What I would like to see here is Canadian sourced yarn.
Canadian spun yarn from Canadian sourced fibres do exist but are harder to find.
There are also many small Canadian dyers but unfortunately many are buying imported merino yarn that is not ethically sourced.
There are lots of great yarn stores across Canada selling lovely imported yarns as this one is. Especially when this stores’ promoted partners, such as Pacific Yarns, are based in the USA.
I’m sincerely not sure what promoting them does for buying Canadian. I don’t see a focus on promoting Canadian yarn on their main page and the brands listed aren’t specifically Canadian.
Spinrite used to be a Canadian yarn maker but it’s more complicated now, and many of their yarns are available at big box stores.
Perhaps because there’s a big dose of misogyny intertwined with the critique of American Exceptionalism.
Think about how the song would play with genders reversed.
I think you’ll find that many store cards are really Visa or Mastercard.
Many Canadian store cards used to be owned by the stores. Some of the department store ones were very profitable.
However, many firms ‘rationalized’ by getting out of what was seen as a financial services business line to focus on their core retail. Weston’s with PC Financial is an exception - but for many consumers there are other reasons not to go with Loblaws/PC branded financial products.
There are, or at least were, Canadian cast iron makers.
Unfortunately, they seem to rely on Facebook.
See: https://castironcanada.com/
Also, it’s not clear which of these businesses are actually still operating. For example, Bristol Iron Works in Huntsville ON has a danger flagged website and a FB page that hasn’t been updated in years.
Also, you don’t want to be looking to log into dodgy wifi when travelling with a burner phone to another country.
Physical guides are more secure and don’t require downloading to a burner device.
I believe one or two of the new senators have joined Mastodon as well but haven’t seen much from them yet.
Mastodon is very techy. It’s getting good traction there.
I love making samples, so working up 8 x 8” / 20 x 20 cm samples of a lot of different stitches is fun for me.
There’s an old Bernat pattern that I have for an Afghan made of squares of very many different classic crochet stitches. It’s a great practice and skill building project.
If you choose a good palette of solid colour yarn, it works out nicely. If that kind of throw isn’t the kind of thing you like in your home, they’re always a gift or charity option.
Another excellent European product is Weleda from Germany.
We switched to that for lip balm because Burt’s Bees has soy in it and we had a family member with a sensitivity.
For hand and body cream, we’re just trying Nova Scotia Fisherman now. So far, after just a couple of weeks, it’s great.
For facial skin care, have been using Maritime Naturals for a couple of years. Excellent product.
Haven’t tried this one.
Can recommend BioVert. We’ve used their fragrance free laundry detergent for many years.
Nature Clean, another Canadian company, has oxy bleach and stain remover strips that we like too.
Ling is a tool for advanced learning in my experience.
Excellent at what it does though.
Camino is a Canadian brand brings in fair-trade and organic chocolate. Gluten-free also.
They have semi-sweet, bittersweet, unsweetened and vegan white chocolate chips.
https://camino.ca/product-category/baking-products/chocolate-chips/
Available widely.
Although you didn’t ask, there is a fantastic Canadian cake decorating brand that has sprinkles etc. Many are free of major allergens too.
Parksville is likely far more commercial and developed than you recall.
But the beaches remain.
Here are some suggestions with a kids lens:
Vancouver Island
-
get mid Island then over to the west coast
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Parksville - large sandy beaches to dig in
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ferry to Denman Island and then to Hornsby Island - fossils! https://hornbynaturalhistory.com/category/fossils/
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Qualicum Beach - gravelly and lots of seniors, but a great place to see bald eagles picking up clams and oysters, dropping them to break them open and diving to eat.
