It’s been a cold spring, and before last week’s snow we put out a few things that seem to be growing reasonably well–arugula, chives, dill, sage, chard, thyme, chervil, tarragon, and Italian parsley.

Despite a southern exposure, the basil and oregano seem to be struggling, and may have to be replaced, once we are sure the weather and soil have turned warm.

Strawberries in the backyard, which we planted last weekend, are doing well despite limited afternoon sun and a northern exposure.

Our precious Sungold tomatoes are still indoors, enjoying what sun there is, from their perch at a south facing patio door.

I’m sure Ms. Clinton could do a fine job as US Prez. I’m equally sure that Obama will make a few mistakes when he is finally elected. Some of those mistakes will be big, just like the mistakes of any other human who has ever been elected or ascended to high office.

I would rather see Obama making mistakes than Hillary, who along with her husband Bill, represents old way of getting things done. Obama will not instantly transform the hidebound political system, but he will expose the ingrown hairs on its overly scratched back. That will be a start. He will also continue to elevate the quality of public discourse. He will pave the way for acutely needed change.

So, Hillary, after you’re fought the good fight in Pennsylvania, which everyone knows you will win, can you please take your seat and let a fresher wind blow. Politics-as-usual aren’t good for you, your husband, your country, or the rest of the world.

Damn Fine Pie
Our favourite house guest brought us some mighty fine pie from Tartine this week. Flaky crust in the tradition of my dear departed mother, and fillings that would be worth a bit of penance, if it were still Lent. We liked the bumbleberry a whole lot, and the strawberry rhubarb even more. Their bakery at 770 Beach Avenue, almost under the Granville Bridge, has a full breakfast and lunch menu, and lots of goodies, for take out. Did I mention their pies?

Ahhh, Artigiano
The new owners of local coffee roaster, Caffè Artigiano, have been growing their business, and have recently opened their newest location, near Hastings and Willingdon in Burnaby. It’s not close enough to our house to walk, but we’re delighted to no longer have to foray into downtown Vancouver to buy their Private Reserve Espresso beans.

Five Names, One Lucky New GM
Five names for new Canucks GM have been bandied about by the The Vancouver Sun. At our house, the money is on Jim Nill.

Kitchen Goodness
Some day, some way, we’ll get a new kitchen and quit bumping into each other and the fridge door. In the meantime, we dream, and I like this French kitchen a whole lot.

Don’t Take Your Cat On Skytrain
Tasers are meant to be used sparingly, as a substitute for lethal force. Unfortunately, for some of the “authorities,” tasers are toys, and for others, an easy and convenient way to keep people in line, witness the BC Transit Police tactics since they got their tasers into their hot little hands. If you wouldn’t shoot someone for skiving on their transit fare, then why taser them? Unless of course, the skiver is a cat…like the one that was fighting with another member of its species, or the other that may have accidentally wandered into the wrong place at the wrong time. RIP, kitties.

Big surprise from the Canuck organization today. At our house, we figured the now ex-GM had another year and plenty of room in the team’s salary cap to make something of that band of “good-enoughs.”

Nonis was with the Canucks when the Aquilinis bought them. If the world were fair, he would have been given a proper chance. He was too loyal to his scouting staff. Too bad the Aquilinis weren’t as loyal to him.

Avalon Dairy, the family business that started in Vancouver back in 1906 with six cows, has prospered ever since, and was the first dairy in BC to produce certified organic milk.

Glass bottles, home delivery, and support for local dairy farmers are just some of the reasons why people want to buy Avalon products, whether conventional or organic. In the next couple of months they will open a new 40,000 square foot plant in Burnaby. Avalon’s long term goal is to produce 100% organic products.

So what’s with Vitala? It’s Avalon’s newest product–milk from Abbotsford cows that have been fed wild tuna meal to boost the DHA Omega-3 in their milk.

Let’s assume for argument’s sake that the Vitala tuna meal comes from young Albacore that have a relatively low mercury content. Cows are not omnivores. Cows eat grass. Feed a cow eat grass and it will produce milk rich in Omega-3’s. Cows do not need to eat tuna to do what cows are intended to do.

And humans who choose to drink cow’s milk don’t need that milk to come from tuna-fed cows.

Global recession, yes or no?

If we are to believe the optimistic experts, the recession that has assailed the US will be “mild.”

Despite a worldwide credit crisis brought about by the the burst US housing bubble and sub-prime mortgage implosion, the IMF has laid odds of only 24% that the global economy will catch the US’s recession bug.

Canada has been pronounced immune, with a modest growth prediction of 1.3% for the year 2008. If Canada is immune, then Metro Vancouver with its hot housing market, limited land mass, and Asian economic connections will continue to prosper without so much as a sneeze.

Then again, maybe not. Stephen Rees weighs in on the IMF pronouncement. As does everybody’s favourite condo contrarian, who reminds us of the fix that probably won’t work next time a recession comes a knocking.

From the patio to the playground

Vancouver’s new by-law banning smoking on restaurant patios and near doorways may not be enough of a good thing. Wendy Watters of All About Cities took her kids to a park near the other day, only to find the playground seats and tables filled with smokers enjoying their favourite smoke along with their take-out coffee.

Most smokers are considerate, and many struggle off and on to quit. Do we need to amend a by-law to engender common sense and common courtesy?

Does smoke kill some smokers’ brain cells? If you are in a playground and there is a kid in sight, don’t even think of sparking up whatever it is you are jonesing for. And if you do find a kid-free park in which to enjoy your reprieve, then kindly pick up your butts before you leave.

