What is an 'Old Grove' Forest

An old grove forest (more accurately known as an old-growth forest) is a forest that has developed over a long period of time often hundreds or even thousands of years without significant disturbance such as logging, agriculture, or major fires. These forests are rare and ecologically rich, often considered the most biologically diverse and complex ecosystems on land.

Key Characteristics of an Old-Growth Forest:

• Very large, old trees: Often centuries old and of varying species.

• Multi-layered canopy: Including tall trees, understory trees, shrubs, and ground cover.

• Dead trees and fallen logs: Both standing (called snags) and fallen, providing habitat and nutrients.

• Rich biodiversity: Home to rare and endangered plants, fungi, insects, birds, and mammals.

• Undisturbed soil: With complex fungal networks and carbon-rich layers built up over time.

• Natural regeneration: Trees regenerate naturally through seed dispersal, rather than planting.

Why They Matter:

• Carbon storage: Vital for climate stability.

• Biodiversity havens: Refuge for species that can't survive in managed forests.

• Water filtration: They protect watersheds and purify water sources.

• Cultural and spiritual significance: Especially to Indigenous peoples and conservationists.

In short, an old-growth forest is nature's cathedral, ancient, wild, and deeply important to both the planet and the human spirit.

Here are 10 remarkable old-growth forests around the world, including several from Canada, known for its vast and ancient wilderness:

1. Great Bear Rainforest – British Columbia, Canada

• One of the largest coastal temperate rainforests in the world

• Home to the rare white "Spirit Bear" (Kermode bear)

• Protected through agreements with Indigenous Nations and conservation groups

2. Avatar Grove – Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

• Famous for massive Western Red Cedars and Douglas firs

• Nicknamed for its otherworldly beauty

• Easily accessible near Port Renfrew

3. Daanbantayan Old-Growth Forest – Palawan, Philippines

• A lesser-known but highly biodiverse tropical forest

• Threatened by mining and logging

• Home to endemic species and limestone karst ecosystems

4. Tane Mahuta Forest – Waipoua Forest, New Zealand

• Home to Tāne Mahuta, the largest living Kauri tree (estimated 2,000 years old)

• Sacred to the Māori people

• Rare example of ancient subtropical rainforest

5. Clayoquot Sound – British Columbia, Canada

• UNESCO Biosphere Reserve

• Rich in cedar, fir, and hemlock

• Site of famous 1990s logging protests that helped protect old growth

6. Białowieża Forest – Poland/Belarus

• Europe’s last primeval forest

• Home to European bison

• UNESCO World Heritage Site with sections untouched for over 8,000 years

7. Yakushima Forest – Japan

• Ancient cedar forest with trees over 7,000 years old

• Inspiration for Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke

• Misty, mossy, and deeply spiritual

8. Temagami Forest – Ontario, Canada

• One of the last remaining stands of old-growth red and white pine

• Culturally significant to the Teme-Augama Anishnabai

• A battleground for Indigenous and environmental activism

9. Daintree Rainforest – Queensland, Australia

• One of the oldest tropical rainforests on Earth (estimated 180 million years)

• Coexists with the Great Barrier Reef

• Home to ancient plant lineages and endangered cassowaries

10. Tongass National Forest – Alaska, USA

• The largest national forest in the U.S.

• Temperate rainforest with giant Sitka spruce and hemlock

• Critical habitat for salmon, bears, and bald eagles

COPYRIGHT 2007-2025 Patti Friday b.1959.

Friday Thrift: Why Shopping Second-Hand and Vintage Through 'Tariff Hell' Makes Strategic Sense

Why Shopping Second-Hand and Vintage Through 'Tariff Hell' Makes Sense

In a world of rising costs, supply chain disruptions, and environmental concerns, second-hand and vintage shopping isn't just a quirky lifestyle—it’s a smart, sustainable rebellion against the modern retail machine. Especially when navigating the high prices and import duties of what many call "tariff hell."

Escape the Global Retail Markup Game

Global shipping delays, tariffs, and trade restrictions have made brand-new goods more expensive than ever. When you buy second-hand or vintage—especially locally or peer-to-peer—you bypass the import-tax trap entirely. No surprise duty fees, no long waits, no inflated costs from overseas vendors.

