Author archive for: Jen Arbo
Arts & Culture, Events, New Westminster »
This is from the local #NewWest knitting group, Knit 1, Take 2, that we’ve written about before. They’re takin’ it outside! There sure is lots going on in this city on the 29th!
Needles will be flying this Sunday in Queen’s Park as New Westminster’s community knitting group, Knit 1, Take 2, celebrates national Knit in the Park Day. Knitters of all levels will gather near the covered picnic area from 12-4 pm on Sunday, August 29th, for knitting, laughs and some yarn-inspired fun. Everyone …
New Westminster, Pets, Queen's Park »
Hey fellow #NewWest dog people! Did you know there is a whole day dedicated to dogs having fun and playing silly games in our fair city? That’s right! the 11th Annual Doggy Fun Day is coming up on Sunday August 29th at the playing field just above the dog off-leash area in Queens Park. The action happens from noon to 3PM.
Events include the Royal City Rockets Dog Agility Team putting on a show at 12:30pm and 2:30pm, displays and prize draws, and long time favourite doggy games: egg and spoon …
Shopping »
This has been reposted from my personal blog. I’d like to invite you to add your favorite local “someones” to the comments! Tell us what makes them your go-to person or business.
Here at the Arbolog, we work hard to try and practice reducing, reusing, refusing, and repairing before we get to recycling, because as far as I am concerned, the jury is out on whether recycling really does lower my carbon footprint. To that end, I’ve spent a long time finding people capable of repairing things. When you live …
Health, New Westminster »
I participated in a focus group this past Tuesday night to help improve the website for New Westminster Parks, Culture, and Recreation and part of our “homework” prior to the evening was to troll around on the NWPCR website to get a better idea of what worked and what didn’t. It was while trolling around I discovered that the NWPCR department has put together a Spring Wellness Challenge to get us all up and at ‘em, dust off those wintery cobwebs, and get our collective butts moving. Here’s a little …
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Neighbourhoods, New Westminster, Parks »
I’ve spent the past three or four months deeply involved in the process of selling our townhouse and buying a house; a real house, with a yard, and a non-matching-with-your-neighbour-front-door and, importantly, no strata council. It’s been an extremely complex process complete with volatile mood swings and nail biting moments but all, as they say, has come out in the wash and sometime in July I will be saying goodbye to my beloved Brow of the Hill and jumping rather headfirst into a new neighbourhood I know only secondhand: Sapperton.
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Events, Growing up in NW, History »
The Bluebird Dairy corner store, long an icon at 8th Street and 4th Avenue, was unceremoniously demolished today. I feel a bit sad. Long ago, as a young early 20s single woman-about-town, I used to rent the top floor of that big brown house next to the Bluebird. And I bought a huge amount of my groceries at the little corner store. I came to rely on the Bluebird. The staff became familiar faces.
On September 11, 2001, I was on my way to work, and stopped in at the Bluebird …
Downtown, Issues, NW in the news, Parks »
I know some people out there aren’t on board with the City of New Westminster’s decision a while back to purchase the land along the waterfront of the Fraser River. But, like the Olympics, the decision was made, it’s inevitable, and you either have to quietly rage about it or just get on with trying to enjoy it.
Admittedly, I’ve always been one of the supporters of the decision to purchase the land and do something – anything – with it. I can’t stand looking at the wasteland that is that …
Environment »
New Westminster residents receiving their electricity bills this week will get a special little insert featuring none other than His Worship Wayne Wright cajoling us to take action and join Team Power Smart, and reduce our electricity consumption by 10%.
Most BC Hydro customers have already been asked to do the same, but those of us here in New West with our quirky independent utility department haven’t yet received the usual BC Hydro mailouts. As an incentive to BC Hydro customers, they are eligible for a $75 rebate if they commit …
Growing up in NW, Lifestyle, New Westminster »
You know when you have a friend coming to town and they say “You gotta show me all the sights! What do you do in your town?” and you list off all the cool and fun things that makes your hometown fun and interesting and exciting?
Well, I’m going to admit today that some of the items that makes New Westminster famous I’ve never experienced. I’ve lived here for almost 15 years (except for that year where we lived just off Cambie and I hated every single second of it) and …
New Westminster, Restaurants »
Will, Briana, and I found ourselves with some toddler free time this past weekend, and after mistakenly planning to hit up Perogy Night (it’s this coming Friday, people!) we ended up at The Orange Room. This simple place has been described as “the closest thing New Westminster has to hip” and has also played host to one of our tweet-ups, prompting Haiku Empress and guest poster Marcy Koopmans to refer to our gathering at the Orange Room as the ”least awkward meet up of mostly total strangers that I’ve ever been to.”
Last May, Briana …
New Westminster »
He walks the streets in our neighbourhood, shuffle shuffle shuffle, unkempt hair and shabby dirty clothes, eyes cast downward scanning scanning, always scanning. He’s looking for discarded ends of cigarettes while out on his binning runs – although nicotine is not the only habit Lottery Man has.
I didn’t notice Lottery Man before I was home during the day – Lottery Man is a diurnal being, and unlike a lot of binners, prefers to do his rounds by sunlight. Lottery Man lives somewhere near me, and he bins in the garbage cans …
Health, Hyack your Health, New Westminster »
Cough cough, hack hack. Sound familiar?
I quit smoking October 1, 2003 and have never smoked since. I had decided I didn’t want to turn 30 and still be a smoker – 12 years at a pack a day had taken its toll on me – I had a continual hack, I couldn’t smell a thing and my fingers were an embarrassing shade of yellow – so I gave myself a 6 month cushion before that pivotal birthday and picked a day and quit. Sounds simple, right?
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Hyack the Holidays »
There’s a million green gifts out there, and an even larger number of gifts pretending to be green but really, with huge carbon footprints and huge consumptive and wasteful histories. Green really is the new black.
We’re selecting a few green goodies you might not necessarily see in your average Green Gift Guide in the mass media- and a few goodies special to New West and Tenth to the Fraser.
Homegrown right here in New Westminster is the Biggest Little Garden in Town project. Originally designed to bring fresh produce to apartment-dwelling …
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Hyack the Holidays, New Westminster »
I am the singular regular Tenth to the Fraser contributor who loves sports. I’m a hockey fan – primarly Vancouver Giants but I’d take tickets to the Canucks, the Chillwack Bruins, the Abbotsford Heat, or more or less anything at our local arenas. I’m also a former soccer player, coach, and referee of both women’s and girls’ soccer here in New Westminster. I like organized sports – I think they build valuable skills like working with a team, being cooperative, attaining goals, and friendly competition. New Westminster offers many options in the …
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Hyack the Holidays, Shopping »
It started off as a brainstorming session in which the editorial staff were sitting around ruminating about shopping locally over a glass of wine (or four). We started coming up with our favourites here in New West, stores that are hidden treasures and gems of awesomeness and started feeling pretty good about not having to leave the city to find a gift for everyone on your list. That conversation has evolved into a special series we’re calling Hyack the Holidays that we will be kicking off today. We invite Tenth …
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Growing up in NW, New Westminster, Parenting »
The weather we’ve been having lately has prompted me to search my brain a bit to find indoor things we can do here at Chez Arbo. My Nana used to be a whiz with the crafty stuff and I have extremely fond memories of either receiving something she had made, participating in making something with her, or going and checking out what other people had made together with her. I was also a Brownie and a Girl Guide (and later a Pathfinder and a Ranger leader) and so some of …
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