Entries Tagged 'activities' ↓

In honour of daylight savings time and an extra hour in bed, @rott1058’s retirement, and the fact that I still have not tried brunch at Gudrun’s and it looked rather scrumptious when I wandered by there the other day, we’re having a #BennyTweetup at Gudrun’s (@iheartgudrun) in Steveston this Sunday November 1 at 11 am (which is really noon thanks to daylight savings time).

So far it is @rott1058, @clippernolan, Rob’s little girl and I.  Like last time, I am happy to play taxi between the end of the Canada Line and Steveston for those of you that book service in Erica’s cab in advance.

Drop a note in the comments or tweet me (@EricaHargreave) so that I can let Patrick know how many tweeters to expect.  Oh and as an added bonus, Patrick has promised 10% off for the tweetup.

Afterwards, for anyone who is up for it, we can take a walk, do a bit of window shopping (great stores in Steveston - actually scratch that - thats too dangerous - even though the wool store could have some beautiful wools for Christmas present - stopping now, before I start pining after that all day), or check out the Gulf of Georgia Cannery or Britannia Heritage Shipyard.

Looking forward to seeing some of you tweeters this Sunday!

Erica

PS My favourite pic from the last Steveston Tweetup. Thanks Erich!

Full Disclosure: The Green Chain’s producers, Tony Wosk and Mark Leiren-Young are friends mine, but that does not mean that I’d automatically like their movie.  And to be honest I didn’t like it ….. I loved it!  I knew Mark was a good writer, but this isn’t just good writing, this is great writing.

If you don’t know what The Green Chain is about, here’s the synopses:

The Green Chain is a powerful, funny and thought-provoking film about the conflicts between people on both sides of the battle who love trees — and are willing to risk anything to protect their personal visions of the forest.

‘Powerful’ is the perfect descriptor for this film.  It really hit a chord for me and rang so true to many of my own experiences.  I’ve worked in the forestry industry, am a biologist and been an environmentalist, and I saw so much of the dialog and characters in myself and the people I met along the way. It’s uncanny how Mark writes them so perfectly. In my late teens, I was the kid that would have found it to be an adventure to live in the tree and as a biologist I would have been there for many of the reasons that the Raging Granny shared.  As I matured and spent more time in the smaller towns of BC, I discovered that my youthful ideals were a little naive.  It doesn’t matter that I now recognize that the story has more sides, to the forestry workers in the small towns I will always be seen as an educator and one time forestry researcher, and they’ll be too busy defending their right to log to hear me say, ‘I understand’.  My cousin will get into actual fights with me where I don’t say a single word, because in her mind I’m still that scrappy, tree hugging, granola eating, 19 year old, who’d still love to live in a tree (I’d be lying to say I’d never considered it).

I love the way in Mark’s account of this age old story, all the characters touch each others lives.  He does this so seamlessly, but so that it really pulls at the heart strings of our own connectivity, just like that of the ecosystem.  And the beauty is this isn’t just a story about logging.  This is a tale that speaks to many small towns and natural resource based industries. Speaking from the BC perspective, this story could just as easily be fish or rocks.

Oh and I don’t think you have to be an uber science geek like myself to enjoy The Green Chain.  It is simply a good story and I’ll be the first to admit I am a critical audience.  I’m critical of science stories as I am a scientist and storyteller.  There’s nothing to be critical of here, it’s just a darn good story and accurate.  And unlike some science stories, it’s far from boring.  In fact, I will likely watch it numerous time, as I enjoyed it that much!

Go see it!  You still have time to make the late show!  It starts at 9:10 pm.

Failing that, the daily show times of The Green Chain at Fifth Avenue Cinema, between now to Thursday March 11th, are 1:30, 4:45, 7:10 and 9:10 pm.

At Ahimsa Media, we have a winter holiday tradition of posting an environmentally friendly activity that you can do with your families.  This is our present to the many wonderful people in our lives and that we meet throughout the year.  As the Ahimsa Media site is a little out of date and doesn’t reflect our current projects, I am posting this year’s holiday activity here, and will update to Ahimsa Media, as we update the site in the New Year.  This is not just from me, but from all of the wonderful guys and gals that work with me at Ahimsa Media.

Paper Making

Photo by pusteblume

Paper making has always been a favourite holiday past time of mine, is a great way to recycle used paper, makes great gifts and is just a fun way to pass the time with family and friends of any age. Although there are times when the mess I make in the living room would cause my Dad to disagree.  That mess comes naturally to me though.  I’m guessing that most of you can do this in a much tidier fashion.

Supplies

• Recycled Paper
• An Old Blender
• Bowls
• Ladles
• Tupperware and Recyclable Plastic Containers (yogurt, ice cream containers…etc)
• Assorted Sizes of Elastic Bands
• Door Screen (can be purchased cheaply from a hardware store)
• Old Newspaper
• Old Towels
• Dull Knife (a plastic one is good for kids)
• Cookie Cutters (optional)
• Flower Petals (optional)
• Leaves (optional)
• Seeds (optional)

Making the Pulp

1. Separate the paper by colour.
2. In a blender, place two handfuls of one colour of paper with at least two cups of water. Blend. **Note - do not over fill - or else your kitchen will be covered in pulp.**
3. Add more paper and water as needed.
4. If you are short a particular colour, you can add white paper to augment the coloured paper.
5. Once you have a nice papery mud like consistency, your pulp is made!!!  Pour into a bowl.
6. Make the next colour.

Building the Screen

1. Get a series of different shaped tupperware / recyclable containers and cut out door screen to cover the containers with at least 2 inches of overlap on all sides.
2. Place screen over the open side of the container.
3. Fasten screen to the container with an elastic band and pull screen taut.
4. Presto!  One screen done.  Make more of different sizes and shapes.

Making the Paper

1. Place a small amount of pulp on the screen.
2. Use a knife to spread the pulp out across the entire screen. I find this is done best in soft chopping motions. The thinner the pulp, the thinner the paper.
3. Create designs on the pulp by using different colours, placing the cookie cutters on the screen and using them to create different coloured objects (by putting different coloured pulp in a thin layer inside the cookie cutter on the screen before removing the actual cookie cutter), and by placing leaves and flower petals on top of the pulp.
4. Take two pieces of newspaper and fold into a size that will cover the container.
5. Place folded paper on top of the pulp covered screen.
6. Over a bowl, turn the container sideways, to allow the water to pour off whilst holding the newspaper firmly in place.
7. Turn container upside down, whilst holding the newspaper in place.
8. Carefully lift the container, leaving the pulp on the newspaper.
9. Fold a second newspaper and cover the pulp.
10. Fold newspaper bundle up in an old towel.
11. If you want thin paper, place a heavy book on top of the bundle.
12. Leave for 24 - 48 hours, then pull back the towel and newspaper to reveal your handmade paper.

Ideas for the Kids:

• Make extra thick paper on round yogurt containers to make paper ornaments for the tree.
• Add seeds to the pulp and you can plant and water your paper when you are done with it.  I usually use wildflower seeds, place the paper in a sunny spot, sprinkle it with top soil and water it.

Hope you have as much fun with this as I do.  Don’t be afraid to comment or email, if you have a tip, a modification or a question.

Happy Holidays!

Erica