Shitty eggs.

Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Add enough salt to make the water taste like the sea.

I have been cooking a lot lately. It is all I want to do. In these last few weeks since returning home, I have been enjoy my summer holiday to its fullest. I spent some time in my ma's garden yesterday snipping the tiniest basil and the most broad-chested flat leaf Parsley I have ever seen. Inhaling, stuffing my bounty into a bag. Peas!!!!!! I love peas. Beet leaves for soup or salads or steamed with kale, summer savory, chives in their crisp splendor. This is the second time I have felt guilty for taking this time (post bush), but I do it anyway with a smile upon my face. My work ethic is assssssss dragging these days. I know this, and keep smiling. It'll come back, it always does.

Anyway, back to the kitchen. This is how I am spending my spare time these days, cooking and cruising the internet for recipes and then grocery shopping even though I don't have the cash to do it often (smiling), and then coming home, putting on some music, or getting Mitch to pick and then starting to coooooooooooooooooook while he draws at the table. His drawings and the smells from my food compliment each other well.

And the music. I have been really into Woods. Their album "At Echo Lake" has been on repeat for the last few days. I listen to music kind of how I wear clothes. Cycling through the goods, repeating it until it is beat like a horse and then onto the next (save for the classics; because classics are simply what they are: classics) like no time has past at all. It is kind of how I remember periods of my life sometimes because these standouts are usually pinpricked with a certain look, or a certain sound, or sometimes both at the same time.

Lately I have been wearing this nuts wide legged jean (real wide) look paired with an interesting sports bra underneath the thinnest grey Nova Scotia shirt of all time (stolen without permission as per from my good sister's nuts closet--thanks, I owe you) with getting long hair flying out from yet another train hat (the latest one is tiny and made by VIA rail and fits perfectly [I have a child's skull]lucky number 3) with purple foam sandals that were a tree camp send off gift from Jillian (purchased from Stupid Store) and headphones sitting on top of all of those things attached to the sounds of Woods or Laura Veirs singing in my ears. That is my position on fashion and music these days.

Yikes.

My favorite cooking blog is Smitten Kitchen run by this interesting lady with the prettiest baby boy I have ever seen. I don't know that much about them but her food photography is clean and delicious and the recipes make sense but also leave plenty of room for personal flair. Most importantly, the food always tastes good.

Grocery shopping in Winnipeg is expensive. Ridiculously expensive. A bag of sugar for fourteen dollars at a rural Manitoba grocery. 6.93 for asparagus at IGA Downtown (yikes). To shop economically in this town, one (namely, the shopper) must know prices across the city. Bulk vs. local. Organic, vegan, soy and gluten free products are ridiculously priced. And yet, I like to cook well and will often choose organic milk and eggs over the less expensive item. Does that mean I have expensive taste or just a healthy appetite? I can't believe that some people I know scoff at spending hard earned money on a healthier, locally made product (that hasn't been showered with chemicals or stuffed with ground death). Call me a hippy, fine. I just like to eat really good, simple food. It's too bad we don't have a Whole Foods in this CITY. (Too much Top Chef, Margot).

That was a rant I think. I got in a huff, pardon me. But seriously, we should talk about the food we eat. Don't buy shitty eggs, bottom line.

Here are some photos from my summer in the woods taken by Pat Ware. Below is a picture of myself driving one of the PRT quads loaded with pine trees, one long bus ride away from Sioux Lookout, Ontario. Best part of my summer: quad girl.

Quad girl; Sioux Lookout, Ontario, 2010.

Below. This is was the day I almost died in Bram's truck. He has a little tugboat of a truck that I fell in love with. Before the day this photo was taken, I had never hauled anything behind a vehicle (nevermind a manual vehicle). Hard but valuable lessons in driving were learned this day. I swept out most of the anxiousness.

Sweeping off a near-death experience; Sioux Lookout, Ontario, 2010.

The day I nearly died hauling that beast on the Trans Canada Highway; Kenora, Ontario, 2010.

Here is the one and only picture I have of myself actually planting trees, taken by my dear friend Edwerd on a day we shared a tree cache. Thanks man. I also remember him giving me a Skor bar this day and I almost shat myself with joy.

Planting in stripes; Kenora, Ontario, 2010.

This is a picture of MJ, myself and Kim in the back of King of the Road after an incredible shitty contract in a burn block north of Sioux Lookout.

MJ, Meg and Kim (clean) in King of the Road; Kenora, Ontario, 2010.

This is a photo of me recording my daily numbers into my log book. Above photos by the lovely Maya Anders, my girl in the bush.

Recording tree numbers; Sioux Lookout, Ontario, 2010.

This is a photo of my best bush friend Pat Ware and I at the mustering point in Burma Block. He looks sad and I was trying to cheer his spirits by being a turd. This looks like the end of the day when we Hurry up and WAIIIIIIT at the busses in order to get the fuck out of the Block.

Cheering up Pat; Sioux Lookout, Ontario, 2010.

On the bus heading home from a day off in town. I picked up some fresh basil for the cook. We ate so well!

Fresh basil for the cook; Sioux Lookout, Ontario, 2010.

Last but definitely not least, below is a photograph of my very best friend in the bush, Eddy Kuruliouk and I on Ripper night in Sioux. What a man.

Eddy and Meg on the Ripper; Sioux Lookout, Ontario, 2010.

Off to read in the park before work. Liza, I am carrying your letters around and writing new ones.