Greenwashing. I'm finding it harder to distinguish between what is environmentally friendly and what is just hype. Everything here seems to be 'green', but it ends up being something excessively small that is used to make the company look concerned. What is going to have to happen to make some REAL change? Is real change possible?

Yvon Chouinard @ Google

I've been procrastinating today, in a good way. I've been doing some research on environmental activism and business. I came across two talks by the founder and owner of Patagonia at Google. His insights are extremely interesting, and do make me want to sit down and focus on what is really important. The thing that I think stood out the most was the fact that often the most successful people are the ones getting their hands dirty, and often you have to step back and examine your values. Click here and here to watch the YouTube videos.

Searching for Worms

I'm in the process of looking for a nice batch of worms for vermicomposting. How exciting. I'll keep you all posted on how they are thriving, and if I'm able to deal with them. Truthfully, I'm really not excited about having to sort them out of the compost - but imagine the organic waste I'll save from the landfill!