Gardening Season

Planting Day!

The 14th Bak'tun

Today is the beginning of the 14th bak'tun, a time measured by the Maya.  If we were the ancient Maya, we would be having grand celebrations and would be admiring the new faces on our pyramids. We would see new inscriptions the scribes had etched into stone monuments, on the walls of the ceremonial centres, and books dedicated to this memorable time.

The astronomers would be watching the sky carefully and advising the scribes what they see.  The planetary alignments would be as much a part of their records as who the rulers are.

The Solstice is one of my favourite days of the year.  It is a marking point.  It is the end of pendulum.  It is a time for looking at where we were and a time to look at where we are going.  It is an internal time.

In the Kootenays, pyramids dot the landscape - in the form of hills of snow.  From Wednesday night to Thursday, there was an accumulation of 31 cms snow in my back yard.  The local ski hill has a base of 255 cms.

Morning - December 20th - my front stairs

In a practical sense, what this means is that there has been a lot of shovelling going on.  Sweeping the snow off the car created a snowbank.  And there is simply no place to put all that snow.  Snow only piles so high. 

When I look down at the laneway, I can see that getting out of my cozy parking spot might be a possible.  When I look up the laneway, I doubt that I will be able to get back in.  I have decided to make my life simpler and walk.  And my car will sit.

I don't mind.  It helps me look at the world in a fresh way.

The Maya had a good point.  We need to look at the world differently. 

The Red Tablecloth

If I am lucky, I can catch an idea when it is born.  It reminds me of seeing a falling star.  It only happens when you are looking for it.  

Yesterday, I was sitting at my dining room table, covered with a beige patterned table runner and four complementary green placemats.   The idea landed with a definitive tone.  I wanted a tablecloth. 

That I was contemplating a tablecloth on a quiet Saturday afternoon, I would not have seen two days earlier.  An out-of-town friend was coming to visit for the long weekend.  As is a habit of mine when guests are coming, I was cleaning the house, selecting menus and organizing in ways that nobody else would notice.  Except me. 

On Friday morning, I got a text message.  “Severe weather warning in Southern Alberta.”  Southern Alberta was the only route between my friend and I.  We watched the weather channel and looked up the road conditions.  We agreed.  The snow storm kyboshed the visit.

As I percolated the news, I thought of my next 3 days.  Except for theatre tickets, I had cleared the decks for the visit with my friend.  In a life of full-time work and many interests, a weekend with no plans just never happens.  As the ideas of what to do began cascading in my mind, I heard the voice of another friend, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!” What if I didn’t make any plans?  What if I just let my day unfold with going from one inspired moment to another?  A novelty.  I can work with that.

I sat at my computer.  My email deposited an notice from the library telling me that a book I requested had arrived.  The tablecloth idea happened right then.  Which brought me downtown, strolling down the streets at a pace that I can’t seem to find in a regular day. 

The tablecloth is red, not matching my blue Japanese pottery but then blue on red is striking.  This red is bright and cheery, just what is needed as the nights are increasing and the sun is hid behind clouds.  I never would have bought it had my plans not changed. 

My table looks stunning.  Every time I stop and admire, I see an important metaphor for my life.  When plans change, a whole new world of possibilities arise.  

Photo of the Week - Bonanza Pass

The Bonanza Pass, also known as the Blueberry-Paulson, is the mountain pass in the Monashee Mountains in BC.  On the east side is the Kootenays and on the west is the Boundary region. 

Ymir Writing Retreat

Ymir Palace - Ymir, BC

What do you call a writer who isn’t writing? That sounds like a stand-up’s opening line.  Here I am hanging out with other writers at the Ymir Writing Retreat, an annual event devoted to encouraging the writer within.

And nothing is coming.  Writer’s block.  That term doesn’t adequately describe what happens.  What do writers DO when inspiration flees?  What I have found is that distractions move in with their toothbrushes and PJs, ready for the long haul. 

The hands-down best diversion for writers is the internet. Which is why writers like Barbara Kingsolver plant themselves in a room with no access. 

The internet is so handy.  You can be in the same room with other writers as I am doing at the writing retreat.  Laptops in front of us, none of us knows what the other is doing.  They may be thinking whatever I am writing is brilliant and it is just a matter of time until a publisher seeks me out.  They may be wishing they were so productive. 

But really they don’t know.  For those of you who are curious about what a writer does, here is a synopsis of my day.

 I bunked myself at the table, laptop in front of me.  My writing pals sat in the other chairs, quiet and focused. I decided on fiction, a tale of 3 people wound up in their 30-year histories.  Where to begin?  I stared at the screen. 

