Here I Am

Your know you haven't posted in a while when you have to "sign in" on your blog site! I've been busy playing volleyball, going into the forest, going to rallies, visiting friends and relatives and going to a "blanket exercise"and other workshops and a memorial service.

Here's a few photos:

Oh...oops! Here's a photo of Lily binging on "The Walking Dead"! Bad girl...., but she is a carnivore after all!

The following photos were taken in Toronto where there was a rally against privatization of public resources - oh look, there's Kathleen Wynne, the premier of Ontario! She loves to sell off so-called public corporations for a little bit of easy cash that she can spread around while making more false promises. Election time next year Ms. Wynne - I don't think it's going to go your way!

 City Hall and Nathan Philip Square where soon there will be an outdoor rink for ice skating. We did get a bit of a snow squall last Friday but it's melted thankfully.

For over two years the Council of Canadians has been protesting weekly against the sale of Hydro One. Sadly we did not win that battle so while in Toronto we walked down the street where there is a memorial to Sir Adam Beck whose wish it was that everyone have access to cheap electricity. He is now rolling in his grave which you can see in the photo below! Since this campaign is now over we left behind our signs and props. I wonder how the gov't will cover the loss of $750 million per year in revenue that they received from Hydro One??

Last Wednesday was a beautiful day so I headed out to do a little forest bathing :) There are still beautiful photos to be taken...milkweed...

 ...wild turkeys...let me know if you need a turkey for the upcoming American Thanksgiving!!

Most of the colour is now on the ground...

Grape vine always makes for interesting photos...

The sky was as blue as it could be...

Still small areas of enchantment...

I had a number of burrs stuck to my clothing when I left...

Lily lapping up the sun...

...and trying to get used to Daylight Savings Time!  Extra naps needed :)

An event I attended last Thursday is called the "Blanket Exercise" which is considered a form of reconciliation with our indigenous peoples through education. It was an emotional, gut-wrenching experience but so worthwhile if you get the chance to attend one, do it!

We started off with the floor covered in blankets to represent North America.

Gradually the areas where aboriginals were allowed to live grew much smaller as treaty land

was taken away from them. 

Also, as aboriginals were killed, mistreated and abused the blankets were decreased in size until there was barely anywhere to stand.

Everyone has a different role to play in order to walk in the shoes 

of a disenfranchised person.

My role was of a woman who left the reservation and her family to become a teacher. As a result

the government took away my Indian Status and I wasn't allowed to return to my home 

and my people. I had to leave the circle and stand alone, isolated.

The toughest part was the loss of so many children who were literally torn from their parents' arms and sent to residential schools where "teachers" tried to erase the Indian from them. 

It was a very emotional night and the shame and guilt I feel from the terrible mistreatment of our aboriginal peoples is heavy indeed. Being a member of an Anglican congregation for many years I have watched as the Anglican Church has tried to right the many wrongs done to First Nations people. Mostly with money. And mostly inadequate to their needs. If you would like to learn more about the blanket exercise I have included a link below.

Blanket Exercise

Wow, What a Week....

......in American history!! And that's all I've got to say about THAT!!

Because my life is much more interesting...NOT!! But it has been a busy and productive week here in little old London, Ontario. 

Transportation Update:  after walking with me around my neighbourhood in my last post (thanks for tagging along :) I realized I had forgotten a few things...important things...other places I get to by walking or cycling. 

Such as... our dentist is a block west of the library - very handy - but my doctor is a 20-30 minute bike ride away which is ok in the summer but not so much in the winter. I only go a couple times a year so it shouldn't be too onerous - that trip will be a CAR SHARE trip. (There are two medical walk-in clinics near by that I could use in a pinch but regular appointments will remain with my family doctor.)

My best friend is a 30 minute bike ride away but we have other ways of getting together, like meeting halfway, sharing a car rental or Car Share. I'll be seeing her tomorrow at a craft sale which I will bike to. 

Thursday (the day before yesterday) was my weekly get together with my brother, Kim. However, it rained all day and there was a Severe Storm Watch in effect so I had to cancel. That was disappointing and I'm not sure how I can get around in bad weather when it's "at the last minute" type of thing. 

