"thermal"

This one is about geothermal heating. You can bring in air that is heated (or cooled) in the ground before introducing it to your home, that way its less work to heat (or cool) your house.

I attended the urban agriculture meeting last week, which was good. We had a good talk about our motivations for being involved. I think its such an amazing concept that brings interesting people together. There are people involved with promoting urban agriculture in the city, and educating people about it. Its amazing how much people do because it is what they believe in, and not getting anything in return. Such passion and positive vibes.

Anyways, while I was there I thought it would be cool to share these paintings on their forum, as they are about sustainable ideas. I posted a few and have got some positive feed back. Its so much more inspiring being an artist when you get feed back, otherwise you can get insular and feel isolated. Anyways, as a result I am going to put them in the 1111 show, and perhaps participate in a booth with the garden path society at the lilac festival next summer.

So thats been cool.

Christmas around here was quiet. We are sort of half-way between the whole Christmas thing. Being Baha'i we have many other celebrations, festivals and holy days through the year, that we try to focus on. But having grown up in a Christmas culture, we find it hard to not get caught up in it. We were booked to spend Christmas in Edmonton with wonderful family, who have such beautiful festive activities for the day that I hadn't really planned anything here. But then the holidays came, the husband was finally home, and we got to spend more than a couple passing minute together, and none of us could bear to break that bubble...for four days. We stayed in out PJ's till noon, played lego, lit the fireplace, read a new book to each other at night, and categorically "vegged out". It was boxing day before we actually got it together to head north. It felt a bit like a time warp that all went too quickly. We did house chores like mopping the kitchen floor and vacuuming the bedrooms - its been too long! ick! but we also backed pumpkin cake, watched "Madagaskar", and playes the "hello" game, till we dropped! We did venture south to my parents for a Turkey dinner, which was nice seeing as with all that playing and time warpedness, I hadn't made anything to eat!

Also I discovered that thrift store shopping is the best at minus 30. Also, pre-Christmas, everyone is so busy at T'R'Us and Wall Mart - the thrift stores were empty! We went to Value Village, and brought home a huge basket haul, I mean I bought a ton of baskets! - and in passing I found 4 100% cashmere sweaters - in my size!) So that was kinda cool.

Sadly when we did arrive in Edmonton, the water lines in my sister's new house had frozen and burst while they were in England, and the whole place was flooded. We are still dealing with the plumber, who is hopefully going to get us running water again. Its been a huge learning for all of us - when you leave the house for more than a day - TURN THE WATER MAINS OFF!!!!

OK, so now Ive shared with you some wisdom, I hope you have a lovely holiday and New Years, and be happy, warm, dry and prosperous! Love Angie.