Better Quality, Less Guilt

Many vintage pieces were built to last—before fast fashion and planned obsolescence took over. Whether it's a wool coat from the 1960s or a mid-century teak chair, these items were made with craftsmanship, not mass production shortcuts. You get quality without supporting a throwaway culture.

Sustainable, Circular, and Conscious

Second-hand shopping is a powerful antidote to overconsumption. It keeps items out of landfills, reduces demand for new production, and supports a circular economy. Choosing used over new is one of the easiest ways to lower your carbon footprint.

Stand Out With Soul

Vintage and thrifted finds have stories, patina, character—something mass-market goods often lack. Your style becomes more authentic, more personal, and often more affordable than chasing trends at full price.

Tariff-Free Treasure Hunting

When global shopping feels like a minefield of surprise fees and delays, second-hand becomes a kind of freedom. Local thrift stores, vintage markets, and online resellers offer instant gratification and zero customs chaos.

Final Thought

Shopping second-hand and vintage isn’t just nostalgic—it’s strategic. In the face of “tariff hell,” it’s a clever way to reclaim autonomy, reduce waste, and invest in goods that have already stood the test of time.

COPYRIGHT 2007-2025 Patti Friday b.1959.

The Santa Ana by Joan Didion

"The Santa Ana" Los Angeles Notebook

There is something uneasy in the Los Angeles air this afternoon, some unnatural stillness, some tension. What it means is that tonight a Santa Ana will begin to blow, a hot wind from the northeast whining down through the Cajon and San Gorgonio Passes, blowing up sand storms out along Route 66, drying the hills and the nerves to flash point. For a few days now we will see smoke back in the canyons, and hear sirens in the night. I have neither heard nor read that a Santa Ana is due, but I know it, and almost everyone I have seen today knows it too. We know it because we feel it. The baby frets. The maid sulks. I rekindle a waning argument with the telephone company, then cut my losses and lie down, given over to whatever it is in the air. To live with the Santa Ana is to accept, consciously or unconsciously, a deeply mechanistic view of human behavior.

I recall being told, when I first moved to Los Angeles and was living on an isolated beach, that the Indians would throw themselves into the sea when the bad wind blew. I could see why. The Pacific turned ominously glossy during a Santa Ana period, and one woke in the night troubled not only by the peacocks screaming in the olive trees but by the eerie absence of surf. The heat was surreal. The sky had a yellow cast, the kind of light sometimes called “earthquake weather.” My only neighbor would not come out of her house for days, and there were no lights at night, and her husband roamed the place with a machete. One day he would tell me that he had heard a trespasser, the next a rattlesnake.

“On nights like that,” Raymond Chandler once wrote about the Santa Ana, “every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands’ necks. Anything can happen.” That was the kind of wind it was. I did not know then that there was any basis for the effect it had on all of us, but it turns out to be another of those cases in which science bears out folk wisdom. The Santa Ana, which is named for one of the canyons it rushers through, is foehn wind, like the foehn of Austria and Switzerland and the hamsin of Israel. There are a number of persistent malevolent winds, perhaps the best know of which are the mistral of France and the Mediterranean sirocco, but a foehn wind has distinct characteristics: it occurs on the leeward slope of a mountain range and, although the air begins as a cold mass, it is warmed as it comes down the mountain and appears finally as a hot dry wind. Whenever and wherever foehn blows, doctors hear about headaches and nausea and allergies, about “nervousness,” about “depression.”

In Los Angeles some teachers do not attempt to conduct formal classes during a Santa Ana, because the children become unmanageable. In Switzerland the suicide rate goes up during the foehn, and in the courts of some Swiss cantons the wind is considered a mitigating circumstance for crime. Surgeons are said to watch the wind, because blood does not clot normally during a foehn. A few years ago an Israeli physicist discovered that not only during such winds, but for the ten or twelve hours which precede them, the air carries an unusually high ratio of positive to negative ions. No one seems to know exactly why that should be; some talk about friction and others suggest solar disturbances. In any case the positive ions are there, and what an excess of positive ions does, in the simplest terms, is make people unhappy. One cannot get much more mechanistic than that.

