Hidden Truths

Just some reminders that it is important to take time to smell the flowers; that life can still be exciting and learning can continue at 84; that even the toughest looking can be scared of thunderstorms and other loud things; and that in the messiest tangled jungle of life,  jewels can be found.

More Ketchup

While I was busy filling in imaginary words and thoughts for speech balloons, I missed the real excitement.  A tree fell and hit the top hydro line (that's the only live one) and caught on fire.  Only Hydro Quebec could resolve that situation, and they arrived 16 hours later when I was already out for the night (around 10 p.m. on Thursday).  They brought their poles and left them on the side of the road and used their cherry picker to lift the tree (its fire long extinguished on its own) off the wire.  I don't know how I missed it.  Apparently they had several big vehicles and massive lighting units operating right across from my bedroom window!  Even Kenya slept through it.  And through the fireworks that my next door neighbours set off.

Of course Kenya is sleeping through a lot these days and nights.  She is exhausted by all the swimming and playing she's been doing.  She chased sticks thrown by the little boys most of the weekend, and for the last couple of days I have been exercising her with the kayak.  Yesterday I whipped across the lake to deliver dog fur to a neighbour who has a pesky groundhog.  Kenya swam behind me and while I visited she chased sticks into the water.  Then we headed home.  She was finally beat enough to say no to retrieving a stick.  I still had enough energy to go for a long refreshing swim that relaxed me.

On Friday night I joined a group of people at a local restaurant ... interesting but a little strange.  The woman who invited us all failed to show up and the odd assortment of people who were there were somewhat bemused by her absence.   We ended up doing what people usually do ... found those people with whom we had most in common and chatted.  Nice break from talking to Kenya and bearing the noise of machinery.

My box garden is becoming a rainforest of tangled vines.  Lots of nascent tomatoes and nasturtium flowers.  Just leaves on  the pepper plants and leaves and vines on the cucumber.  The onions are doing well.  I ate one yesterday.  The second crop of radishes is coming along nicely.  And I have given up on the chard and the leeks.  The Thai basil  and the arugula are quietly doing their thing and providing me with salad ingredients nearly every day.

I nurtured a weed in my chard square for a few weeks, but when I went to the market yesterday morning I asked the farmer from whom I bought Swiss chard what she thought had happened to mine.  She said that I would definitely have chard by now if the seed was viable and had not been killed off by heat or eaten by a bird. So I went home and uprooted the very healthy weed I had been growing and transplanted a lettuce into that square.  I think I will transplant one of my regular basil plants into the leeks' square.


Outside the box, the zucchinis are producing lots of flowers but far fewer zucchinis ... I think I have a plethora of male blossoms.  Apparently you can deep fry them.

All the herbs except the basil are doing well.

The beans, nasturtiums, and morning glories are all madly climbing the trellis to the deck railing and I have a riot of green foliage and lots of blue and red flowers but no bean flowers or beans yet.

Tonight I am entertaining Tom and Marlene.  I am not sure what I will prepare but I do know that my herbs will be part of the meal ... and the Dutch ginger cake I bought at the market will be served with an iced coffee drink that is wonderful.  You make double strength coffee and blend it with ice cubes and vanilla ice cream and then chill.  It is very refreshing but not calorie free.

Tomorrow I start another week of teaching.  I expect to enjoy it ... two hours a day with a middle aged Swiss woman  who would like to have some of her lessons in a canoe.  We may ask Conchita who is married to one of the men on the lake to join us.  She is not too sure about cold Canadian lake water, so we will see.

I have been  reading another travel book called The Female Nomad and Friends.  It is a combination of adventures and recipes picked up along the way by an interesting and varied group of solo women travelers.  Almost all of the women have websites to visit and several have  recommended SERVAS as a good way to meet interesting people as you travel. A few weeks ago I decided to become a host for SERVAS and if I ever get my act together will jump through the necessary hoops.  And then I may register as a traveler as well.  All this reading about adventures is making my feet itch again.

So that's it ... the weekend dollop of ketchup ... hope your weekend has been enjoyable and that you are looking forward to a week of blistering heat in a pleasantly cool environment.

An Update on the Box Itself

Just compare with my header photo ... a month a a half of wonderful weather for gardens.  I am very glad I chose this year to start gardening!

