Mexico, Junk Food Labels - A Great Approach

 

Short Break on a Long Beach

Todos Santos Mexico

Healthy Choices! Could this be at least partially the result of the Newish junk food labeling requirements in Mexico? I suspect the answer is yes.

Too many calories, too much saturated fat, too much salt. Yeah, hard pass.

Oh look! This won 5 stickers. Hard pass.

Too many calories, sugar, saturated fat. Maybe I'll snack on some carrots instead.

Just back from a short visit to San José del Cabo and Todos Santos in Baja California, Mexico. The towns were lovely, the people warm and welcoming, the beaches awe inspiring.

Visiting local grocery stores, I was struck by the junk food warning labels. To help fight obesity and a number of health problems known to be caused or made worse by poor diet choices, the Mexican government implemented this labeling requirement in October of 2021. I was struck by the labels, and I also noted what people had in their carts. Wow! No Coke, no chips, no cookies-- a lot of fruit, some bottles of water, fish...

I have to wonder why in the world Canada (my country) has not noted this exceptional legislation and copied it. It's simple, and does not cost the population anything (unlike taxing junk food), leaving the choice to the consumer (and to the manufacture in that they are free to improve their ingredients to get some, or all, of the black stop signs off their product). I think it takes some boldness (read low intelligence, ha) to grab something on the shelf with 4, 5, or, gasp, 6 black stop signs. This is a good thing. The health issues caused by poor diet cause not just misery for the individual, but society as a whole (we all pay for sick, disabled people).

Come on Canada! Get with this.

Post Christmas Rush Coast Chimes

 

Although it never quite got to this point, sometimes the

Christmas rush felt like this.

For the past few years, Coast Chimes (my wind chime company) has been steadily busy year round. But the month or so before Christmas is crazy busy. Now, with the 2023 Christmas rush over, it's time to breathe and to do essential chores.

The chores include restocking. Everything I do is completely handmade, and takes time to make. I don't have time during the rush season, so stock gets depleted. It is with eagerness that I approach having time to immerse myself in the creative process, and get my hands dirty again. That said, while I will be making a lot of nice, new things, it may be a some time before many of those start to appear on my website (Coast Chimes), and on Etsy. This is because for the next several months we have a grey sky, drooping rotting plants in the garden, and rain-- not ideal for product photographs. Some new creations will appear, but many may wait for bluer skies.

The chores also includes website improvements. I've already speeded the site up somewhat, improved certain under-the-hood features, and generally worked, and will continue to work, to provide a very nice experience for my customers. There is always more to do, but it is a nice site and seems to function well.

Finally, I definitely will take a little more time than usual for myself. All year, everyday, I take an hour (sometimes longer) from each day to hike, bike, or read on the beach. Right now I will enjoy a bit more 'time to breathe' and, just maybe, even take a short holiday.

Thanks very much, all you supporters of handmade quality, enjoyers of art wind chimes. Best wishes for 2024!

My Type of Summer Holiday: Sunshine Coast, BC

Not Exactly Crowded
Beach Sunday, Sunshine Coast, BC

Being Fortunate enough to live in a very beautiful area, the summer attracts a lot of tourists. Going to downtown Gibsons or Sechelt any day of the summer, but especially on weekends, you would think it would be impossible to get away from the crowd. Not so!

Yes, if you just park your vehicle and expect seclusion, you will likely be a little disappointed. But pretty much take a five minute walk along the shoreline in any direction, and more than likely you will be away from it all. The entire shoreline is public property, so don't fret that you may be trespassing, because you are not.

Yesterday, Sunday, possibly the warmest, most beautiful afternoon yet of the summer, I zipped down to the closest bike rack near the beach, locked up, walked past the dozen or so people who did not want to walk for five minutes (or who don't mind a bit of a crowd) and around the corner found this lovely stretch of sand and pebble beach with not a soul in sight. I spent two hours reading, dreaming, swimming, sunning, and no one even walked past. So peaceful, so enjoyable.

This is my primary way of taking my summer vacation. No driving for hours, no hotels, no tents, just a relaxing few hours each sunny afternoon. I get up very early and work for around six hours, take my break, and then perhaps work for another hour or two. Rinse and repeat. As I said, most enjoyable.

Time Off, Fireweed Jelly

Fireweed Blossom Picking
Sunshine Coast BC

My job is a pleasure. But I do enjoy some time off. All year long, I make a point of going for a walk or hike during the day, just an hour or so, which is refreshing, especially in the winter rains! But really I am waiting for summer, with blue skies, warm ocean. My holiday time is a couple of hours each nice afternoon, walking or biking down to one of my favourite beaches, sprawling out with a good book in the shade, taking dips. Lovely.

Some good, long hikes are also always a preferred summer time-out. Lately we made several trips up to a large fireweed patch we had our eyes on. The first couple of trips, the flowers were not quite open. The last time was perfect for picking, and we got our ten cups for fireweed jelly (see below).

