Tag Archives: winter

Dispatches from Silverstar (Part II)

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Photo courtesy of nonanet

Sitting 20 meters above a steep black diamond run on the back side of Silverstar, I watched in wonder as a tiny soul slowly but surely trooped up the hill (not down it as per usual) with skis slung on her shoulder. She was accompanied by a ski-patrol guy clad brightly in red. As the Powder Gultch chair lift rotated me closer and closer I recognized with a shock, that the little figure carrying her skis up the mountain was indeed my lovely red-headed wife. As I soon learned, after skiing for an entire day and a half on a green run called Far Out, she’d decided to diversify her “easy run experience” by trying out a new run – this one on the other-side of the mountain. This wouldn’t be a bad idea, but unfortunately, my wife’s sense of direction leaves something to be desired. After following the markers for Aunt Gladys (a long meandering easy run that tracked across most of the mountain), my wife had “missed the turnoff” and ended up on Calipher – a steep black diamond populated by massive moguls. There was no easy way down.

Worry turned to panic as she stared down a steep black diamond run under the chairlift and contemplated snow-plow turning down the hill, all the while under the steady eyes of gawkers in the chairlift above. Several skiers came by and asked if they could help. One kindly gentleman from Salmon Arm named Pat (an older retiree who frequented the mountain every week) offered to coach her through the descent and take each mogul together. Even this was too scary a thought to contemplate.

Pretty soon, my wife made up her mind. Unstrapping her skis, she began a long march up the hill, tearing up under little goggles as she went. That’s when Matthew, the ski-patrol savior arrived. With constant reassurances that “this sort of thing happens a few times every year – don’t worry about it!” she trekked with Matthew to the top of the hill where Sarah, another ski-patroller waited patiently with a snowmobile to complete the extraction. It was an embarrassing journey that was made significantly less embarrassing by the considerate nature of all those around who were lending a helping hand.

After she’d been zipped back up the hill and rendezvoused with me, my wife was still regailed by the generosity and helping nature of all those on the mountain who lent a hand to help during her little personal skiing crisis.

Everyone at the mountain was incredibly nice and thoughtful and it showed how many good kind-hearted people are out there. Maybe you’d find that on every mountain, but part of me wonders if its something peculiar to the smaller and more rural ski areas.

Header courtesy of Paul Jerry

Winter

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Winter has been slow arriving this year. In a lot of ways it is hard to complain. The warmer weather is easier on our energy bills and makes for an less stressful commute, especially as a transit strike since October still has me driving when I’d much rather be reading, listening to music, or doing a better job with my gumboot posts. But at the same time there are a lot of parts of winter that I’ve been looking forward to that as a result of the warmer weather I’ve put off. But in the last couple of weeks winter has shown up in Toronto, the air is crisp and there is snow on the ground. I want to share a few things that make the dark, cold, snowy (or rainy) months something for me to enjoy and hope you too find positivity in the months ahead.

Getting (and Sleeping) Outside.

I wasn’t always a fan of spending time outside in winter until I started running a few years ago and kept on running right through winter.  (Check out Jim’s past post on the lonely community of winter runners).  I then realized that being outside in winter makes those dark vitamin D deprived months a lot better. Sure there aren’t seemly endless hours of sunshine and instead there are layers of every type of clothing imaginable, but there also aren’t sunburns or mosquitoes.  This year, Jim and I are taking our quest to embrace winter a step further with our plan to complete a whole year of camping every month.  And after sleeping outside on Dec. 23 and Dec. 24, with temperature dipping close to -20C the first night and waking up to a white Christmas the next, I can say that I’m looking forward to more outside time in the months ahead.

Seasonal Hobbies (and hobbies that adapt to the season).

When I’m not outside in winter I enjoy being curled up on a coach with cat on my lap, watching TV, which I do way more of in the winter (I’m re-watching The Wire right now).  Two additional hobbies make this better, knitting and beer.  I’m a seasonal knitter and it wasn’t until last week that I picked up the needles again, which coincided with Toronto’s first substantial snowfall.  It means that when my tendency is more towards hibernation than outside, I end up with something cozy coincidentally makes winter better.  Beer, which I’ve recently started brewing, had to undergo some adaptations for winter, which we’re still working out.  The brewery has moved from friends’  backward to our apartment for the winter, where our back deck’s overhang and ground-level bathtub (for the beer chilling) means we can brew through the cold months.  And as long as we figure out how to adjust for the higher evaporation rate in winter we’ll keep ending up with amazing beer.

