Travel – Barbara Heagy

Dandelions – A Rite of Spring

This past weekend, my lawn was needing to be cut for the first time this spring. But before that happened, I noticed freshly grown dandelions were sprouting up in isolated places. Most of them hadn’t flowered yet and I learned from others that is the best time to pick them for eating. I have tried dandelion leaves before just by picking them and having a chew on the spot. I wasn’t that fond of their bitter flavour. But I thought I would give it a go again and take more care in their preparation.

I dug the plant up with its root and gathered a large bowlful. I trimmed off the root just at the leaf core before it branched off into the separate leaves. I learned from Chef Jacques Pepin that the core is one of the tastiest part of the plant, just as the bottom core of celery has a lot of taste and when chopped into small pieces adds a boost of flavour to a dish. I washed and re-washed the sinkful of dandelions four times, removing anything that looked like it didn’t belong, dried grass, blooms, dead leaves, dirt and small bugs.

It was two days later that I actually was able to attempt my own dandelion salad. I made one fresh and put my own vinaigrette dressing on it. Then I tried one boiled and drained and ate it much as I would eat steamed spinach with a good drop of butter and some salt.

It was tasty. Not as bitter as I had remembered. But it also was a tough chew at times. It seems to be very much like kale that needs to be massaged to soften it up or deveined, chopped up into smaller pieces, and steamed.

That was my dandelion experience. Before they leave us, maybe you feel inclined to try it too. It’s certainly a popular rite of spring dish for many. Just be careful that you gather them from a safe source. Dandelions are looked at as weeds in our modern day world and they are often sprayed with poisons. Choose a site that you KNOW for sure no herbicides have been used.

(You can read more about dandelions and other foods in my upcoming book “For the Love of Food: Family Edition)

Home Again

I’m home. I return with two small tokens of our 9-day road trip, a coffee mug and a small stone.

The fine porcelain mug was bought at Ten Mile Point Trading Post on Manitoulin Island, a shop full of Indigenous art and souvenirs. The cup is designed by Chipewyan Dene artist John Rombough. He calls the design “Remember” and it includes hands extended over a landscape of sand, rock, and trees, painted in a Native Art style. It comes in a box on which is written, “As the two ancestors watch over the land, they pray for all the children – every child matters.” We passed through many Indigenous communities in our nine days of travel from Tobermory in the Bruce Peninsula, to Manitoulin Island, Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, North Bay, and Orillia/Barrie area, journeying almost 1,500 kilometres past stunning rock outcroppings and cliffs, shining lakes, and forests just coming to life in their fall glory. On September 30, Canada celebrated “Orange Shirt Day – Every Child Matters,” and on our trip from Sault Ste. Marie to Sudbury, we saw many people wearing orange T-shirts or waving flags and banners as a reminder of the native children lost in the residential schools, as well as their survivors, families, and communities. My mug will always be a treasured memory of our trip and First Nation lands and culture.

My second little souvenir is a small fossilized stone picked up beside the train rails in Agawa Canyon. For Christmas my daughters bought us a ride on the Agawa Canyon Train Tour, a one day wilderness excursion from Sault Ste. Marie to Agawa Canyon Park near the south edge of Lake Superior Provincial Park. The trip included four hours of travel past small communities and breathtaking wilderness scenery to the beautiful Agawa Canyon. At the canyon, we had 1 ½ hours to eat our boxed lunch and explore a high lookout for the brave and tireless or hike shorter trails to two spectacular waterfalls. We chose the waterfalls. The sky was blue, the sun was shining, the trees were just beginning to change colour with hints of pastel yellows and greens and occasional slashes of brilliant oranges and reds. The cascading waterfalls fall over 225 feet at the highest and are beautiful enough to be captured by more than one of the Group of Seven artists. The engines looped back on a side track to reattach at the other end of the 17 car train for the 4 ½ hour return trip. The train ride was both exciting and relaxing. Leaving behind the city, we enjoyed breathtaking views of morning mist rising over lakes and forests, looked up to rising rock faces of ancient, weathered stone, and took in spectacular views from towering trestles. My little gray stone will always be my reminder of the majestic and rugged landscape of our one-of-a-kind train ride and journey across northern Ontario.

A Canoe Community

The pandemic has changed me and my life. When life was put into lockdown, all of us had fewer choices and changed attitudes. Safety and “what is left for me to do” became my prime concerns. So Harold and I who had started fishing in the first summer of the pandemic, decided to get a canoe the second summer, to enable us to fish on the water rather than solely from shore. Our knowledge of canoes and kayaks was very limited. We entered a whole new world.

