resurrection fern

in disguise

Another belief of mine; that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise. 

Margaret Attwood

I find myself thinking of this quote often especially in the spring where I am drawn to a experience a sense of childlike discovery of the world awakening once again. This spring has been a very slow one , and especially wonderful for nature observation. I marvel at the contrast of last falls browns and this springs greens. The strength of the shoots rising out of the still hard ground and often piercing leaves, bark or even lifting snails is a force of energy I would love to emulate. 

Here are a few of my observations over the last few days .

To see all of this I only had to venture a few steps from my porch , get down close to the ground and open my eyes wide. 

In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. 

Margaret Attwood

These taste so good mom, are they organic?

People often ask does organic food taste better? I say if you think so than that is all that matters since you and your family are the ones consuming it. I heard a wine expert on the radio yesterday . Some one phoned in and asked him if a certain wine was a good one. His answer surprised me with its simple honesty. He told the caller if it tastes good to you and you like it then it is a good wine. My children and I think organic foods taste better so that is all that matters, isn't it? It isn't that simple. Even if it tasted the same I think we would try as much as possible to buy organic food for health and environmental reasons. I belong to CAPE , the canadian association of physicians for the environment and we advocate for banning the use of pesticides and non organic fertilizers on the soil. Here are a toronto columnists , Adrian Vasil's top ten reasons to eat organic taken from her fantastic book ECOHOLIC . #1. You don't have to worry about biting into chemicals with every mouthful. #2 Organic food doesn't involve poisoning wildlife, workers and waterways. #3 There's never been a reported case of mad cow disease in organic cattle. #4 Your meat and eggs are drug free. #5 It's the only guarantee that you're not eating genetically modified ingredients. #6 Your food hasn't been zapped or irradiated. #7 Organic farms are hotbeds of life, fostering vibrant biodiversity, not sterile fields. #8 Organic produce is higher in vitamin C and contains 30% more antioxidants. #9 Eating an organic diet may reduce the levels of pesticides coursing through your body. # 10 Organic farmers can actually make a decent living, unlike most conventional Canadian farmers, whose income is in the red and dropping every year. Are you convinced? Maybe these pictures or food from the organic farmers market we went to yesterday will convince you. These vegetables tasted as good as they look.

Just after a delicious organic lunch or the porch. The sky started changing and the wind picked up. Arwen, who has recently taken to wanting to go outdoors wondered what was happening.

Edgar hid in his tent under the porch picnic table.

And then the sky opened and the rain felt down in sheets.

The hail was the size of ping pong balls.

When I was young we would have the rare hail storm and I thought it was exciting when the hail was the size of small marbles. I have never seen hail like this before but unfortunately because of global warming I fear it will become a common sight. Soon after the storm the sun was out again and my daughter was playing with the organic vegetables. In honor of my good friend elsita's return from a family holiday tomorrow I would like to introduce to you elsita purpura organica . Don't forget to play with , sorry I mean eat your vegetables today.

Cutting with Scissors

Strange topic for a beautiful spring afternoon but oddly one I have been thinking about a lot today because of my current work in progress. You might guess from the picture that this involved some cutting with very small scissors. When I was doing this the first thing that came to mind was great respect and admiration for the scissor cutting skills of mister rob ryan and my wonderful friend elsita mora. I really don't know how they do it? The second thing that came to mind was my unique method of cutting that I have used since early childhood. I did a quick google search to see if there were any other cutting freaks out there but couldn't come up with anything. The closest I came to is that I may have a form of scissor dyslexia. You see I can cut the "normal way" when I really have to but it takes a great deal of concentration and it is far less accurate. My natural way to cut is like this.

Now I know I would normally at least be holding the paper with my left hand but that hand was holding the camera but I am sure you can get the idea of my backward method. The ability to cut with scissors is a very important fine motor developmental milestone that occurs usually between the ages of 4 and 5 for most children. I don't remember ever being "taught" how to use scissors but ever since I can remember I was told by other children, siblings and adults that I cut weird. I never really paid attention to it because it got the job done until when I was in grade 7 home economics class and we were making aprons or something like that and the teacher wanted to fail me because I wouldn't cut the fabric in the correct manner. It didn't matter that I was already making my own clothing and dolls at home . My mother got very upset and gathered up some of the items I had sewn from home and hauled them off to school to show Mrs ? just what I could do and how could she possibly fail me in sewing just because I held the scissors differently than the other students. Well after that episode I forced myself to cut in the "normal" way when teachers were watching and when they weren't I would use my method. The only other time in my life that it became a big issue was during my surgical rotations. I had to be very very careful not to cut in my way because they would have failed me for sure. Surgeons are very big on tradition and protocol with their techniques . I have some interesting stories about this but I will save those for a future post. When google searching I found some interesting information about teaching children how to use scissors. If you are a parent with young children you might find this interesting .

Download sats-scissors.pdf In case you were wondering all my children use scissors in the "normal" way and in fact I have never met any one who cuts like me. Now you know something unique about me. I would love it if you would share something unique about yourself in the comments below and if you are also a strange cutting person I would love to hear about that. I finish this post with another view of the project I am working with. It involves botany, microscopy, chemistry, drawing, pasting and of course cutting. If I get it finished later today I will post a picture of the end result. Have a great remainder of your sunday.

I have a picture of the finished product but the light wasn't very good since the sun had already set. I may try to get a better picture in the morning if I have time.