I remembered a word that had caught my attention earlier.  Iterative. I meant to look that up. A method used in computational mathematics.  Curious.  After a couple other links, I remembered my task.  Get back to work.  A plot.  That’s what I needed.  Something compelling like The Tudors.  (Where did that come from?)  That Henry the VIII was such a tyrant.  Who succeeded him?  Was it a boy? No, that was the problem – Henry beheaded his wives because they didn’t produce males.  Wikipedia will have the answer.

It was his son Edward but not for long.  Nine years.  There was a link to the list of Henry’s wives.  Six of them. How many were beheaded?  Only two.  Anne and Catherine.  There were 3 Catherines according to Wikipedia.  The last wife was the god daughter of the first wife.   This is getting complicated. 

Enough of that.  Back to work.  Where was I?  Forget the plot right now.  What about the angle?  It could be the view from the mother, her lover or the gardener.  But it doesn’t make sense from the lover’s perspective as he isn’t around for long. 

Has the sky clouded over?  I thought the snow might melt today after all it was so bright this morning.  Still snow on the ground.  Good thing I put on the hiking boots before I came out here.  I would never have expected to be walking on packed snow. 

I looked at the blank page on the screen in front of me.  The gardener’s name could be Julio.  I can see him being from Central America.  Is Julio a Central American name?  I am sure Google would know.   Origins of Julio.  The Internet was down.  I gave myself a mental note to check it out later.  Julio is a good gardener’s name.  What about a last name?  Rodriquez?  Is that how to spell it?  How about the lover?  How about Martin?  How about Martine? 

I looked at the top of my screen.  The internet was back up.  I immediately thought of my e-mail. You never know who might be trying to get a hold of me.  No new mail. Maybe someone was trying to call me.  The cell phone reception was a bit dicey out here in the forest.  No new messages.  The phone needed to be charged.  It seems to need to be charged a lot more frequently these days.  Is it time to get a new one?  There – plugged in.  What about the computer?   The battery had 13% remaining.  I found the plug in and the wall outlet. 

Back into my seat.  I switched to the word processing document.  Not one word on the page. 

Writer’s block.  Google had 12.5 million hits.  A popular condition.  I looked at the browser tab.  I had one new Tweet from Advice to Writers:

Work on a computer that is disconnected from the Internet. ZADIE SMITH

Space Travel

For years, I have joked about Kootenay astronomers having a hard time finding work.  The mountains hide a lot of the sky. Also during the winter in the mountains, there are a lot of clouds.  Between clouds and mountains, being a sky watcher is tricky.  What we can see is quite limited which I understood every time I ventured out into the flat lands.  The prairies have so much sky.  That is the place to view the stars.

The Big Dipper

The community event offered a view of the night sky with an amateur astronomer.  My friend BJ and I decided to check it out.  Wayne had set up two telescopes by the time we arrived. With a light laser, he pointed at the Big Dipper and singled out one of the stars in the “handle.”  Through the telescope, we could see that there were actually two stars, double stars.  The two stars are also called “horse and rider,” and can be seen with the naked eye; they have been used as a test for eyesight. Mizar is really a system of stars.

The sky was perfectly clear. While we waited for Jupiter to rise, Wayne showed us two kinds of nebula, a word that comes from Latin and meaning cloud.  Nebula consists of gases, dust and matter and is the place where stars are born.  This is also how stars die.  The nebula where stars were being formed was much larger than the dying one; the other distinction is their colour.  Astronomers like Wayne are able to detect whether stars are on their way in or out. 

Our next sighting was a globular cluster which is a spherical collection of stars that are bound together by gravity.  When I looked through the telescope, I saw thousands of dots of light.  I was blown away. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, has about 150 to 158 globular clusters.  The Milky Way, Wayne told us, has over 400 billion stars.  And our sun is one of them.  And it is only a medium-sized galaxy.  It is estimated that there are 170 billion galaxies. 

I can’t even imagine what that would look like.  The numbers are dizzying and the more I looked up into the sky, I felt simultaneously how expansive the universe is and then how small we are.   What BJ noticed was how much the Big Dipper moved in the sky, and then realized that it really was us moving.

Intrigued by figuring out how fast we are moving, I called Wayne.  Here is what he said:

• we are spinning on our axis (which we see in the 24 hour clock);
• we are revolving around the sun (which gives us the 365 or so days in a year);
• our sun is spinning around the hub of the Milky Way Galaxy; and
• our galaxy is also moving.

