One of the best things about summer is all the local produce available. There are many local farmers markets operating throughout the Lower Mainland, and I occasionally stop by the Main Street market after work on Wednesdays. However, it is so awesome to have the Richmond Country Farms located in the same location, every day of the week, with set hours. It makes bringing home fresh, local produce so much easier. Don’t get me wrong, I still love the variety of local businesses at the Farmers Markets.

Richmond Country Farms

Nursery at Richmond Country Farms

Selection of Local Produce

Resident Ducks at Richmond Country Farms (look at those awesome colours!!)

View all my photos on my Flickr set: Richmond Country Farms.

Richmond Country Farms is located off Highway 99 in the Steveston area of Richmond (this side of the George Massey Tunnel). It is open from April to late December with a special Pumpkin Patch in October. Most of their produce is from their own acreage but they also seasonally source from other local BC farmers. They also have a nursery and sell turf by the roll (to golf courses no less!).

Do you ever wonder what kind of shenanigans and adventures your pets get up to when you’re not home? I can tell you with 99.9% certainty that Henry does exactly this:

Happy Whiskers on Wednesday to the other humans out there!

I’ve been a fan of Stuart McLean’s Vinyl Cafe books since I was a kid. I was given Home From the Vinyl Cafe for Christmas when I was maybe 11 or 12. When I found out Stuart McLean also had a Vinyl Cafe show on CBC, I immediately subscribed to the podcast via iTunes. I’ve been listening to that for a few years and then in November last year I had a chance to see the Vinyl Cafe Christmas Concert when Stuart McLean was on tour. It was shortly after the release of Extreme Vinyl Cafe and the concert featured a couple stories from the book. I also got a chance to meet Stuart and have him sign my copy of Extreme Vinyl Cafe.

I’ve just finished reading the book, Extreme Vinyl Cafe, and while it’s classic Dave and Morley, I have to say I’m a bit disappointed. I think it’s the fact that I’m over-saturated by the podcast and reading so many of the books, but I’d already heard all the stories in Extreme Vinyl Cafe. I know two of them we heard at the concert, and I know at least another two (for certain) I heard on the podcast. They were great stories, and I enjoyed them, but it was disappointing because I was expecting new Vinyl Cafe stories. However, if you have never read The Vinyl Cafe or heard Stuart McLean’s stories, I strongly urge you to check out this quintessential Canadian storyteller. He is not only magnificent at weaving a tale but also has a lovely voice.

The thing that is so great about Vinyl Cafe stories is the humour mixed in with little life lessons. You’d never think of defrosting a turkey with a hair dryer, or sneaking into the school to free the janitor from “redundancy”, but there they are. Dave and his family, wife Morley, daughter Stephanie, and son Sam are all hilarious and yet vulnerable humans in their own way. While some of the stories may be a little wacky, they are all very real and honest, with genuine emotion.

Back to the book review: A neat touch to Extreme Vinyl Cafe is each story is preceded by a unique piece of fan mail that Stuart McLean has received. Each fan mail letter relates somehow to the following story. Sometimes a silly little letter simply preceding the story, other times the story serves as an insightful to the writer’s query. However, he has a new book coming out this fall — The Vinyl Cafe Notebooks — which is actually a non-fiction title about the making of the radio show. Even though it’s not Dave and Morley, I’m very interested to read this next serving of Vinyl Cafe stories.

We’re already a week into August (can you believe it?!) and despite arts funding cuts, I’m very excited about the 9th Annual BC Cultural Crawl! The best thing about living in the Lower Mainland, is the proximity to other cities. I technically live in Vancouver but can easily go to Burnaby, Richmond, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Port Moody, Port Coquitlam, New Westminster, Langley, Abbotsford, and that’s not even mentioning all the nearby Island communities.

So I started looking through the list of BC Cultural Crawl activities for cities throughout the Lower Mainland. The Cultural Crawl listings are also a great way to learn about new artisans and artists in the Lower Mainland as many of the crawls are self-guided. Here are some of the activities I’m hoping to attend and/or looking forward to:

Surrey: Cloverdale Blueberry Festival
August 14th & 15th
I’ve been to the Abbotsford Berry Beats Festival, which combines a farmer’s market with music and a festival atmosphere. I’ve not been to the Cloverdale Blueberry Festival, but it’s already blueberry season here in BC! There is a Show ‘N Shine Car Parade in Cloverdale during the Blueberry Festival.

Vancouver: Main Street Magazine Tour
A celebration of the local arts & culture magascene.
Presented by the Magazine Association of BC
Thursday, August 19, 2010. 6:00–10:00 p.m. Free event.
Starts at Rhizome Café (317 E. Broadway)  Continues at various venues near Main & Broadway. There are two different routes and the tour guides are Elizabeth Bachinsky and Jennica Harper. It all looks fantastic. I missed the Literary Tour last year as part of BC Book and Magazine Week, but I will be trying to get out to this!