I am waiting til after my trip in September to sign up with Car Share. I can use that when the weather is bad. Or use Uber, whichever would work out to be the cheapest. I haven't mentioned taking the city bus - I'm not fond of taking the bus and am not really familiar with the routes near me. I'd rather not go down that road (haha) if I can help it. 

I also forgot to mention that I'm only 1km from London's system of bike trails. I certainly cannot go without forest bathing at least a couple times per week. It takes me about 5 minutes to get to scenes like below, which calm my nerves and make me feel whole once again!

Okay, this is a bit random but I am thrilled that a vegan restaurant - Globally Local - has opened up near me. It is only a block and a half away and I rode my bike there last night for vegan tacos and fries. Soooooooo good!!

Also random - on Tuesday I rode my bike to the final protest and laying to rest of our Hydro One action that I've been involved in for almost two years. Here we are all gathered one last time at our local MP's office after the gov't sold a company that belonged to the people of Ontario to raise a little short term cash. BOO!!!

 Then on Wed. I rented a car to take Julie and I to the beach - it was a perfect weather day! Booking the car through Kazi I paid only $20 for a 24 hour period!!! Less than the cost of gas if we had gone in Dougie the Dodge!

 And, in other news, Luna kept a close eye on me while I made up 10 bags of trail mix and other energizing snacks for my upcoming trip to Scotland. Isn't she helpful?

Overall I am happy with how "transportation" is going but there are definitely some kinks to work out. I don't know if I can do this forever; time will tell. It's difficult to be spontaneous and hard to work around bad weather.

On the other hand it's wonderful to not have to worry about costly repair bills, insurance and the price of gas :)

Sunday Vibes: Blue Rodeo - "Hasn't Hit Me Yet"

It seems like I just posted yesterday, but alas, no. Time has been slipping and sliding away as I go to yoga, meditation, volleyball, dinner out & laughs with friends, activism, and tonight I get to see my favourite Canadian band "Blue Rodeo"!!! Then I plan to spend a few nights at HOME!

February has been a great month and amazingly I haven't run out of money yet. I don't know why but I feel like February is over and I have to keep reminding myself that there is still a week to go before my pension shows up again. So the shortest month is feeling like the longest month. Weird.

Last night Julie, Troy and myself went to Ben Thanh's for a scrumptious dinner and I have leftover pad thai in the fridge for dinner :)  I tried to eat healthily by having fresh spring rolls instead of the deep-fried kind but there's no way my pad thai could be considered a healthy choice! Or the multiple glasses of wine once we got home.

Winter is hard on my waistline - I found that some of my jeans were a lot little snug last night when I was trying to figure out what to wear. I usually wear black or navy tights which fortunately AND UNfortunately can expand to accommodate the ebb and flow of my muffin top. Jeans are not so forgiving.

I need to get more active and spend less time eating! That's hard at this time of year, at least for me. Being inside so much has me checking the pantry for goodies :(  I need SPRING!! I'm pretty faithful to going to yoga and volleyball but I need to walk/hike more. It's just so much easier to pick up a book and a big bowl of popcorn than it is to get all bundled up and head out into a stiff cold breeze!

Speaking of a cold breeze.... on Friday we got some inside info that the premier of Ontario, Kathleen Wynn, was going to be in London so some of the members of the Council of Canadians took the "Ontario Hydro is Not for Sale" message right to her door.

We waited in the cold about 2.5 hours before she came outside en route to her black SUV with its blacked out windows and security detail. She saw us, had to hear us as we were so loud, but we were not acknowledged. However, we were acknowledged by the various news teams that were invited to hear her announcement (inside).

Fighting for democracy in the cold!

Waiting to be seen and heard by Ontario's Premier.

We're not giving up!!

Hydro One - Ontario

I don't know if I make a good activist. I always look like I'm having a great time! Shouldn't I look more serious? I don't know. I think it's just the automatic reaction when someone points a camera towards me - CHEESE!! 

You should see an interview CTV did with a couple of the leaders of the "HYDRO ONE NOT FOR SALE!" group. I'm in the background chanting with some of my fellow protesters - honestly we look like a sorority group dancing and singing away! (In Canada Hydro = electricity)

Protesting outside of our local Member of Parliament's office.
We stage a sit-in every Friday for a half hour and generally
pester Ms. Matthews by filling out appointment slips
every week. So far one person has had one meeting
with her.