After some research, here’s what I found about our movement through space:

• The speed of our axis spin can be easily calculated.  The Earth’s circumference is 40,075 kilometres and there are 23.93 hours in a day.  The result of the division is 1,675 kilometres per hour. 
• In a day, the Earth travels 2.5 million kilometres around the sun. 
• Our solar system revolves around the galaxy at about 220 kilometres per second. 
• And our galaxy is cruising through space at about 1,000 kilometres per second. 

We are in a hurry!

Jupiter

Just as Wayne promised, by 11 pm, we saw Jupiter rising in the East; the planets are on the same elliptical path as the sun and moon so they rise in the East and set in the West.  Because of the Earth’s atmosphere the best viewing was when it was higher in the sky.  When I looked through the lens, I saw four of Jupiter’s moons and dark-coloured bands.  Spectacular!

A man and his young daughter alternated telescope time with us; he told us that he just moved from Israel where he could not see the stars because of the glow from city lights.  I looked up.  The sky was getting darker and the stars were increasing. 

My mountain home is a wonderful place for star watching!

A few days later, I found my copy of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos.  This book published in 1980 follows the popular 13-part television series of the same name.  He explains the speed with which Earth is moving through the Universe.  He says, “we have always been space travelers.” 

Staycation - Day 7

and 5 days past the vernal equinox. The good news is that the snow is disappearing fast; the harsh news is that I am contemplating a trip over the Kootenay Pass tomorrow and it is snow packed. It may sound that I am abandoning my staycation by getting away, but my understanding of staycations is that if you stay in the same province (couldn't be the same country given Canada is one BIG country), one has not ventured into the notion of vacation.

I don't know if I will head over the mountain tomorrow. I am getting into the notion of my new way of spending time off. And part of me feels like I have travelled. Five days ago, I went to the video store with a list of the best travel films; I found 7. So far I have been to Italy (Under the Tuscan Sun) and India (Outsourced), Belgium (In Bruges) and Mexico (Y tu Mama Tambien).

What I found out was:
- Bruges is known for its many swans that swim in the canals. This is one Venice-looking place.
- There is a condition in India that happens while you adjust to the food that is called Delhi Belly. Most of the cast of Outsourced got it; it looks uncomfortable.
- A movie about a Mexican road trip is not necessarily about a journey. But what are road trips about, really?

My out-and-about part of my staycation has taken me to the country to visit friends (with no time pressure - yahoo!), to restaurants (today I was introduced to a breakfast strata), the library (not the best place to hang out during spring break if you are looking for quiet), the shops (the novelty here is grocery shopping at different times). It also means staying up late (which of course means I am ready for a nap in the afternoon), doing what I want when I am inspired (today I am inspired to make soup!), watching the neighbours move (apparently I missed the skunk being shot in my backyard on Monday), wearing the same clothes day after day (I wash them!).

Modelling my staycation after a vacation suggests that the camera is involved. I did see some hints of spring...















And though the snow is on the mountain, some of the most inspiring pictures of mountains are when we can see the snow peaks next to the blue sky.



















And that's it - the photography portion of my staycation is a bit pitiful. But I have 3 more days....

Staycation

My instructions were clear - take unused vacation before the end of March. I was faced with a quandary. Since I am focussing my travel this year on a family get-away, the budget is tapped. My usual scene since I moved to the Kootenays 16 years ago, is spending vacation time away from here, travelling, on the road. I couldn't even fathom taking vacation so close to home. Actually, at home. When I explained it to my son, he said, "Staycation." That sounded intriguing, more fanciful than staying at home.

When I Googled staycation, at the top of the list was Wikipedia. What I learned was that the idea came into vogue between 2007 and 2010 during the financial crisis. In Britain, they became popular in 2009; there it is called a stoliday. There is even a self-help guide book.

With more research, I found strong suggestions that staycations be organized in a way that gets one out of the routine, that they get a break from their regular life. This means paying all the bills and doing all the chores that you would if you went away. To minimize the chores, it was suggested that staycationers eat out. No dishes. Unless of course, you think of cooking as a vacation.

When I told my friends and family, they were excited on my behalf and had lots of ideas of how to spend my time. Do things that you wouldn't normally do. Go to the museum. Go to the hot springs, a definite bonus for someone who doesn't live near the hot springs. This last idea is not on the top of my list. A shame really. I don't particularly like being wet.

An artist's date was another suggestion. Julia Cameron, author of The Artist's Way, developed this tool for creative inspiration. The artist's date is a weekly commitment to nurturing one's creative unconscious. It is often in the form of an excursion - in nature, to an artists' supply store, etc.

An idea I found on the World Wide Web is to do a movie marathon, focussing on travel movies. I am not sure about the notion of conjuring up envy but then there might be getting new ideas for future travels.

