Random day - Flowers, quotes, recipes, Stephen Hart and 6 Billion others

These are pictures of flowers in my neighbourhood. I took them with my new camera.. they will be used as subjects in a few upcoming paintings. My post today is taken from the randomer than random (although we know nothing is random) files. That means today is a fun day! : ) Random days always are!

“When you have only 2 pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, (Raw, of course) and a lily with the other” Chinese proverb

This is a link to a new friend of mine's website, Stephen Hart. We have been sharing recipes and raw ideas for awhile and I could write a whole post of info .. but just in case I want to make sure I at least post his website: www.hartworks.org/wellness.html There is a lot of info on healing MS & more here! & I love the travel sprouting set-up!!!

This is cool also! 6 Billion Others

I saw a weed today
that had the majesty and
beauty of the most
perfect flower.

Can it be that
Life, indeed, depends
entirely on how we choose
to perceive it?

-G Jampolsky, 32, out of the darkness into the light

(from heather havey e-mail)

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling; but in rising every time we fall." – Confucius

I was a doctor in my dream last night. How cool is that!!!! very. The same people I work with in real life I was working with there in this very very cool old mansion.. I think it was a fasting retreat also. But I was taking patients. Think I had just become a doctor, a bit of a novice.. but everything went really smoothly. I think I was divinely guided. But of course we all are always!

Recipes from Vegan Fusion. They are not all raw, but there are a few - Zaphods Live Chi tabouli, Cashew Cheeze, Live Fettucini Alfredo etc .. and there are some great ideas to take from the cooked & tranform-translate into wonderful living food creations!

"Let us be grateful to people who make us happy: They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom." - Marcel Proust

Fruit salad with Strawberry Macadamia Cream Dip and more Raw Food Blogs

I made Kaiya a fruit salad with a Strawberry Macadamia Cream Dip that looked like this yesterday. The dip was made from 1/2 c macadamias, 6 strawberries, 1/4 c agave, 1/4 c water, 1-2T lemon juice all blended together. Really good!

I'm still doing the paro-parasite cleanse & not eating agave (I am eating fruit), so I tasted the dip but it was hard not to sit down with the whole bowl & eat it all!

I have found some new raw blogs lately:

Raw food Passion

My Raw Food Blog

Inspired Raw

Rawstazia

Rawvolta - Let's Raw and Roll the Food!

Raw food Wednesdays - from What the hell Does a Vegan eat Anyway?

& Pookies adventure in Costa Rica

Enjoy!

pic from www.dorothylane.com

Being, Anne Wigmore, wheatgrass, The Real News, Flower chocolates, Swedish and Video lessons

Favorite recent memories:

the big line-up at work.. I'm the only one on the floor & I apologize to the man who is standing next and he says calmly "I'm not waiting, I'm just being" (...he got that from the Power of Now, gotta love that book! : ) I appreciated that immensely.

Anne Wigore used to drink up to 64 ozs of wheatgrass a day! That's a lot of wheatgrass!!! She was really into experimenting with her body. Often she would go through the day eating only 1/2 a papaya, a bit of her energy soup and wheatgrass.. and have lots of energy. She founded the Hippocrates Health Institute and is considered The mother of living foods. (more on her from a past post here)

I spoke to a man who said that his eyesight was healed after drinking 2ozs of wheatgrass a day, every day - 5 months after starting this, he realized that he didn't need his glasses anymore to read things and he was amazed at how it was healing his body.

..a waterarian

The picture I missed & have to share verbally. The Real News.com - who reside on the 2nd floor of our building, right above us.. and who I know best from asking us to turn the music down, lol - they were preparing for a party and in our kitchen at work preparing fruit platters and I was still working..

I was juicing wheatgrass for a customer amidst piles and piles of fruit prepared to go on trays covering the whole counter and I barely just uncovered the wheatgrass juicer to make this juice: baby finger bananas, cherries, melons, grapes, grapefruit, oranges, lemons and limes cut up, strawberries, other berries, pineapple etc & etc.. it was beautiful! fruit everywhere!.. enough for about 300 people!!