Easterners commonly complain that there is no “weather” at all in Southern California, that the days and the seasons slip by relentlessly, numbingly bland. That is quite misleading. In fact the climate is characterized by infrequent but violent extremes: two periods of torrential subtropical rains which continue for weeks and wash out the hills and send subdivisions sliding toward the sea; about twenty scattered days a year of the Santa Ana, which, with its incendiary dryness, invariably means fire. At the first prediction of a Santa Ana, the Forest Service flies men and equipment from northern California into the southern forests, and the Los Angeles Fire Department cancels its ordinary non-firefighting routines. The Santa Ana caused Malibu to burn as it did in 1956, and Bel Air in 1961, and Santa Barbara in 1964. In the winter of 1966-67 eleven men were killed fighting a Santa Ana fire that spread through the San Gabriel Mountains.

Just to watch the front-page news out of Los Angeles during a Santa Ana is to get very close to what it is about the place. The longest single Santa Ana period in recent years was in 1957, and it lasted not the usual three or four days but fourteen days, from November 21 until December 4. On the first day 25,000 acres of the San Gabriel Mountains were burning, with gusts reaching 100 miles an hour. In town, the wind reached Force 12, or hurricane force, on the Beaufort Scale; oil derricks were toppled and people ordered off the downtown streets to avoid injury from flying objects. On November 22 the fire in the San Gabriels was out of control. On November 24 six people were killed in automobile accidents, and by the end of the week the Los Angeles Times was keeping a box score of traffic deaths. On November 26 a prominent Pasadena attorney, depressed about money, shot and killed his wife, their two sons and himself. On November 27 a South Gate divorcée, twenty-two, was murdered and thrown from a moving car. On November 30 the San Gabriel fire was still out of control, and the wind in town was blowing eighty miles an hour. On the first day of December four people died violently, and on the third the wind began to break.

It is hard for people who have not lived in Los Angeles to realize how radically the Santa Ana figures in the local imagination. The city burning is Los Angeles’s deepest image of itself. Nathaniel West perceived that, in The Day of the Locust, and at the time of the 1965 Watts riots what struck the imagination most indelibly were the fires. For days one could drive the Harbor Freeway and see the city on fire, just as we had always known it would be in the end. Los Angeles weather is the weather of catastrophe, of apocalypse, and, just as the reliably long and bitter winters of New England determine the way life is lived there, so the violence and the unpredictability of the Santa Ana affect the entire quality of life in Los Angeles, accentuate its impermanence, its unreliability. The winds shows us how close to the edge we are.

— Joan Didion, The Santa Ana

“Los Angeles Notebook”

BOOK:  Slouching Towards Bethlehem

The Saturday Evening Post, 1965.

World Central Kitchen’s Relief Team is in Southern California to support first responders and families impacted by wildfires in the Los Angeles area. Our teams have mobilized across the region to provide immediate relief. We are working with restaurant and food truck partners to provide comforting meals.  DONATE HERE.

COPYRIGHT 2007-2025 Patti Friday b.1959.

Faceless Marketing

Faceless marketing refers to marketing strategies where the brand or company presents itself without focusing on individuals, personal identities, or company leadership. Instead of using spokespeople or personal branding, faceless marketing emphasizes the product, service, or message itself. This approach relies on anonymity, appealing to a broad audience without attaching a specific face or personality to the brand. It can involve using logos, mascots, or generic representations instead of real people. 

This type of marketing can create a sense of neutrality and universality, making the brand more approachable to different demographics while avoiding the risks associated with personal figures.

Photo:  The Wellness Store

COPYRIGHT 2007-2024 Patti Friday b.1959.

15 Varieties of Honey

Here’s a list of popular varieties of honey, each with unique flavors, colors, and characteristics:

1. Clover Honey: Light in color and mild in flavor, this is one of the most common types of honey in North America.

2. Wildflower Honey: Made from the nectar of various wildflowers, its taste and color can vary widely based on the flowers available.

3. Manuka Honey: From New Zealand, known for its strong flavor and potential health benefits, particularly its antibacterial properties.

4. Buckwheat Honey: Dark and robust, with a strong flavor; rich in antioxidants.

5. Orange Blossom Honey: Light and citrusy, this honey is produced from the blossoms of orange trees.

6. Sage Honey: Light amber in color with a mild flavor; often used in cooking and baking.

7. Eucalyptus Honey: Typically dark and has a distinctive, herbal flavor, often produced from eucalyptus trees.

8. Lavender Honey: Fragrant and floral, this honey is made from the nectar of lavender plants.

9. Acacia Honey: Very light and mild in taste, this honey is slow to crystallize, making it popular for sweetening beverages.