What surprised me the most about it was the deep sense of community we found among paddlers and their eagerness to share their knowledge and resources. My friend, Rosslyn Aird, an avid paddler for many years was the first to share her skills. We had a private on-land lesson in types of canoes and kayaks (she must own at least a dozen), paddles, personal flotation devices, safety equipment and, the most important, lifting, portaging, and transporting a canoe. A couple of weeks later, she met us at a local lake and we had a private on-water paddle to get used to boarding, debarking and staying afloat without tipping the boat.

Another friend, Michel Godbout, another avid paddler, was generous in sharing resources to get us started on our journey as the world was still in lockdown and equipment wasn’t readily available for purchase. This involved foam supports and tie-downs. Rosslyn (Lyn) lent us paddles and PFDs so we could start.

Many friends and fellow paddlers gave us advice as to what kind of boat to look for (canoe or kayak), what kind of roof racks were available and what would be our best choice to suit our needs. We decided we needed a good sturdy canoe that could take a bit of a beating without damaging it. It needed to be at least 16 feet long, 3 feet wide, made of a durable material, and it had to be light enough that we could handle it ourselves for transportation.

I put up some pictures on Facebook and sent out a request, “Anyone know of a used canoe for sale?” Friends and family started sending us notices. That first day, friend Leslie Howarth told us her husband just might have a canoe for us that would meet all our needs.

We had a couple of visits to see Jeremy Shute and we made our choice. We had our canoe! Jeremy repaired the caned seats for us and was very helpful with loading the canoe for the first time and answering all our questions. He is also an avid paddler with a big project on the go that he shared with us.

“Speed to Sea” is a personal challenge and project that began back in the summer of 2017. Jeremy, Lesley and friends and family are paddling from Guelph’s Speed River to the Atlantic Ocean. It’s happening in stages. Each year they complete a part of the journey and then pick up where they left off the following year. This summer, on August 12, they will be starting in Cornwall, Ontario and will see how far they get in their two week journey. You can follow their progress on the “Speed to Sea” Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/speedtosea. There is also a YouTube video of their project at https://youtu.be/uONvf_FAEiE.

Thank you Rosslyn Aird, Michel Godbout, Lesley Howarth, Jeremy Shute, and all our friends and family that have contributed to us becoming members of the paddling community. We love our red “Old Town” canoe, all 16’4” of it!

A Sit Spot

A Sit Spot — “A sit spot is simply a favourite place in nature (or looking out a window at nature) that is visited regularly to cultivate awareness, expand senses and study patterns of local plants, birds, trees, and animals. The practice supports mindfulness, builds routine and increases focus.” (www.wildsight.ca)

My friend/dancer Colleen Frances, introduced me to this phrase. She took a beautiful picture of me on a beach in Costa Rica before our morning dance class began, when I was just sitting alone, prayerfully, gratefully enjoying the morning sunrise. She told me that if we do this, pick a spot each day, the same spot, perhaps the same time, and then just open our senses to what is happening around us, the birds and the animals begin to expect us and things begin to happen. Things we would never have noticed if we hadn’t sat silently and expectantly are wondrously noticed by us.

We Are Wildness (www.wearewildness.com) says the five qualities of a perfect Sit Spot are “it is close, it has nature, it is solitary, it is safe, your attitude.” Any spot can be a perfect Sit Spot, even if it doesn’t appear that way at first.

Once we’ve chosen our spot, Colleen used the phrase RAW — Relaxed body, Alert mind, Waiting spirit, to describe the mental conditions we use when we sit at our ‘Sit Spot.’

My photographer friends often use this means of getting that perfect and unique photo. Stu McCannell, a skilled wildlife photographer, told us that the birds and insects and other animal life around us have habitual patterns that we can use to get that perfect shot. The Kingfisher returns to the same perch overhanging the river or the dragonfly has a favourite blade of grass or leaf to return to. In my garden, I know when to expect the robin for its nightly bath in my small pool.

My artist friend Suzanne Dyke, loves to sit in ‘plein aire’ and paint what she sees in front of her. Sections of my books have been written after sitting, contemplating nature and my own thoughts.

Choose a Sit Spot. Visit it every day. First, just sit, in quiet and alertness, watching and listening. You may be inspired to paint that picture, write that journal entry, take that photo, or it may just relax you and fill you with wonder at our beautiful natural world we have around us. “Stop and smell the roses” as they say. You’ll be better for it.

