Breakfast at home and at sea...

Yesterday, one of my Dad's cousins asked what we eat for breakfast. We both have E3-Live's RenewMe! Total Body Blend http://www.e3live.com/joint_support/renew_me.html?SID=a1d02996218441fba81a541016787cb2) with PEA for brain support and MSM for joints and the arthritis in my knees (I severed the PCL in my left knee ten years ago and have developed level 6 osteo-arthritis since as a result of misalignment thereafter). We also take E3-Live's Brain-On (http://www.e3live.com/brain_support/e3_phenalmin.html?SID=a1d02996218441fba81a541016787cb2) with PEA for brain support. It has helped my Dad who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's three years ago, immensely.

Dave also has cereal made from a combination of buckwheat, oats, raisins, goji berries and cinnamon. He soaks, sprouts and dehydrates the buckwheat and oats which increases their nutritional value significantly and uses a Wolfgang Flocina oat flaker device (http://www.rawnutrition.ca/html/flocino_flaker.html) that we ordered on-line to flake his oats.

With four days left until we leave...

With four days left until we leave to drive South to our boat which has been stored for hurricane season in Indiantown FL, I feel busy. We celebrated the various Fall family birthdays and Christmas on Saturday with my Dad and Dave's daughter's family and spent Sunday and Monday with my father, brother and extended family in Winchester, ON just south of Ottawa. Yesterday, I took my Dad to an appointment with his dentist, today I have an appointment in Toronto and then lunch with my best-friend whom I will miss dearly, and tomorrow my Dad has an appointment with his oncologist. On Friday, my Dad and I both have appointments with our opthamologist and then we're off to Port Perry, north-east of Toronto to spend Hallowe'en with Dave's daughter's family. When one looks at our calendar, it appears that I have most of one free day left to clean the house and pack before we leave on Sunday. This seems like a very good time to stay in the moment and make this post brief. Smile.
It's currently 0 degrees Celcius in Ottawa with 15 cm of light snow predicted this morning. Here in Oakville, we're still at 1 degree Celcius with a prediction of light flurries. My intention is to leave early for my drive into Toronto.
Yesterday, we ordered food on-line to be delivered to the marina in Florida where our boat is stored. Most of our supplements and seed for sprouting (i.e. alph alpha, clover, Men's Formula, Women's Formula, Veg-Cal (Calcium), Brain (PEA), Body (AFA flakes), Systemic Enzymes, and Lipase (fat digestion) came from The Store at The Hippocrates Health Institute (http://store.hippocratesinst.org/LifeGive-C17.aspx) in West Palm Beach, Florida. We ordered our 6-month supply of Chlorella and Spiralina in bulk on-line from Pure-Planet (http://pureplanet.com/) and our Maca and liquid iron from Upaya Naturals (http://www.upayanaturals.com/Supplements_s/7.htm). It's quite the process figuring what and how much to order and from which source but certainly easier than last year when we were new to the concept of whole food supplements and superfoods. This year, we have dehydrated herbs from our organic garden. We're looking forward to good nutrition in our lunch-time smoothies each day.
My Dad's cousin called with information on possible side effects of Stevia. This was new to me and something I want to look into. I've been using Stevia Leaf's Liquid Chocolate Raspberry Flavoured Stevia (http://www.buywisdom.com/products.asp?dept=2&pagenumber=1&sort_on=&sort_by=) in Dave's smoothies all summer. Stevia is an herb native to Paraguay. We definately prefer the liquid types of Stevia to the more processed white granules that simulate the appearance of white sugar. One can kind find lots of info on the herb through Google. The result of an investigative report done by CBC Marketplace can be found at http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/files/food/stevia/index.html.
In this moment, I'm continuing the process of downloading to my I-Pod Touch, the thirteen additional titles on cd that I borrowed from the library late yesterday afternoon. Hopefully, another dozen titles will await me when I return these later today. I love the library and it's on-line site for putting holds on items. You can search by title, author, subject, genre or format and take out a good number of items at any one time. Down-loading e-books from their library to one's computer over the Internet was new to me this summer and something I look forward to doing when we're down South. One is allowed to burn most books to cd or transfer to an audio device. Unfortunately, the .WMA format that most of the audio e-books are saved in isn't complient with my new I-Pod Touch. E-books automatically check themselves back into the library via the Internet after one week so there is never a concern about overdue fines. I had to laugh when the woman who helped me sign-out the cd's and books yesterday in the library itself said they'd be happy to pick-up from us in The Bahamas, any items we forget to return before leaving. I've always found them to be very helpful!

A day of celebration...