Travel Books and Gardens

 am reading Laurie Gough's first travel book, Kite Strings.  It was written in her twenties and tells of her adventures in the southern hemisphere.  Much of it deals with living in Fiji which abundantly supports its society of food gatherers.  Laurie taught with me in June.  She has a second book out (which I will definitely buy) and she teaches a course in travel writing which I intend to take.  Her writing is remarkable ... on a par with Karen Connely's, Touch the Dragon, which won a GG for non-fiction the year it came out.  This is a book I would find hard to lend out in case it didn't come home.

My own garden is becoming Edenic in its fecundity too.  Here are some photos.

First the beans ... the vines ... no beans yet.

 Then the beefsteak tomato plant which has two tiny tomatoes so far.  This is one of them.


And the other tomato plant in the box which has five mini tomatoes so far:

And then there are the zucchinis. I am already eating from the first plant shown, but the other garden up by the house looks as if it will soon be feeding me too.

And then there are the nasturtiums which are wonderfully colourful and edible, and the herbs which are all madly producing far more than I can enjoy by myself despite my most heroic efforts.

Kenya smells lovely and has a new identity ...

Kenya went to the groomer today while I taught a lesson on rhetorical devices ... a local woman who breeds horses and dogs and showed her animals for years.

The lesson went well and the groomer loved Kenya ... said she put her head on her lap and just relaxed almost the whole time.  She gave her a bag of her homemade natural doggy treats for being such a sweetie.

She thinks (judging by her coat and size) that Kenya is definitely Flat Coat Retriever ... but that the other bits and pieces are Australian Shepherd and Akita.  The Akita is a big dog;  the females go around Kenya's weight, and the males up to 120 pounds.  And, like Kenya,  they have very dense double coats that keep them waterproof.  The Australian Shepherd and the Akita both carry the blue eyed gene, and the Australian Shepherd would account for the brindling on her legs.

This is Kenya's second professional grooming in 4 1/2 years ... of course I comb her pretty regularly and she has one of those outer coats that is silky and sheds debris easily.  The groomer was impressed by how healthy she is and how good she looks.

I am enjoying teaching but I am glad to have a three day weekend. Enjoy your weekend.

Oh ... this evening I ate a salad that was almost completely from my own garden ... only the tomato was bought.  It was made up of leaf lettuce, arugula, and a sampling of every herb I am growing.

The Queen's Birthday

I find it odd that we Canadians celebrate the birthday of a monarch few of us care much about ... but nice that we do so by digging our fingers into warm soil, attempting to create gardens in our too short summers.


This summer promises to be the longest we've ever had ... or at least the longest I remember.

Nice that this is the one I decided to start gardening.

I have a to-do list for the garden that includes working away at the weeds in the gravel a little each day.  I figure a week to clean up the zany zen garden and then it will simply be upkeep.  Yeah, I know ... simply.  Nothing is ever simple.


My next big job (besides teaching for the next two weeks) is to finally get at the rest of the windows.  That is a job that I may have to call in help to accomplish.  But we will see.

Odin and Mark came on Saturday and took away a truckload of wood remains.  They will be back (with extra muscle) to move the old wood stove that is spoiling my view of the lake, and to complete the rest of the clean-up ... before the end of the month they have promised.  This is a really busy time of year for Odin's newly established company.

Remi is going home this evening.  His people miss him.  Kenya will be lonely when he goes.  So will Sadie.  Remi and Sadie play tag team wrestling, both of them ganging up on Kenya.  It is fun to watch.  She is remarkably patient with these two ... probably because she thinks of them as hers.  I will miss his warm body in bed every night ... but I won't miss the extra sand and laundry that result from an extra dog that paddles or swims in the lake and then trucks through earth before coming into the house.

May 24 Weekend

This has to be some kind of record ... 33 degrees on the 24th!!!

I have changed my header photo to reflect the reality of this wondrous spring ... and my first real garden ...  but I will have to wait for Tammy to make it look good.

My radishes have started to sprout and I can harvest lettuce and herbs of all kinds now.

Today the neighbours are having parties and Kenya, Remi and Sadie have been playing in the water all day. The Alaskan Sled Dog came over and attacked Kenya ... and Kenya never backs down so there was a rumble.  I hauled Kenya off and crated her, and Juno's dad was pissed off  and sent him home with his son.  All the nice dogs just kept on playing outdoors.

Then I went and had lunch with Carlos, and after I returned Kenya was let off suspension and has been good ever since.

I planted lemon balm from Tom, and more basil from the store and also winter savoury and thyme today.  Someone has to stop me or I am going to be following in Rowboat Flo's footsteps ...I am going to have a garden (gardens) that will consume me and enslave me!

