August 31, 2013 or "Eating Slightly Better"

Today I went to the farmer's market. I never used to go, but I have a friend who lives near the big one that's on Saturdays, and I live near the little one that's on Wednesdays, so we tend to go at least once a week to one of them (since she's on mat leave and I'm... employed temporarily, part time, and school hasn't started yet).
It's nice to walk around, even when I don't intend to buy anything (in fact, I believe that today is really one of three times I've ever purchased stuff-the other two were radish sprouts) because it's SO expensive. I'd love to say that I care about the pesticides blabber blabber blabber but really, that stuff is worth washing off when I can get everything so much cheaper from a regular (cough, discount) store and still have money to wash my clothes at the end of the day. Seriously, it's priced up that much.
Today, though, we bought as a group and split stuff, and it actually turned out cheaper than it would have otherwise. Not terribly cheaper, mind you. But, I got 12 fresh (tasty) corn cobs for 4$, since we split two dozen (and I've already frozen it for later eating and kept four cobs for dinners. I also got a bunch of peaches (that I've eaten three of today) for what, 6$ I think? So worth it, because the peaches at grocery stores are awfully hard, bitter AND expensive. These ones are melt in your mouth amazing.
I also got six apples for $2.50, because the old man selling them looked so lonely that I felt bad that no one was at his stall and therefore had to buy his apples. His pies looked amazing (he had a peach and custard pie that sounded like I'd eat the whole thing right then and there and an apple pie that was perfectly coloured), but I couldn't afford $7.50 for a pie that I could make for next to nothing with his $2.50 apples. Plus, I'm trying to eat more healthily, and a pie between two people is like a pizza between to people: really hard to avoid eating half of.
I also bought this funky squash because it was shaped funny (funnily?) oddly, like an alien saucer. That's how I pick my food apparently. "Oh, man, look how weird that thing looks. I wonder if it tastes as weird as it looks?"

Tell me you can't see this being mistaken for a UFO.

Apparently, it's slightly like zucchini but less strongly flavoured, the guy selling it said. Which is bad, because I hate zucchini. Passionately. It's always bitter and almost always slimy. But, whatever. It looks cool. Maybe I can chop it into a smoothie or something.


So, anyway, my whole point of this post was that if you take a friend, split the foods-and the costs. It's slightly cheaper, and it makes shopping more fun.

Stupid School. Stupid Bureaucracy.

Every year, I hate going back to school. I love school itself. I love being in it, I love learning, I love going to class and I love reading about things and being forced to think about stuff that I might never have considered otherwise.
But oh, how I hate the bureaucracy that Ontario universities make you jump through to get to school. Heaven help you if you need a loan or got one out in first year that you used up to pay off the dorm fees, since OSAP didn't cover enough. Now the problems extend to banks and companies, and all the issues are doubly harder to deal with; issues like costly proof of enrollment from the school (no, my student timetable does not appear to count) so that the bank does not charge me for the line of credit even though I'm clearly still a student.


It all makes me want to spend the whole day crafting, just to while away my anger. Perhaps I shall.



In the meantime, here are some photos of the camping trip* that my three sisters and I took:

Because that's what sisters do behind each others' backs.

Charlie- looks really old here. Like, preteen at least (she's not, though-Yet).

Drinking keeps us together.

This picture is kind of funny, because I came back from the washroom to her going "I'm a wookiee, I'm a wookiee, I'm a wookiee..." I asked if she even knew what a Wookiee was. To me:  Chewbacca=

*Photo not from camping trip. Actually from here: link.

The hairy one.
Sadly, she did not know what I was talking about, even when I made Chewbacca noises.
We have a Star Wars marathon coming up over the Christmas break when I go home.

My youngest sister and I. Again, what sisters do to each other when the other's not looking.

For some reason, I believe in really raw, realistic pictures of kids. Altered, set up or faked ones are too cliche for me, I think.

Food was a major part of the week, mostly over the campfire. We only used 1/2 of a little propane tank in 6 days.

Picture Heavy-- Hiking/Biking

Today I went Biking/Hiking/Biking and while hiking I also caught bugs for my upcoming entomology class... and I also found another friend:

 This guy's name is Rana pipiens. He is a Northern Leopard Frog. He's a pretty big frog, and he was just sitting out on the trail.

 I saw this great ivy climbing a tree; the only issue here is that eventually the ivy will overtake the tree and kill it by stealing nutrients. Poor tree.

 At some points, these trees were so thick that you literally could not see the forest through the trees. Hahaha.

 This is one spot that the area opens out onto the local river. However, you had to step through a partially made trail and globs of mud to get there--luckily, I constantly wear my boots while wandering trails since my herpetology class this summer- I learned my lesson the first time it rained and I was in shoes. My runners made very good lakes, though.

 This field-y area was picturesque.

Yeah, hiking and biking! Bug net on my hat, long white sleeved undershirt, and top layer shirt buttoned up to the top hole, can you tell the mosquitoes were awful in some parts of the forest? (Namely, the spots where the trees were super thick; it's cooler and consistently damp, as well as dark, making it perfect mosquito habitat).