Bill Martin's
Thunder Bay
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Friday, April 20, 2012
Bike Lanes in Thunder Bay
Yesterday, while riding north on Court Street toward home I dodged pot holes and crumbled asphalt and small dunes of road sand left from the winter. The bike lane was barely visible, completely unsafe for riding - so I was, for the most part, riding along it's outer edge. At times I had to swerve further into the road to avoid larger pot hole and dunes.
As I approached Bay Street I glanced behind me - no traffic, ahead of me were three cars driving south on the other side of the road, coming through the green light. I signalled that I was turning left on Bay, kept riding, checking behind me, ...two of the cars drove properly on their route. The third car took one look at me approaching the intersection, on the road, on a bike, with my arm out - and slammed on the breaks, stopping in the middle of the intersection.
Oh my dog. Really people? Who is causing a problem on the road in this story? Who isn't following the rules - the law? Who hasn't been to driving school, - what score did they get on their written test? Have they read a local newspaper or listened to the news? Pay attention?
I bet drivers like that are also the ones who spend their time complaining about Thunder Bay being a deadbeat town going nowhere, where it's hard to find good work, and the beer comes in jugs. Asshats.
I am so tired of hearing the complaints about the bike lanes, the ridiculous comments from Boshchoff calling them "dangerous" is outrageous. Cyclists on sidewalks? Even more ridiculous. He needs to get his head out of the sand. What is dangerous are drivers like that idiot who slammed on the breaks in the middle of an intersection because they didn't know what to do with a bike on the road.
Understanding a line on the road is not difficult - even new lines. I can not count how many times I watched cars drift in and out of bike lanes last year. Never saw a cyclist drift in and out of a bikelane...funny that.
I think - there are better ways to integrate cyclists in urban areas. I've been hearing on the news all morning that they're planning a revitalisation of Red River Road and Memorial Ave. (about time people..) Why not put a little extra effort into adding Recreational Trails along side the sidewalk. Sidewalk for walkers, RecTrails for riders, inline skates, runners. On the curb, off the road, line it with trees, make it pretty, attract people to it. To me it seems simple.
There could be a RecTrail continued along Oliver Road (from the Balmoral trail), on the north side, connecting pedestrians and cyclists *safely* to the hospital. If traffic lights were installed, to the University too.
Again, so simple.
Oh I bet "it costs too much"...or some such bullshit. Kind of like cleaning the streets in Thunder Bay. sigh
I really hope this bike lane business continues to make news, go national. Let's call these idiots on council out. I've had enough of them.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Local Farms
 |
| Sleepy G Farm photo credit to Sleepy G on the majestic Sibley Peninsula, Pass Lake |
I'm sort of incredibly jealous of local farmers right now. After connecting for a Walleye story I'm overwhelmed with daydreams of goats and chickens on acres of garden.
Then I add R's dream of a traditional Australian pie shop and add some lambs to our farm.
A few greenhouses...
Fields of flowers. I say sort of when I think about the amount of work it is for the families, and exceptional commitment to what they're doing.
I have farm envy, chicken envy after writing this one - not that I wasn't already afflicted.
I am amazed by all our local farms, each doing unique and innovative things, gardening with both knowledge and creativity, challenging the climate on the Boreal Edge.
 |
| Boreal Edge Farms photo credit to Chris Merkley |
 |
| Belluz Farms photo credit to Kevin Belluz |
Restricted by space, I could not possibly do these farms justice in the short W article, but do hope to follow up throughout the season - including this blog and Twitter too. There is so much to tell about how farming is reinventing itself in the Thunder Bay area.
Though I was featuring only three, Thunder Bay is surrounded by farms that have so much to offer. This week the Kampoff's dairy farm in the CJ, showing what they've been doing for generations - complete with evolution and newness. I went to school with those kids - Thunder Bay Christian School....a lifetime ago. Maybe it was through that connection (and my father being drawn to Dutch fellows) that brought him, the math professor, to take up farming.
He put in a good effort, for a hobby farmer. I was chased off the school bus by geese, my mother will tell you stories about running out of the house with a broom to shoo the rooster from the foot of the swing-set, so that my sister and I could get off. Matt from Boreal Edge was telling me all about their new chicken flock of 100 pasteurised laying hens and all I could think about our "pasteurised" laying hens roaming free everywhere - no "eggmobile" to keep me safe...sigh...
It was an interesting childhood.
