Great Quotes 2008: “Speak your mind, even if...”

My favourite quotes from 2008 were posted in two earlier posts [link to Favourite Quotes Part 2] and I thought their messages were important enough to warrant mention in my recent weekly column.

Due to the holidays email from readers was down a bit. (Yeah, that’s it. The fact I recycled material from six previous columns had nothing to do with it).


So, I was happy that Christy left this comment:

I saw this on a bumper sticker on our trip home - "Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes."

Folks. If you feel passionate about something, you have to say so.

I’d listen.

***

Live small. Love your neighbour. Pursue a simple life. Blaze a new trail.

.

Zoom, zoom, zoom: I know it’s winter but I’m thinking summer

It doesn’t take much to distract me.

I paused in the middle of a writing task this afternoon, the screen saver soon replaced my draft and pictures of my motorcycle began to drift across the screen.


Then my mind drifted: Back to Lake Superior, summer of 2007; to the Gatineau hills in the province of Quebec, summer of 2006; to the eight dollar ferry ride across the Riviere des Outaouais (Ottawa River) that was a simple pleasure on a hot summer afternoon.


[Agawa Bay, Lake Superior: photo GAH]

The memories create wonderful mindscapes and make me yearn for summer 2009.


[Ferry ride to Quyon - 8 bucks: photo GAH]

Sorry, where was I?

.

Are global warming alarmists asleep at the switch?

Lorrie Goldstein, Sun Media, recently said, “This has been another disappointing year for global warming alarmists, which is why you haven't heard much about it in the media."

My opinion: "Or it's because many are simply waiting for the averages for 2005 - 2010, because they continue to consider five-year intervals more meaningful."

I know I do.

Yearly annual temperatures go up and down a bit, though the trend is definitely upward, and all or most of the warmest years on record have been in the last decade.


This from NASA’s Goddard Institute, re 5-year mean temperature:

1970 - up from 1965
1975 - up from 1970
1980 - up
1985 - up
1990 - up
1995 - about the same as 1990
2000 - up
2005 - up
2010 - NA

I don’t think 2008 was a disappointing year at all; it’s just one year out of five, and all the facts aren’t in yet.

It’s a safe bet, however, if our carbon emissions continue to rise, the trend will continue upward.

***

That's my opinion. Your opinion is welcome too.

.

Can we help bees and bats return to our gardens in 2009?

Can't help it.

I know it’s a wintery day but I’m thinking ‘summer’.

And about gardening, because more hard times may be coming in ‘09.

I’m also thinking about how to attract helpful pollinators, like bees and bats, to stay near my back yard.

I recently read about mason bee houses that are a collection of bamboo tubes, in which females lay their eggs.


I might try building a bee house because I have odd bits of bamboo in my shed.

And though my wife will object, I may also build a small (“Very small, Dear”) bat house to help these hard working creatures reside in my back yard.

My time’s up. Back to winter.

***

Do you help much-needed pollinators stay near your house? How so?

.

Lunch with Ollie: Why does he put a book on his head?

Grandson Ollie has been sitting beside me at lunchtime for almost a year now and I’ve noticed several interesting behaviours.

He talks in full sentences with a voice from the back of his throat, like a cartoon character.

Is he mimicking someone? Me?

[Ollie's first lunch with his grandparents, Feb. 2008]

He takes food off my plate when I’m watching, but it’s okay. I need to lose 5 pounds.

Today he read “Merry Christmas, Ollie” while eating (his food and mine) and at one point put the book over his head and eyes and held it there for several seconds.

Then he’d look at the picture very closely and put in over his head and eyes again, very gently.

Is he trying to get into the picture and be closer to the characters?

Showing affection?

Whatever he’s doing, it makes lunchtime a treat.

***

What do you think he's doing?

.

It Strikes Me Funny: Favourite quotes from 2008 Part 2

Even though I said a lot of amazing things in 2008, and will likely receive a Pulitzer Prize for writing about ‘No Clothing Day’ (with my clothes on; thus the prize) my second-favourite quote of the year comes from Renee L., a young Gen Y consumer, with a shopping habit that consumed 10 hours of her week and 50 per cent of her pay cheques at times.

In an email she wrote:

“I started wondering what my motivation was for these purchases..... Did I really need 9 pink sweaters and 12 variations of black pointy-toed stilettos?”

“I started feeling more like a chump than a stylish chick.”

But she’s one chump who changed.

My favourite quote of 2008 was made by Barry Commoner, US biologist and environmentalist:


“Sooner or later, wittingly or unwittingly, we must pay for every intrusion on the natural environment.”

His words make me continually wonder, how high will be the user-fee when Mother Nature comes to collect?

***

Do you have a favourite quote or lesson-learned from 2008?

.