Gibsons Landing Fibre Arts Festival
August 20th to 22nd.
I am very excited about the Gibsons Landing Fibre Arts Festival. Unfortunately this may be the last year of the festival (not fully due to funding cuts, but a retiring board). A few of us are probably taking a little field trip there on the Friday. There are classes, an exhibitor marketplace, and on the Saturday there is an artisan market on the Landing.

Langley: Arts Alive! Festival
August 28th, 2010. 10am – 5pm.
Fraser Highway between 204th and 206th
I went to the Arts Alive! Festival last year completely by chance. It was great to wander around and check out all the shops.

Richmond: Wild BC Salmon Festival
Saturday, August 28. 11am – 4pm.
www.wildbcseafoodfest.com

Vancouver: Bard on the Beach
June 3rd to September 25th, 2010
Anthony & Cleopatra | Much Ado About Nothing | Falstaff | Henry V
I try to make it to a show every year, as Bard on the Beach is one of my favourite festivals. The performances are always spectacular, and extremely accessible. In 2008 I blogged about seeing The Twelfth Night, I’ve seen Comedy of Errors, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern, Romeo & Juliet, … and I can’t recall any others.

Richmond: Summer Night Market
May 21st to September 26th. Every weekend.
Live music, hundreds of vendors, and tons of food.
I’ve been to the Vancouver Chinatown Night Market this summer, but last summer the Richmond Night Market wasn’t operating. The Richmond Night Market is probably four times as large as the Vancouver Chinatown one. It’s great to grab some food, wander around, and haggle for some neat knick-knacks.

Maple Ridge: Meadows Maze
www.meadowsmaze.com
One of the largest corn mazes in the Pacific Northwest. Every year Meadows Maze has a different design. Last year celebrated the new Golden Ears Bridge, and this year is designed for the 100 year anniversary of the PNE.

Vancouver: Downtown Vancouver Art Walk
There is a ton of public art and art galleries in the downtown core. I’ve been trying to take photos of all the public art (and posting it in a Flickr set). I hope to get photos of all 18 Mosaic Art Tiles and all the Vancouver Biennale Sculptures.

Bowen Island: BowFEAST
Cultural Crawl the week before, Farmer’s Market on August 15th
Bowen Island is having a Cultural Crawl and BowFEAST during this week, all culminating on the August 14 & 15th weekend. This may be the perfect opportunity to visit my friends Adrian and Ginger on Bowen! Last summer we attended their wedding on Bowen and I am itching to go back to Bowen Island for more fun.

Circle Farm Tours
There are Circle Farm Tours in Abbotsford, Langley, Chilliwack, Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows, Agassi & Harrison Mills, and Mission. It’s a self-guided tour and there are tons of farms and artisans that I’d like to check out.

Granville Island Art Walk
When is going to Granville Island not tons of fun? Granville Island is actually chock-a-block full of artisans and artists. Honestly, I don’t know how they can afford the rent, but it’s an amazing place to spend the day. Grab some food at the Public Market, visit lots of lovely shops (including Circle Craft!!) and maybe catch a show at Waterfront Theatre or the Arts Club Theatre.

A couple weekends ago we took the Ranch’s dogs for a long walk around Aldergrove. We walked mostly along roads but only had to have the dogs sit for cars occasionally.

One of the houses we passed either had a lot of dogs, was a private rescue, or maybe a doggie daycare. They had at least five dogs and more I could hear but couldn’t see.

My favourite was this bulldog who would run through their hedges and spread-eagle on the fence to bark at our dogs. Craig snapped a photo with his phone, but oh how I wish I’d brought my camera!

Last Friday my mom and I went for a bike ride on Deas Island Regional Park. Highway 99 decends in Delta on Deas Island and travels under the Fraser River to emerge in Richmond. Whenever I return to Vancouver, just before we go into the George Massey Tunnel, we pass over Deas Slough. Deas Slough always looks so picturesque, quiet, and beautiful despite the highway running right through it.

View of Deas Slough from Deas Island Regional Park

Deas Island Regional Park dock and boat launch

View of the Fraser River from Deas Island

Bicycling Deas Island Regional Park

Take a look at all my photos from the bike ride on Flickr.

The only downside to this beautiful day was that my car died inexplicably during the drive home (thankfully before we got to Highway 99 and the George Massey Tunnel).