Tomatoes, Endings and Beginnings

And finally, what would one of my lists be without a reference to tomatoes.  I’ve just cooked my last fresh tomatoes a couple of days ago. That’s right, tomatoes that I grew on my back deck that have been slowly ripening wrapped in newspaper in the months since they’ve been picked in the fall.  They were delicious.  And while that should make me sad, it is only a mere month and a half until I plant tomato seeds again.  In the meantime, I have cans of crushed tomatoes, homemade salsa, pizza sauce, and ketchup for the down-time in mid-winter.

What makes you happy about winter? 

Get Warm on the Inside

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John and Michelle - prepared for the snow...or their frigid living room!

Here in Vancouver it’s November gross outside. “John, what does November gross mean?” you ask. Well, it means that the temperature hovers around 0° Celsius, it’s probably drizzling or raining or slushing, everything is dark and grey, and an unexplicable dampness penetrates all of your layers and chills you to the bone. This weather is best encapsulated by rainslush, which is neither snow nor rain and is absolutely all kinds of disgusting.

Why am I telling you this?

Here’s why: Michelle and I have had no heat in our apartment for five days. And, yes, I realize that, in the grand scheme of things, this is a small and silly problem to have and there are much bigger ones to solve. Still, we are occupying the living room over the issue!

The past few days have seen Michelle and I find creative ways to stay warm. For all of you about to endure a Canadian winter, here are a few tips on how to be hot with no heat:

  1. Dress for the outside inside! That’s right, toques and fleeces (see above) aren’t just accessories for getting to-and-from places; they’re useful within the comfort of your own home, too! This strategy can be extra-successful if you combine it with cuddling and indoor sports, such as hallway soccer or cleaning.
  2. Eat and drink hot things! Spicy food and piping hot tea will warm you to the core for certain; however, if your curry or enchiladas or curried enchiladas make you sweat, be sure to towel-down and layer-up quickly, as perspiration, once cooled, can drop your temperature like the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are going to drop passes on Sunday!
  3. Go outside. Wait. And then come back inside! This one is right out of my dad’s Parenting Playbook (Chapter 5: Winter). Basically, you stand outside for, like, 15-20 minutes while wearing inside-clothes and by the time you return indoors it feels like you’re watching television on 30° summer day!

As you get out – or in – there and build some warm community, be sure to have fun with it!

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Masthead image courtesy of biketrouble

A Recipe for Community: No-Knead Bread

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Winter is on its way to Toronto.  The signs are here.  The last tomato flowers were brushed by frost last week.  The fair-weather runners have vanished from the streets.  Our cat has re-mastered her skill of sleeping under blankets.  And our farmers’ market has moved to winter hours, now only open every second week.  That means that the supply of amazing artisan breads from St. John’s Bakery has been cut in half.  And the rest of what our neighbourhood has to offer bread-wise is pretty dismal in comparison.  So rather than suffer with disappointing grocery store loaves, I’ve just started making bread again.

Making bread isn’t new to me.  As a grad student I made bread a lot, even keeping a sourdough starter for a while.  But my schedule was more flexible then, I often worked at home and could adapt my schedule to the rhythm of whatever bread I was making.  That isn’t the case now that I work a regular 8:30 – 4:30 job.  Add in a morning run, commute time, and making dinner and there isn’t much flexibility or time left over to accommodate most bread recipes.  Bread needs to fit my schedule, not the other way around.  And that is where this no-knead bread recipe fits in.  I can mix the ingredients before work, let it rise during the day, shape it for a second rise when I get home, cook dinner as it rises, and it bakes as I’m relaxing. Most of the work is doen by time.  The recipe has been around for a while and was introduced to me a few years ago by a friend in Kingston (who does a bread CSA).  And it wasn’t like it was from an obscure source; it was originally published in the New York Times.  So I am by no means that first who blogged about it (go ahead, Google “no knead bread” and be amazed by the reviews and variations), but I’m going to go ahead and do it anyway. 