10. Alfalfa Honey: Light in color with a mild, sweet flavor, often used in baking.

11. Thyme Honey: Dark amber with a strong, earthy flavor; often used in Mediterranean cuisine.

12. Heather Honey: Thick and dark with a unique, slightly bitter taste; known for its rich flavor profile.

13. Huckleberry Honey: A rare honey made from huckleberry blossoms, with a fruity flavor and dark color.

14. Cinnamon Honey: Infused with cinnamon, this honey has a warm, spicy flavor, perfect for sweetening teas and pastries.

15. Bamboo Honey: A rare variety that has a light color and floral notes, often sought after for its unique taste.

These varieties showcase the diversity of honey available, influenced by the types of flowers bees visit and the regions in which they are produced!

COPYRIGHT 2007-2024 Patti Friday b.1959.

Jasper Park Lodge

I woke up this morning to hear of the devastating forest fire that quickly swept through the town, with brave firefighters battling 300 ft. high flames. My heart broke. Jasper Park Lodge was probably one of my Father's top 3 places on Earth, filled with precious family memories.

July 24, 2024

Dear Guests,

At approximately 10:00 p.m. MT on July 22, 2024, the Municipality of Jasper declared a state of emergency. Residents and visitors in Jasper were ordered to evacuate the area due to the threat of a nearby wildfire.

We are devastated by the situation that our Jasper and Alberta community members are facing. We are extremely thankful that all our colleagues and guests have been safely evacuated. We hope the same for all others in the area. The dedication of our first responders and those coming to our aid cannot fully be expressed. We are all sending wishes of safety and strength.

As of 10:00 p.m. MT on July 24, 2024, we can confirm that the fire has reached the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge grounds, however we are unclear about the extent of the damage. At this time, we know that parts of the resort remain untouched. We are monitoring the situation remotely and will provide more information as it becomes available.

July 25, 2024 - 7:30 am EST:

I am waiting with all of Canada, to hear if Jasper Park Lodge survived or was completely destroyed by the fire.

At fifteen in 1949, my Father went west and became the in-house printer for the Jasper Park Lodge, printing the three daily menus. He would meet with the lodge chef to receive the breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus and get them completed for the guests.

I've read many letters my Dad wrote to his family back home during that time. He adored Jasper. He golfed there and climbed the mountains.

The Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, formerly and commonly known as Jasper Park Lodge, is a 442-room hotel on a 700-acre site along Lac Beauvert in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada. Established in 1921 by Canadian National Railway, it is one of Canada's grand railway hotels.

My Father wrote about his time in Jasper often.

"One day in the summer of 1950 some buddies and myself climbed this Old Man Mountain and sat and stood right on top of his nose! It took us over 10 hours of non stop climbing to get there. The trip down took only 3 hours. I have some photos somewhere of the climbers on top of his nose." - Bill Frieday 

"More on my Jasper, Alberta adventure 70 years ago. While working at Jasper Park Lodge we were able to take the odd day off to do crazy things. Like climbing mountains. We needed to practice climbing so we started off climbing Signal Mountain. Signal was more like a hill compared to the rest of the peaks around Jasper. The real test came a little later when our group decided scale "Old Man Mountain." It took us 10 difficult hours to climb and sit right on top of the Old Man's nose! Can you see his nose covered in snow? When his face was covered in snow we always said that the Old Man was shaving! Coming back down to the bottom and home took only 3 hours. Wonder if anyone here has climbed Old Man Mountain?" - Bill Frieday 

Opened in 1915 as Tent City—a string of luxury canvas tents along Lac Beauvert with vistas of Whistlers Peak and Pyramid Mountain—the iconic Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge was possibly North America’s first “glamping” site. The destination proved wildly popular, and in 1922 a main lodge was opened, as well as a series of luxury log cabins spread across 700 acres in the heart of Jasper National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Bristling with Douglas firs and pine trees, the property sees herds of elk nibbling the grass, chipmunks scurrying through the trees, and even the occasional bear. The 442 rooming options—all renovated between 2015 and 2017—include cozy spots in the main building, fireplace-equipped Junior Suites, and bring-the-whole-family Signature Cabins, all with views across the lake or the forest and mountains. The newly introduced Estate Cabins, located near the golf course, feature a private gated entrance for a more residential feel. Classic lodge-style interior design is the order of the day in the cabins, with wood beams and a combination of earthy and granite tones, while rooms and suites are clean-lined and decked out in fresh white bedding and light wood accents.