(Photo – Colleen Frances)

Thank You, Brittany

Yesterday, my daughter Brittany, returned back to her own apartment after a four week visit. We both live alone and she works from home, so it was a wonderful time of bonding once again. Last summer she came to live with me for 16 weeks and together we built a magnificent garden in the back yard restoring a weedy lot into a showcase of flowers, flagstones, and a fountain.

I was glad she was here this spring and together we enjoyed running out to the garden to see what secrets were sprouting from our plantings last year. We were happy to see so many of the perennials return, bigger and better, and we were able to enjoy the garden so much earlier this year with minimal weeding and pruning. This year, she helped me plant some more: a red peony, new lilies, delphiniums, dahlias, cosmos, Star of Bethlehem, creeping phlox, a planter of various herbs, as well as adding many bright coloured annuals to the mixture. New seeds and bulbs got planted and we’ll see how they do: sunflowers, scarlet runner beans, and gladiolas.

She also did so much work inside my home, adding her skills as an interior designer to many areas.

My office has been transformed from a cluttered and busy site to a comfortable and pristine workplace. She stripped wall coverings, re-plastered and sanded, then painted all the walls a beautiful shade of blue. She organized and re-designed the books and frames and knick-knacks down to a well-ordered, trim, and efficient space that still reflects my personality and interests.

Years ago, when I was looking after my daughter’s cats while she travelled the world for years, the cats decided the old wooden door frames in my home were great scratching posts. The cats are now gone but the damage remained. Brittany decided she could restore them back to their former glory and started researching how to do it. As a surprise to me, she sanded and re-stained seven doorways and frames.

She drew up blueprints for my back sun porch and we now await our contractor to create the space with new cupboards, ceiling, light fixtures, and flooring. We already have waiting the new laminate flooring, a beautiful carpet, a bench, a shoe cupboard, and a new mirror.

I can’t thank her enough for all that she has done for me. We both realize that the universe came together in so many ways, the biggest being the pandemic, to give us both the opportunity and time to be together and build on our relationship in my home.

Brittany, I love you and thank you for doing so much for me. You are generous and hard-working and have a beautiful spirit. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Coronavirus Anniversary – March 11, 2021

One year ago today, a world pandemic was declared. We all figured it would be over in a couple of weeks and how great that we could work from home, there was no school, our regular obligations were now on standstill. It felt a little bit like a declared holiday. Little did we know how long it would last.

The pandemic has been difficult in many ways — the social isolation, the fear and anxiety, the loss of jobs and income, and sickness and death. We lost everything that we had considered normal. Our new normal became mask-wearing, social distancing, regular hand washing, and staying home and away from family and friends as much as possible.

And yet, the pandemic had some benefits for me. I was given the gift of time, quiet time for myself. It made me reassess everything in my life. I used to zip around like a spinning top; attending my aqua fit classes, going to my writing and photography clubs, visiting friends and babysitting grandchildren on a regular schedule. Suddenly I was released from all of that and it made me really look at how much I was doing in my life because of a sense of obligation or guilt.

With COVID restrictions, life slowed down. I began to walk more with my camera in hand. I discovered my own neighbourhood in a new way. I was able to stop and listen to nature around me. I appreciated family and friends more as we made time for each other with phone calls, FaceTime and/or social distanced visits. Those visits became special and cherished. I began some new hobbies and pastimes. Fishing, walking, cooking, gardening, board games and reading became favoured activities. Life had fewer options but I valued them more.

Now, one year later, with the promise of vaccines and the coming of spring and warmer weather, we are given some hope. We have a chance for a new beginning, to live a different life as we go forward, one where we make better choices for ourselves and our world. Let us remember the lessons we’ve learned about what is truly important in life and let’s let them affect our daily lives in the upcoming future. And, most of all, may there be hugs, millions and zillions of hugs.

Lockdown

Some Things Are the Same, But Everything’s Different

Well, the Big Day came and went. This Christmas, some things were the same but everything was different.

I put up the Christmas tree, earlier than I ever have, back in November, to help build Christmas cheer. I bought a toy Christmas train and set it up around the base of the tree. Every morning, I would turn it on and listen to its chug, chug, and whistle as its pre-recorded Christmas tunes tinkled out while I sat alone on my couch.