I became far too attached to the chickens, and our goat (who was often found tied to the mostly chewed Tamarack tree outside my bedroom window); then there was Brutus the bull (?), and of course the baby animals in spring. Oh I loved the day Dad came home with a box full of baby chicks to keep in the family room with lights until it was warm enough, and they were old enough, for the coop (non roaming coop). I realise much more now, in retrospect, why my mother cringed the way she did. I laugh a little imagining the conversations my parents had.
The math professor farmer was a bee keeper and an apple grower, wannabe Geologist, Forester, Ecologist. Our property boundary was shared by the Wishart Conservation Forest, and the Current River. What a playground I lived in. Far from the urban lifestyle I live now.
Time and weather thwarted my photographic hopes, but the season has only just begun. I imagine a lot of sweeping farm panos in my future.
Sleepy G Farm is a new farm, re-establishing an old farm. Belluz Farms are reinventing themselves with each generation, each offering a variety of local produce - enough to sustain a family of four, for less than what you would pay in any chain store but better: fresh, and locally grown.
I think what deters people, or where value is lost, is the lost knowledge of storage and preservation. I bought apple for lunch at the neighbourhood Safeway yesterday - "Ontario Grown," in other words: out of cold storage. Storing and canning, preserving - it all takes preparing and planning - which isn't nearly as daunting as it seems. Understandably space can be an issue for some families - speaking as someone who lives in a century home in an overcrowded downtown neighbourhood. Closets? Say what? ...but, every challenge has a solution, somehow...solve it.
Their concepts aren't new or even unique - they're proven, tested, and evolved. CSA shares from Sleepy G Farm are quite different from what Belluz Farms offer, each local farm with variety - and with local producers of beef, lamb, chicken, eggs, milk, cheese, chocolate, fruits, vegetables, herbs, ...include area artisans, honey, syrup, tea, wheat & rice. What else do we need? Jeff & Kerr and their coffee, Denyse's pancakes, Sovereign Room, Growing Season, omg this list is too long to begin. !
We're doing pretty good here in Thunder Bay for local sustainability. Pretty incredible actually.
Sleepy G
Farm
Brendan
Grant & Marcelle Paulin
RR1 Pass
Lake, ON
P0T 2M0
807.977.1631
Located at the base of the Sibley peninsula, approximately
45kms east of Thunder Bay.
Boreal Edge
Farm
Matt
Baughman & Leigh Potvin
RR1 Marttinen
Lane
Nolalu
Ontario
P0T 2K0
807.475.8835
Belluz Farm
Don, Claire,
Kevin, Jodi and the kids
RR6 752
Candy Mountain Drive
Slate River,
Ontario
P7J 0C2
Farm:
807.475.5181
Greenhouse:
866.200.1011 ph/fax
Thursday, April 12, 2012
at the office
 |
greenhouse panos
tricky camera tricks
some day I'll get it right
|
 |
| greenhouse work NO WORK ALL PLAY |
 |
| askew tags drive me wild |
 |
| Osteospermum Lemon Symphony after I watered |
superbells and superbugs
at Bill Martin's Nurseryland
Thursday, March 29, 2012
greenhousing
 |
| how I started my day under cloudy Thunder Bay skies |
I don’t think it has quite sunk in yet, that I’m back in a
greenhouse planting things in pots. It’s hard to explain how ridiculously happy
I am about this. There is no better air to breathe, oh and to have my hands dirty all day, do things - watching things grow. Yeah, this is my gig.
There is a pair of rain boots in the gift shop that I covet. Matching gloves. Susan always understood my fashion sense - er, greenhouse fashion sense (except the orange pants!)..., and soon my new greenhouse will too. I've had to order my sizes in each - now I can't wait for real water days instead of rain days.
Yesterday I was asked if I thought planting was boring;
the asker
thinking it was quite so.
He went on to say there was too much time to think –
which is, I think, why I like it so much.
I like the time it gives me,
...though I couldn’t tell you what I thought about today,
other than lines and
the order of things.
 |
| I thought about Caroline |
 |
| I thought about lemons |
 |
| lines |
 |
calibrachoa, million bells
waiting
|
 |
| calibrachoa on the planting table |
at Bill Martin's Nurseryland
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Dear Garden Diary,
With three times the garden, I'm trying to carefully plan some perennial edibles - like asparagus, some herbs, - and pre-plan some rotating crops to make the most out of our small space. This year I also want to take advantage of time, with early crops and late ones, so we don't miss out on so much while we're away.
