Kits Gardens

 

One thing that helps to make me happy is exploring the gardens of Kitsilano. Some of the color combinations are really inspiring, like these arnica blossoms beside a dark grey fence.

 Now take a look at the awesome burgundy foliage on this plant. It looks like Sweet Cicely. Does anyone know what it is?

For your daily dose of bee watching, I recommend the ceonothus bushes that are blooming right now. Usually you can find a whole family of bumble bees feeding together. These bee has a striking red stripe on its abdomen.

Columbines look lovely in the rain.

 I heart cornflowers and their color really works its therapy on a grey day.

I also love this dark iris.

Foxgloves are everywhere now, including the back alleys of Vancouver.

These two trees were meant for a hammock.

Irises really have strong personalities.

 

Jasmine provides the aromatherapy we need on a rainy day.

I dig this decadent planted piano.

You Might Have Mason Bees and Not Even Know It!

About a week ago my friend Catherine and I were chatting on her front porch and I noticed a mason bee slip into a gap between the cedar shingles. I looked closely and saw that some grooves contained the detritus of old cocoons that had been kicked out of the nest. Then I saw another mason bee fly into a secret hole and another. Her home was absolutely alive with mason bees! Catherine was tickled pink, since she is a friend to all pollinators and has a honey bee hive in her garden. Her porch is actually facing east, so like the experts say, it gets the morning sun which is important to the bees. Now be sure to check the outside of you house to see if you have any signs of secret residents!

Beespeaker News Flash

 Hello folks!

Hope you are having a fabulous weekend. For those of you who are interested in bee plants for Vancouver, I have contributed my list to Sharon Hanna's blog for BC Living Magazine.

 My partner Peter Courtmanche is a sound and media artist and he recently created a piece for the audio-art stories commissioned by CBC and New Adventures in Sound Art. It will be aired June 1st at 1 pm on Radio One (CBC AM). The piece is "Free Energy" by Peter Courtemanche, featuring the (speaking) voice of High Spirits soprano Katharina Alheit.

Finally, Peter Courtemanche is curating a series of audio art shows at Lucky's Comics and Books and the first is a show by a fantastic artist named Diana Burgoyne.

Lucky's Comics and Books + An Audio Gallery present "Sound Drawings" by Diana Burgoyne,
an exhibition opening on Friday June 8th at 7pm, the show runs until July 2nd.

Lucky’s is located at 3972 Main Street in Vancouver (near Main and
24th). Open 7 days a week from noon-ish to 6 pm (5 pm on Sundays).

Each sound drawing consists of a large piece of paper with a speaker
and sound circuit connected to two copper strips. A pencil line is
drawn between the two strips and the electrical properties of the
graphite create an oscillator circuit. The sound that is generated by
the oscillator will change every time a new line is drawn or erased.
At the start, the drawings produce low frequency clicking sounds. As
the lines become thicker and more numerous, the sounds escalate and
become high pitched squeals.

Diana Burgoyne is an “electronic folk artist.” Her work is based on
the utilization of simple electronic circuitry made from relatively
rudimentary components. Since the early 1980s, she has worked as an
artist and educator within the field of New Media creating
performances, installations, sculptures and workshops in Canada and
internationally. She was awarded the 2009 Fleck Fellowship by the
Banff Centre for the Arts and has been teaching a class entitled
“Creative Electronics” at Emily Carr University of Art and Design
since 1998.

http://www.ecuad.ca/~dburg/
http://anaudiogallery.tumblr.com
http://luckys.ca

http://www.facebook.com/events/464692700212227/

http://absolutevalueofnoise.ca
http://www.secondsitecollective.net

Bathtub Teas

If you're like me and have been doing a lot of digging in the garden lately, it's time to soothe your sore, aching muscles with a bathtub tea. It's so simple. All you need is a piece of cotton with a loose weave--cotton muslin is ideal. You can also use bits of worn-out vintage cloth in cotton or linen. I use about a ten inch square.

Take a hand full of epsom salts and put it in the middle of the cloth, then add your herbs on top. You can use fresh herbs if you're using the tea the same day or within two days. Otherwise, use well-dried herbs. You can see here I've put in dried lavender, malvia petals and rose petals for a soothing, relaxing bath. These are better than bath bombs imo, because they don't leave bits of detritus floating in your bathtub or clogging the drain.

Gather up the corners and tie a piece pf string around the top of the herbs and voila! You've got a tea bag for your bathtub. You can put this in right as you're running the bath and leave it in while you soak. Just don't wash your hair in the water as salt's not great for your locks. You can re-use the cloth and don't forget to compost the herbs. In fact, you can just dump them right onto your garden soil. The lavender will repel cabbage moths and their ilk.

Here's a list of herbs you can choose from put in your bathtub tea:
 

lemon balm: relaxing

rosemary: soothes aching muscles, boosts immune systerm

lavender: relieve tension, relaxes, good for acne (women's herb)

roses: compassion and love

peppermint: increases circulation

spearmint: lifts the spirits

sage: good for colds and flues

lavender and rose: good for sleep

pansies: good for skin (women's herb)

lavender/rose for relaxation

calendula: good for your skin

I highly recommend this excellent resource: Homegrown Herbs: A Complete Guide to Growing, Using and Enjoying More than 100 Herbs by Tammi Hartung

 

Birthday Chocolate

 This year Peter was is Brussels for his birthday, but he returned home to a lovely cake made by our neighbor Deana. It was dense and moist, iced with a ganache glaze and decorated with almonds, mint leaves and a handmade chocolate rose.

We just happened to have some vanilla ice cream in the fridge. My favorite combo!

 Peter brought us some gorgeous Pierre Marcolini chocolates from Brussels, each a little burst of intense flavor. I found them less sweet than a lot of Belgian-style chocolates, more towards the French style. My favorites were saffron and thé citron. Gone, but not forgotten....

Saturday, May 19 Bouquets Garnis Workshop at the Sunset Community Centre

Gardening: Bouquets Garnis and Sachets

Lori Weidenhammer

A drop-in family workshop inspired by the Moberly

Community Herb Garden for folks who want to get up

close and personal with some herbs that are easy to grow

in your garden for cooking, making tea and crafts. Make

a tea-bag style pouch containing herbs that you can drop

in soups and stews. Learn how to tie up sweet-smelling

herbs to put in your drawers and closets to make your

clothes smell nice and keep the moths away. 

 

FREE In the Sunset Lobby

Sat May 19 10:00am-12:00pm

For Mom

As I was researching my talk for Stone Soup this weekend I realized how much my love of baking comes from my mom. My mom is a wonderful cook. I had a sweet tooth as a child. Still do. Mom allowed me complete freedom in the kitchen. She taught me the basics of baking and I taught myself to bake new things as soon as I could read cookbooks. Mom used to say I made better meringues than she did. I had beginner's luck and a naive fearlessness.

My mom made me fantastic birthday cakes. My childhood birthdays each had a theme.  My favourite was my Raggedy Anne cake made with coconut on the icing. Mom indulged my love of chocolate and she made really good cakes from scratch with farm eggs. Cake mixes were a joke to me. Who needs a mix for something as easy as a basic cake? In fact, cake mixes were an insult to the intelligent home baker. Icing in a tin was an abomination. Frozen Sarah Lee cakes were the Food of the Damned. We were country women and we baked from scratch.

Today sweet friend Catherine made some blackberry oatmeal squares from scratch in honor of Mother's Day which we ate in her dining room with whipped cream. She thickens frozen blackberries with cornstarch and cooks them down with brown sugar. Delicious!

Happy Mother's Day!