Tomorrow Sarah is coming out for the afternoon and will take Remi home with her. I think he misses his family ... but Sadie and Kenya have been good stand-ins for the duration.

I kind of hope that this summery spring is not an aberration but a harbinger of springs to come!

Happy May 24th to all of you, especially the gardeners.

Today's Labour of Love

If I get enough energy back ...

If I do find the energy again, I will post photos of my progess.  In the meantime words will have to suffice.

I completed the box with cedar and filled it with mixed soil.  Then I planted a real combination of things ... at the back the climbers ... zucchinii, cucumbers and pole beans.  In front, bush beans, both green and yellow, and sugar snap peas.Then I planted the rest of the nasturtiums in the tree trunks,  took a great big breath, and considered how to start the rock gardens of herbs.

When I had my courage up I began ... and five hours later had 8 different herbs planted in and around the big rock area.

Then I went in for a swim ... well I started to ... I waded up to my knees and splashed icy cold water all over myself.  I don't know how Kenya stands it ... probably the same way she and Sadie stay cool while Remi has to come in from the sun.  They have thick insulating coats.

I discovered that I have to shade the basil and the lettuce from the strongest sun ... used my mosquito pullover today but have to find a better way.  Some kind of movable screen I think.

It is an experience ... I have told you already that I am not a gardener, right?



 

Gardening Update

Gardening must be about as boring to read about as dog biscuits ... but that is my life these days ...

Jim made me two box frames 6 feet long, one foot wide, and the depth of a 1x8.  When I got them home I stacked them and went looking for nice pieces of cedar to hold them together.  All my cedar bits and pieces are different lengths so I will have to saw them before attaching them.  I hate sawing and am an incompetent hammerer, but this job is very straightforward so I hope I can't mess up too badly.

I didn't have enough soil to fill the box so off I went to the village to load up once again ... 9 bags of soil and one of sheep manure.

The trip down the two hills had to be done in stages ... but all of the bags are now reposing in the zany zen garden where I will mix and fill the box and the tree stump pots for nasturtiums ... they are the ones with the edible orange flowers and the peppery leaves ... and will plant the climbing beans and zucchini in the box and the rest of the nasturtiums in the stumps.

Then the really hard labour begins ... I have to create little gardens for the various herbs by digging down through the gravel to earth, filling each spot with good mixed soil, and then planting.  I will do it one herb at a time ...

I am a little concerned that this might not work very well because there is so much rock beneath the gravel ... that there will be insufficient room to give each perennial enough soil.  Oh well ... all I can do is try.  If it doesn't work I will resort to pots and next year I will have another square foot garden made.

I am doing this as a gift to myself to celebrate the completion of the house and my seventieth birthday ... but I must say that it is the least cost effective way possible to get fresh vegetables.

The dogs are outside waiting for me to fuel up before attacking today's gardening chores.  More another time ... maybe I will even do something more exciting than mix soil ... and will actually have something to write about.

Quick and Dirty

I have mixed more soil mix, planted the impatiens in a chicken wire and perforated green garbage bag dish in the old well, moved the lumber Leonard and I are transporting to Jim's place, arranged for transport, finished planting the square foot garden ... and am about to fly to have the box for climbers created.

Remi took off with his Natural defense bone ... upstairs ... just in case Kenya might be interested in his ... Usually he just drops and crunches into treats.  This time, after assuring himself he was safe from interruption, he did as Kenya does, held it between his paws and munched away slowly.

Must run now ... today will be another digging and planting day with the occasional break to apply linament and throw a stick into the lake for Kenya and a tennis ball for Remi.  He is really funny when we play this way ... gets VERY excited every time Kenya jumps in to swim after a stick ... comes and tells me and forces me to watch everything she does.  Yesterday he let me throw a ball in the water and was willing after much cautionary procrastination to swim two strokes to get it.  He is a sweet boy but not a water dog.

Natural Defense

Natural Defense is the last brand to be tested and it appears to be the winner so far.


These "bones" are the largest of the treats and are intended for medium dogs.  The recommended amount is 2 per week.  I must say these look good enough to eat with their marrowy looking centres.  The ingredients, with the exception of salt and sodium,  read like a health food product for dogs, and there are 140 calories in every bone.  That is only 40 calories per day, the same as the Crunch'n'Cleans.  They also smell like something a dog would salivate for ... strong smoky sausage.

