121| last.

goodbye greenbelt staff, fair thee well.

i'm one of three staff of the eight-person branch leaving in the next three months. david bowie's song changes is playing my head. it'll be good for the branch, and for the department, but damn: i'm going to miss it.

next monday, i start talking about swine flu in the municipal government. i feel a bit like a substitute teacher, but for the federal government. i like wearing the different hats, but it's hard not making connections and settling down a little bit.

87| girl, why i am.

this morning i faced an outerwear dilemma. like many girls, i covet pretty things. and often times, i choose the pretty over the practical. well, the weather was warm enough for a spring coat, but presently my only spring coat on hand is a yellow gap coat, which--while very lovely--would have been too much bright with my already bright skirt.

i do have another coat, you see. but it is missing about four buttons: three because it was poorly manufactured and i was too lazy to secure the buttons after i bought the coat, and one because i pushed my hands too deep in my pockets and popped a button {which is a tragic event when one is trying to lose weight}.

so, in the end, i opted for the black, oversized blazer that i own for the purpose of interviews only. i felt awkward because it was far too formal for the rest of my outfit, but i sucked it up anyways. also, it's not quite warm enough. whereas, my lovely taupe number without the buttons would have been.

i ran into a girl that i volunteered with this morning and she looked so professional, and so downright put together, especially give that she was working in an internship. it made me feel so very, blah. style envy ensued.

what do i plan about doing about this fair readers? i could buy a new jacket, but that would be well over $150. so, i won't.

i'm thinking i'm going to replace the buttons. perhaps not this weekend, but maybe next week sometime. given that it's a cargo style jacket, that's a lot of buttons. but it will be worth it. i'm also wondering if anyone can make any other suggestions for embellishments. the coat is about thigh length, and has little ruffles around the cuffs. then, i plan on buying an outrageously fabulous nicely patterned, albeit neutral scarf that i can wear with every single jacket in my closet {except maybe my ski jacket}.

{and this, my dears, is what i had writer's block over. yeesh}

55| the gorge.

one of my most favourite things about the internets is learning about food.

i love my cookbooks and food encyclopediae, and they're great for long-term reading, because frankly i cannot look at a screen long enough to meal plan for a week. usually, i use the internets to look up the calories or nutrtional information of a food {especially over lunch hour with new, undiscovered foods}.

however, i've been buying more organic fruit lately, since my garden isn't producing anything other than rosemary right now, and i don't love the idea of pesticides in a lot of my food {sweet potatoes anyone? red peppers? a side of monsanto's politics and round-up? no thanks}. anyway, i happen to notice on my pear at lunch, "columbia gorge certified organic". i knew about the second part, the certified organic part. but, i didn't know what the columbia gorge was. and now, i happily do:

Nathanial Coe brought to the Hood River valley the first fruit trees in 1854 when he arrived to establish Oregon's first post office and mail routes. In 1876, E.L. Smith planted the first commercial orchard, 30 acres of apples (Newtown Pippins and Spitzenburgs) and peaches. In time, apples became the dominant crop. In 1919 the Hood River Valley had a disastrous freeze that killed many apple trees. With that, growers began planting pear trees to replace the apples. Today there are 15,000 acres producing pears, apples and cherries, with pears accounting for 92% of the total tonnage.

Cherries have been grown in Wasco County since it was first settled in the 1850's. The county is well suited for cherry production due to its deep, fertile soils; however, the most important factor contributing to the success of the cherry industry in Wasco County is its location east of Mt. Hood. The rain shadow provided by Mt. Hood results in many sunny days and only 12 inches of annual precipitation. Sunny days are a crucial component to mature the crop and prevent rain damage as the crop ripens. Wasco County currently has 8,000 acres under production and is the #1 producer of sweet cherries in the state of Oregon.

..and that, ladies and gentlemen, is why i'm a food geek.

note: i did tag this as "eco-good", even though my fruit did have to travel from oregon. columbia gorge is a non-profit group of growers, and they work to promote the fruit industry through education, research and marketing. so, really, they are doing good for the industry and for the environment as a whole.

image daily olive

9| mimosas + marigolds

for the first time since before christmas, it is supposed to go above freezing this week. as much as i love, love, love winter in ottawa {and by winter, i mean the part where you eat hearty food and do amazing winter sports}, i am quite ready for some warmer weather thank you very much.

i don't remember who it was, but back in november, when i was just getting started into the winter season, someone wrote a post {in fact, i'm sure many people wrote a post} of things they would like to be doing in the summer, even though there was no summer to be found. at the time, i found the idea to be rather silly, since i was so thrilled to have winter plans, but now that winter is slowly winding down {what's that you say....six more weeks? heck no!} i am finding myself craving summer, and seed catalogs.

hopefully this summer will be long, because there is indeed many things i want to do.

• plant my garden with mimosas and marigolds--lots of marigolds-- as well as edibles
• take a photography course
• play ultimate twice, if not three times a week
• get out on my rollerblades (perhaps to and from work)
• get my ass to a bunch of outdoor concerts, festivals and shows
• volunteer in the lantern festival
• buy some raw wood pieces and finish them outside
• craft in the great outdoors with my niece
• use the patio furniture, even if we don't have a patio.

the list will get longer as the weather gets better, undoubtedly.

|credit smellyblog|

3| a tip of the hat to the earth (one)

i like sharing stuff. especially information. so, while i may be not so keen on the overabundance of unused blogs, i am quite happy knowing that my blogroll (mostly found through my favourites sidebar) is increasing in size. along the same lines, i like dialoguing, which is part of why i am a fan of blogs.

anyway, i'm not sure who all is aware of this, but most grocery stores still provide paper bags (in ontario, this was a pretty big revelation for me). you just have to ask, since they're more expensive. don't get me wrong: i prefer reusable cloth, cotton, et cetera (see photo). but today, for example, in the midst of lunch hour errands, i realized i needed cheese and hot peppers for tonight's dinner.

i really hate using plastic bags, because i reuse them once and then they get chucked. on the other hand, at the bottega near my office, i grabbed a paper bag from the bakery section, and loaded my tiny pile of groceries into it. the bag will then go into my paper scraps pile when i get home.

all of this is to say, if you have to choose between paper and plastic, remember you do have a choice, despite what grocery stores and bottegas want you to believe.

|credit greenbabyguide|