Canadian girl out and aboot

I won a spot in a beekeeping workshop this weekend, so I spent most of the weekend hanging out there. The course was taught by a woman I know, and was held three blocks from my house at this yoga studio. I've walked by the space often and it's quite nice on the outside, so it was pretty exciting to get to go inside the space.

The workshop was pretty great. I had a good time interacting and talking with the other participants. One was a chef who just moved here from England and she is interested in making local cheeses. Another was a woman who had done 2 years teaching English in France, and was very interested in local food and sustainable communities. I really enjoyed visiting with everyone. I found that I do know quite a bit about bees, but there's still so much to learn! I've also started thinking more about beekeeping, and how I can become a beekeeper, eventually. It definitely won't be happening this year.

I did also learn that beekeeping is legal in the city of Calgary, but not in Edmonton (yet). I'm thinking that eventually, I might want to get some bees and put them out on a friend's farm. It's not like I don't know people with large areas of land in the province :) I also think I want to go and work at a beekeeper's at some point to get more experience.

Aside from my beekeeping workshop, I taught my teen writers group. We talked about submitting manuscripts and giving readings, and it was a very talky lesson. Our normal space was occupied by a group of people that looked a bit down and out. We moved to a room on the other side, and I told some of the people to send lost teenagers over to my room. One guy told me that it was a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. I've never run into one of them before, so it was pretty interesting just to see one.

I also told the teens that I won't be teaching the group next year, partially because I want to concentrate and work on my own fiction. I know that one of the kids was kind of sad about this, because we've really built up a bond and I could see it on her face when I announced it. I'm sad about this too. I hope she stays in touch with me. Some of the other teens will be turning 19, so they won't be able to take the program anyway.

I did try to make it a positive thing, and said that the new instructor might have interest or expertise in areas that I don't do. One of the kids said that it might be exciting to have a new instructor, but it has also been nice to work with me the past 2 years. I was pretty touched by this.

After my busy day, I went to the gym and pushed myself pretty hard. Then I came home, talked on the phone, watched some episodes of "Skins" on DVD, read and vegged. I ended up having one of the best sleeps that I've had in weeks. I've stepped up my scheduled exercise to four days a week, and intend to keep it this way. I definitely want to see if it affects my sleep and my ability to sleep.

This Saturday, I went to the Edmonton Permaculture convergence, which was hosted at a local community hall. The day was supposed to give participants a taste of permaculture and only cost $35. I've heard of permaculture due to some of my food security courses and wanted to learn more.

Here's a brief definition Permaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems that mimic the relationships found in natural ecologies. It was developed by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren and their associates during the 1970s in a series of publications.
The intent is that, by rapidly training individuals in a core set of design principles, those individuals can design their own environments and build increasingly self-sufficient human settlements — ones that reduce society's reliance on industrial systems of production and distribution that Mollison identified as fundamentally and systematically destroying Earth's ecosystems.

I am mainly interested in the food security components of the concept. I was expecting about 30 people to be in attendance, but I walked into a room of about 120 people! I ended up sitting at a table with the keynote speaker, who is known as The Urban Farmer . He conducts workshops on how to grow food in your backyard, and also hosts tours to Cuba to learn more about organic agriculture or permaculture in the country. I found out that there is funding available to handle the costs of one of these tours! I also talked to a landscape naturalizer, a dance artist who was creating a memorial garden, and lots of other interesting people. The sheer number of people was simply overwhelming, as I wasn't prepared for it, so I spent a lot of time listening to the other people around me.

There were sessions on backyard chickens, keeping and maintaining bees, food projects and gardening in schools, picking fruit trees for urban backyards and creating eco-sustainable communities. All in all, it was a very informative day.

I should also mention that there was a potluck and everyone had to bring a food item, clearly labelled with ingredients. As a nut allergic person, I can't say how much I appreciated this! I'm going to ask for this at any event that I organize. Anyway, the food was phenomenal. I had some cold soba sesame noodles and spent part of yesterday looking for the recipe so I can duplicate it at home.

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed right now. It's hard not for me to feel worried about the presidential election. I've been trying to avoid a lot of the coverage, because it makes me feel anxious and powerless.

Work is also really busy this week. Today I attended a beekeeper's convention at the Fantasyland hotel. I listened to a panel on the economic impact of winterkill on beekeeping in Alberta and another overview of what's happened with Alberta bees. Did you know that China is the leading honey producer, followed by Turkey? Did you know that the health research into honey is growing? Yay.

Also, the bee situation in Alberta is getting better. Thank god. Beekeepers are a friendly bunch. I ate lunch with a bunch of nice people and chatted with three researcher who I've met several times over. The lunch was great- lots of fresh fruit and salads, and a choice of salmon or beef. This is quite unusual for farm related meetings. Also, the beekeepers are the only producer group that offers apples as a snack between meetings and at coffee breaks.

After the meeting, I went and walked around the West Edmonton mall, doing a little bit of look/shopping. Then I felt overwhelmed and tired and went home to do a bunch of errands. I arrived home to find out that I have benefits, as I've been at my job and in Edmonton for over three months. It seems like it has just whipped by, which is a good sign. As I've mentioned before, I'm really quite happy with my life right now. It's a great feeling.

Tomorrow I'm at Farmfair and will attend a bunch of cattle related seminars.