Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Happy Vaisakhi!

For the past few years I've attended the Vaisakhi festival in the Little India neighbourhood of Vancouver.  As I understand it, this is a celebration of the Sikh prophet selecting his disciples, as well as a traditional grain harvest festival.  It also holds importance for Muslims and Buddists as well.


And for guests that have no particular ties to religion, this is The Day of Free Indian Food.  Sikhs have a religious practice of Langar, or serving food freely to bring together people, so they get spiritual credit for feeding the masses that may or may not care about the reasons why - I'm surprised this isn't more of an annual boon for the homeless in Vancouver, yet another example of how important it is to be aware of the myriad of opportunities offered in your community.  Businesses and private residences have tables lining the sidewalks outside and an assembly line of people ladling out rice and curry, samosas, pakoras, and other dishes I know not what.  Chick peas, _lots_ of chick peas, swimming in a variety of sauces.
After two or three plates visitors are already full, and we've barely scratched the surface.  When you think there's no room for any other deliciousness, there's always room for tea.  Most tables offer tea that we'd consider flavoured chai tea, sweet, creamy and aromatic.  My styrofoam cup followed me from table to table grazing.
My personal favorite, which I only ever get at Vaisakhi, is called halwa (and every year I forget its name and refer to it to friends as 'that awesome yummy grey stuff').  It is typically grey/beige, though I found a yellowish one this year, and looks like crumbly mashed potatos.  Sound appetizing? It's great! It's sweeter than the main savoury dishes and curries yet not as saccharine as the better known Indian desserts.  It often has almonds or cashews or raisins, and is gently spiced with cardamom, one of my favorite spices. 
I sat on a sunny patch of grass on a street corner with my halwa+tea and purred happily. immersed among the sounds of a different language and music over loudspeakers in the distance, this treated me to all the welcoming and accessible aspects of visiting India without the practical logistics of due research, safety, acquiring visas, incurred costs of travel, and blahblahblah reason to never ever leave home.  A mini-travel trip from the comfort of my own city.


The Vaisakhi in the neighbouring city of Surrey is supposedly the largest one outside of India itself.  I attended for the first time this year with a friend of mine who was well organized with a planned route and map.  The weather was the kind of grey that made it difficult to select appropriate attire, but the cool was appreciated in the midst of a crowd. 
We were early enough to stroll among the tables easily, my first sample was a bowl of some kind of chips, chick peas (of course), yogurt sauce and a sprinkling of spices.  The woman at the table made one 'special for me', which I suspect was a kind yet unnecessary gesture to dumb down the spiciness - after all, this was my breakfast! We got more chips+candy+juice boxes+cans of pop to carry home (good thing I brought fabric shopping bags), and ate our fill of Indian dishes; fried potato patty, fried califlower, fried tofu nugget.  More tea, always tea.  It took me a while to find a table serving halwa, and I got three different versions that day.  The last one was bright yellow and orange, with bloated golden raisins.  A great note to end on.
By the time we were tired of walking and the free food wasn't worth the ten minute lineups, our take-away bags were both full and heavy, and we couldn't eat anymore we'd decided to leave... and the rain started just after we were in the car.  Perfect timing.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Feathered friends in Lost Lagoon.

For breakfast I'd found that what's left of our loaf of bread had turned mouldy.  This is the downside of honest artisan bread, is that it has no preservative and won't take the urban-life excuse of being too busy for meals, to be consumed within a few days.  I salvaged what I could of one slice and spread on thick some avocado, salt+pepper and lemon juice.  'Twas flavourful enough to disguise any faults in an otherwise lovely wheat+rye blend bread.

The rest would be more trouble that it's worth even for croutons, and as I greatly dislike throwing food in the garbage (as well as it being a sunny spring afternoon today), I walked down to the Lost Lagoon in Stanley Park to feed it to the ducks et al.  Having taken interest in wildlife from a young age as well as worked in a wild bird seed shop, I can say that bread is not the optimum diet for songbirds or waterfowl, since it expands in their stomach with water to make them feel full while supplying little nutritional value.  As well, feeding the 'wild' ducks will cause them to skip migration and continue soiling an environment that typically needs a seasonal break from the stress of use.  That being said, I know that there are probably the most un-wild ducks in the city of Vancouver, that Lost Lagoon is likely large enough to support the strain and has a team of Parks Board maintenance folks that monitor it, and that a little bread spread out to many critters shouldn't be too bad...