It Strikes Me Funny: Favourite quotes from 2008

As usual, I wrote a lot of brilliant stuff in 2008, if three short emails from local readers is any indication.

Remember this quote from July?


“I also like camping because it gives me a chance to shake up my routines, cook over an open fire, use one pot and spoon for every meal, wear the same shirt for several days in a row, take a dip with a bar of eco-friendly soap when Pat starts to look at me funny and forget about home and all responsibilities associated with it.”

I mean, don’t you wish it was summer right now and you were swatting mosquitoes beside Lake Ontario?

Better than my own quote, however, was this one from, Arthur Frommer, travel writer:

“I will go to my grave claiming that the less you spend the more you enjoy, the more authentic the experience it is, the more profound, the more exciting, the more unexpected.”

It makes me want to find a pebble beach, light up my Kelly kettle and enjoy a cup of tea.

***

Do you have a favourite quote from 2008?

.

Deforest City Blues: Are today’s cities too costly to maintain?

Recently, while driving on Elmwood Ave., a block from my house, I noticed (again) the terrible condition of the street and many connected to it, and a troubling thought went through my little round head.

Is our city deteriorating faster than we can maintain it?

Consider the following:

countless roads, sewers, water lines etc. need extensive, costly repairs


infrastructure costs are increasing

our city sprawls, is not compact

as sprawl continues, more costly roads etc. are built

it appears we already have more streets etc. than we can maintain

I predict:

we’re paving a new street in a far-off suburb today that will require repairs in the future that will forever be ignored

Solution:

more small, attractive living spaces near the centre of the city

more bicycle-friendly lanes

***

Is your city in trouble? Predictions? Solutions?

.

‘Live Small’ message is getting through to my family

Though my brother complied with my ‘no gifts, or small or homemade ones only - under fifty cents’ policy for Christmas, he was clearly embarrassed when I unwrapped the blue dusting glove.

“I don’t know what you’ll do with it,” he said. “but it was under fifty cents.”

“It’s perfect for my shop,” I said.

“But I have no eyes,” it said, when I used it as a hand puppet.

“That comes in handy when dusting,” I replied.

[My favourite - the duct tape wallet: photo GAH]

He felt better after 3 others opened the same gift and started to perform as a dust glove choir.

My brother felt better still after I showed him my new wallet - made of duct tape - an earlier gift from my youngest son.

I told him it came with room for six credit cards, two sections for bills and its own emergency kit.

“Emergency kit?” he said.

I pulled out a spare piece of duct tape stuck to wax paper from a bill fold.

“In case it rips,” I said.

Small, homemade, under fifty cents.

Yes, I received a pound of coffee, one bottle of Scottish ale and pajama pants as well... but we are learning to keep things small.

A-1 I say.

***

My wife bought the pajama pants because when my other pair are in the wash I walk around the house in old red longjohns.

Sorry about the scary visual. Look away.

.

Motorcycle Miles: Discovering Ontario in One Pair of Pants Page 5

[Gord’s motorcycle journey continues, and under a new heading no less: link to page 4 for immediate context. You really should.]

The big guy that pulled up beside me at a red light, as I was riding east on Port Hope’s main street, instantly made me laugh.

“Where are you heading?” he asked.

“East,” I said. “Sandbanks Park.”

“I can show you a short cut,” he said and pulled away as the light turned green.


[My second photo at Sandbanks; taken before supper: photo GAH]

I admit there’s nothing funny about his short conversation.

But because he was riding a bike three sizes too small and had a head the size of a small nation stuffed inside a maroon helmet that was also too small - making him resemble the turtle I’d met a few hours earlier - I followed without hesitation, chuckling to myself inside my appropriately-sized helmet.

I was in a great mood.

Lunch, at a cost of 50 cents for two fresh eggs plus toast, had been grand, and the day was warm and bright.

Taking the opportunity to save a few miles by following another biker who definitely did not look like an axe murderer made me feel even better.

The big guy skillfully lead the way to the outskirts of Port Hope and, when we stopped beside one another at another intersection he told me how best to get to the highway that lead to Sandbanks.

Shortly thereafter he gave me a big wave (much like Ted the Turtle had waved at the Mack truck - only with less criminal intent) and turned into his cottage.

I followed highway 2 to Brighton and, after a short game of hide and go seek among the town’s short but confusing streets, found county road 64, my route to highway 33 and next stop, Sandbanks Provincial Park.

(Note to self: Get off the bike every once in awhile and ask for directions.)

The park is situated in Prince Edward County, an amoeba-shaped land mass on the north shore of Lake Ontario that possesses many natural wonders and, as far as I can tell, very few gas stations visible to the naked eye.

Before leaving the main road and heading to the park to book a campsite for the night I thought I should travel a bit farther and fill up the tank in Picton, the county’s largest town, so that I’d be ready for the road at the crack of dawn.

Very clever of me, right?

