Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
Drink Local: Victoria Gin (and spirits)
I know I’m always a little late to the party, discovering things long after other people already know about them – but no matter! I want to rave about this new “find” of ours anyway – Victoria Gin – which is the smoothest tasting and gorgeously-flavoured gin I have ever experienced. Not only that, this is so local, it turns out that the distillery is not far down the road from my parents’ house in Saanich, BC! So no shipping stuff all over hell and back, according to their website the next time I am visiting my folks (between April and October) I can take a little drive down to their tasting room and pick up any of their wares – which now include oaken gin, hemp vodka, aromatic bitters, and distilled wines. In 2013 they will be additionally introducing whisky!
Victoria Gin is made with a variety of organic and wildcrafted botanicals including juniper berries, corriander, angelica, orris root, lemon peel, star anise, cinnamon bark and rose petals and distilled in a wood-fired potstill. Their website says – “The result is an intensely flavored spirit that is as full-bodied and complex as a fine single-malt whisky.” And it’s true. This is gin for gin’s sake! Not some sharp-edged liquor that needs to be drowned in mix.
This stuff isn’t cheap at $50 a bottle, but it is so far superior to any gin you’ve probably had (including Hendricks) that’s it’s money well spent. Not to mention you are supporting a local, small family-run business with every bottle you buy.
We got our first bottle of this as a wedding gift, but I found it at the downtown Vancouver BC Liquor store outlet last night, so it’s out there in the government liquor stores for sure – and private liquor stores will order most things in if they don’t already carry it.
For the record, here is my favourite gin drink at this time of year (in the summer, replace cranberries with fresh strawberries and ice)
A festive gin cocktail
1 oz. premium gin
5 oz tonic water
oranges for squeezing (instead of lime)
frozen cranberries
Stir up the gin and tonic, squeeze half an orange in the glass and garnish with frozen cranberries. Festive!
Returning to a blog near you.
To put it in the least politically correct way — the fat lady has indeed sung. As of 8:00 this morning our contract negotiations and ratification votes were concluded with a very slim majority voting to accept the agreements as recommended. This, amid much discomfort among our membership as well as other federal employees who view this decision as the writing on the wall. It’s a bit of a guess as to what will happen to government contracts next, but I am just glad to say that my part in all of this is over.
At this moment I am attending the BC Federation of Labour convention which runs until the end of the week. Once this is over, all my non-worksite based union responsibilities will be concluded until the new year. That means I’ve got a little grievance work to do, but otherwise I will be finally back on the job full time. Not to mention back to the gym and better health, back to my real life again.
That also means more writing, more photography, more hiking, sewing, and loving. Hopefully much of which I will find the time to share here.
Yes. Garden.
Since this is supposed to be a garden blog, I suppose that every so often I should post about gardening and not just household improvements because the weather is bad. But really, after last week’s cold snap (-10 in Vancouver), the garden isn’t looking so hot. What with the slimy greens and the bald shrubs left behind by the melting snow. We’ve got one more round of leaf raking if the rain stops, and then all yard work should be pretty much wrapped up until early March. Though I am also thinking that because more cold weather is apparently coming I might re-mulch my berry bushes and herbs to increase chance of survival through what could be really frozen weeks.
For the first time this year I planted a “green manure” legume mix in late September — idea being that some overwintering crops help to provide additional soil nutrients such as nitrogen. I’ve discovered that this is a much more attractive option than staring out at empty dirt patches all winter. The legume mix, in addition to the winter veggies make for some nice green in our raised beds to counteract the seasonal grey. As well, the Fava beans and garlic poking up are a nice reminder that spring and summer harvests will indeed come again.
Winter of course is a time of garden dreaming — the months in which we pore over seed catalogues, envisioning beds of our favourite edibles and new experiments in the year to come. For me that process starts in January when I inventory my seeds and order what is lacking. This year though, I find my visioning beginning early as I start mapping out our front yard for revamp in the spring. In particular I will be curious to see how the lingon and huckleberry plants in our boulevard do over the winter — since I would like to plant more as hedging if my trial bushes do well. Of course that’s just the start!
It looks like very soon (perhaps as early as this weekend) we will be seeing the start of another structure in the backyard — a gazebo covering the hot tub. Pictures to come!
Frida in the hallway.
You may remember this post from last week where I detailed our front hallway modification. This week while I was traveling around the province, the finishing fabric touch arrived in the mail (3 yards of Viva La Frida) and today I managed to cobble together some curtain panels to hang in front of our coat and shoe nook. Final shots of our hallway with a close-up of the fabric below. I’m pretty pleased with the whole effect now that it’s finished!
Readers of this blog should know….
…. that the last month has been unbelievably difficult, and (for this first time in this round of bargaining) I cried at the end of the day today even though I am staying in a really nice hotel room. However, I only have two meetings left and then I am finished with this business. And I am very grateful to be returning to my awesome partner later this week because he will kiss me and make it all better.
Why am I telling you this? Who knows, except that I’m feeling sorry for myself even though I know I made my own choices here. I need to be reminded to stop being useful. I need to be reminded to stop trying so hard.
Red Cedar 