I'm going a little crazy. So many options, so many ways to do this..., and in our over zealous way we have already bought more seeds than we could ever plant & tend. I'll have to share some seeds once I have this year's "plan" in mind.
I have never followed "the plan"...
Working in a greenhouse never helps either, without fail I come home with something, every day.. R already understands this is not an income, more a loss really. Luckily he's not bothered by it. Also, with his "give me plans and I'll build it" ability, we will have a succulent wall by summer's end.
Most of the time spent with my new iPad has been setting up apps for writing and gardening, greenhouses, and note taking. I've already set my iEye on more apps I can't yet afford (the expensive ones are always so clever, damn).
I don't think the iPad is going to take the place of my doodle pad and pencil in the garden, but I don't think it'll be far from reach.
Gah, remember all those days I lugged garden books and notebooks in my backpack, on my bike, to the greenhouse, the university, everywhere. Insane. Books are great home companions, always will be best - but for travel I'm digging this new technology.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
fowl-less waterfront habitat
 |
| Prince Arthur's Landing 15 March 2012 |
Spring Cleaning
Spring cleaning swooped into the front garden late Monday afternoon while R was at a meeting. It brought cold beer and a rake, and took about half and hour to make a disaster of it all, and another hour to clean it (ish) before R returned and we went on with our never ending list of things to do.
I feel a huge relief for doing it, but also slight unable to move comfortably - in a good way, bad but good - not sick bad in any way, which if fine by me. My body just wasn't prepared for the sudden session of garden yoga. I cleaned back to the mass of ferns, and broke them down as mulch - that seems to have kept the ferns going thus far, so we shall just continue. Everybody else seems to be returning with enthusiasm.
 |
| Lady's Mantle from Heather's garden |
 |
| Pulmonaria, Lungwort & Heuchera 'Lime Marmalade |
 |
| Columbine, 'Songbird Goldfinch' |
Peas like cool soil, cold even - and can tolerate light frost and snow. Pansies too, and radishes, lettuce too.
We have peas and lettuce coming, radishes soon, just had to find the seeds...
I can not wait to start digging in the new bed.., just a matter of time.
I've decided that the greenhouse is going to thoroughly consume me this year with dirty green wonderfulness, and I'm just going to let it have its way with me. I'm going to try to photo document as much as I can without being a pain, and getting the job done, and not killing my iPhone ...what a blessed thing the iPhone is.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Dear Garden Diary,
I've been Mrs. M for nearly two weeks, and in one week I'll be back standing under the open roof of a greenhouse. These are some pretty good weeks.
With my mother feeling fairly well, a little relief has set in - a chance to catch my breath before the next spin, I feel a positive energy these days that I haven't had for a while. The cabin fever has been unbearable.
We took Claire for a walk through the waterfront on the first evening of day light savings; refreshing and muddy, but it got me even more excited about the coming months. Last year I was still in too much pain to enjoy any of this - I've missed it.
So, with visions of plant tags dancing in my head, I can't help but start to think about what our backyard will bring this year. Claire and I enjoyed Sunday morning on the back balcony, nearly hot with spring sun.
Our little micro climate section of our kitchen garden is already clear of snow with green parsley poking through, next to lavender and rosemary - both of which seem to have sprung back. Amazing. John Davis is embarrassingly out of control and I'm so glad. I need to tidy him up a little before photos, but I can say that he's got more healthy cane than I've ever seen. grin
Sweet Woodruff and the Hardy Geraniums are appearing along the west fence. I can see it own't be long for the rest. Though the area gets mostly afternoon shade because of the Tamarack and the fence, it does get nice warm morning sun, and protected protected from most wind it has it's own climate.
The anticipation for greenhouse season is busting in me. Bring it on!
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Friday, March 9, 2012
healing, part 1
I'm about to start planting in a greenhouse - a different greenhouse, but to me all the same. Just thinking about it gives me clarity. I love it.
It isn't about the competitive local businesses for me; I'm just there for the plants. Well, the plants and all else that goes with them - which includes the people. There are always stories with plants. I have a bit of a story, there's been a lot of plants in it (Baby Millar's Lady's Mantle, for one). I sort of wish I had written more over the last few years, I think it's a great way to purge emotion, heal.
