Happy New Year! - Shirley

With all the holiday preparations for our own family’s get-togethers once our catering parties were over we were unable to make the last week’s blog. It amazes me how much preparation there is leading up to what is pretty much a one day event! Some people celebrate on Christmas Eve, which we do very privately by ourselves, then Christmas Day with some of our family and then on into Boxing Day to ensure everyone is able to visit or be visited. During this period presents are given and received and enormous amounts of food are consumed and the wine flows.

Our holiday celebration has followed this pattern for many years, as I am sure most of yours have too. This year we wanted to change things in the spirit of our new sustainable life style. This proved to be more difficult than we had anticipated.

At home we thought it would be simpler, we just told each other no “unnecessary” gifts, only things that are needed, sustainable, fair trade, no animal cruelty, no excess packaging. With little time Roger and I had only one afternoon/evening together to achieve this. When it came to giving to others gift certificates were a hit in our book. As long as we felt the store, spa etc were selling/using products we agreed with it would be ok. Not as easy as we thought, having to call spas and quiz them on their products was quite difficult, many will not give you the information or just don’t know. Larger stores have a multitude of products so it would depend what our recipients bought with their certificates as to whether it would be considered a sustainable gift or not. Hmmm could we put stipulation on redeeming on the cards? A sincere thank you goes out to The Body Shop, who not only have fair trade, no cruelty to animal products they also took a donation to stop sex trafficking of young girls and women from third world countries, a good way to end our shopping marathon.

One of the best successes; to cook gifts for our friends and family with ingredients that we were comfortable with, organic local milled flour, free range eggs, organic butter, fair trade coffee. Giving cookies, cakes, puddings, tarts etc., did take a bit of time but was cost effective and a big hit. Note to self, start this preparation much earlier next year!

All in all we had a fab Christmas, thank you this year to Found Family Farm for the most outstanding free range turkey ever, also the beautiful free range eggs and chicken as well. Swain Beef for ground beef and steak in our yummy pastries and beef bourguignon. Maple Wind Farm (working on their new site for now producing lamb) for their bacon in my sausages, stuffing and brussel sprouts. Tyrone Mills for their flour in my bread, cakes and pastry. Yellowlees Family Farm for their ground lamb in my mini pies, meatballs and burgers. Algoma Orchards for apples. The Beekeeper for honey, propolis and bee pollen. Prestonvale Tree Farm for our beautiful Christmas tree. Ocala Winery for their outstanding wines and hospitality throughout the year. The Brickworks Farmers Market, for so many amazing suppliers. Oshawa Farmers Market on so many beautiful sunny Friday afternoons. Our great friend Dennis Brown for his continued support and keeping us on track through difficult times. To Russ Beverley for getting Roger back into the gym and enjoying every minute of it.

Lastly thank you to my amazing family for not only embracing this change but continuously raising the bar and converting all who will listen. Thank you 2010, hello 2011 I know we are going to be great friends. Happy New Year!

Holiday Magic - Shirley

I cannot believe we are in the final run up to Christmas. We have all been so busy looking after our clients and ensuring their parties are successful we have not had time to consider our own plans. We have our turkey ordered from Found Family Farm and are very happy with our purchase, not only are they free range, as much as they can be in the winter, but the quality is outstanding. We recently held a party for someone who wanted free range turkey, so purchased from Found, and we got to make the most amazing stock out of the carcass as well as Lizzie enjoying the scraps for a week.

Quality is not only the key to food, it is also the key to life. The quality of your everyday life is what makes it sustainable. Michaela has been working on several school projects over the past couple of weeks and we really enjoy discussing and debating with her. One of the recent studies was on the difference between men and women and their workplace habits including their feeling s on promotion. We discussed how important it is to enjoy what you do for work as you spend approximately 80% of your life working, if you are unhappy on a day to day basis that is an awful waste of your life. The things we enjoy doing we tend to be good at as there is no effort. This I believe is the way of the future workforce. The word “work” will soon become obsolete as we all choose what works for us, rather than what we feel we have to do to make ends meet.

Back to my theme of holiday magic, this I believe lies in the beautiful statement “Peace to all Men” that is the holiday magic, that is the line that makes us all go weak at the knees and wonder if this is ever attainable. We have the power, what do you want for Christmas?

Life is Always an Adventure - Shirley

Michaela and Roger are both taking courses currently and deep into end of year assignments, so I have been tasked with keeping up the blog for the next couple of weeks.

We had snow today while I walked our dog, Lizzie and the park grew quiet. The only sound was a gentle tinkling of frozen droplets as they gathered in number, turning the world pristine white. Lately I have heard so many people complaining about the coming of winter, of the cold and damp, of the dark mornings and evenings and the need to wear coats, scarves and gloves. They are all looking forward to the next summer when no doubt they will complain about the heat and stay indoors with the air conditioning on full blast. To turn away from any one of our beautiful seasons is to turn away from nature itself. How could anyone feel disappointment when witnessing the magic of the changing seasons? What makes a seed grow? How does it know when to come up? How does it know when to reach full bloom? How does it know when to drop its seeds or offer its pollen to the birds and bees to ensure its survival? How does it know when to draw its nourishment back down into the ground and lay dormant until the next spring? How does it know all this?

The changing seasons are very important to us. We all enjoy different sports and pastimes that we pursue dependant on the weather. We have a deep sense of contentment as one season draws to a close and a feeling of excitement when we look forward to the new season and all it will bring. Life is also cyclical, constantly moving and changing, offering opportunities to those who seek them.

Where does all this fit into our sustainable life? Right at the heart of it. You can change your diet, your exercise habits, your job and the people you hang out with, but if you don’t change, then no real change has taken place. Change comes from within, before it can realized externally. The emotion I am referring to is joy. When was the last time you felt real joy? When was the last time the world stopped for you and grew quiet? My world stopped today while I appreciated life. Life is a desire, an emotion, something to be engaged in. If the desire for life is not met, then life will not be desirable and unsustainable. Life is meant to be embraced, loved, enjoyed to the fullest and most of all, always an adventure.