Not so fast, amigos.

[Stay tuned.]

.

Been to PEC? To the lake on top of the mountain? The bike shop in Bloomfield? (Or is it Wellington?)

Live Small: It’s time to keep friends close, family closer

On the one hand, I believe we will become more self-reliant by degrees as cheap fuel quality and quantity change.

Though it may be harder to live this way, we can gradually learn or re-learn how to garden, keep a few rabbits, chickens, goats or sheep to supplement groceries and borrow items from or barter with people in our community.

mojo recently left this comment when I asked the question, “Will chickens in the back yard soon out number dogs?”

I'm not sure how much zoning restrictions allow in the way of keeping livestock on the property, but in a perfect world I'd be living at the beach and pulling my dinner from the surf every day, and using the by-products to keep a fertile patch of garden going for vegetable production. That's how the natives did it before we got here and it worked for them. Yeah, I could live that way.

On the other, as the present economy falters we will face a wide variety of unexpected hardships during the new age of austerity.


["Without our reindeer we'll be doing more ourselves.":photo GAH]

For example, “a growing number of Americans are giving up their dogs and cats to animal shelters as the emotional bonds between people and pets get tested by economic ones.” The Associated Press, Dec. 22

A hard rain is falling. And there will be many tears.

Keep your friends close and your families closer.

***

Do you see declining cheap oil and growing self-reliance in a positive or negative light? Both?

Growing family traditions keep the Christmas spirit alive

The morning paper was late, the snow plow left three feet of snow in our driveway and I had to put morning coffee on hold until my wife and I shoveled a tunnel from the street to our front door for grandson Ollie’s arrival.

Were our spirits dampened? No.

Were our clothes? Yes.

Right down to our socks, but a shower and dry clothes fixed us up minutes before Ollie’s smile filled our house.


The opening lines of a local writer’s column (a brilliant, good-looking and humble guy as far as I can tell) seemed to fit my day and mood:

"As I grow a bit older, or as I prefer to say, approach the middle of a long and adventurous middle age, I remain confident the Christmas season will never lose its allure for the Harrison family because of a mix of traditions, both old and new.

"For example, later on this evening, you might spot me among a few folks - bundled up warm against the weather - enjoying our traditional Christmas Eve walk around old South, admiring lights on the houses, bright trees in front windows and listening for the sound of carols in the wind.

"Though to the untrained eye it might look like I’m spying on our neighbours, it’s not that at all.

(Okay, I admit I look in windows to see if any trees are bigger than mine but the spying stops there).

"After a healthy walk it’s back home for eggnog and an early bedtime."

Please link to the exciting conclusion - unless you're still shovelling!.

And Merry Christmas to all. Keep your traditions alive.

.

Many victories in a modern day Victory Garden

If you don’t believe that co-operative human energy produces amazing results please link to Victory Garden.

One sentence alone tells a big story:

“In 1943, Americans planted over 20 million Victory Gardens, and the harvest accounted for nearly a third of all the vegetables consumed in the country that year.”

Amazing results? Absolutely.

The sentence reminded me of another one sent by Jessica in response to an earlier post re gardens and chicken coops:

"You begin to see that growing even a little of your own food is, as Wendell Berry pointed out 30 years ago, one of those solutions that, instead of begetting a new set of problems--the way "solutions" like ethanol or nuclear power inevitably do--actually beget other solutions, and not only of the kind that save carbon." [From an article by Michael Pollan called "Why Bother"]

I haven’t read the entire article yet (four pages in length), but will. His book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma [see Read This, right hand margin] also touched on the value of gardens.

***

Will I have a busy spring? I think so.

re gardens - back yard, front yard, or both? or participate in a community garden?

.

Victory Gardens: Something old, something new

In the 1950s I recognized the power of a magic garden and chicken coop.

Free food.

Or so it seemed to me - as a young kid.

A post about the topic prompted this comment from bobbie:

“During WW II, Mom and I had quite a large Victory Garden. Don't know why, I can't remember what we grew, but I remember working in it. I'm sure I ate what we grew, but she didn't.”


("How can you eat that awful stuff?" she would say.)

“Maybe we supplied some neighbors.”


What I discovered about Victory Gardens prompted some hope for an upcoming time when they will be needed once again.

Co-operative human energy produces amazing results.

Please link to Victory Garden.

***

Producing some of my own food would certainly be a victory. I may have a busy spring.

.

Plan B: The New Age of Austerity will be expensive

I plan to live until I’m 87. Call me cocky.

During my next 28 years I’ll spend a pile of money to live or survive and I think I’ll feel the pinch as my dad and his parents did during the great depression. [Chicken coops, penned rabbits and gardens are in my thoughts].


[Rabbit pen; "My next workshop project?": photo link]

Why so serious before Christmas?