The small pic I took is from their reception - launching party.. it didn't turn out great, but it's all I have.. you can barely see, or not, Paul Jay, the executive director, CEO. You can see an interview with him, see the space and the concept - it's pretty huge - a tv network with no gov't funding, no corporate funding, no advertising - The Real News. I recommend watching.. if I was going to watch the news, I think I would watch it here. Maybe one day I will.

Making flower chocolates - the best tasting, soothest and creamiest ones ever! Raw cacao, hemp butter, cocoa butter, agave, vanilla, maca, ginseng, slippery elm, a bit of maple syrup and a dash of cinnamon and Celtic salt. Mmmm.. these are going quick!


Flowers on flowers, my painting above, the backdrop flowers is a painting I was up till 1:30 last night working on & am heading back down soon to work on more.. along with my white flower (which is anything but white! and my new weeks flower) .. g2g going!!! ...

random Swedish lesson: "bytt e bytt a det koer aldrig er igen" translates something like trading something with someone and you got something really magical and the best trade ever. : )

video lesson: Room tone - take 60 sec- 2 min of average room sounds of space after taping, to use to edit into sounds if needed.

LoVe LiFe!
Be Happy
~HuGs to all~

Reusable Bags - No More trash! ( ..or at least reduce, please)

I just found these great hemp shopping bags!

I want to order them but know time is limited this morning.. such limited computer time - I'm so amazed I even get this blog written. But the Reusable Bags site is great.

The plastic bag issue is one that rings strongly for me. The amount of plastic bags polluting our earth is astonishing. In fact:

Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute. Billions end up as litter each year.'

They pollute our planet & use up our precious resources (petroleum - which is nearly gone completely from the Earth!) Using up all of a single resource doesn't seem like a good idea to me.. it's not like it just when it's gone there's no more so we'll have to find something else.. the Earth works synchronistically.. sometimes I think of taking all the oil out of the planet like taking all the lube out of our body.. it could be useful to move our joints and well, just to move in general. It's just a common sense thing.. isn't it???

Is no one out there thinking?
In any effect, the least we can do is stop using plastic bags as much as possible. Let's wind that one down somewhat.. but I realize ultimately it's the system that needs to change. However, we create the system.

'Plastic bags don't biodegrade, they photodegrade, breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest.'

'Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales and other marine mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food.'

There is hope!:

'In 2001, Ireland consumed 1.2 billion plastic bags, or 316 per person. An extremely successful plastic bag consumption tax, or PlasTax, introduced in 2002 reduced consumption by 90%. Approximately 18,000,000 liters of oil have been saved due to this reduced production. Governments around the world are considering implementing similar measures.'


This site is one I came across yesterday. Say No to Trash!

This site is about a couple's (Sarah McGaughey and Kyle Glover's) attempt to eliminate their household garbage production.They have attempted since 2004 to be garbage free for a whole month and actually achieved it earlier this year.

'We are looking for people to join us-you can make your own rules, we just want support. Plus being garbage free is time consuming and it would be great to have a community to share tasks with (I’ll make the rice milk, crackers and hankies, you make tortilla’s, bread etc.)

This is Inspiring!!!


They share some great ideas on being garbage free.. or at least reducing waste.

It's great.. under Trashless Toronto there are all these places in my neighbourhood ( work neighbourhood, that is) Kensington market and the Annex. I am so blessed - love where I work, love where I live (Beaches)! I love the pic of raccoons in the heading - so applicable - I've had to clean up garbage from raccoons getting in more than once.. they are all over the place around here.. They come right up on the back deck.. In fact, last week, one came right into my kitchen when the back door was open & no one was around and took a mango.. and left the peelings for me to clean up after it out on the deck! Sheesh..

ps. Raw is great for reducing waste!

Some great Raw blogs

Wow! I had such a fun & busy weekend. Mi-San and I went on our 1st raw video road trip. The video camera came in the mail just as I was about to leave for work.. amazing time, 2 days - regular mail. Way to go, Canada post!!! Thanks.

We packed a case of mangoes, our soon-to-be, if not already, famous Earth Bread - sandwich toppings, lots more fruit & sprouts & salad, our video cameras and off we went.

