One of the nicest gifts i have ever received.

On Mondays, Res Con at Parks Canada gets together to Stitch'n'Bitch. We all knit or crochet and chat about what's been going on.

Tomorrow, one of our members is moving to a new job, so we had a little going away lunch celebration. Two of the members made us all matching angry knitting beaver t-shirts. They are completely beautiful. My new favourite t-shirt:

The first bit of Hillside 2011.

The Hillside crew has been releasing little tiny snapshots of this poster over the past few weeks. Today they unveiled the entire thing. I really like the bee a lot and I think this is a cool style.

Overexcited!

Today I have something to post about that is even blog-theme related! And it's something that I am very excited - overexcited, even - about.

This past Saturday, March 19 the National Parks Project went live with the release of their interactive website and first two films: Looking Around Without Blinking (Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site on the Pacific Ocean) and Wapusk (Wapusk National Park in the Hudson Plains of Manitoba).

I've mentioned this before, but the introduction to the website (narrated by the one-and-only Gord Downie of the Tragically Hip) explains it all, "In 1911, Parks Canada was founded, becoming the first National Parks Service in the world. On the eve of its centennial, Canada's finest artists embarked on an historic expedition to capture the majesty of the landscape in music and film. Thirteen filmmakers, thirty-nine musicians, thirteen National Parks of Canada."

The website itself can probably be considered one of the most creative and beautiful bits of the internet. I've explored the entire thing, film, pictures, artist bios, outtakes. It's really an incredible amount of work. I can always appreciate learning about the story behind the science, or in this case, the artwork.

The first film, Looking Around Without Blinking features some incredible underwater shots and a series of old-growth rainforest shots that are so still and silent you'll almost be convinced you're looking at a photograph or a painting. The cinematography is incredible. My favourite second is when the hiker disappears behind a tree. The film is set to a soundtrack created by Sarah Harmer, Bry Webb (of the Guelph-based Constantines), and Jim Guthrie.

In the second film, Sam Roberts and Kathleen Edwards manage to make the inner workings of a polar bear exclosure, deep in the heart of the Wapusk backland, sound like the most beautiful place in Canada. It's really incredible the things those two can do with a wide-open landscape and a fence full of inspiration. This film also features of couple of park wardens ensuring the protection of the traveling musicians from the park's namesake polar bear population.

Seriously, go check this thing out, you will not regret it. Two new films will be released each Saturday until the end of April. Also, since the music-making was so plentiful, the soundtracks will be released as the National Parks Project Album on May 3. The songs don't seem to be up on the website yet, but I'm going to say I'm pretty excited to hear Wapusk's I'd Lichen it to Moss track.

p.s. The mac and cheese failed today. It needs three hours on high in my slowcooker, not two on low. Probably should have tested that out previously. There was so much food, it didn't really matter. The party was very nice and went really well and my special favourite red mug was a candy-apple hit.

Annnd,,,,I almost forgot...

to post on the second day of my self-inflicted posting challenge. I actually just woke up and got out of bed to post this because I wasn't going to be able to fall asleep thinking about my Day 2 Fail.

Luckily, there are still a few minutes to midnight.

Tomorrow, the staff at my workplace are throwing me and my coworker a going-away potluck lunchtime party. I'm pretty nervous about feeling sad at my party. I really love my job and I don't want it to come to an end. I'm not actually going away right away. My coworker will be leaving next Saturday, though, and we decided a joint potluck was most appropriate at this time.

I'm going to wear a nicer-than-usual top, take my fanciest church plate with gold-rim and Guelph Presbyterian printed on the front, my bright red handmade mug, and my travel cutlery from New Zealand.

I'm contributing mac'n'cheese to the lunch. I don't really know why, but I've been craving it for a couple months now, I just haven't brought myself to make an entire dish of it for just myself. So, my friend gave me a bunch of slowcooker recipes including one for mac'n'cheese and I'm going to try it out on my coworkers. It only takes two hours to cook, so I've assembled all the ingredients and I'm going to plug it in tomorrow at work. I didn't want it to turn into mush overnight.

Here's the recipe. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow:

Cook covered for one hour on low heat:
3 c cheddar cheese
1 c provolone
1.5 c whole milk
1.5 c heavy cream
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp mustard powder.
Add and cook covered on low for one more hour:
2 c elbow noodles
1 c sour cream.

Posted 1.

Here goes. A blog post every day for 30 days. May 20 - April 18. Content to be determined. Length of posts to be determined.

Latest inspirations:

cool indie-art stores in downtown Toronto,
hip, Canadian graphic novels about hockey and rural-Ontario living,


long-term photo-art projects, like Back to the Future by Irina Werning,


and everything the Born Ruffians have ever done.

Our love shines.

The Stanley Cup has returned to Whitehorse YT for this year's Hockey Day in Canada.


I've been watching the festivities and highlights have included:
- A special feature about two girls from Haines Junction YT, the little town I lived near when I was up north. There were shots of the place I had soup each Friday, the place where we took hot showers, the junction where the Alaska Highway splits. Good memories.
- A story about an annual backyard hockey tournament in Cornwall ON. It looked like it was colder there than it was in Whitehorse today and I am not surprised.
- Ron McLean, sporting a Hudson's Bay Company wool coat with yellow, red, green, and blue stripes, and quoting Charles Schultz, "three things everyone loves to watch: a babbling brook, a crackling fire, and a Zamboni going round and round."
- Blue Rodeo!

I'm really glad I've got a lot of skating days scheduled for the next few weeks!

Blogging about La Blogotheque.

In the spirit of new blog posts, I bring you this:

Go here and waste the rest of your time reading about interesting bands and watching impromptu music videos filmed throughout Paris and New York. Et, pour mes amis bilinguale, allez ici. (I'm not sure if that was correct, I just made it up from what I've been picking up lately in Corntown).

#64.1 - Beirut - Nantes
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