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Cathedral grove on Hwy to Port Alberni, accessible old growth forest
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Alberni - old forestry interpretation site with a logging train in the Cherry Creek area
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Drive to Tofino - an adventure in itself
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Long Beach
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whale watching
If you go to Vancouver, many of the classic stops are worth it
- the Aquarium
- Whale watching
- Grouse mountain gondola and mountain top
- Capilano suspension bridge and the fish hatchery and environs
- Seabus
- UBC museum of anthropology
Mapping and confirming the existence of a system larger than the world renowned Castleguard Cave system is the story here.
I think that may be US labeling still in use in Vermont and New York.
Canadian maple syrup hasn’t been graded that way for some time. We’re in a syrup producing region and get it locally from producers.
That seems to be regional.
Perhaps there’s some interprovincial barriers that we’re not aware of.
Growing up on the west coast, real maple syrup was a luxury.
Where we are now in Eastern Ontario, we buy it by the litre or even by the case. Our teens pour it freely all over their plates.
We use the medium or amber at the table, and the darkest we can get for baking.
Grade B is now called amber, I believe.
But whatever, the darker coloured syrup has more flavour and is better value.
We picked up some good deals from the promotion this week.
Several Star Trek licensed games are on Steam, now at a significantly discounted price for the annual Star Trek Day celebration.
These include the MMP Star Trek Online, but also single player games Star Trek Bridge Crew and Star Trek Resurgence (a choose your own path role play game).
We’d waited until Resurgence came to Steam, because we did want to buy it from Epic, but decided to be even more patient and wait for a sale so we could get it for our teens as well. I’ve been playing in parallel with one of our teens and debating the impacts of our very different choices.
I have had Bridge Crew since 2022, but we got copies for the teens yesterday. One is into it. It requires running an Ubisoft account synched to Steam which can be annoying, but otherwise G2G.
Having reached my exasperation on the total lack of information from Bell Media on a Canadian release, I asked @GoodAaron@mastodon.social if he or the Hagemans could share any information. Here is his reply on Mastodon.
It’s great to have EPs who will engage with us.
I’m still gearing up my recipes for a Star Trek Prodigy Soirée for the premiere!
In case you haven’t seen this, CBS entertainment sponsored a social media influencer to develop watch party ideas for the Prodigy Season 1 finale Supernova Soirée .
I’ve been experimenting and building on some of these ideas for the premiere of season two. One of Canada’s favourite ice cream brands has this interesting suggestion for A triple-berry yogurt sorbet float punch that seems very Star Trek Prodigy themed.
Julia Phelps, Paramount Global's executive VP and chief communications and corporate marketing officer, is leaving the company.
More departures of former Viacom senior executives from Paramount Global in the wake of Baklish’s firing.
The Directors Guild of Canada (Ontario) ‘Hot List’ compilation of Ontario-based production information has been updated with a new CBS Studios show ‘Ivory Tower’ to begin Accounting & Art Department preproduction in March.
While all TAS episodes had some kind of moral lesson, S1 E10 was an outright criticism of substance use.
M’Ress and Scotty, unwittingly exposed, end up enamoured then incensed with one another. One is never sure how different that is from a Caitian’s usual romantic style.
Chapel comes off badly in this one. As Spock puts it “A few moments of love, paid for with several hours of hatred.” It’s all the more poignant given SNW’s deepening of their backstory.
James MacKinnon has doing one more feature film as the last thing on his Star Trek bucket list.
As much as most of us have long had any remaining interest in a fourth Kelvin movie long exhausted by the endless repetition of hype and failure, there does seem to be more confirmation of significant creative differences on the script that was in development in 2022.
James MacKinnon, longtime makeup designer, shared some context during an interview on his work on Picard and future ambitions. He explained that he was hired by Matt Shankman in 2022 to work on preproduction but was fired after a week when the work shut down.
> “We were supposed to shoot in the middle of [2022] and it was supposed to come out the following year [2023], but I think a script rewrite went in a different direction.”
This aligns with previous comments from Zoe Saldaña that creative issues around the script were a factor in the movie not going ahead.