As I said earlier, while we had access to about a century’s worth of cheap oil and natural gas, our Plan A was to burn them as quickly as possible with little regard for tomorrow.

We don’t readily discuss Plan B at any level (political, educational, coffee shop confessional), how to live or survive during The New Age of Austerity, the age of costly oil.

In my opinion, however, as disposable income contracts under pressure of high fuel, food, clothing, shelter, transportation, communication and recreational costs, serious discussions will begin in earnest, especially around tables where family and friends meet.

***

Why are governments and businesses slow to come to the table?

Shouldn’t they be informing citizens and consumers more fully about future changes related to expensive fuels?

.

Will chickens in the back yard soon out-number dogs?

Let’s just suppose...

...various fuels become scarce and costly

...factory farm meat and eggs become too expensive to mass produce and distribute

...I walk out back, smell fried eggs and sausage, peek over the fence and see my neighbour cooking breakfast on the BBQ

...I also notice he has a few chickens, two pigs and a cow wandering about under the watchful eye of his dog

I’m pretty sure I’d say, “Hey, Jason. You’ve made a good start at home grown meat production. Great idea.”

(I don't think 'meat production' would ever include his retriever. Gilmore is a very nice dog. Always happy).

I’d like to see a few chickens (or ducks, goats, rabbits etc.) next door, in my own yard or local common area - as a way to wean ourselves off excessive use of fossil fuels.

Years ago my dad kept chickens, to help feed seven mouths, and I helped expand his coop. I didn’t realize then that the experience might one day come in handy.


[Original chicken coop at left end of our barn: watercolour by Edith Harrison]

***

As times get tougher, would you consider your own chicken coop, rabbit pen etc.?

.

Canadian Sportsman of the Year

My brother-in-law climbs on the roof. He’s really good at it.

Like a Pavlovian dog, when he sees snow, he automatically grabs a ladder.


I nominate him Sportsman of the Year.

Second place - his shovel.

Third place - my shovel and I. (We spent an hour moving snow last night but didn’t have to climb onto the roof).

***

What’s the weather like where you live? Snow up to the roof top yet?

.

Can a Green Thumb be Inherited?

Yesterday I wrote that because my father had seven mouths to feed he became an excellent gardener out of necessity.

I don’t know enough about his own father and mother to say dad inherited a gardening gene - but I think it’s possible.

My oldest sister is an exceptional gardener and insists the ability was passed down.


While visiting her in Bracebridge on my last leg of a motorcycle trip in 2007 I saw her eating more fresh peas from her patch than she was gathering. My father often did exactly the same thing. (They both said you can’t eat just one).

I would likely do the same thing if I had a pea patch but I’m not a gardener. I’ve had a garden or two but I wasn’t devoted to them and I think they demand it, and some type of discipline, time and muscle.

However, I am willing to learn new things, especially if the alternative is to do without once the days of buying fruit and vegetables from California and Mexico (and beyond) are over.

The days of cheap food are coming to an end, and as a chip off the old block, I’m confident I can become a gardener out of necessity.

***

Can a person inherit a gardening gene? Did you?

.

Six Shopping Days

Does Chapters count as a mall or big box store?

If so, then I blew it.

I was doing great at staying out of the malls and under $100 for Christmas gifts (not per person - I mean $100 total spending, with an emphasis on small and homemade), until I finished reading The Long Emergency.

[See Read This, side margin].

Right after closing the book three nights ago I thought, my kids need to read this as well.


So, on top of books organized on my iMac and items from my workshop, I bought four small gift certificates at the book store.

I know a library card is free but if I told my sons and their wives to sign it out or get on a waiting list they’d never read the book.

However, on the bright side, with only six snow-filled shopping days left ‘til Christmas, I’m done.

Sure, it’s early yet, but it’s time for eggnog.

***

Yes, I caved. I really should be telling my adult children to make their own books or go to the library!

.

The Magic Garden and Chicken Coop

My father had seven mouths to feed, including his own, so he became an excellent gardener over the years out of necessity.

Strawberries, raspberries, lettuce, radishes, Swiss chard, green and yellow beans, peas, carrots, potatoes, squash and onions were his standard crops.


[Postcard from the side of the road: G. Harrison]

The sweet corn that came from his large back yard plots every summer was the best I have ever tasted.

Mother would daily walk from the kitchen with a large bowl under her arm and return 20 minutes later with fresh fruits and vegetables for our table.

Occasionally, roast chicken was served on Sunday. It meant there was one less bird in the coop attached to our small barn.

Though my four siblings and I grew up in austere times we didn’t fully know it because our parents supplied the muscle and the garden and coop supplied the magic.

Necessity is the mother of invention. As we enter a new age of austerity, many skills - ‘gone but not forgotten’ - will return.

***

Did your parents garden? Do you have a green thumb?

.