Play a few rounds on the Stanley Thompson-designed 18-hole golf course—regularly voted among the best in Canada—enjoy scenic walks and mountain hikes, or take advantage of the 10-room spa, which includes a sauna, steam room, and panoramic relaxation lounge. The restaurants celebrate regional flavors and fresh local produce, thanks to partnerships with local farms; don’t miss a sunset drink at The Emerald Lounge & Patio, which overlooks the lake, Whistler’s Range, and the east face of Mount Edith Cavell. Thanks to the picture-perfect views and the family-friendly accommodations, the Lodge is also a popular venue for destination weddings.

Jasper in the early 1900s had a few hotels established during the construction of the railway, with eight listed as established in 1911. The earliest form of tourist accommodation along Lac Beauvert came in 1915 when Robert Kenneth of Edmonton, along with the pioneer outfitters Fred and Jack Brewster, established "Tent City". Tent City had ten large sleeping tents with wooden walls and floors and a cooking tent constructed along the lakefront. Accommodation at Tent City was set at $2.50 or $3.00 per day, with a weekly rate of $15 or $18, and over 260 visitors stayed there over the summer.

In 1921, the newly nationalized Canadian National Railways purchased "Tent City" and began plans for a hotel on the site, with the first bungalow opening in June 1922 under the name "Jasper Park Lodge".

The Canadian National Railway's chief architect, John Schofield, envisioned a hotel that altered the Athabasca Valley's view as little as possible and blended seamlessly into the natural surroundings. Schofield planned for a number of small cabins made of rustic logs and fieldstone sprawling across the landscape, rather than the traditional large resort hotel.

In 1927 and 1928, the central lodge was expanded, more than doubling the size of the building, and more cabins were built around Lac Beauvert. Additional new cabins were built between 1928 and 1931, including the luxury cabins Point, Outlook, and Viewpoint, lifting the hotel's capacity to 550 guests. King George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth visited Jasper during the 1939 royal tour of Canada, staying in the Outlook Cabin.

Tourism in Jasper National Park grew significantly in 1940 as the Icefields Parkway connecting the park to Banff was completed. In 1939, 3,100 automobiles and 21,000 people were recorded entering Jasper National Park, which jumped to 19,000 automobiles and 83,000 people in 1940. The growth in tourism was short-lived as Canada entered the Second World War, and Jasper Park Lodge closed to the public in the fall of 1942 until spring of 1946 to contribute to the war effort. In the winter of 1943–44, Jasper Park Lodge was used as a winter training base for the Scottish Lovat Scouts special mountain troops.

Many of the original log bungalows were replaced in the late-1940s through the 1960s in a modernization program.

The new Central Lodge was completed on June 9, 1953.

A $6.7 million Fairmont spa was added to the Lodge in fall 2010. In 2015–16, a $16 million renovation to all rooms (Fairmont, Deluxe, Junior Suites, and Lakefront Suites) was completed to modernize the decor. ORSO Trattoria, the hotel's first Italian restaurant, was also added to the dining options, which include The Nook Chophouse, Emerald Lounge & Patio, Thompson's Terrace, and Oka Sushi.

In 2015, the French hospitality company Accor paid $2.9 billion to acquire FRHI Hotels & Resorts, including several historic Canadian hotels such as Jasper Park Lodge, Hotel Macdonald, Banff Springs Hotel, Chateau Lake Louise, Le Chateau Frontenac, Chateau Laurier, Royal York, and Montreal's Queen Elizabeth hotel.

In the 1950s, Jasper Park Lodge hosted Marilyn Monroe's River of No Return and James Stewart's The Far Country. Monroe was evicted from the Jasper Park Lodge during the film shoot for repeatedly dressing inappropriately for dinner.

I'm feeling a bit weepy that I didn't do what my Father encouraged me to do in 2019.  My Daughter Lindsay and I were fortunate enough to spend time with great friends at Banff Springs Hotel.  My Dad hoped I would visit Jasper Park Lodge and take a few photos for him.  Our schedule was very full and I chose not to drive 3 hours to Jasper to fulfill this wish he had. Now, today, I am disappointed I didn't go. 

Photos:  Facebook/Google Image Search/Various

COPYRIGHT 2007-2024 Patti Friday b.1959.