Now to figure out video editing.. I think I need a cord to get it onto the computer.. so much to figure out. But before long we should have videos to post.

For Now.. I have found some amazing raw blogs.. they seem to be increasing at an incredible rate.

This doesn't surprise me. I think the raw food movement is bound to take off in a big way soon. I sometimes think of it as like we are in the stage just before when something big really takes off. Like the underbrush catching fire but its not quite visible until it just all goes up in flames. ..and like how things just change with new technology, innovation. Like the assembly line.. all of a sudden everyone was manufacturing like this and then everything changed.

Maybe we all are starting to see its time to go back & at least take a good look at whats going on.. and maybe do something about it.

& Thank God for the internet. This is the truly free democracy (unless you get too controversial & wiped out - it happens). The internet definitely gives power back to the people. It's great to see people having a say..

That being said - Some really great raw blogs:

A Raw Yogi Journal - Finding my way back to Mother Nature

Raw Glow

Raw Food with Jessica

The Raw Vegan Princess

Filling Up on Life

Shell's Raw Blog

The Sunny Raw Kitchen

The Green Smoothie Experiment

Going Bananas

Raw Cuisine - Food for Consciousness

My Raw Food Blog

photo from www.pluckthepetal.com

Good raw blogs, thoughts and quotes from Anastasia

As I go to write this I keep thinking of something I read last night - an article about what makes a good raw food blog. The #1 thing is to stay on the topic of raw food. Damn.. I was going to post thoughts/ideas/quotes from the 3rd Anastasia book I just finished. (Its just too hard for me to keep it in - I love to share this stuff - and to me it is related but it's not directly about food)

#2 is quality writing. Yikes, I'm not sure if I'm capable of that either.. I didn't ace English class or anything. hmmm...
#3 - photos are a bonus. I think I probably should get a digital camera if I am going to keep this up.
(I am starting to wonder at this point what I am doing here ; )
#4 is posting is current or has a solid ending. That I can do!
ok, I'm staying..I'll just have to work on the above.

& Thank you for the advice. I love the raw blog I got it from:
Raw Food, Right Now - The raw blog for people who live in the real world
I just found this site last night.. lots to explore.
& I was looking at the link Raw Girl in Japan
ok, now that I have some Raw content I will continue onto my thoughts. These are all taken from the 3rd Anastasia book "The Space of Love" by Vladimir Megre.
(& I've added raw pics, of course!)

My favorite fact from the book, although I am not sure where in it I read it, you will have to take my word for this one..and this one is huge. It is that 'Every rock has a pulse which beats once per day'. That's so cool! I always thought of them as living.. but never thought of them as having a pulse.. makes sense though.

quote from p 156: "Perhaps we should give our children the freedom to grow up without our dogma. And then ask the children where and which way to go."

p 155: "The time will come when mankind will understand. The most important scientists will come and pay a visit to the grandmother on her plot of land. Famished. they will ask her to give them a tomato for something to eat. The scientists and their illusory creations are not needed by that grandmother today. She knows nothing of them herself, nor does she want to know.She lives a quiet life without the scientists' help, while the can not live without her. The inhabit a world of fruitless illusions, leading nowhere. She is with the natural earth and the whole Universe. The Universe needs her, it does not need them."

"In trying to gain the grace of a holy place, think what you might offer in return. And if you have not learned to emit light yourself, then why take it and bury it in yourself, as though in a grave?"
~Anastasia p 139

on Anastasia recognizing her soul for the first time: "All at once, sensing my gaze, the wolf started wagging her tail. Then I began to notice how all the creatures were so delighted when I looked at them with joy and tenderness. How big they were or how far away they were was not important. They were delighted just from my looking at them, or my thinking about them with love. I realized they were just as happy as they had been earlier when I was stroking them with my hand. "Then I became aware of something. Here was 'I' with my hands and feet, and yet there was also this other me, larger than could be shown by someone's hands. And this larger, invisible entity was also me. That meant every Man was set up just like me. And this larger me was indeed capable of embracing the whole Earth."