I've been thinking a lot about a threat read on Facebook a while ago, I wanted to write a rebuttal, but just haven't had the time. ...which is probably a good thing, because I would have likely written hate-mail. Time has allowed me to think about my response(s). The thread began with an abuse on naturopathic medicine and acupuncture - calling them false and such. It was, contrary to the author's own words, a very biased and narrow view. Worse, it showed a complete lack of knowledge on the subject. Simple logic: if you're going to call something out - study both sides of the argument. Make sure you know what you're talking about, remove yourself then throw yourself right back in. (My Dad always said I should have gone to law school...)
I have trouble with the comparison, the one or the other, all or nothing approach to anything. Broad views take it all in - take my photography, for instance. I like taking panoramas of places I'm in, then I throw on the macro zoom and look at details. There's a lot in between too. It really is impossible to see it all, know it all...but it is possible to try.
I've been sick since the summer of 2009, it's complicated, personal, and still difficult at times. I've been a lot better in recent months, in spite of a second miscarriage..., and feel even better just thinking about being in a greenhouse again.
I could probably rant on and on about the problematic system that dictates our medical care in Canada - in Thunder Bay, Northern Ontario. Oh yeah, the doctor shortages - the fact my mother can be diagnosed with cancer and still refused a GP. I can complain about wait times, and crack doctors who ask two questions and make assumptions.
My doctor is fabulous. She cares, shows compassion, and is thorough - extremely. Without her I would have never discovered acupuncture and Chinese Medicine. She thinks the way I do, logically about biology, open to ideas, following common sense. She did everything she could for me - and in the end admitted that there are limits to Western Medicine when it comes to healing.
I need to heal my heart, which relies heavily on healing my body. Which I think relies even more on Sarah, my acupuncturist, coming back (she's been adventuring, learning, photographing, and I can't wait to hear her stories). She is healing. It's difficult to put into words - I've referred a number of people to her recently and have tried to explain what she does (beyond the obvious), though it really just needs to be experienced.
I've seen other acupuncturists both here and in Australia (and he was one of the world's best!) and they don't compare. Sarah's knowledge far exceeds theirs, obvious by her treatment. "Sometimes I think she floats when she walks," She said that to me once about someone else, but I think it applies as much to her. (And I am lucky enough to know them both!)
I went reluctantly at first. Both my doctor and R were encouraging me to go, to try - see if it helped. I did feel quite desperate at the time, but wasn't convinced that anything would help - so why bother. In two years I had been diagnosed with everything under the sun, put on all kinds of wild pills, no one knew what it all meant, my symptoms worsened, the pain, the confusion.
I didn't even realize how unclear my head was until it started to get better - which was one of the first symptoms that acupuncture healed. My short term memory was suddenly becoming stronger - noticeably to me, and I found that amazing. Months later - and after adding Tracey and her combinations of naturopathic supplements, I started feeling more steady on my feet, stronger when I walked - when I hadn't even realized I was unsteady.
I do remember back when the symptoms first began being at work one day - walking through the tunnels at LU from the Registrar's Office back to mine, and feeling the need to steady myself along the wall as I walked. It wasn't light-headedness as much as it was whole body lightness, tension, and pain. If that makes any sense.
But, when doctor and doctor (as in Western Medicine doctor) tell you their tests came back negative - I was forced to ignore my symptoms, convince myself as much as others that I was okay. I really wasn't, and I don't think I realised how sick I was becoming. Last summer's trip to Australia gave us a pretty strong indication that something was wrong, it was scary, and I never want to feel like that again. The pain was immeasurable.
I sought acupuncture in Australia before anything else. Why? Because I knew it would help. I haven't been looking for a diagnosis for a long time - more than a year now...just relief. I want to feel like myself again, that's all I ask. No Western Medical doctor can help me with relief - unless I want to take pills for the rest of my life (and not just any pills, lifelong scripts for narcotics...um, no thanks.). That is not the answer for me.
Look what happened when I did end up in hospital in Australia: valium. And that is why I couldn't climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge and I am still pissed off about that.
If I could have packed Sarah in my suitcase I wouldn't have needed valium. I don't know how to explain it, Jay, but it works - acupuncture, that is. The acupuncturist I saw in Leura clearly diagnosed an infection - where, what, he didn't know - for that we do need blood tests provided by Western Medicine. My point being: it isn't a matter of one or the other, it's about what each can bring to the table. The potluck of care. The acupuncturist can heal and even cure my symptoms, the pain, and more, while the Western Med can be used diagnostically.