Being towed home

Kathleen Winter’s first novel, with House of Anansi Press, is the story of a young Labrador family secretly raising their hermaphrodite child as a boy. Winters’ prose is lyrical and lonely, yet relatable. Wayne’s story is magnetic, powerful, and has an unexplainable energy.

In 1968, into the beautiful, spare environment of remote coastal Labrador, a mysterious child is born: a baby who appears to be neither fully boy nor girl, but both at once. Only three people are privy to the secret — the baby’s parents, Jacinta and Treadway, and a trusted neighbour, Thomasina. Together the adults make a difficult decision: to raise the child as a boy named Wayne. But as Wayne grows to adulthood within the hyper-masculine hunting culture of his father, his shadow-self — a girl he thinks of as Annabel — is never entirely extinguished, and indeed is secretly nurtured by the women in his life.

Haunting, sweeping in scope, and stylistically reminiscent of Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex, Annabel is a compelling debut novel about one person’s struggle to discover the truth in a culture that shuns contradiction.

From the Publisher, House of Anansi Press

The novel raises a lot of questions about who people are, and why you choose the paths you choose. Each central person (Wayne, Thomasina, Jacinta, and Treadway) considers life’s purpose in a different light. Each character examines how they are connected to the world, Labrador, and the animals and society around them. One of the best quotes is from Thomasina: “Everyone is a snake shedding its skin… We are different people through all our lives.”

Central to the story is everyone’s influence on Wayne. He knows something about him is different, and the three people that know his secret keep it from him at all costs. We follow Wayne on his journey through childhood, puberty, and young adulthood. In each his parents try to nurture and encourage the person they think he should be; his father tries to get him to become the boy he was, his mother tries to hide and stifle his feminine side lest his father find out, and Thomasina blatantly calls him ‘Annabel’ after her own deceased daughter.

Overall I found the book lyrical and well-written. I felt it dragged a little near the end and was difficult to come to an end. I think that perhaps Kathleen Winter didn’t know how to finish the book, because it’s hard to say where Wayne may end up. It’s difficult to tell Wayne/Annabel’s entire life story and satisfy all the readers. It’s one of those rare books where the open-endedness bothers you, but feels like the right decision at the same time.

In an interview in House of Anansi Press, Kathleen Winter was asked, “What do you hope readers will take away from their experience with Wayne and his shadow-self, Annabel?” Winter’s reply really hit home with me about understanding why someone acts the way they do:

I’d like readers to see Wayne/Annabel the way they see themselves, and look at the “other” gender within themselves. I feel point of view is everything, in life and in literature, and I hope the book treats the points of view held by its divergent characters with equal respect. In many ways, this book is, for me, about suspending judgment. When you understand why someone acts the way they do, even if the actions cause sadness or difficulty, then I think you can redirect your energy to something more fruitful than judgment. I also hope the reader will have the kind of reading experience I think books are really about: a connection with the characters and a suspension of the loneliness of being human. I hope this story, like all good stories, might give the reader a kind of relief and a joy.

Now, I have taken to ending my reviews with additional links for interested readers. Well here is something really interesting: Bill Douglas, graphic designer, talking about his design for the cover of Annabel. I think Douglas did an incredible job of capturing the lonely, cold feeling in the book about Labrador. And I lovelovelove the hidden meaning behind the imagery chosen: “The caribou, you see, is the only member of the deer family in which both male and females grow antlers.”

• Kathleen Winter’s blog
• Kathleen Winter on Twitter
• House of Anansi Press on Twitter
• Kathleen Winter is a guest poster on The National Post‘s blog, The Afterword. Read her essay on “Loneliness and the Book” (part 1 / part 2)
• Salty Ink’s profile of Annabel, as defeded by Laura Repas of House of Anansi Press

The Book of Awesome is actually not that awesome. Some blog-to-book stories have been very successful and some blogs sell a lot of funny merchandise, but The Book of Awesome doesn’t stand up.

Based on www.1000awesomethings.com, Neil Pasricha started the blog to celebrate the little things in life. While this is theoretically a great idea — everyone needs to think positive and take joy in the little things — it just doesn’t work as a book. To start, even though the blog touts over 10 million hits, Neil hasn’t even reached #1 of his “awesome” list; the blog counts down from 1000 and (as the time of this review) is on #452.

And the book… I picked it up during a gathering of bookish folks for Books on the Radio. Yes, we may have ridiculed the book more than necessary, but it still isn’t all that “awesome”. I started flipping through it and reading the chapter titles out, and AnnMarie would declare “awesome” or “stupid” or “gross” and we’d move onto the next one. I have to say it was great for a laugh and a conversation starter, but I wouldn’t have ever paid $28.50 for this book.

