Wanderlust and Words

Local Food   Lee Helman, formerly of Truffles Restaurant in Saskatoon, is now operating the Vanilla Pastry Company and offers desserts made from quality ingredients. They look gorgeous and my sister in law raves about the dacquoise with its decadent combination of crispy meringue, creamy icing, and crunchy nuts.  Inclusivity  Le Corbusier’s design system had a major impact on the post-war world, dictating the size and shape of everything from door knobs to city blocks. Unfortunately, he used a 6-foot male as his model citizen, completely overlooking the needs of women, children, and people with disabilities. In the 1980s, the Matrix Feminist Design Co-operative stepped in with a different approach. “They weren’t promoting a feminist aesthetic, but a way of looking, listening and designing that takes account of people’s very different needs and desires , one that embodies 'the richness of our multiple ways of being in the world'.”  Leaving on a Jet Plane  If you...

Aging  “Me first, I’m older” was an unexpected perk when they started rolling out the Covid vaccine. Age hopefully brings wisdom, but it also brings aches and pains, grey hair, and age spots so I particularly enjoyed this poem from Home Body by Rupi Kaur .  “give me laugh lines and wrinkles  i want proof of the jokes we shared  engrave the lines into my face like  the roots of a tree that grow deeper  with each passing year  i want sunspots as souvenirs  for the beaches we laid on  i want to look like i was  never afraid to let the world  take me by the hand  and show me what it’s made of  i want to leave this place knowing  i did something with my body  other than trying to  make it look perfect”  Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder “Gardeners in Singapore are dazzled by the dandelion and desperate to get hold of its seed s.”  Monique Martin is exhibiting her hand-made dandelions in Saskatoon. S...

“We live with mystery, but we don’t like the feeling. I think we should get used to it. We feel we have to know what things mean, to be on top of this and that. I don’t think it’s human, you know, to be that competent at life. That attitude is far from poetry.” – Mark Strand   Local News   Join Fair Trade Saskatoon for a talk by Tamara Stein on Fair Trade, Quinoa, Communities and Markets: The View from Bolivia from 12-1 pm, May 12, on Zoom.  Books  In my day-to-day life, I don’t give much thought to women’s equality. I live on my own, have my own income, and travel as I will (pre-pandemic!). And yet, women are discriminated against in so many subtle ways, from only testing new medicines on men to only recognizing male achievements. I am thoroughly enjoying reading Writing Wild: Women Poets, Ramblers, and Mavericks Who Shape How We See the Natural World  by Kathryn Aalto and discovering some amazing women writers and their perspectives on the natural world....

Local News  I plan to try some of the cleaning products produced by Nikihk , a local Indigenous company that got its start distributing household cleaning kits to First Nations communities to prevent the spread of Covid. They have 7 different cleaning products, 6 of which include scents of plants and herbs which are significant in Plains Cree usage.  The Saskatoon Public Library is offering an archival slideshow on Saskatoon homes from sod houses to boom-time mansions from 4-5 pm, May 6, on Facebook and ongoing on YouTube.  Food  I’m going to give tea-flavoured rice a try. Here’s a recipe for green tea rice with loads of green vegetables .  It’s time to start adding fresh herbs (from Bergamot & Basil ?) to your dishes. Here are 17 ways to use mint – from mint pasta to mint julep as well as a spicy herb and noodle salad and a lemon thyme and leek tart .  Anas Attasi, author of Sumac: Recipes and Stories from Syria , wanted “to show the world a side of ...