It was my Western Medicine doctor who sent me to see an acupuncturist in the first place. She herself had seen her, and been healed by the treatments. She recognised that she had reached her limit in treating me, and with my resistance to take narcotics, she suggested a solution. That, to me, is how medicine should work. Include with them chiropractors, massage therapists (Oh, Jo-Lynn you work magic!), naturopathic doctors, and of course Chinese Medicine. It's not a competition people.
My naturopathic doctor and I have a great relationship, wonderful conversations - which in themselves are healing, I think because I spend so much time thinking about how I'm feeling these days - she and R are really the only people I purge my thoughts too. Poor souls. ;) Again, like and including acupuncture, the naturopathic perspective is one that totally makes sense to me, viewing the body as a system - like a clock that needs every part in sync to keep perfect time. I found that with Western Medicine I wasted a lot of time seeing one doctor for this, another for that, no body knowing who was testing for what, waiting months for results. The naturopathic approach is simple, gently winds that clock.
What is the difference between the witch-doctoring involved with pharmaceutical companies, and the witch-doctoring of a Chinese Medicine doctor's herbs? Are they not the same thing, really..c'mon. I don't want to argue this silly point.
The difference I can tell you, from my personal experiences, is that the pills given to me from the Western Medicine doctors had strange names and no indication of what they are made up of. They made me fuzzy, woozy, probably hurt my liver, caused a lot of indigestion, and ultimately - did nothing to take away the pain and numbness.
A week after starting herbal supplements from Tracey, I sat in front of Sarah nearly bouncing out of the chair, feeling great - awake again, alert, steady. We were both encouraged. For the first time in two years I thought, okay good - I am going to get back to me again. I think the worry over not ever feeling like myself again has overwhelmed a lot of the healing. I have had a few set backs...but, which each we (with Tracey and Sarah) try more herbs, more points, and with each I feel a little better, a little more like me.
I'm not there yet, but I know I'm on the flip side of illness now. It took a long time for it to get me down so I don't expect to bounce right back - but lately, the bike rides, the fresh winter walks..I can feel it. I am steady again, and the pain is manageable. My emotional self will enjoy the greenhouse as much as my physical self. I have a broken heart and out of shape body. Two miscarriages in two years will do that to a woman my age.
There is nothing Western Medicine can offer a woman after a miscarriage that can, even in the slightest, compare to what acupuncture can do. Nothing. I struggled, it was horrible - in 2010, my body was so out of control, I felt out of control, estrogen surged, my blood was weak, my cycle was off. I have never in my life felt worse all over, inside, inside my heart, outside myself. It went on for months. ...until I started acupuncture. Without even expecting it, or knowing it could really help, within a couple months of acupuncture my cycle was back on track, my emotions were calmed, my blood was stronger, ..Western Medicine could offer me nothing - other than fertility drugs, surgical exploration, and anti-depressants.
I've met, and read the stories of many other women who have miscarried, we've all taken similar and different routes through healing, and trying to get pregnant again. There is no doubt that acupuncture is a widely used and highly respected treatment. Sometimes it has been a solution, sometimes it has been used in combination with Western Medicine (IVF) and been successful - either way, it has been soothing to the women who have used it, which is so important after such a physical and emotional trauma. Now, still recovering from a second miscarriage, Tracey and I have been on top of it, to get my system in order as quickly as possible, to not have to go through what I did last time, - by strengthening my blood by encouraging my liver and spleen to work a little harder, feeding them better, supplementing with herbs and vitamins in conjunction with acupuncture points...and it's working, already..and I feel in control of it. I highly doubt any fertility drug or anti-depressant could do the same.
It's about recognising each treatment for what it is, what it can offer - how different approaches to medicine and healing can work together to help an individual. Acupuncture can't heal my terminally ill mother, but it can heal her symptoms - which, to me, is what's really important. Western Medicine cures cancer with poison - acupuncture treats the symptoms of those poisons, and the cancer, and encourages the healthy systems in the body to give a hand to the parts not working properly. I don't understand how someone could confuse these two approaches.
I have that wonderful sense of nervous excitement; it's great. Excited to get things started, to get back into it, to breathe that wonderful greenhouse air. I just know that this is the next step in healing - there's just something therapeutic about greenhouse work, for both body and soul.
greenhouse scenes
at Trevisanutto's
2005
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