Today is Day 2 (of 10) of my staycation. I have caught some snippets of movies on television but in the spirit of staycations in general, I am trying to stay away from that time-eater. This evening, Return of the Jedi was featured. I would consider that a travel movie, wouldn't you?

If you have any other ideas of how to spend my vacation, I could use a little help. This is all new to me.

The Winter of 2011

When I was walking through the Co-op this evening, I heard the produce displayer tell a customer that winter was on its way out. I figure this fellow has one optimistic streak. When I look outside, I cannot imagine myself planting a garden. Each day it gets more buried under snow. Three days in a row now. And there is a good deal of grumbling. Except perhaps for the snow clearing crew who are getting plenty of time this year. A radical contrast from last year when I shovelled maybe 3 times.

In January, I was writing about my snow experiences and investment into the local economy in the form of snow clearing contractors. There has been a reprieve for most of the month of February but the snow is back.

I hope the skiers are happy. No one else seems to be.

So what have I been doing in the midst of the winter, besides cursing the Yak Trax? It sounds like I am an ingrate since one has to walk on ice, Yak Trax can save your life or keester. But the fact is that I don't really want to experience the day where I need to use Yak Trax. So I AM grateful for each day that I don't have to wear them. I am smart though; they are always in the trunk of the car.

So.... long winter days are best spent planning long summer days. This year, the family plans to spend my mother's birthday going on vacation together. She likes the idea of an Alaska cruise. Me too. In talking to people, they recommended that she go in June or July because the scenery is more outstanding. I called the travel agent. Indeed the most popular times to go are July and August.

Here's what I am thinking. We are planning on a trip to go and see the snow and ice. You would think that we would have had enough by now.

After my trip to Arizona and landing in the snow, and hiking on the ice, I figure I have some upside down ideas about vacation.

Here's what I am banking on - sun! There is nothing like the promise of sun to inspire us all. On Monday, February 28th, after the snow at the end of the day, here was our promise...

Snow in the Kootenays

So here's the thing. If you live in the mountains, expect snow. Lots of it. This year, I decided to hire a shoveller to get my car in and out of the back lane. Unfortunately for me, I have two problems. One is that I am almost the only person who drives down this back lane. Second is that my car is pretty close to the ground and I can only do so much snow clearing with it.

Actually I have more problems than that. When the City clears the snow off the road, they leave a mound at the entrance to the alley. And the lane has an incline and a decline. To top that off, the temperature in the mountains is unpredictable so when it warms up, I may be slipping and sliding down that incline.

It sounds like a lot of fuss. Why not park on the street? I live on an emergency route which means that the City is vigilant about cleaning and once they scrape the road, mounds are left beside my car, which means shovelling every time I leave. It is one very messy proposition.

Last Wednesday, when we had received 20 cms of snow and there was some question about my ability to get down the back lane as I demonstrated with a lot of swerving, I decided to hire a truck. Earlier that day, the shoveller had done his job with the parking spot and the entrance. I went off to yoga, relieved that I wouldn't get stuck later. Though it snowed and snowed, I got back in my cosy spot. I had spent $45.

The next morning when I drove out to go to work, my wheels began spinning and I wasn't going anywhere. I was stuck. I pulled out the Yak Trax and walked to work.

My investment of the day before was so that I wouldn't get stuck. And there I was. The problem really wasn't my workers. The problem was that there was so much snow, there just was no place to put it. When I came home from work, my shoveller had stopped by and moved a good deal of the snow bank where I was stuck. Here was what I came home to see:



And the next morning, I left quite easily.

The amount of snow that accumulated left me with having to dig down into the compost. On Thursday morning, this was my backyard:



And then it began to rain; 24 hours later, this was the view of the backyard:



It's been raining pretty much since then, and the temperature both day and night have been above freezing. Most of those piles of snow are gone. I heard today that it is even raining at the ski hill.

For now, those of us in the valley can all take a rest. No doubt there will be another round.

Christmas Miracle and The Season

Three weeks of cable TV, and I have caught up on all the made-for-TV Christmas movies that were ever made. The good news is that watching cheesy movies is the best way to wrap gifts. The bad news is that it can get late real fast. On the weekend, two nights I stayed up until 2 am. A little slow start to the next day. But it is the season for being weary so off to the shops I went. Everyone is buzzing.

This week has been full of surprises arriving on my desk in the mornings. Parties and gatherings. A lot of fun!