Here's the scoop: our provincial leader, Premier Wynn, is selling off our huge Ontario Company called Hydro One. With the payout, around $9 billion, some debts will be settled and the rest (not much) will go into repairs and infrastructure. A one time deal.

The $750 million annual profit will belong to whoever buys the company instead of going into the provincial budget. You can just imagine all the social programs that will have to be cut to make up for that huge loss.

Rates WILL go up and up and up. Brown outs will occur more frequently. Aging infrastructure will continue to age causing our rates to skyrocket! Our rates just went up again as of Jan. 1st - the 4th time in less than 3 years! (most recent increase before this one was November 2015!! - our rates have increased 46.6% over past 10 years!!) Another increase is planned for spring 2016. Oh my...

I am one of the lucky ones. I got my e-bill yesterday and was feeling a bit worried. I've heard of some people's bill going up more than 50%!! Those in rural areas and/or living on native lands were getting hit worse than us city dwellers.  Some people still heat with electricity - and have gone from paying $300+ a month to over $500! My bill only increased by $7.00 over last month which increased by $8.00 last November, 2015, which increased..........and so on. And then they're going to ding me again come spring! I guess my new habit of going to bed when it gets dark has paid big dividends - HAH!

Maybe I should stop cooking - now there's a thought! And I'll just store my food outside! Stop washing our clothes, get dressed in the dark!

How else can we save some of our electrical dollars??

Update from a Crazy Person

Well, I'm not doing too well keeping this blog up-to-date! I see I haven't posted since last Wed.! That's crazy!! It seems that I am rediscovering old interests which is great because that means I'm beating the depression little by little. I also must confess that I've spent a lot of time watching the news after Friday night's horrors in Paris!

I recently pulled out 3 art books that I've hung onto for years and years because they are about crafts and techniques that I was really enthused about back when I was an art teacher - one is about finger weaving, one is about monoprints and the other is about collage. So I went to my local thrift shop and bought some cheap balls of yarn to practice with and I am really enjoying "playing" around.

When looking up tutorials about other methods of finger weaving I found several youtube videos about finger "crocheting". So I've been trying that out as well as crocheting with a crochet hook - I don't know where the hook came from - it was in one of my sewing baskets - I inherited my mother's sewing basket and my gramma's sewing basket. My mother crocheted a bit and my gramma crocheted millions of things - she was so gifted she could look at projects in crochet magazines in a store then go home and replicate them! My oldest "seester" is also very gifted with both crocheting and knitting but I never really got into it.

I've managed, so far, to make a slipknot, crochet a chain and add rows of single crochet. You can pretty much learn to do anything on the internet these days!

Over the past year I've been trying to decide where I could volunteer my time. Then it hit me: the work I've been doing with the Council of Canadians IS my volunteer work! I guess it just doesn't seem like work! More like fun! And I've always been a bit of a rebel! Now I'm a rebel with a cause! Friday I was involved in a "sit-in" at a provincial MP's office, Saturday I helped to sew a banner for an upcoming climate rally, Sunday I delivered informational flyers about the controversial sale of a crown corporation to - Hydro One - and then did some prop painting also related to Hydro One.

I don't think I need to look for any more volunteer work!

Of course, in addition to all of that, I try to exercise daily (try...) I go to yoga and meditation, I meet friends for coffee or walks (or WINE)...and then there's housework (blech) and home improvements (double blech!) Today I'm going to do some finishing touches in the main bathroom - I got it mostly done and then it got too nice to be inside :) I'm a master of excuses...if you ever need an excuse for something, anything,  just let me know!!

I will get back to posting trip photos, I promise. I was doing well for a couple of days then stuff happened. And I still stick my nose into books a LOT! Can't help it - I love to read!! But then nothing gets done!

Well, I'm off! Kazi is visiting her boyfriend in New Jersey and she'll be home tomorrow. That's why I'm finishing the bathroom - she has all her potions, lotions and makeup with her which makes it a whole lot easier to maneuvre in there!

TTYL (talk to you later!)