The sakura cherry blossom trees and ornamental plum trees are in bloom, and both locals and tourists alike were taking photos under the low pretty boughs near the entrance to the park.  The air was alive with the drone of hummingbirds though I couldn't focus on any one in the forest.  Being a weekday the paths weren't crowded and everyone had a friendly and open vibe.  The kind of day that makes you want to say "hey" to strangers in passing, beyond the usual silent head nod, and smile aimlessly at nothing in particular.  Why don't I do this more often??

The best spot is by the small stone bridge, which I noticed had been cleared from the enveloping blackberry thicket that the raccoons frequent.  I settled on a bench there and enjoyed chatting with animals and people alike.  I was surprised that a heron was interested in my bread, though he kept his distance at maybe 8 ft and was too proud to beg.  A photographer was thankful that I kept him interested enough for her to get some nice shots.  A beautiful seagull stayed close by me, surprisingly patient, not noisy or badgering the other birds.  At one point I tossed crumbs just for him and he caught it without it touching the ground - 6, 7, 8 in a row like a dog.  I'm sure we could've gone on all afternoon.  In the water were mallards and wood ducks mostly, behind me to the forest were towhees, chickadees, fox sparrows, song sparrows, golden crowned sparrows, several crows, and one solitary red-winged blackbird.  And one squirrel.

By the time I'd reached the end of my bread I realized all the people had left the bridge and pathways, the shade ticking away the sunshine on my bench.  My dog-seagull flew away, and a younger slightly noisier one tried his best to imitate the attitude that he had watched score the previous one some crumbs.  I was sorry I had none left to give, as he was putting on his best I'm-a-good-bird-too act, and giving me sad puppydog eyes as best as a seagull can.  Eventually a raccoon approached me close and I again apologized for having nothing to offer.  The seagull even had the core of my pear I'd brought for a snack.

The ducks dissipated, one of the last to leave was a male wood duck that settled on a rock in the sun about 3 ft from me.  He didn't leave when he saw I had no food, so perhaps he was just enjoying the last of the sun edging away.  He didn't move away when two ducks started to peck at him and tug on his foot, just made a minimal effort with his bill to send them farther away.  He was alive and aware, but not keen on fleeing or fighting or really moving around much, so I guessed he was hurt and sat down with him awhile and ordered the bully ducks to move on.  I am that crazy bird lady that will sing quietly to a hurt animal.  I got to stroke his back, those beautiful iridescent feathers.  Eventually he returned to the water and I saw one foot idling while the other paddled double-time to make up for it.  He swam away.

I wandered home too, the sun was still out in some spots and warm enough.  I love the tranquility, it recharges my batteries.  I thought of that wood duck, wondered how long his leg's been hurt and if it'll cripple him in a naturally competitive environment and slowly kill him.  And I wondered if he'd been living with this condition awhile and still managed to grow to adulthood and swim when he's so inclined.  Animals are resilient and can adjust to bodily impedements with less complaint than humans can.  I think he'll be fine.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Welcome to geocaching!

I had a nice birthday-few-weeks, seeing my friends and loved ones where/whenever we could get together.  I received a GPS for my birthday, and can finally participate in an activity that has interested me in the back of my mind for awhile: geocaching.  This seems ideal for me - walking/hiking as easily or as difficult as I choose, with a quest to find silly treasure and leave my mark in a little book just to say I've been there, all the while noticing details around my environment.  The tricky part for me is just the technological aspect, uploading coordinates etc to my device from www.geocaching.com, which isn't all that difficult - just daunting for someone typically leery of such gizmos.  Also requires forethought into where I'm going to be, as I can't do this while in the field.

My first venture out geocaching was a short-notice visit to Oliver, and my parents joined in on the search for the more central ones around town.  My dad found the first one, which we all saw but he investigated.  I was surprised there were so many in a small town, and many were conveniently located near wineries.  Wine tasting was icing on the cake (speaking of which, thanks mom for homemade apricot-baby-food birthday cake+cream cheese frosting!) for a day of exploring in good weather a town other than my own.  We found nine caches that day, without difficulty.  We took special notice of the prickly pear cactus that loved clinging my shoes and seemed eager to come home with me.  Found no rattlesnakes, which is good when reaching into holes in the desert.