last thought of the day - well, not not even close!!! lol .. last thought for this post:
The Forces of Light "are all the bright thoughts ever produced by people. All space is filled with them."
We have access to every question, every answer, all of the information of the universe. "Everything depends upon the purity of one's thoughts, and the motive for asking."

apples pic from http://www.ritterfarms.com/apples.html
oranges from http://www.hermann-uwe.de/taxonomy/term/558
strawberries from http://www.caes.uga.edu/news/kits/gaagres/commodities/strawberries.html
blueberries from http://www.stemilt.com/2006/products.php?t=berries
watermelon from http://www.watermelon.org/watermelon_festivals.asp

We Like it Raw, GLiving, Sarma, Spicy Thai vegetable wraps, Ginger Tea and my new dentist

2 great resources for the raw foodist:

We Like It Raw - 'We Like It Raw is about bringing presence to food. We cover superfoods, supermodels and sustainability, testimonials, restaurant reviews and so much more.'
I like their before and after page.

GLiving - The Contemporary Green Lifestyle Network
'The G Living Network is all about a next-generation lifestyle simply called G. The G Lifestyle is the next generations preferred lifestyle.'
Check out their food section and their green chefs. Some great videos!

Both of these 2 links have Sarma of Pure Food and Wine as a guest blogger/chef.
Her (& Matthew's) book Raw Food, Real World is one of my favorite raw books!

One of my favorite recipes of hers is the Spicy Thai Vegetable Wraps

Can you tell I am having fun with the links button now that I've finally figured it out!

I went to a new dentist yesterday. I think I am going to absolutely love it there. They served me fresh squeezed carrot juice after my 1st appt. I went back for a second appointment (cleaning) a few hours later.. it was that good! They served a ginger tea that was amazing.. but had brown sugar in it. So I copied it, raw style, last night.. I may be hooked onto something new.
It's so easy, so good!

Ginger Tea

1/2 " ginger peeled & sliced
1/2 lemon - juiced
Pour in water, just hot enough not to burn your finger and let steep a few minutes.
Strain and add agave to taste

Raw news - Restaurants and articles with glass mandalas

In the Raw news..
In Lowell, they're lining up for Life Alive cafe's raw deal
from Boston.com - May 9, 2005
by Rosie DeQuattro

& their website - Live Alive

Raw affirmation
theage.com.au - Australia - May 8, 2007
by Christine Mahlke

This article is about Gafe Gratitude. Jessica, raw culinary artist, came by work yesterday, she just got back from California, where she tried out all the raw restaurants - Julianos, his trippy, dark restaurant.. she saw him come through with his spaced-out looking girlfriend, grabbing a bottle of something.. I don't know - I have heard lots of stories about him.. he's just so out there - like he's from another planet. He really intrigues me. ..but anyway.. she said Cafe Gratitude was by far the best restaurant of all!


another article, another restaurant. This time in NYC..

Pure Food and Wine's David Moltz Hangs With Gisele, Chases Raw Foodists for Tips

NY Restaurants - Ask a waiter - May 1, 2007

quickly now.. raw recipes here (like the look of their pomodoro)


& Finally.. last but not least.. I really liked this one. written by the editor of Common Ground Magazine, Todd Spencer, about his brother who's gone raw.



Oh, P.S. 1 more - this one's too good!

We Like it Raw

The ultimate fringe food culture sexes it up for the mainstream

Whole Life Times - May 2007 - by Becca Campbell and Ritzy Ryciak

P.P.S. - There was a sushi article that would have gone with this one.. had I chose to include it.. I didn't.. but I really like koi! (I've painted them a few times. : )


mandalas from http://www.artglassmosaics.com/mosaic_mandalas.htm

Some great Raw websites

Living Nutrition Health Magazine
http://www.livingnutrition.com/

Chad Sarno (he's one of my very favorite chefs!)
http://www.rawchef.org/

Living Light - Cherie Soria
http://www.rawfoodchef.com/

Loving Foods - Jeremy Safron
http://www.lovingfoods.com/

Rhio
http://www.rawfoodinfo.com/

Alex Malinsky
http://www.rawguru.com/

Karen Knowler
http://www.fresh-network.com/