I stopped by to visit my friend Heather and and her daughter Madison on Monday evening after yoga and a yoga feast. The snow was falling most of the evening, and when I went to leave, there was enough gathered to haul out the brush. I could feel the nudge of the earrings as they rubbed against my winter jacket. These earrings are a gift from my mother that I received in September. Ever since I got them, I haven't worn any other earrings. Life is just simpler that way. They are silver, cut in such as way that they sparkle; round hoops where the end snaps between two protruding wires. Light, dresses up any outfit, and works well with my dark hair.

All was perfect until the cold weather came, and they started hooking on my silk scarf and then the collar of the jacket. A couple of weeks ago, when I looked into the bathroom mirror, I only saw one. What happened to the other? The next morning when I went out to the car, there it was on the floor. Back into my ear. Happy again.

I was wearing these earrings when I went to yoga, then dinner, and then Heather and Madison's. I felt a tug on my ear when I was cleaning the driver's side window. I lifted my hand to my ear and it was gone. I looked down and there was nothing but fluffy snow. One thin-hooped earring in a lot of white. And it was dark. I looked around, and then hoped that it fell inside of my jacket.

I couldn't imagine how I could ever find it. Unless.... I searched throughout all my clothing and the car. But it was gone. Gone. I was surprised by my disappointment. I thought about that earring and where it could be. I thought of calling Heather but I knew it would do no good. No, no one could help me. I told myself that this was a lesson in non attachment. But I was still sad.

In the middle of last night, I had a brain wave; I would go look on the street during the daylight, right where I parked two nights before. As soon as I got out of my car, I saw immediately the vastness of my problem. The snow plows had come by in the last couple of days and there were heaps of snow on the side of the road. This is a needle in a haystack, I thought. I will have to wait until spring. I shuffled my feet in the snow, but felt the fruitlessness of that massive pile.

I turned back to the car and looked down, more automatically then anything else. Out of the left corner of my eye, I saw a sparkle. I blinked my eyes. And moved forward. I saw a curve; the rest was caught in the slush and mud. It was indeed my earring... It was totally intact, though it must have had many cars ride over it.

I understand that tales of Christmas Miracles are about dreams coming true. And in a way that is true for me. You see, in my day time, I was certain that my earring was gone forever. But during the night, I had persistent thoughts and dreams about where it could be. And I just followed through with that idea, no matter how far fetched it seemed.

I am not sure if this is TV movie material. But having my first Christmas miracle, that is cool.

A World of White

This is what we woke up to this morning...



Everything was enveloped in white, and there is nothing like a blue sky to show it proud. My travels today were by foot, around the neighbourhood where I caught the perfection of the morning.





I also spent some of this day doing Canada's national winter sport - shovelling. Since I park in the back lane, I have plenty of work to do. But that's not really my troubles. My trouble spot is at the entrance to the back lane, more than a half block away. When the plow clears the street, it creates a bank of snow (hmm... what is that called?) that I usually barrel through - you might be surprised at what the Civics can do. The trick is to get rid of the snow bank before the next round. Which is apparently on Tuesday.

Perhaps it was all that white that inspired me to create my first batch of ice cream. It also could be that I am on Day 21 of being gluten-free.

I found a recipe in a summer issue of Chatelaine. (Apparently that is the month that most people make ice cream. Go figure.) Orange-Vanilla Ice Cream. The ingredients include orange zest, lime juice, orange-flavoured liqueur and vanilla bean. I have never bought vanilla bean before; it was promising right from the store. The fragrance was intense. Once I cut the bean, which does in a way look like a bean, I was to scrap the seeds off its pod. This was another first. And nature has made yet another perfect delectable.

Now, I have done the first taste test - I had to wait 5 hours. All I can say is yum! With this, who needs pasta?

How does your garden grow?

Mine, unfortunately, is looking quite bare. The weather has been abysmal, giving us a good deal of entertainment (if you like such events) with its rain, and then sun, and then rain again (and apparently snow on the mountains). The good news is that this gives time for the forest firefighters to get their training. The bad news is that the long weekend in May is garden planting time. Three days full of outside work. And today was Day 1 of 3.

It was cool this morning, so I decided to do the laundry first. I hung it outside on the line, so while I puttered in the garden, my clothes would get that fresh air smell. I noticed that the sun wasn't shining so I did my puttering inside the house, attacking that pile of shredding. When I went to the kitchen, I heard an unusual sound from the stove fan. I looked outside, and saw raindrops on the sidewalk. I ran out and got my clothes off the line; they were now wetter than when I put them out there.

The plan of gardening was retreating from my agenda.

