the mushrooms

The mushrooms on the east coast of the country. I took so many mushroom photos while in NB (and could have taken so many more) that I thought I should just post the photos that I do have.

We did find Lobster mushrooms on our second day without even looking. Their bright reddish-orange makes them fairly easy to spot amongst moss and trees. Many days later we went back the same route to see if we could find more and we did; however, the second batch were just starting to go. We'd had quite a bit of rain on a couple of nights, and the second ones didn't look very appetizing even after db tried to clean them up.

We also came across a few tiny chanterelles. If only I could go back to that spot in September!

The most common mushroom we saw were the rosy Russulas (at least that's what I think they were).

Coral. 

 

Such a beautiful forest. Mushrooms could be anywhere here.

Not an edible mushroom for sure. 

There were a few of these in one area near the brook. Very pretty.

A bolete cap.

It stained blue, so we knew that this one would stay in the forest. 

A bolete we brought back to identify, but without my Mushrooms Demystified and only using my quick reference book (All that the Rain Promises and More), it was tough to get a clear ID.

Hedgehog? I've never found one before so I wasn't sure. 

To look at only. 

The best find! The Lobster mushrooms. We sliced them, fried them and everyone had some (I don't think my brother tried them. He seemed a little skeptical that we could eat them). 

vacation 2010

I'd been waiting all year for my vacation, and even more so in the last few months. I flew to Montreal to meet up with db, (who had already been there for a week with his family), my sis, and my mother. We drove the next day to NB where my brother lives. He was ready to go with coolers filled with food & drink and two trucks to drive the 15-20 kilometers into the woods where he has a camp that we visit every two years. It's fairly remote, accessible only by logging roads, and there really is very few people out there. My brother's land also has some lakefront. It's pretty much an ideal spot.

The only downside is Irving. Irving owns New Brunswick (I'm not kidding -- the newspaper, t.v. stations etc), and the crown land around my brother's land is being clearcut. This year we could hear some machinery in the far far distance when we were in our tent at night. One of the roads into his camp was ruined as the company put in another road to access a new area. While these roads do provide access to my brother's camp, and once they are no longer needed they do grow up and fill in with greenery restoring the damaged landscape, there is the price of large areas of forest being flattened. The company will come in to plant more spruce ("toilet paper trees" as my brother calls them), but the mixture of hardwood and softwood of the natural forest is forever changed.

I didn't really expect to get into the clearcut side of the vacation, but I don't think I can really ignore what is right in front of me and as a person who cares about the environment. I'm thinking about doing further research into this topic because when I look at a map of NB there seems to be few protected areas of any size, but I won't say for sure until I find out  more.

Anywho...onto the vacation photos from our first day there. There may not be a lot of photos, but that's because I generally don't include pictures with people in them since I try to keep some anonymity to this blog (I know most of you already know me, but I'm sticking with my original decision here).

We saw two spruce grouse on our drive out to get some firewood. One was smaller than the other. They weren't too quick to move so I was able to get quite close for a photo. 

 Cedar waxwings seem to be everywhere. I kept seeing them, but they are hard to photograph because they never seem to sit still for long. I feel lucky to have gotten these two photos. I thought they were waxwings, but did a definite ID when I got home.

 Beaver lodge. These are abundant, but not always active. 

The old clearcut areas provide firewood for the campfire.

Sunset towards the end of our evening drives to look for Moose. db has a great interest in Moose so we're always going out to look for them. It is Moose country afterall so the chances are good.

Garden photos

I haven't had much time for my garden this year, but like all gardens it grows anyway.

This may be my favorite clematis (Niobe). It looks like velvet, and it really stands out amongst the cotoneaster.

The Rose Campion came back in full force, and I was surprised by the height it grew, which is why the tango lily is hidden amongst it. I may move it in the fall and bring all of the lilies forward.

I was also surprised (pleasantly) by the trumpet lily that I don't remember buying or being given so I'm not sure where it came from, but I love it.

It may be slightly neglected this year, but the garden is full of surprises for me.

Run Vegan Run

Finally I was able to run more than 10 k today! I had a few dates, some fresh blueberries (I love summer!) and I was out the door. It didn't all go smoothly though.  Less than 1 k into my run my bra strap came undone. Hmmm...what to do? The only way I could fix it would be to take off my bra. That's complicated when you're out for a run. I looked for a place to step into the woods, but then I saw a woman coming along the path that I had passed a few minutes earlier. She was on a power walk. I stopped her and asked if she could fix my bra. An odd thing to ask a stranger, but there you go. She fixed the strap, I thanked her and wished her to have great day, and then was on my way.

Two minutes later my left hamstring twinged, kind of like a little pop. I stretched and tried to massage the pain away, but was having little luck. Walking was hurting it. Hmmm....what to do?  I tried shuffling along to see how far I could go, but it only took a few steps before I had to stop from the pain. I did some more stretching and massaging. I felt like crying! After all of this recovery time for my achilles and now this! I shuffled along some more, walked, shuffled, and then slowly began to do a slow jog using my yoga breathing to "breathe into the pain." I also focused on relaxing my legs and hips as much as possible because it's so easy to tense up when you're feeling pain. Once I crested the hill I knew I'd be able to keep going a little further, and decided to keep going as long as my body could stand it. Well...10 k later I felt pretty good.

I think it was the uphill that irritated the hamstring. I've been doing so much running on flat terrain to help my achilles recover that my legs just aren't use to having to climb.

During the last kilometer I felt really great endurance-wise, but my hamstring started to tighten up again. I couldn't wait to get home and stretch.

Now I can rest it for the remainder of the day, and tomorrow we'll see how it goes.

