sangrias, workshops & photo blogs

summer is a great time for sangrias and for fish. now, its not technically 'summer' yet, nor has it felt like summer lately here in vancouver. but that doesn't mean its not a good time for eating fish & for drinking sangrias.

especially white wine sangrias, one of which i had last week (along with some tasty fish - sole almondine) at beatniks bistro in langley. i was there with a group of ladies from a workshop we were all attending. read about this workshop here, at my new photography blog:
joeyarmstrong.ca/blog!

i'll still be blogging here, of course! but maybe not as consistently as i'd ideally like to. life isn't ideal like that all the time. oh well! :)

but speaking of sangrias, anyone have a good sangria recipe? or another favorite summertime drink?

cheers to summer starting soon!

sun + markets + bikes + coffee = happy me

it's summer guys. this weekend, anyways. I LOVE THE SUN.

today i went to the summer farmer's market at trout lake for the first time this year. i didn't go to the winter market at all this past winter - it moved locations and was just too far for my lazy little self. today however, i met a friend for breakfast at bandidas, then we headed over to the market. took back some of my growing stacks of egg cartons, bought some eggs, bought some herbs, bought some shitaki mushrooms. and enjoyed the sun.

the beginnings of summer: it is glorious.

tomatoes are pretty...

after so much fun at the market (AND i didn't even spend all the limited cash i had on me. go me!), we were thirsty. so we went to jj bean for iced lattes. yum.

OH! what's that you say? yeah that's my new bike.

sometimes craigslist is so awesome. like this week when i bought this sweet ass bike from some random stranger. apparently its a czech communist bike.

took it out for a short ride this evening to see if it works. (yes, i know i should have checked it when purchasing it, but it was POURING rain + dark + i just wanted to hurry it all up and get out of there) it works! hurrah! my legs + lungs, however... don't work quite so well as the bike. on the 8 block, slightly uphill ride home i was suffering. thankfully no one saw me suffer, as everyone else in vancouver was downtown (still is probably) celebrating the vancouver canucks' win of game 2 in the playoffs. speaking of which, i actually watched most of the game, which is a rarity. i'm not a hockey fan, nor am i really a watching-sports-on-tv type of person. but the game was pretty intense, even from my non-partial perspective. oh, and they scored (+ won) 11 seconds into sudden death overtime. crazy. still, i'm glad i'm not downtown. not a fan of hoards of people. especially hoards of people with hockey fever...

(3 gears! 1 step up from being a hipster bike!)

it was a fantastic day today. so much sun. so much exercise.
who else had a beautiful saturday?

summer is over, but today was quite nice

these yummy tomatoes were purchased from the last summer farmer's market i went to this year. summer is officially over. summer has been over for a while, but i am still dealing with it. today was a bizarrely unusual fall day, and it hit 17 C. i only had a light sweater on, walking on main street today, and was in my own little private bliss.

i do know that when fall begins to hit harder, i will cope by staying inside, baking lots of things and keeping my oven on a lot (not just for heat, but it's a bonus for sure). i don't have proper wear for rainy wintery vancouver, my boots and my jacket are both with broken zippers, so staying inside just seems like the right thing to do. how do you cope with fall/winter (if you have it)?

oh yes, this is my 99th post. my contest is officially closed & i will draw up the name & post the results next post. woo! please stay tuned... you may be the winner.

summer lovin

summer. my favorite time of year. it may not be the prettiest here in vancouver (dead grass just doesn't appeal the eye as much as rich green grass or spring blossoms or fall colors), but as far as weather goes, i love heat and i love summer.

i have lots of photos waiting to be sorted through.. photos of copious meals outdoors, camping & hiking trips, blueberry picking, lots of delicious food. but since they are still waiting for me, patiently, i'll leave you with a few photos of some food-related things i've enjoyed this summer:

flowers:
(some edible, some non-edible. guess which is which)



a fresh egg from our landlords' backyard chickens:
(yum)