I looked out at my backyard at the mass of dandelions. In addition to planting my garden, my plan is to get rid of them. Last year I began the process by making sure that they didn't spread - I plucked off their yellow heads before they went to seed. One day when I was hunched over the lawn, one of the young boys in my back lane watched me for a long time. "What are you doing?" he said finally. "I'm making sure these plants don't make any more." He paused and was quiet for quite a while. Then, from my stooped position, I heard him say, "You will leave some behind, won't you?" I was definitely not seeing his delight.

This year's process began last Saturday after I went to Nelson Farmers' Supply and bought a new gadget for removing dandelions. On the way home, I stopped at the coffee shop, and picked up my favourite - a Dairy Dandy Latte. Interpretation: Dairy means milk. Dandy means Dandelion Blend, a coffee substitute that is by far the very best: I have tried them all. Dandelion Blend is a great liver helper!

Later when I was using my new tool and found out how skookum it is, it occurred to me that I was experiencing a bit of a mind-bending situation. I am paying nearly $10.00 for a small container of Dandelion Blend, and I was loading up my trash barrel with the same plant.

It got me to thinking about gardening, and how it is like that. In one place, I am doing all I can to make the grass grow, and in the other (specifically at the edge of the garden near the fence), I am constantly trying to pull out all those roots to get it OUT of the garden! If the grass could talk, or think for that matter, it would say, "What the heck? Make up your mind!"

I am feeling more settled with my opposite actions with dandelions. And indeed, I have new appreciation for the yellow flower head because they are keeping my bee amused. I noticed the bee several weeks ago as it was checking out the flowers on the prune tree, and thought, "Perfect! My cucumbers are going to be so happy." Now the trick is that I have to keep that bee amused until the cucumbers flower, which is some time away, so I went to the garden centre and asked about bee-loving plants.

Bees like yellow. Which explains my bee's fascination with the dandelions. So I can't be too hasty in getting rid of them. (I would be more than optimistic if I thought I could dig them all out of my lawn any time soon. Those weeds have taken over the back yard.) I asked the gardeners at the centre what else the bee would like - heather and lavender they suggested. The heather has been planted; the little kitten from across the back lane is finding the peat mulch that sits around the heather quite enthralling.

When I transplanted the flowers into their pots on the patio, I noticed that all the flowers are - well, yellow. For the bee.

"How do you know it is one bee?" my co-worker asked. You know, well, the fact is that I just know. A gardener knows these things.

Last week, too, I decided to remove all the dead plants that hang over from the neighbour's yard. We have honeysuckle, wild roses, and bamboo, thanks to them. And a lot of dead foliage. This was quite the task, and as usual, the rose bush protested. (Note to self: wear long sleeves when pruning the rose bush.) Underneath all those plants was a lot of mint. Time to move on - apparently borage is good for attracting bees. My friend Randi brought me a plant and I decided that it would be perfect in snuffing out the mint.

My upstairs neighbour (the landlady) has this thought about gardening, "My idea of gardening is putting one invasive plant beside another and they can duke it out." Sounds good to me.

So now, that side of the yard has been dug up and cleaned up, and the view of the rock wall is stunning. Well, I can't quite see it all because of the pile from doing all last weekend's clean up, but once it gets hauled away, I will. And I have new garden space - the rock wall apparently will be perfect for tomatoes and cucumbers.

Except, the plants for the bees are on the other side of the yard.

Back to the gardening plan. If it ever stops raining.

It's a Green World

Two days from the longest day of the year, and it is still a novelty to have so much light at the end of the day. I saw our neighbours building a fence, and the children are hanging about outside. Perhaps they are celebrating the absence of rain, which has been hanging about for several days. To the delight of transplanted prairie folk, we have had several thunderstorms. Our world is green! The garden has been growing well...



I am delighted with the new growth and the number of seeds that have pushed their way out of the ground. And then on my way home, I round the corner on my back lane and see the Italian neighbours' garden, and the plants have grown to such a degree that I cannot see the earth anymore. I decided to go to Nelson Farmers' Supply and find some of their "magic," having concluded that it must be coming from a bottle. After much pondering, and questioning, and reading labels, I picked an organic fertilizer. I read the instructions and it said not to use it with bare hands, not to ingest it, not to get it in the eyes. And my plan was to put it on my vegetables? My good idea soured. And I thought of patience and virtue.

And appreciating what I have. And there is plenty of activity in my own garden. One of the tomato plants is called Moneymaker; here is what it is doing today...



Green, green - all around. On Saturday, an old friend, two new friends and I went to the annual Strawberry tea at the Ashram, which is on the east side of the lake, and requires a ferry ride. The Ashram grows a great deal of its own food, and prepares it for winter. On our tour, we got to see some of the storage area...



Abundance is all around. Light, green, fun with friends....