So why is this bread a recipe for community?  First of all, it is accessible.  There isn’t any complicated skill involved in getting amazing bread with this recipe.  You need to know how to stir, fold, turn on an oven, and wait for intervals along the way.  Kneading, which is the hardest and messiest part of a lot of bread recipes, is cut out of the equation.  Second, it connects us with our past.  Not that long ago, a lot of bread was made at home or locally in smaller batches.  And that is how it has been for most of the 10,000 years or so that people have been making bread.  The process of turning the basic ingredients of flour, yeast, salt and water into bread and witnessing the steps of that transformation has inspired and astonished us for millennia (like in Christianity, where bread represents the body of Christ).  And thirdly, this bread is one that you can share with your community.  Sure, you won’t believe this when you’ve devoured the first few loaves before they’ve had a chance to fully cool off.  But, as it becomes part of your routine, you will begin to share the bread you’ve made and the recipe with your community.  Enjoy!

No-Knead Bread – New York Times

Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

Close Knit Community

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Winter in Ontario has been here for over a month and will stick around for at least a couple more. The days of drinking beer on back decks, riding bikes in a skirt or snacking on fresh tomatoeHopsy's Blankets feel far away at the beginning of January. (But, as I try to remind myself, so are the days of the humidex going plus 40 or starting my run before 5 am to enjoy the most reasonable temperature/least air pollution of the day.)  The season has an impact on what I’m up to and winter is no exception. And one of my favourite things to do in winter is to curl up on the couch, with a cat on my lap, the tv, radio or a fire in the background and knit.

Knitting has gone in and out of fashion and number of times and is currently in a revival of popularity. According to Wikipedia “The latest incarnation is less about the “make-do and mend” attitude of the 1940s and early 50s and more about making a statement about individuality as well as developing an innate sense of community.” Knitting might have the lingering reputation of being a hobby that is done alone and individually, but there is a lot of community building going on with the latest resurgence of the hobby. Here are 5 ways that I think knitting benefits community.

  1. Social Knitting can be done around other people or spark conversations that you might otherwise not have. You can do it while friends are over, on the subway, during presentations at conferences or with a group watching Canada kick butt at the World Juniors. It can be done most places (except maybe on airplanes). As part of the knitting revival, the social element is one of the driving forces, with knitting clubs, stitch ‘n bitch groups, and knitting cafés. There is also a huge online community, notably Ravelry with over a million registered users.
  2. Intergenerational/Inclusive Knitting has been something that grandmothers and mothers have passed on to daughters and granddaughters. And that was the case for me. And knitting is something that I feel lucky to share with my mother and mother-in-law. The new revival of knitting is more inclusive and isn’t just for girls anymore (even thought we undoubtedly still dominate). A couple of winters ago I visited a friend’s cottage with a group of his friends. One of them was also a knitter and by the end of the weekend he had a cozy new toque. There is even an online community for men knitters.
  3. Giving. A lot of knitters don’t just knit for themselves. They knit for family, friends and charities. My tally for this winter is Gifts- 3, Katie-0 (Jim has a new hat, Hopsy has a new lap blanket, and Val almost has new slippers). Perhaps it is because if we only knit for ourselves we’d be wearing wool 24/7. But more likely it is because it is really meaningful to take the time to make a gift for someone else when it is faster and often cheaper to buy the manufactured equivalent. I find knit gifts especially prevalent with babies, which might explain why at least ¼ of any yarn store stocked with baby pinks, blues, yellows, etc.
  4. Creativity In a world where you can get mass produced anything, knitting offers a chance to make something that is unique and one of a kind. While it is a form of expression that offers a bit more structure than other creative pursuits, (recall those purple dots from my previous post on social painting? that was me and my love of structure), knitting offers the challenge of figuring out how to make a particular yarn work with a particular set of needles to make something that is a particular size and shape. Having opportunities for creativity is an important part of being part of a vibrant community, whether than comes from knitting, painting, cooking or blogging.
  5. Re-skilling for resiliency As quoted from wikipedia above, the last time knitting was popular before its current popularity was WWII and its aftermath and the reasons driving the popularity of knitting were out of necessity rather than leisure. And, while it is a great pastime, knitting also offers handy skills to make or repair clothes. We’ve only had a couple of generations where clothing has been as cheap and as widely available as it is now.  With potential rising costs of materials (pesticides, oil, etc.), energy, and labour, that might change. Knitting is part of a general urban homesteading trend toward more self-sufficiency, which also includes urban agriculture, food preserving, alternative energy and water recapture.