There were brightly wrapped packages under the tree but they had to be delivered early to family and friends at their homes, placing them on the porches and stepping back for a socially distanced visit.

Instead of the whole family filling up my home and beds with chaos and laughter, it was just three of us, my bubble. It made for a much quieter home, which wasn’t such a bad thing, but it sure was different.

I still prepared a table full of food for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. A turkey with stuffing was roasted and we said our thanks, hands held together in a much smaller circle this year.

Christmas morning we woke early with phones signaling a FaceTime call and several times that day we were on the phone opening stockings and gifts together. No face to face but a good second best.

I bought three small bottles of champagne for our three households and together on FaceTime we raised our glasses and made a toast to our love and families, those present and absent.

My eldest daughter made a very moving and heartfelt video for us which was delivered via social media. We listened in the quiet of my living room by the Christmas tree, our fireplace crackling in the background. Her love for us and pain at not being able to be together was so evident. We laughed and we cried, again, not in person, but as a good second substitute.

Instead of noisy board games with much teasing and laughter, there was a big jigsaw puzzle set up at one end of the dining room table, and with a full, quiet afternoon ahead of us, much of it got completed.

In spite of all the restrictions put on us by the pandemic, we managed to have a beautiful and meaningful Christmas. We still had the basic elements, the tree, the stockings and gifts, the feast and good food. Much of it was the same, but the pandemic made it all different. What was important and never-changing was the love we felt for each other. We just found new ways to share it.

A Christmas of Magical Thinking

Mysterious monoliths are popping up all over the world. A friend thank you, Meg Brubacher) posted pictures of this global news and asked her Facebook friends what they thought of them.

I told her I think it’s very cool. Just the distraction into magical thinking that we need in these troubling times. Who is doing it? I’m guessing artists and artisans from all over the world who are using their joined creativity for all of our benefit. We all need a dose of magical thinking.

Christmas is already full of potential for magical thinking. Santa’s global journey in a sled full of toys is pretty amazing. For me, the original story of a baby born in a manger, visited by shepherds and wise men is the most magical and mysterious story of all.

These times are challenging me to dig deep into my own beliefs and ways of thinking to decide what really are the most important traditions and meanings of Christmas for me. It’ll be a simpler Christmas, still with a decorated Christmas tree, brightly wrapped presents under its boughs, burning logs in the fireplace, and a turkey in the oven. Although family and friends will be separated, we will find new ways to connect via FaceTime and short outdoor visits. What I can’t give to my family, I’m sharing with others through local food banks, churches, toy drives and other initiatives. Thoughts of community, community building, and quiet worshipful time is adding a depth of meaning to Christmas for me that is accentuated by the pandemic and its limitations.

What ‘s most important to you this Christmas? What traditions and activities are you holding on to in spite of the pandemic? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Friluftsliv – Embracing Outdoor Living the Norwegian Way

As fall approaches, the weather is getting cooler and soon enough we will be smack into winter. I am dreading the thought of being stuck inside for days and weeks on end. Already I have been brainstorming ways of embracing the outdoor winter season rather than avoiding it. Well, as it turns out, the Norwegians have a word for this — friluftsliv – which roughly translates into ‘open air living.’ It gives the Norwegians a mindset that embraces being in nature and the outdoors at any time of the year in any kind of weather.

In March, as COVID-19 pushed me away from others and close contact, I began to seek more outdoor activities. For me this spring and summer, that meant embracing gardening in a big way as my daughter and I created a beautiful COVID garden in what had been a weed-filled lot.

I walked more – everywhere – throughout my own neighbourhood streets as well as established trails, parks, and conservation areas.

I began taking more outdoor photographs again and enjoyed editing and sharing them with others on social media.

I also began fishing again, something I used to do in abundance years ago before my children were born and city living became the norm.

Now, with the change in weather, I am seeking activities that will get me outdoors enjoying nature in the snow and ice. I am returning to snowshoeing and have been contemplating getting a pair of cross-country skis. I may take up ice-fishing. I can continue to take pictures and may even enjoy an outdoor picnic in the snow.

Whatever I choose, it really means embracing a mindset that enjoys being outdoors, whatever the weather. Winter is a beautiful and unique time of year. Let’s all do some ”friluftsliving” and get outside and enjoy nature and all its benefits no matter what the season.

(For those who would like to read more about it, look for “Friluftsliv: Connect With Nature the Norwegian Way” by author Oliver Luke Delorie.)
Photograph credit – Andrew Fearman