I first stumbled across fireweed jelly somewhere on the internet-- perhaps Instagram or Pinterest, and it immediately caught my eye. This was several years ago, and it has been on the to-do list ever since. I am so pleased to have finally accomplished the making of this treat, as it is absolutely gorgeous. The color is so intense, it almost looks artificial. However, nothing could be more natural.

While trying to steel a couple of hours a day for my 'break,' I feel the pressure of attempting to keep my stock of wind chimes and suncatchers up, and, indeed, increasing stock for the fast approaching Sunshine Coast Art Crawl. That's all going okay, but I need to keep working really hard to get to where I wish to be. It will happen. Even with my daily mini-vacations.

Fireweed Jelly

Kaleidoscope Wind Chime
at Coast Chimes

Back from Holiday, Galloping Goose Trail, Vancouver Island

Galloping Goose Bike Trail
Vancouver Island Holiday

Enjoying a Peaceful Break

Specialized Turbo Vado
First Long Bike Trip

It's hard for me to take time off from making wind chimes and suncatchers: I love my work! It is especially hard at this time of year; as the USA and Eastern Canada thaw out, and people turn to decorating their outdoor space, and it gets busy here at Coast Chimes. But everyone needs a break. A bike trip proved ideal, especially on Vancouver Island which turns out to be very bike-friendly. From downtown Victoria to the Galloping Goose nature trail, bikes often get priority on Vancouver Island— very different from most of the Sunshine Coast! My new Specialized Turbo Vado performed flawlessly, and the Buzzrack Scorpion H2 car rack was a real treat to use.

We meandered, enjoyed nature, enjoyed the gorgeous weather, saw new things (Bouchart Gardens— worth it!), and also had some fine meals out.

Now back to it. I have a very long to-do list, starting with firing back up my website and Etsy, and immediately producing many sets of copper and brass chimes (I am definitely behind!). Oh! I'll still take time each day for a nice walk / bike ride— that's just he way I work.

Abbotsford Tulip Festival, Bicycle Holiday

Abbotsford Tulip Festival, 3 million Tulips

After 50 years of not riding a bike (very bad accident soured me on the whole biking thing), my wife, who adores bicycling, finally convinced me to get back on the saddle. Oh! Also, I love technology (not so much hills) and I decided I might like e-biking. I do!

I got a Specialized Turbo Vado 2.0, and find it so much fun to not break my legs going up our numerous steep local hills. I also researched and found a car bike rack that could support her heavy step-through steel frame comfort bike and my even heavier step-through e-bike. The Buzzrack Scorpion H, available in Canada at the Bike Zone with free shipping, is an absolutely brilliant rack, extremely stable, that locks on the hitch, and locks the bikes on the rack-- truly a great deal at $329 CAD. If you live on the Sunshine Coast, I can not over recommend Elphinstone Cycles for bikes: they know their stuff, and are so nice and helpful.

So I put the bikes on the back of our car, and off we went for our short biking holiday. The Poco Trail was such a pleasure! Next day a biking trail in Fort Langley (the Fort to Fort trail) was even more fun. Kilometers of trails with no traffic made me realize how impoverished the Sunshine Coast is, as far as road cycling. Here we have world class mountain biking with rugged trails galore, but to go anywhere urban is fairly risky, with cars kissing your handlebars: A little too anxiety producing. So to get away to these purpose built biking trails was a real treat.

A short stay in the city at a very comfortable Airbnb, excellent meals out, great biking, fun tulip festival, made for an enjoyable break. The ease of securing our bikes on the car means I am already looking forward to another biking holiday in the near future.

Below is a picture of me, on my e-bike, after so many years away from biking. I like it!

Yours Truly, Clearly Enjoying My E-bike

Snowy Beautiful BC Holiday, Back at Work Now

Backcountry, Beautiful Snowy British Columbia
Near Apex Mountain

British Columbia truly is beautiful, and a short holiday in the snow made this crystal clear once again. We spent 5 nights at Apex Mountain, with some of the group X-country skiing, others downhill skiing, others snowshoeing, and still others simply hiking without any special equipment. Everyone enjoyed everyday.

I personally was thrilled to discover numerous trails that had been packed by snowshoers where I could walk quite easily without sinking too deeply, and without marring the trail for future skiers and snowshoers. One day we went on a nearly 4 hour hike, and we never saw another soul.

It was really cold (minus 17 C, or 1 F), and sometimes snowing, but hiking was an easy way to warm up, and infact get warm enough to remove gloves, unzip jackets. Absolutely awesome!

Now back home, and the work begins. I need to put my whole workshop back together (it has been stored away since the big art crawl back in mid-October). My stock of wind chimes and suncatchers is seriously depleted after the art crawl, and the Christmas rush. Oh, I will  have busy days ahead! But I am looking forward to making new, beautiful works.

There is still a good selection on my website, if you feel like adding something beautiful to your life, or a friends life: Coast Chimes. Happy 2018!

Thank You, Fans of Handmade!

A Few of the Boxes Shipped for
Christmas, 2017, Coast Chimes

A huge THANK YOU to all the fans of handmade, the fans of wind chimes, the fans of quality. The Christmas shopping season is traditionally the most important, or nearly the most important, period of the year for gaining the income I need to continue the work I do, and this year was the best ever! There will be a lot of smiles as people open their gifts this year, and find a beautiful one-of-a-kind wind chime or suncatcher!