The lonely community of winter runners

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Winter Runners - Wayne MacPhail Photo

During the summer months the sidewalks and pathways of Toronto are chock-full of runners, bikers, dog walkers and strollers. During a long summer run I can pass hundreds of people with out a single interaction. Come January, this changes dramatically, as most people avoid the outside world and the city’s pathways empty of people. Instead of seeing dozens of fellow runners on a long weekend training run, I now pass four or five.   Those of us who keep running outdoors through the winter months are branded as crazy by many of our fellow Torontonians.  I know this, as until last year I was among these naysayers.  I grew up in White Rock, BC, and the thought of running in the painfully cold winter here in Toronto never appealed to me  until I started training for an early spring half-marathon in Waterloo last year.

Having started running last winter, I soon found the ostracization, combined with a collective sense of superiority, creates an interesting bond amongst winter runners.  All of a sudden, after the first major snow fall or cold snap of the year, we start exchanging waves as we pass each other on the street.  It seems like a fairly universal instinct, as I rarely pass a runner, even if they are some distance away on the other side of a street without receiving a wave. Come spring this yearly ritual will melt away with the snow and I’ll go back to my normal big city ways of avoiding contact with the multitude of strangers I pass on the street. Clearly this is not a deep sense of community as the interactions are brief, but it is still fairly significant.  In my experence of small town Canada, people wave to friends and strangers as they pass by on the street, while in big cities we often avoid even this very basic form of interaction – so it’s nice to bring it back, even in this limited seasonal fashion.

All with this small town community feeling provided by winter running there are a lot of other benefits.  A winter running outfit costs a lot less than gym fees or treadmills.  Running creates enough heat which allows you to spend a lot more time outdoors during the winter than you otherwise might.  I find this helps alleviate cabin fever and mild cases of seasonal depression disorder.  Plus there are a slew of great long distance races in the Spring to help motivate you out the door during the darkest evenings of winter.  North America’s oldest road race, the Around the Bay 30KM, stared three years before the Boston Marathon, way back in 1894 and now runs in late March to avoid conflicts with cargo ships entering the harbour.  For those on the West Cost the Vancouver Marathon and Half-Marathon takes place on in early May. Either of these races promises amazing views (of heavy industry or English Bay and lovely mountains).

Ben Lawson Photo

Around the Bay - Ben Lawson Photo

Do you know of other ways that cold or wet winter weather creates bonds between strangers or fosters a sense of community in the cities or towns that you live in?  Anyone reading this brave enough to cycle through the winter or run in significantly colder regions of Canada? I deeply admire the cyclist that continue to commute to work all winter long, but I’m fairly certain my ride to York University Finch Ave is dangerous enough in the summer, so I’ve not yet joined their ranks.  I can only imagine the intense feelings of superiority among winter runners in Edmonton or White Horse, but maybe the community dwindles down so low that you never pass fellow runners on the streets.  Do winter runner in Vancouver have a bond, or do your mild winters prevent it from developing?

Your Photo of the Week

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Photo Courtesy of Shelby Chapman - thanks Shelby!

Photo Courtesy of Shelby Chapman - thanks Shelby!

It seems like yesterday – but actually, this was the scene on the mean (and slippery) streets of Vancouver a winter ago. For the sake of the Games and all the lovely volunteers shuttling around dignitaries (I’m thinking of you mom!), let’s hope we don’t have a repeat of Snowmageddon.

Pushing Cars towards Community

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Snowfall 2008. Vancouver comes to a slushy standstill. And sometimes not just a standstill, but a spin-in-one-place-because-all-season-tires-just-aren’t-that-great-in-the-snow-and-kinda-just-turn-and-turn-and-turn-because-the-combination-of-hills-and-ice-and-slush-just-don’t-jive-so-well-with-less-than-savy-winter-drivers-here-in-The-Couve. This isn’t the East Coast. We do rainy holidays here, man. Not frozen ones. And in this snowy city at this snowy time of year comes a great way to build community.

Now. I could talk about airport line-ups and how, in spite of all the stress and mismanagement and bad luck, people are staying sane and, well, not revolting against each other and Air Canada (and, wow, do we ever know how tempting that is). I could also talk about workplaces, and how people are covering for their co-workers, bosses and subordinates who simply can’t make it into the office because of the weather. And I could talk about all the families who are propositioning pragmatic solutions to complex, snow-related logistical problems (ie. getting from Coquitlam to Abbotsford to Vancouver Island with stops in East Van and Richmond along the way). But the mainstream media is talking enough about that. Today, let’s chat about pushing cars out of the snow. And how it builds community.