(I also tried out my new Camelbak water bottle, and I love it! It took a little getting use to, but now I really appreciate being able to drink from any angle, which is nice while running because I don't have to tilt the bottle to get liquid. It's the small things...)

Friday's question

Why is it that when I'm doing the things I love, the time just flies by?

You guessed correctly if you guessed that it's Friday afternoon and I'm at work.

my community

I managed to find a copy of David Byrne's The Bicycle Diaries at my local library, and I'm glad I found it (I picked it up thanks to Barbara's review at The Bookworm Collective. You can read her review there find out what the book is about).

Ten pages into it, and it already has me thinking about my daily commute and how my method of transportation affects how I view my community. I don't know if this is the scope of the book, but it got me thinking.

I don't own a car, and I don't really want to own one either (db does have the company car on the weekends, so we do use all methods of transporation).  Mostly I take transit (bus & skytrain), I use my bike to run errands on my day off, or if I just feel like taking a bike ride, and I walk -- alot. What have I learned about my community and how it functions based on my daily walks? No surprise, but we are a car culture.

We live in a suburb of Vancouver. It's a thriving little city with lots going on. What I see as the hub of our town is a little pocket of shops, mostly independent businesses, that sit between, and is connected by two main commuter roads. It's a pedestrian friendly area, but also has lots of room for parking. You could get everything you need in this little area, and I suppose that was part of the attraction for the adjacent condo owners; everything is within walking distance.

Across the main road from this little hub, is the theatre where they hold screenings and events, the library, and the recreation centre. The inlet trail borders this area, and has paved and unpaved trails that run along the water. If you walk, bike, or run in one direction, it takes you to a nice picnic and beach area. If you do the same in the other direction it takes you to a larger park where concerts are held, a boat lauch is available, and there's even a small public pool, and a dog park. If you know your way around you can also connect to many of the trails that run up the mountainside.

Kitty-corner to the "hub" area is a new development that has been filled with more condos, and little shops in a pedestrian friendly area. It is attempting to mimic the original, older main hub; however, it doesn't have the independent businesses, but rather is a series of chain stores (Starbucks, Cobs Bread, Booster Juice) and has a feeling of something a little bit fake in its attempt to be quaint. I see this entire neighbourhood as being set up for after hours and weekend outdoor play.

If you don't live in either of these hubs you need a car. Walking is for the weekend only, or if you take the dog out. Some streets don't even have sidewalks. I live a fifteen minute walk up the hill from the hub, so while it is possible to walk to this area and get everything I need, it is a bit inconvenient as well because the hill is quite a hike. It's fairly steep so walking home with a load of groceries is not really what I want do. We save grocery shopping for the weekend, and we have our organic produce delivery that comes once a week. However, I do walk this hill almost daily to get home from work since the buses that do run up the hill are few and far between.

The road that runs up the hill is four lanes. It is a 50 km zone, but as you can probably guess no one does 50 km, it's usually closer to 70 or more if they're going downhill (db & I actually call this stretch of road "speed city raceway").  There are no houses along it, just trees, and pathways that lead to suburban pockets of homes. Whenever I cross paths with someone walking up or down, we always exchange a hello or a good morning. Once you hit the hub though, the greetings stop.

Off this main artery are lots of little side streets, most of which are tree-lined dead ends. The houses are close, but the yards are still large enough for good sized gardens, and backyards often face a greenbelt. Where I live is one of these streets. The homes are large (we rent of course) with wide driveways and double car garages. Even with the two car garages, many people park on the street because they have more than one or two cars (or there are renters who have cars, but no access to a garage. There's actually a little dispute going on about who can park where on the street. One of the neighbours gives out his own tickets if you park in front of his house (i'm not kidding). 

So my community is a commuting one. The cars file down in the morning and file home at night (have you seen Edward Scissorhands? It's like that). It is truly suburban in that respect. The community is set up to move these cars to and from work as efficiently as possible. Bikes? There are few bike lanes, so you're really you're on your own for commuting. Afterall, biking is a weekend activity reserved for the trails.

trip to Bowen Island & Mt Gardner

We got lucky. We had good weather, and decided that we would drive to the ferry and go to Bowen Island to do our planned hike up Mt Gardner.  You can walk on the ferry since the hike is walking distance from the ferry, and there are a couple of smaller trails to take to get you to the beginning of the Mt. Gardner hike.

Lots of slugs along the way. Each one seemed bigger than the one before. We started to think that maybe they got larger the higher we hiked!

The first view on the way up that looks back down to where we arrived.

Foxgloves were abundant. Why do I have such a hard time growing them?

This was an unusual and cool looking part of the trail. This was along the "handloggers trail." There are several options to approach Mt. Gardner. We took several linking trails to wind our way up rather than taking a more direct (and perhaps less interesting) route.

Looks like some Angel wings...I think. Edible, but we didn't collect any as there were too few to really bother.

Second view: I think this is looking at Keets island.

New growth amongst the old growth.

We went to the North Summit where the views are. There are also radio towers and 2 helicopter landing pads. I think this is why the N. Summit has the views that the S. Summit doesn't.

View from the top. This looks down towards the Sunshine Coast. The clouds were covering the distant mountains, and at times some low cloud passed closely by. It was beautiful. We sat on the wooden slatted chopper landing pad and had lunch.

Playing with the sepia setting on the camera on the way down the mountain. 

After our long 6 hour plus hike, we reached our destination...


The Tuscany

The food was amazing as usual. It was a perfect way to end our day.

 Warm citrus olives with a bruschetta salad & grilled portabellos.

Ah, the pizza with grilled veg. They have a wood burning oven to cook their pizza. There's nothing like a pizza cooked in a wood burning oven.

Back to the mainland. What a beautiful day!