I have realized that I need a new editing tool that will let me use panels with more than 6 frames.
A private message with a recommendation would be appreciated sincerely.
Anyone interested?
I can see so much potential for guidance from a telepathic Aenar engineer & an avianoid counsellor.
The all-new original series from CBS Studios will follow the adventures of a new class of Starfleet cadets!
While there was an announcement shortly before the WGA strike, and Alex Kurtzman confirmed the writers room is back up and at work during an NYCC panel, Paramount+ is moving forward on promotional information about the forthcoming new ‘Starfleet Academy’ show.
Will be keeping an eye out for information about preproduction design work starting up in Ontario.
My contribution to the fediverse’ #MakeYourOwnMoopsyMonth challenge.
Be gentle, I’m a novice meme-creator.
It’s October, and Trek’s new adorable horror is being unfairly usurped in trendiness by a character who appeared in all of two TOS episodes (even if the grimness of his personal backstory rivals La’an Noonian-Singh’s).
So, Moopsy + Kevin memes. . . I dare you.
We know from Kurtzman’s messaging at NYCC recently that Michelle Yeoh put her Academy Award star power towards ensue that her Section 31 ‘movie event’ moves forward on Paramount+.
Checking in on the Director’s Guild of Canada Ontario round up of information for its members (Hot List), there’s been an interesting update.
While ‘Dovercourt’ (working title alias for the direct to streaming movie) still has a bold ‘POSTPONED’ due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, it’s moved from the ‘Preproduction stage’ section of the list to ‘Production.’
What does this suggest?
It would seem that the key preproduction production design work in Toronto has been able to be completed since the WGA strike ended.
Like SNW, the crews in Toronto are basically ready to go into production once the actors’ strike is settled. Logistically, it’s not entirely clear that both could shoot at the same time as they share some of the same crews, but it is encouraging.
I’ve been enjoying the very short stories by Treklit authors in the recent issues of Titanbooks Star Trek Explorer magazine.
I see that they’re promoting anthologies of short stories, with a new third one due to be released soon. However, it’s not clear if these are just compilations of previously published stories from the magazine, new content or a mix of both.
Anyone have the earlier releases?
StarfleetAcademy ‘will be funny’ according to Alex Kurtzman.
He’s also confirmed at the NYCC panel today that the writer’s room is back at work after the WGA strike.
Given the heavier #thriller background (Absentia) of one showrunner Gaia Violo, and youth supernatural CV (TheMagicians; NancyDrew) of Noga Landau the other, sounds as though Tawny Newsome is there to bring some lightness and fun.
I’m really looking forward to seeing more in the 32nd century StarTrek.
I’m also pleading 🙏 let David Cronenberg’s Kovich be involved.
I would love so much to have some of The Magicians mysterious vibe with so true humour mixed in. Glad to know that they’re going for something less earnest than the tone of Discovery for this show, it didn’t seem to be working in the Discovery episode with Tilly and the cadets.
StarTrek actors have a strong showing across the Hallmark movie offerings this year.
— Jonathan Frakes & Robert Picardo have supporting roles in ‘A Biltmore Christmas’
— Dan Jeannotte (Sam Kirk in StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds) is the lead in ‘Our Christmas Mural’
— Ronnie Rowe Jr (Lt Bryce in #StarTrekDiscovery) leads in Christmas with a Kiss’ (working title), a Mahogany Presents romance (Hallmark’s Black-focused line)
— Mira Kirschner (Amanda Grayson in #Discovery and #SNW) is the principal in a romance about a woman discovering her Jewish heritage in a 2022 movie ‘Love, Lights, Hanukkah! that will be rebroadcast this year.
William Shatner has announced a new spoken word album, ‘BILL,’ with guest features from Joe Jonas, Brad Paisley, and more.
Not sure we needed another album from Shatner but you have to admire his indefatigable creativity.
This one will feature Brad Paisley and Joe Jonas.