An update on Net Neutrality — From the Tyee’s Tom Barrett.

For our viewing pleasure

It probably won’t be as funny as Animal House, but Oliver Stone’s new movie, W, a portrayal of George W. Bush, will be out before its subject leaves office. Stone’s movie will depict Bush as a foul-mouthed frat boy and not as a “major league asshole.”

Meanwhile, everybody’s favourite Gay Midget Dwarf will be postponing the release of Valkyrie for a second time. Cruise plays Claus von Stauffenberg, who lead and was executed for an attempt to kill Hitler with a suitcase bomb.

Members of the Stuffenberg family object to Cruise’s probable kitcshy, over-the-top performance. The German government objects to the involvement in the project of members of Scientology, which it considers a dangerous cult.

Valkyrie’s planned release date is now the US Presidents’ Day in Feb 2009. Any resemblance between Mr. Cruise’s Nazi uniform and those worn at Scientology’s Sea Org is entirely conincidental.

While this blogger has been away, the spammers have been up to no good. I’ve temporarily disabled the blogroll section as some brilliantly devious mind, far more technical than mine, has found a way to add their spammy links.

Surely anyone who wanted to purchase appendage extenders or performance enhancers wouldn’t need to visit vancouveriste to get them, would they? Why do these spam buggers waste their time and everyone else’s?

Being a Luddite, I have no idea how this has happened. It might be because I’m using an older version of Wordpress, and it might be something more nefarious. Hopefully the spammers will move on and bother someone else now, someone who can squash their petty little heads.

Mr. V. is going to watch the Canuck-Flames game tonight, and I, who can rarely resist a train wreck, will likely join him. We have agreed for some weeks, since the Sedins proved themselves worthy of second line status at best, that the Canucks were “on ice”.

We aren’t hoping to see any hockey pyrotechnics tonight. Though with their playing history, this last gasp game that has no chance of gaining them a playoff spot will probably see the Canucks wining mightily, scoring enough goals to make the playoffs, had those goals been spread around in their last half dozen games.

The Canucks will soon ease into the unearned rest of an extended golf season. All except their captain, who has passed on. Can their coach be far behind?

It may not have been Springsteen, but Vancouver’s Centre for Performing Arts April Fool’s Day offering was a very good show.

British soul guy, James Hunter, was the opening act.

Hunter has an amazing vocal range and plenty of energy, and knows his way around a lead guitar. The man from Essex can play and sing R&B in the manner of Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson, jazzy ballads like Ray Noble’s The Very Thought of You, and toss in a little funk and rockabilly for good measure.

The entertaining Hunter was backed by a polished and tight band that included two saxophones and a stand up base along with the requisite drums and keyboards.

East LA band, Los Lobos, played a 90-minute set that included a lot of extended jamming and an apropos play list based partly on audience requests.

Front men Cesar Rosas and David Hidalgo were charmingly self-deprecating, with Hidalgo even referring to the band as “old farts.” It’s not an entirely inaccurate appellation for a band that has been playing together for more than 30 years.

Los Lobos, of course, are best known for the bouncy La Bamba from the soundtrack of the eponymous movie. The song was on their play list, but their set covered a range of musical styles including blues, gospel, rock, TexMex, and country. Los Lobos are accomplished musicians, and their talents are best displayed when they play and sing traditional Spanish and Mexican songs.

There were a few technical glitches at the beginning of their set, and confused and frustrated soundmen following the labyrinthine cords around the stage were a bit distracting, but by the time the encore came, a cover of Neil Young’s Cinnamon Girl that was as good and intense as the original, the audience was on its feet.

The Wolves have survived. Long may they roam.

Though I’m missing a few bits and bobs, I’m feeling much better than I have for months. Meanwhile my brain has been nagging me about this blog, which started as an experiment, and may or may not have run its course.

“Write what you know,” goes the old fail safe nostrum, and I had no intention of wrting a “personal” blog since most of the details of my life are pretty mundane. So I decided to mainly write about Vancouver, since I’ve spent considerably more than half my increasingly long life living there.

But now I don’t.

Now that I’ve moved east, the machinations of Mayor Sam (”Montgomery Burns”) Sullivan might as well be happening in another province.

Convalescence has seen me at home in a leafy neighbourhood free of homeless people and the heartbreak I felt on a more of less daily basis while walking in downtown Vancouver or around my old Hastings East neighbourhood.

Sadly, I’ve come to understand how abstractly this most disgraceful of social problems is viewed by most of the inhabitants of Metro Vancouver who only come into contact with it when it is covered in the media.

There are plenty of bloggers covering the Vancouver beat already. And plenty more who do a fine job opining on politics. or urban issues, or food. I’m not even sure who reads me when I write, particularly as my visitor stats have never been higher, and I haven’t posted for six weeks.

People find my blog using search strings like “black and white Venice” and “Georgia O’Keefe”, the first being a reference to a shower curtain we bought two years ago, the second to a show at the Vancouver Art Gallery which was so half heartedly curated I didn’t bother blogging my visit. I have no idea who visits this blog other than people looking for free images. And bots, of course.

Meanwhile, there is this house which, given time and money enough could be completely reno’d, and this garden, which is far larger and more eccentric than we could ever have imagined when we first saw it in late fall. Mundane concerns, to be sure. But they are what I know, and what I will attempt to blog about as the Spirit moves.

I’m afraid if I continue this exercise the bots will come to know me as one more opinionated blowhard. Dear oh dear, and I thought I was just another miscellanist.