That’s right, kids. Mother Nature is making sure that, from Yale Town to The Drive, vehicles – from Z series BMWs to rusted 1980s GMC vans – are being hampered and hemmed in by a record amount of this cold white stuff (honestly, fair enough, given our collectively inhuman behaviour as it relates to poisoning the planet I can understand why she’s a little pissed and not playing by “the rules” or basing her current behaviour on “existing historical data”). And I think part of the reasoning behind this bombardment of inconvenient holiday snow is to test the resilience of our community.

During a walk from Yale Town (we were saying goodbye to a friend who, by publication of this article, will be on his way to Bogota, Columbia for a holiday wedding/kidnapping) back home to Commercial Drive, my friend, Kurt, and I helped to push five cars out of the snow. As of today, we’ve combined to help over a dozen drivers out of snowy situations. Whether you’re an idealistic believer in random acts of kindness or a logical rationalist who wants to stop accidents that will raise everyone’s insurance rates or a health-conscious exerciser who is looking for innovative ways to keep fit whilst snowed-in, this community-building activity is just for you!

And here’s the best thing: helping people out of the snow totally brings out the community-mindedness in us all; not only that, once together, individuals are inspired to look for helpful opportunities (be it car-pushing or otherwise) as they walk around their neighbourhoods. And that’s just considering the people involved in pushing a car out of the snow. Think about all the onlookers who, elated by the idea of frolicking in the snow with their buddies to help someone out, will seek out the chance to build community in a unique way at a festive time of the year.

Excited to help out a stuck, spinning neighbour? Here are five tips and tricks for car-pushing in the snow and the community-building that it entails:

1. Be friendly (like, really friendly). If you’re like me, then you use the holidays as an opportunity to grow a beard and wear grubby clothes with a hilariously ugly toque to match. This might scare people. So, as you rush towards a snowed-in car, be sure to smile and say something like, “hi there friend, we’re here to help you outta this mess! What do you want us to do?” When approaching a stressed-out fellow struggling with a fish-tailing BMW in Yale Town, I can’t stress this point enough. You might want to keep your hands out of your pockets, too.
2. Form a team. Sometimes, one or two people just isn’t enough (man, there are a lot of hills in Vancouver!). Get people involved in your project for, yes, logistical purposes, but also consider how contagious helping others can be. Uniting to remove a car from the snow creates a collective sense of accomplishment that will inspire everyone who helped out to become Pushers (cars, not drugs, people) and to do it again, and again, and again…and again! Pushers will meet new people and inspire them to intervene when others are stuck, which will inspire other people to become pushers and so on.
3. Rock the vehicle. Like physics, it’s so simple, yet so complicated. Rocking the car/van/truck back and forth creates “friction” and this helps to give the car “traction” that will help it to find some “grip” to get out of the snow. While rocking, be mindful of where the exhaust pipe is located on the car – taking in a breath of carbon monoxide just before the driver backs up can introduce you to the dark-side of car pushing. Finally, make sure to have a “three-count” – rocking, pushing and sustaining momentum goes well when everyone is on the same page.
4. If you’re on the scene, get involved! Please don’t get involved in a way that can only be described as “backseat car-pushing,” which consists largely of standing across the street and yelling suggestions like, “hey, turn your wheel!” or “push it more to the left” or “you know, the back wheels aren’t even turning when you push” or “you know, the driver’s just gonna get stuck again” – it’s not at all productive and, quite frankly, a little dickish.
5. Drivers, say thank you. It can just be a wave or a gentle honk, but if you don’t do it, well, people might not push again. Just keep driving as you honk and/or wave, because stopping to say thanks and then getting stuck all over again, while funny, isn’t really that funny.

So there it is. A great way to meet new people, get some exercise and, most importantly, spread some goodwill during the holidays. As Mother Nature gets us stuck, let’s stick together as a community and overcome her efforts to trap pollution-emitting cars in slush fil- … wait a minute. Have I just espoused a foolproof recipe for building community, or has it been all about enabling drivers that shouldn’t be on the road in the first place (for a litany of complex reasons)? Okay, okay. Look. If you see where I’m going with this, please re-read the article and replace the word “car” with “bike” or “senior citizen” – all the other stuff applies just the same. Thanks. Happy holidays!

- John

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Masthead photo courtesy of messoblue