I'll be taking a short break, catching my breath from all the packing and all the hiking boxes down to the post office. And then, early in 2018, I will be setting my workshop back up (it has been stored in a back room ever since out mid-October Sunshine Coast Art Crawl), and returning to serious work to replenish my stock.

I wish you all a splendid holiday season, and a most happy new years!

Short Holiday, Jacksonville Florida, New York City

Jacksonville Florida

Brooklyn Bridge, New York City

Just back from a quick visit to my sister and brother-in-law in Jacksonville Florida, and then three nights in New York City. The contrast is dramatic, as seen in the two pictures above.

It was terrific fun to visit with family in Florida. New York City impressed me enormously. We saw the play, The Book of Mormon, and that was so much fun. MOMA was a treat. The food, the accommodation, the liveliness-- all wonderful. I'll be heading back to New York City as soon as possible. What a remarkable city!

Back from New Mexico

New Mexico met and exceeded my expectations: Fabulous!

Back from a three week drive down to New Mexico and straight to more work than I have ever faced before. Busy!

The trip to New Mexico was fabulous. We camped the whole way (except for one night). As usual, I was so impressed by the USA campsites: far better than almost any I have been to in Canada. In the USA, they get it-- many people like to camp in tents. In Canada, almost all the sites are set up for vehicles. You get a hard patch of gravel that is usually almost impossible to pound tent stakes into. You see many more people camping in tents in the USA than in Canada, and I suspect that providing these tent friendly sites is one reason.

Anyway, New Mexico was even more amazing than I had hoped, and I had high hopes! Oregon was as always top notch, too.

When I came back, I had some orders lined up from things that sold while I was away, and then more and more came in. There is a corporate order for 21 wind chimes that I am currently working like crazy to get done, and also a wholesale order that I need to get done ASAP.

So work, and more work, and it 's all good, because the weather is great, the days are long, and it's all going to get done.

Hawaii, Maui

Click on the image to see it larger

North of Kapalua, Maui. Not your usual laid back beach scene.

Back from a most excellent ten days on Maui, Hawaii. I had been there about thirty years ago, and had fond memories. That rather concerned me, because sometimes going back to a place you enjoyed can be a disappointment. Things change, and often not for the better.

I had heard and read that Maui had become much more developed and a much busier place. True enough, there certainly were many more large resorts. But I found it still easy to get away from it all, and even the main beaches not very crowded.

What a beautiful, beautiful place. I actually found it much nicer than my memories, which says a lot, since I had such great memories. The weather was perfect; it was not as hot and humid as I recalled— just a delightful warmth. And there were no bugs etc. (I recall sand fleas being a minor issue last time). Everything was so clean; there was almost no garbage or litter around, and especially the beaches were spotless-- I remember more trash around last time.

In short, an absolutely ten out ten little holiday. Now back to work.

Montana

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Glacier National Park, Montana

Just back from a quick trip to Idaho and Montana— Great!

Last year we visited Washington and Oregon, and that was one of the best holidays I ever had. So it is no surprise that when planning this year's little holiday I chose the USA again. And again, we had such a fabulous time!

What makes it so great? The tent camping is almost always way better than what we have found in British Columbia, or anywhere in Canada for that matter. Gas is way less expensive. Some other things are much cheaper, too (like many campsite fees).

Last but certainly not least, the people are so friendly and helpful. Just ask a question or look a little lost, and someone will go out of their way to help out. Just about everyone has a smile and a kind word, and that is really nice.

Now back home, and back to work. I have a very difficult special order to put together. And then I plan to make some extra-special items for the new 'Artist's Pick' page on my website.

Busy Times

Click on the picture to see it larger

Flowing Copper Beach Glass Inspired
Wind Chime
For information, or to buy this wind chime, visit CoastChimes.com

I'm thinking there must be something wrong with me. Everyone I know is either on holiday, or pretty much lazying around at home. But I have never been busier. Seven days a week, twelve hours a day (at least!). If I hired someone and made them work like that, I guess they would arrest me for employee abuse.

First there is the chimney repair, and then the seven cords of firewood to stack. Lots of things have been selling, so there is all the packing and shipping and website updating. Then there is the challenge of making new things to replace those that sold, and also making enough copper chime bottoms so I am set for when the next wind chime sells. There is all the glass that needs work. And so on, and so on.

Oh well, at least I like my work. And I seem to work well under pressure-- Look at that neat flowing copper wind chime I made the other day!

And I do get a holiday soon. One full week. We are going to Montana-- Glacier Country. Can't wait!

Happy Holidays!

My last beach glass inspired 'kaleidoscope' wind chime... until I have the chance to make some more. For more information, or to buy this amazing wind chime, Click Here.

Wishing all my customers and friends all the best for the holidays, and for 2008. Thank you for making 2007 so special! Thank you for all your kind words, and for supporting me in my artistic endeavors. I appreciate it!