• “When someone offers to toss your dirty clothes in with their load of laundry” — No, that’s just gross, unless you’re dating. I wouldn’t even touch a roommates laundry, much less let someone touch mine!
• “Sneaking under someone else’s umbrella” — If someone did that to me, I’d elbow them in the face. Is a black eye awesome?
• “Blowing out all the candles on your first try” — Maybe if you’re 3 years old.
• “Old folks who sit on their porch and wave at you when you walk by” — No, that’s creepy. There is this guy that sits at my bus stop all day and when the sun gets too high, he transfers to the other side of the street and sits on the wall of someone else’s garden.
• “Wearing sandals when you shouldn’t be wearing sandals” — Who the hell gets to say what you should wear? If you wanna freeze your toes off, go for it.
• “The pushoff” — This is actually is talking about learning to ride your bike alone for the first time. I thought we were taking joy in simple pleasures in life, not reliving childhood memories.
• “Really, really old Tupperware” — This one describes the ‘burping seal’, but did you know that after a certain period of time plastics start leeching harsh chemicals into your food.
• “Scraping all the lint off an overflowing lint trap” — No, that’s just good housekeeping, and safe so it doesn’t catch on fire.

I don’t often give a book this bad a review. If you see it in the bookstore, have a flip through and see if you find it “awesome”, “heart-warming” or leave you “looking for new joys”. [quotes from reviews].

Now, I mentioned book-to-blog stories and blog merch. Here is some of the stuff out there:

• Sh*it My Dad Says (Twitter first, book is actually funny)
• I Can Haz Cheezburger (blog first, first book 2008, second book 2009, third book 2009. The books are more humour books written in LOLspeak)
• Cake Wrecks (blog first, book and calendar)
• Stuff on my Cat (blog first, merch rocks, first book in 2006, second book in 2008). Second blog: Stuff on my Mutt
• The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks (blog first, book out July 2010 from Chronicle Books… the same people as Stuff on my Cat.)

Soon we’re going to look at some books and think, “What came first? The Book or the Blog?”

Henry’s favourite toy is a large, crinkly, plastic bag.

He likes to sit in them and just watch me, but he also loves to play in them too. I should remember to take a video next time he’s playing! Happy Whiskers on Wednesday.

There are pros and cons to all shopping experiences, but even more so for shopping online. You’re taking a huge risk and purchasing a product, service, or deal based solely on photos and descriptions. Sometimes things go great — I have had tons of positive experiences when things go great as well as awry.

I’ve been really impressed by the daily group-buy offers and have even purchased one (and nearly purchased a few others). I love receiving those daily deal emails from StealTheDeal, Groupon, TeamBuy, GoodNews, LivingSocial, and EthicalDeal. Another great experience: Once we ordered an all-region DVD player but it arrived only being able to play Region 2. We emailed the eBay seller who was able to send us instructions to reset the region to 0. Fantastic customer service!

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But since Saturday, one recent experience has been pissing me off. I really need to rant about poor customer service. Frankly, I don’t care if you’re at Comic-Con or on the other side of the world (hello World Wide Web…). I ordered this item a month ago and I just want a damn response regarding a replacement!

Craig’s birthday is this Friday and he’s a fan of the online comic, VG Cats. He’s been laughing over this humourous Zelda-themed shirt sold by SharkRobot for a while. (View the VG cats comic it’s based on OR read a Game FAQ to find out why it’s funny). He hadn’t ordered the shirt due to the cost of shipping to the UK. Good for me though, since shipping to Canada was pretty reasonable. I ordered the shirt a month ago and it arrived last Friday (allow 4-6 weeks for shipping, fine).

But when I opened the package I was highly disappointed. As you can see above, the image is supposed to be large and wrap-around. It is tiny and only on the front.I replied to the “Order Shipped” email with my dissatisfaction and demanded they reprint the tshirt as advertised and reship it to me. I don’t want a refund, I want the product I paid for. I hadn’t heard anything by today (Tuesday) so I sent another message via their website and quoted my Order Confirmation number. As of this post, I still haven’t heard back. Grrrr…

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Online Shopping silver lining: today I came home and Kim Werker had retweeted something from PoppyTalk about an online sewing class. I’ve been really tempted to take some of the clothing workshops and tutorials offered at local shops, but really don’t feel my skills are up to snuff. I realize that the point of a class is to learn, but if my basic skills aren’t honed, I might miss out on what I really want to learn about. What appeals to me about a local class is that with clothing, they can help measure me and teach me how to modify patterns to fit.

However, with this online Home Ec class offered by Leigh-Ann, Courtenay and Rachel, I’ll be able to practise some basic skills for a reasonable price! I ordered as soon as I finished reading the list of project and course description.