Hands in the Dirt

Almost any garden, if you see it at just the right moment,

can be confused with paradise. 

-Henry Mitchell

It is official. The flurry of putting all the plants in the garden is done! Before I left for the coast, the weather was too cold, and then in days, it was time! Indeed, the season was shortened with the insistence of winter wanting to stay on, so when there was the opening, there was no time for hesitancy. While I was gone, most of the gardens got planted. I finished mine in May, barely; I planted it on May 31st.

I have dedicated my small plot of land to vegetables, with some flowers to attract bees. Though my garden is not done in the Intensive Gardening style, it has some of the earmarks. The tomato plants are planted in groups of two, fairly close together, the same varieties clumped together. The plants with seeds have very close rows with little room for walking between. 

This year, I measured the plot space - it is 5.5 feet by 12 feet. What is planted this year is:

- 14 tomato plants (let's just say that I was inspired)

- 4 cucumbers

- 4 celery

- 4 orange peppers

- 1 row of carrots

- 1 row of romaine lettuce

- 3 rows of beets

- 1 row of spinach

- 1 row of leaf lettuce plants

- marigolds (to repeal the insects away from the tomatoes)

- snapdragons

Here it is:

The cucumbers are delighted because (a) there has been nothing but sunshine and heat since they went into the ground, and (b) the fence that fell down with the winter snow was not put back up. 

Most of the flowers and strawberries have been put in pots on the patio. Out of the 10 strawberry plants that came from the greenhouse, only 2 have survived (that had to do with the hot time when I was on the coast). That same greenhouse (I actually got my plants from 6 places altogether) had this beauty...



This is the fifth year I have planted a garden on this plot of land, and looks like the best to date. And I am not the only one who thinks so; there are a lot of birds that I have seen hopping all over the tamped area. Hmmm.... Probably time to go dig out those extra seeds.

Earth Day 2009

Happy Earth Day!

Each year, I take this day to decide on one change I can make to walk lighter on this planet. What kind of practice can I start that shifts my way of being in the world? Each time I take out the compost, I am delighted that I have been able to live in places where I have a place to put compostables.  This I have done for over 20 years.  Considering that 40% of landfills are full of compost, recycling it into the earth makes a lot of sense to me.

Part of this day, I was listening to stories of what other people are doing in the world.

• In Invermere, BC - the local high school (David Thompson Secondary) has decided to expand their lunch program where they create their own meals to include growing their own food.  They have built a greenhouse for year-round growing. 
• A new movement in Nelson called Edible Nelson are encouraging people to turn their lawns into vegetable gardens.   At this website people can register their names if they are looking for a yard to share or if they have a yard to share.
• Ontario has introduced legislation today to ban the use of cosmetic pesticides on lawns. 
• There are many Earth Day events happening including on Saturday in the Kootenays.
• Here's what is happening more nationally.  Here are the 10 top actions to honour Earth Day.
• Starbucks is offering a free cup of coffee for whoever brings in their own cups on Earth Day.

As for me, I haven't picked my Earth Day good habit yet.  Any ideas?

Paying Attention

How can we create a sense of holiday in the middle of winter, a routine that has gotten old, and circumstances that keep us at home? Today my idea to have a fresh experience of my day to day life was not to pack a lunch. I land in Jogannatha Express, and choose the green lentils and swiss chard. The man by the window is hunched over a book when I arrive. After a few minutes, I hear the theme from the movie, The Sting and figure it must be a cell phone because the restaurant music is more likely to be Deva Premal. ( I just had a look at this website and looks like she has been hanging around with another interesting fellow.)

My restaurant neighbour roots for his cell and says two sentences, then returns to his book. A woman arrives and sweeps him away to the good bar. From my table, I can see the street and Nelsonites passing by. Across the street is the drycleaners. I notice for the first time the light green colour of the storefront, and that the building has a second floor. Above the top of the building, I can see Elephant Mountain. Here's an interesting view of the trailhead of Pulpit Road on the side of Elephant Mountain.

As I sit digesting lentils, I remember my morning walk to work. I was absorbed in the calls I had to make, the files I had to put on the computer, and finding a work placement for my morning client, when a woman passed me on the sidewalk. "What an incredible day," she said.

With that prompt, I looked upward and saw the blue sky peeking through clouds, and mountains with pockets of bright shiny snow. And I was reminded about the beauty that is around me. I paid full attention.

And now I think about where I live - a place where people holiday....

Oysters, Authors and Me

March 1st. According to the old saying, if the weather comes in like a lamb, it will go out like a lion OR the reverse. I haven't really figured out whether today was a lamb or a lion. When I pulled back the curtains this morning, there were big fluffy snowflakes floating from the sky. Lots of them. For people who are looking forward to spring, I would say that this is not a good sign. But it was all mellow, and warm. What I did notice was that there was no sky...



