#5. Go greener

I'm going to start making some "eco-tips" posts, as frequently as possible.

Today's post is inspired by, and about, dandelions.

I have spent the past week researching dandelion "recipes", in preparation for early spring foraging.

For the past 30 or so hours, I have picked and made a lot of things of dandelions.

1. Dandelion salves, which are supposed to be good for muscle and joint aches and pains, along with dry skin. These were made by boiling dandelions in an olive-oil melt & pour soap base + coconut oil, straining the mixture with cheese cloth, boiling the liquid in a double boiler with Shea butter and sweet orange essential oil, and then spooning what rose into these tiny watchmaker containers. I have been rubbing it into my always achy "tennis elbow," and it seems to be doing some good.

2. Dandelion soaps. Using the leftover clear liquid, which was evidently the olive oil soap base, I poured it into various sizes and shapes of molds. They cute.

3. Sweet dandelion fritters aka "dandelion doughnuts". I actually could not believe how delicious these were. It makes me wish I had spring sleepover guests so I could make a giant batch for everyone.
They are completely gluten-free and vegan, too. Wash the dandelion heads and set aside. Mix millet flour, baking soda, cane sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon with almond milk.
Set 1" of oil in a pot to boil.
Dip the dandelion heads in the batter and place in the oil. Flip once they start to brown.
Remove, sprinkle with cane sugar.
Once they were all complete, I drizzled them with maple syrup.
DAMN.

(These can also be made savoury, if you're feeling salty.)

4. Stir fry veggies for basmati rice with dandelion flowers incorporated.

5. Dandelion bud pickles. Small amount of onion and garlic in each jar. Brine: 1 cup white vinegar, 1 cup apple cider vinegar, 1 cup water, salt. They are supposed to be reminiscent of capers, and used for similar dishes.

Original goal list posted here

Progress #35. Learn more about birdwatching

I went to a Toronto Zoo birding event yesterday with my parents and picked up some good resources.

It also made me realize how much more I'm already learning: ie the bird that knocked on my studio window the entire spring a couple years ago was definitely a female goldfinch: distinct from the male due to its greenish colouring and lack of black cap, and distinct from a warbler-type due to the beak shape.

This year, already, I've seen, in our own yard: downy woodpeckers, male and female cardinals, robins, chickadees, and house sparrows. On the way to, or around, work, I've seen: a blue jay, crows, red wing blackbirds, a hawk.

I have some field guides at home I traded some enamel pins for on Bunz late last summer. I'm going to start studying them, now that we are in a "practical application" time of year.

Original goal list posted here

Completed: #37. Plant berries or fruit trees

TreeMobile delivered and helped us plant the grapes and the raspberries.

They aren't looking like much yet, but:

The above will be strawberries.

All of these stalks are raspberries.

This will be Himrod (yellow seedless) grape.

I hope to learn enough about fruit propagation to take viable plants with us when we finally move out of here.

Original goal list posted here

Progress: #5. Go greener

I'm trying to spawn white button mushrooms from white button mushrooms in spent coffee grounds.

I also made a nice stir fry of everything but what I needed.

Apparently they are quite finicky, so wish me luck!

I'd love to fry them up with freshly harvested spruce tips come June.



Original goal list posted here

Progress: #42. Do more public speaking & #13. Do more advocacy for ASD

My dear friend, colleague, and department head Kelly and I were selected to present at Peel's Teacher-Led Conference last night.

We focused on the links between Person-Centered Planning, Inclusive Education and Growth Mindset, especially centering on ASD, our regional program, and establishing a continuum between the way we treat staff and students in a school building.

Here is an image-by-image version of each slide we presented -- though it is without context, I think there is still some good in here. We also made some positive networking connections, I'd say.

Original goal list posted here

Completed #19. Get married

I've never felt so wholly overwhelmed by love. 

I think the great thing about getting married in our mid-late 30s is this really comfortable familial aspect. We are thrilled to let the kids run about the floor and create the sort of beautiful chaos I'll remember most: hollering their own brand of unbridled love in real time, spinning about in tiny tuxes and dresses and PJs, unbound by gender or social convention, making friends simply by chasing and hugging and laughing and dancing. This is a large echo of the kind of love by which I surround myself. The night is packed in earlier than 20-something wedding romps of alcohol and hook-ups. Just well wishes, good times, good friends, and conversation -- in the end, dulling the music to sit and chat with the last table of Geoff's friends, who welcome me in like their own.

Our ceremony is our unique blend of pure joy, awkwardness, and eschewing pomp and circumstance. Photos are just silly walks and beautiful moments, captured by my little sister - who calms me down and lifts me up more than words. 

Speeches are our one real chance to speak and be heard, where and when it matters.

This is a collapse of space and time, where your most important worlds take small seconds aside, to collide - and to recognize the pure energy of a meant-to-be;

and the advisory chorus is right when they say it goes by too quickly --

but in that moment, it is a quiet everything of love and gratitude;

and that is why I will never understand when the material overrides the intangible of the day.

I've said it time and again, but: My life, in terms of trauma, is no private privileged access anymore. I'll tell you just about everything, so I'm really no fun to gossip about. However, access to my sacred good, in the form of family and friends I hold dearest to my heart - well, that - that, and I think you're something special. Thank you, all, for being that kind of special.

All photos ©Savanna B

Original goal list posted here