I spent the afternoon with my father, a graduate of The Ontario Veterinary College in Guelph (Class of 1940), touring the facilities of The College as guests of the Dean and her colleagues. It was an afternoon of celebration in honour of my father who at ninety-two years of age is one of the oldest OVC alumni. He practiced veterinary medicine on large animals in Chesterville ON for some fifty odd years. For me, it was lovely afternoon with my father and a rare opportunity to see inside the labs of a very special facility. My Dad, alive and well, suggested that it might be more interesting to enter the animal hospital from the back door than the front. Smile. All great fun!
Then we stopped by Mark and Chatelle's (http://www.livingnutrition.ca/) and picked up Dad's order of Brain-On (http://www.e3live.com/brain_support/). All-Organic E3Live™ BrainON™ with Phenalmin contains a significant concentration of phenylethylamine (PEA) as found in AFA. PEA is a naturally occurring extract that promotes clear thinking and focus to give one optimal cognitive function. My Dad has been taking it twice a day for the past couple of years and often tells the story of how he "used to have Alzheimer's". Smile. And he definately is much better than he was two years ago. Dave and I take Brain-On as well as Renew Me! (http://www.e3live.com/all_products/renew_me.html) each morning. We think it makes a significant difference in how we feel.

A beautiful walk...

My walk today beside Bronte Creek was stunningly beautiful. Then, it was back to 'the old forest'. It's definately food for the soul...

14 days to go...

With fourteen days left until we drive South to spend the winter on our boat, I'm intent on getting things done. Top on my list is my morning walk in what I call 'the old forest' near our home. The colours of fall in Ontario surround me. It's quite the bouquet of colour!

Yesterday, we began the process of taking our garden apart. And just a few moments ago, I found myself looking through the on-line seed catalogue of Urban Harvest (http://www.uharvest.ca/) looking at seed for arugula, dandelion, collards, mizuna, cress, red mustard, tatasoi, chard, and kale. I'm intent on planting earlier next year. It breaks my heart to put our garden to bed when it's flourishing as it is. Yummm...

div>On Thursday, I picked Stinging Nettle at Simpler Thyme, the organic farm to which we belong. Stinging nettle or urtica dioica has traditionally been used for the treatment of arthritis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stinging_nettle) and its leaves can be dried and made into a tisane (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tisane) or used as an infusion in smoothies.

Today, Dave is off to spend a couple of days with his daughter and grandchildren. While I'd love to spend the day with them, I'm intent on doing what needs doing here at home. And now that we've figured out how to download the audiobooks that are available on-line from the library onto the new I-Pod Touch that Dave gave me for my birthday, I'll be able to listen to the book I've been reading, The Heart of the Soul (http://www.zukav.com/book_heartofthesoul.html) by Gary Zukav and Linda Francis as I work . I love having both the hard copy and the audio-book at the same time. Listening to and reading the same book seem to give me different insights.

Giving thanks...

I have everything to be thankful for. Yesterday was my birthday; I spent it with Dave and friends. Today is Thanksgiving; I spent it with my father, Dave's Mother and more friends. What more could one ask?

Good friends, good food...

We just returned from the Toronto raw/living foods potluck held at Toronto Sprouts. As always, it was great to spend time with our 'raw' friends and meet new ones.
The dvd's that our friend Robin has been working on were available - can't wait to see them!
And it was great fun to share the nasturiums from our garden. This was our first year attempting to grow our own food and we had a 'bumper' crop of edible flowers. Smile.
Monday is Thanksgiving and the house is filled with the aroma of onion bread and apple cookies. They've been in the dehydrator all day. We're having squash soup, 'turkeyless turkey', broccoli with 'chedda', onion bread, raw pumpkin pie and apple pie cookies. Yum...

23 days to go...

With twenty-three days left until we leave to drive South to our boat in Indiantown FL, I've finally gotten my head around the fact that the time has come to prepare. I realized earlier this week that in the same way that I procrastinate beginning the process of getting ready to come home from our boat in the Spring, I've been procrastinating getting ready to head South.
Being a Libra, I'm something of a 'home body' and usually pretty content wherever I am. When I'm here, I hate the thought of leaving my summer friends and when I'm in The Bahamas, I hesitate to say 'goodbye' to my winter friends. I suppose it's a form of greaving. And of course, I'm greaving the loss of my dear Uncle.
So to set things on a different course, I e-mailed some of my winter friends and re-established connections. Now, I'm looking forward to meeting them again and feel much better about the transition period that I'm currently in.
The other thing that helped was to begin tracking in my day book, what I'm doing each day to prepare in the same way that I track what we do each day in the Spring when we're putting the boat away for the summer. It's been helpful to look back on my notes from the previous year in hopes of making the process easier each time we go 'round the cycle.
So Rusty's been to see Dr. Julie and obtained his International Health Certificate which he needs in order to clear Customs in The Bahamas. He's normally the first to be accepted into the country. Smile. And we have enough kitty litter to last until May and six months worth of organic garlic from my friend's organic garden.
Today, we had our teeth cleaned (Dr. Julie said Rusty's could wait until Spring) and we said 'goodbye' to Rennie, a friend whom we haven't seen since last summer. In previous years, we laughed about the 'welcome home party' coming close to turning into the 'bon voyage party' but this year it really happened.
I still can't believe the ramifications of living one's life here in six months. By the time we have all of our routine health appointments, there doesn't seem to be alot of time left. It's quite the experience and was a surprise to both Dave and myself.
So day by day, we're getting ready...all good stuff! Bahamas here we come.