(HealthCastle.com) It may seem way too early to start thinking about anything to do with winter, but when it comes to your garden, the end of summer marks the beginning of winter activities, from planning for your winter garden to harvesting your winter squash. Like their summertime cousin, zucchini, winter squash plants can be prolific. To make the most of your winter squash harvest, you’ll need to store the squash properly…
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(HealthCastle.com) Ah, Paris. The City of Lights – and croissants. And macarons. And cheese. Paris is well known as a foodie destination, but with so many wonderful foods to try, it can be tempting to overindulge. One great way to sample a number of French treats without going overboard (or blowing your budget) is to eat your way through the city’s many markets. Some markets have food stalls where you can enjoy your meal at a table. At others, you can gather supplies for a picnic-style lunch. If you’ve rented an apartment in Paris, you can shop the markets for a meal you’ll cook there. No matter what you choose to eat, you’ll be experiencing a little slice of local Paris life while eating some fantastic French food that’s easy on your wallet…
(HealthCastle.com) As summer reaches its peak, home gardens go into overdrive. If your garden produces more than you can use, there are many ways of preserving your harvest for later in the year. But your garden’s bounty can also be transformed into lovely edible gifts to share with friends and family. Homemade gifts may take a little more time and effort than just picking something up at the store – but they are an excellent way of showing your loved ones that you really care, and can save you quite a lot of money, too…
(HealthCastle.com) New York City. It’s a foodie paradise, and both top-notch restaurants and foodie tours abound. In the heart of a massive city, surrounded by concrete and steel, is it possible to connect with the land and find opportunities to explore local, natural foods? We found the answer is yes!
Odds are, you’ll eat more than a few memorable meals on any visit to NYC…
Living or travelling as a vegetarian is easy on the west coast of North America — which is where I’m used to doing it. But venture out of this well-defined comfort zone, and it gets a trifle less easy to manage.
The most challenging situation as a vegetarian is trying to explain — without the benefit of fluency in the local language — the very concept of vegetarianism in a society where it doesn’t make cultural sense…
Hotel yoga is, to put it kindly, a mixed bag. The idea is so tempting – stretching out the last of your stress and getting into full vacation mode, all without leaving your hotel.
Sometimes, that blissful vibe is exactly what you get. But sometimes, hotel yoga can be far from the idyllic picture you have in mind. It's tricky for hotels to cater to guests' wide range of yoga abilities and knowledge. I've found the tendency can be to veer into advanced territory so that guests feel they really "got†something out of that class – even if what they get is pretty far from zen…
(HealthCastle.com) Independence Day is a great time for parties picnics, potlucks, and barbecues. Unfortunately, these celebrations tend to be heavy on fat, salt, and sugar as we tear open bags of chips, bottles of soda (or beer), tubs of potato salad, and cartons of ice cream. This year, why not mix in some healthier options that show off your patriotic spirit by mirroring the red, white, and blue of the flag?…
Expedia has a series of short videos about how travel bloggers have “found their” meaningful travel moments. One of my favourites features Trish Friesen (aka TripStyler) talking about how an early travel experience to Mexico shaped her view of travel — and of life. This got me thinking about the key moments in my own travel experience. Over the last five years, travel has become a fundamental part of who I am — as a writer, yes, but also as a person.
My “find yours” destination would have to be Paris. It’s the place my husband I return to again and again. It’s where we got engaged. It’s where we went on our honeymoon. I’ve written about Paris for iloho and for The Globe and Mail.
More specifically, my “find yours” place, the place that means more to me than any other travel destination, is the Pont des Arts. This was where my not-yet husband surprised me with a tiny lock he’d purchased at a local market, so we could join the tradition of lovers marking the permanence of their love by securing a lock to the bridge and throwing the keys into the river — something we’d seen on many trips, including our first, to Prague, years before. It’s where we returned a year later to mark our engagement with another lock, this time engraved with words that captured how we felt about the new journey we were embarking on together. And a year after that, it’s where we returned again to look for our lock, only to find the entire panel we’d secured it to had been removed. We thought perhaps our connection to the bridge was gone, though we consoled ourselves knowing our keys were still at the bottom of the Seine. And later that trip, we found the bridge still had a hold on us when the Batobus we were riding crashed right into it — quite a feat given the flat-calm waters and utterly straight path the Batobus takes along the river. Youch — that left quite a bruise.
If I were to have a “find yours” video, it would surely be the story of that bridge, and how it has featured in my life. What did I find, exactly? I found connection. First, of course, with my husband — and then, quite literally, with the bridge itself. It’s a special place. A place to which we will certainly return.
And really, isn’t finding connections what travel is all about? With a place, with the people who live there, with the people who travel with you — connections make travel (and life) richer and more meaningful.
Ah, it’s surely time to return to Paris soon. I wonder what the Pont des Arts has in store for us next…
I’m excited to announce that starting with the September issue, I’ll be taking on the role of Editor at Ageless Living Magazine while current Editor Liberty Craig steps away to welcome her new baby. It’s a great magazine produced right here in BC, and I’m thrilled to join the team to bring the latest information about living an ageless life to readers both in print and online. You can find the current issue and the archive of back issues at AgelessLivingMagazine.ca.
(HealthCastle.com) You may recently have heard about people protesting Kraft’s use of artificial colors in its Mac & Cheese noodles. Wondering why people are so upset – and whether you should be concerned? Let’s take a look at what’s really in those cheesy noodles, and how the U.S. version differs from the version sold in the UK…