Winter walking

Away from the roads with their cars and buses and their blackened slush, out in the ravines that reach into the city’s innards, or along the boardwalk on the east end, where one can hear clearly the crisp, white world of winter.
 

“I met him at a party…”

“…he said the sweetest things”
 

With a vacuum flask of coffee or hot chocolate tucked under the arm, a pocketful of chocolate bars, some smoke for the trail, an escape into nature need not be an all-day affair.

“I was lonely and naive”
 

Some of my favourite interactions with winter nature are steps from a bus stop and a half hour from home, close enough to retreat if the weather turns too bad and still far from the drudgeries of sub-zero living to enliven me, waken yearnings for adventure, help me sift thoughts into idle and actionable piles.
 

“I guess that’s why I believed every word.”

Counting down with advent calendars

The countdown to Christmas is well and truly underway, and all the candles of the Hanukkah menorah have been lit. It’s time to start  unwrapping the various strains to be found in your cannabis advent calendar.

Those on sale here and here would make great gifts for those who use a little green to lift their holiday spirits.

Ceci n’est pas un pipe, officier!

The new Quebec government followed through on its election campaign promise to raise the legal cannabis consumption age to 21 (from 18 previously, which is also the federal minimum).

Makes one wonder if the Coalition Avenir Quebec was thinking about keeping imagined hordes of American weekend visitors in check when it decided to change the law.

But bordering Maine (where recreational use is legal), New Hampshire (decriminalised for up to 3/4 ounce), Vermont (legal recreational market), and New York (legal medicinal market), Quebec doesn’t have neighbours in dire need of a border dash to get their fix.

The new law will also prohibit consumption in all public places, including parks and streets. As pointed out by the mayor of Montreal, where 60 percent of the city’s residents rent and therefore can be denied the right to smoke by landlords, the province’s hard line could mean there’s nowhere for residents to consume a legal product. That’s crazy.

Perhaps the restrictions will at least help la belle province to better handle its supply problems, with government dispensaries reduced to four-day a week schedules due to supply shortages.

Diary of a pot plants - week two

We’re taking a shortcut to cannabis growing success with clones from a friend! While we’re still hopeful our seeds might pop, it’s always much easier to start from a clone.

Which begs the obvious question; what is a clone?

In short, it’s what your grandma might call a cutting or a clipping. It is a section of an existing plant that can be separated from its mother and propagate itself. It is genetically identical to the plant it is taken from, so it’s a useful method for replicating a bud to which you take a shining.

The other way (the one we started out with, and will continue with) is via pollinated seeds, which are genetic hybrids of the two parent plants. The downside of those process is you still have to separate out the female plants (the only ones that produce flower) whereas with cloning you can be assured of creating only female plants.

Until next time,

Emma and Carolina