By the time, I walked out of the gym two hours later, the sun was shining, and all the snow that had collected on my walkway was gone. This is definitely good - the shoveller seems to have left the country.

By late afternoon, the sky was cloud-filled and grey, and still warmish.

What does that sound like to you?? Lion or Lamb?

I was weary this morning after a weekend of the joy of staying up late. Both evenings, I took advantage of my non-requirement to get up for work, and I enjoyed being awake in the quietness of the night. Part of my waking was that I found this, having been introduced to it by a Facebook friend.

How I spent the early evening on Saturday was at Oysters, Authors and Ale....making literacy everyone's pearl. This was a fundraiser for the local literacy group. The evening included the oysters, readings by authors and brew by the Nelson Brewing Company. An added treat were chocolates from Nelson Chocofella.

When we arrived at the door, I was presented with a sticker...



The oyster fare was cooked, smoked and raw. There were 3 types of cooked oyster - the one I chose had fresh tomatoes and asiago cheese - quite the presentation inside of its shell. What I thought at that moment was that there was not anything in my entire life that had melted cheese on it that I didn't like. Melted cheese has got to help. So here I was, years away from that young girl who refused to eat many foods, facing an oyster.

What I discovered last night as I ate my asiago cheese crusted oyster is that oysters are not that big, and they don't really take that long to eat. Good thing.

During a break from the readings, I looked down at my sticker on my jacket, and said, "I guess I can take this off now - I'm not a virgin anymore."

Well, technically, though I had eaten an oyster, I hadn't eaten a raw oyster. So I went back in the queue. Except now, there wasn't a queue. The shuckers were pretty much done their work, and so I got some one-on-one training. My friend, Randi, was also there to help me along. First, the shucker loosened the oyster from its shell, and then I squeezed lemon over top. "Take a sip," she said. "Taste the ocean?" Indeed. Randi advised to go for the tabasco sauce which I dribbled over top of the oyster. Earlier, Randi had advised that not a lot of chewing was necessary.

I tipped back the oyster shell and the oyster was gone. Down the hatch, so to speak. A done deal before I knew it. All that was left was fire in the mouth.

We wandered back to the table, and then I had a thought. There were two oysters inside of me, one cooked and one not. I realized I had a question that I might have asked the shucker ahead of time.... It brought up a new question... Was that second oyster squiggling inside of me?

Nelson

My friend Katherine is thinking about travel stories. This morning we laughed together when she asked how it is that we write about places that we go to visit, but not about what we know best. When we go to a place, we bring our fresh eyes. Another writer, Rita Moir, encouraged us in her writing class to find that special view when we want to write.

So then I got to thinking about Nelson. Nelson is a city in the midst of the mountains. If I could have imagined it when I was a child, I would have seen it from the book, Heidi's perspective. A favourite of mine when I was a child, Heidi is brought to the Swiss Alps where she lives with her grandfather where she thrives. She thrives on cheese, milk, and bread - all foods on many people's sensitivities list. Not a story based in this time.

The 4 top things that make Nelson special....

Lifestyle

This is one outdoorsy place. People come to visit in the summer and people come to visit in the winter. Here we climb mountains and slide down them. I can immediately think of 6 shops selling outdoor goods.

Landscape

Basically everything is built on the side of the mountain. Except for the mall and the waste transfer station, which are on the flat land, right by the water. Curious. Since the winters are relatively warm, we experience spring-like conditions many times during the winter. During the melting, water winds its way downhill and then at night, it freezes. Which brings a big market for these. But when the clouds part and we can see the peaks on the mountains with snow, it is a truly magnificent site.

Nelson is also parked on the West Arm of the Kootenay Lake. Mountains and water and rocks.



Architecture

In the 1980s and as an antidote to the tough economic times, Nelson restored many buildings to the splendour of the heritage days.



Weather

Nelson definitely is one of those places that can boast having four distinct seasons. Each season is awe-inspiring in its own way. The long autumns are really the best kept secret for when to come and visit. The temperature is warm but not hot so hiking is pleasant (well, if you call working real hard pleasant), and the vibrant colours are a wonderment to the eyes. And mountains, well, they attract snow. (Except for this year - quite the oddity.) If you like snow, this is the place. But what is still a novelty to me after 14 years is the moderate temperature in the middle of winter. I like to experience spring time temperatures in the middle of winter. That may mean that the snow is heavier to shovel, but it is a good trade off.

What else is special about Nelson??