Ingredient List:
corn starch
potato starch
glycerin
water
natural flavour
dehydrated myrtle leaf
sodium tripoliphosphate
salt
potassium sorbate
a number of vitamins
rice hulls
chlorophyll

Kenya agreed with my assessment.   First she sniffed cautiously ... then with enthusiasm.  Then she took the treat to her treat-eating carpet in front of the wood stove.  She took a long time savouring this one.  No worries about gulping down indigestible, intestine-blocking chunks here.  She licked for a few minutes and then held it between her paws the way a chipmunk or groundhog eats a treat and nibbled away at it for a very long time.

I haven't priced any of the products or compared their price and appeal to Dentistix, but so far this one is definitely a treat we like.  By the end of the test we will report on Kenya's breath and the appearance of her teeth.

Not part of the official taste test ... Kenya stole the smaller of my recently planted hydrangeas yesterday thinking it was a stick to play with ... Maybe she isn't as bright as I had thought!  She refused to give it back and tore off into the woods with it.  I have replaced it with a rosemary plant.  Good grief!

Other Doggy News ... Remi, who was supposed to come last weekend is now coming today.  He may be here for a couple of weeks.  Kenya will be in heaven.  And I can see if Remi is dumb enough to like the Crunch&Cleans.

White Bites by Arm and Hammer, the Baking Soda People

I am cutting the testing of this one short ... not because Kenya hates them or because they are causing any bad side effects ... but because the sample I have is intended for a very small dog and the texture is so hard that I am afraid Kenya might swallow one whole and, like the Tasty Treats, this could cause a blockage.

Kenya chewed the Tasty Treats more than she does these little white bones with blue speckles.

She eats this one in the oddest way.  First she sucks the whole thing into her mouth and then slides it out.  It is a little like watching a kid eat a popsicle.  After doing this a few times she is drooling all over the carpet on which she is lying.  She finally starts to chew and the White Bite disappears far too quickly to have been properly masticated.

The ingredient list for this one is fairly innocuous:

wheat gluten
water
soy protein
glycerin
rice flour
gelatin
soium caseinate
calcium carbonate
titanium dioxide
potassium sorbate
sodium alginate
FD&C Blue #1
Baking Soda

So ... no more tiny White Bites.  She is going to start the fourth one tomorrow. 

And I am going back to filling my square foot garden with black earth, sheep manure and vermiculite ... and stopping every hour to rub linament on my aching haunch.

I will post photos of this lovely box soon!

Gardening is stalled ...

Odin, the young man who is supposed to clean the property, may come today since it is supposed to rain ... or snow.  It is a good day to evaluate the job.

I have to call  Jim and see when he is going to come to build the box(es).

This weekend I will likely test-drive the glass painting equipment I bought at Michael's ... and wait to do all the outdoor parts of the job when the temperature rises again and we are not expecting precipitation of either type.

What strange weather ... from summer to winter in a week ...

I have been feeling ill since Wednesday ... tummy troubles ... not sure whether my water, my holding tank, my diet, or my aging body is to blame ... but I had to cancel an engagement last night ... one I was really looking forward to ... dinner with friends followed by a modern dance performance at the Shenkman Centre.  I was all cleaned up and dressed in nice clothes, even wearing jewelry ... and due to leave within the half hour ... when I realized with absolute certainty that this was a mistake.

My plans for this next while are being downsized to match my energy levels, the weather, and the whims and other commitments of the people I need to help.

BUT ... the garden has to be ready soon to receive my birthday gift to myself ... a garden fireplace and barbecue ... one of the round fairly flat ones ... it will nestle into the rocky gravel of the zany zen garden beautifully, I think.   I told them I would pick it up in two weeks.

Optimistic Gardening Neophyte

This post has become as scattered as my thoughts and efforts related to gardening are. Sorry, but here you are ...

Yesterday I bought my soil and sheep manure and called Jim who is going to build my first raised square foot gardening box . He is a competent and reliable carpenter (rather than a fine craftsman) whom I know and trust.  Today I  will arrange for him to use my account for all the hardware necessary.  I hope that I will be able to start  mixing soil and manure and planting on the weekend.

I am very much an amateur at all this, but I am excited by the thought of actually producing food in a manageable garden that just requires a little care and attention. Boxes, pots and planters seem more manageable than plots, even though I know that weed seeds are ingenious travelers that move about as often by air as any other way.  With the raised box there will enough depth of soil for the veggies as well as manageability.

  Jim says he will be trying to convince me to build a second box.  I am not so sure I want to bite off too much this first season.  I will be planting other things like climbing green and yellow beans and  herbs in the zany zen garden. 

Someone said that a gardener is an optimist, a person who believes there will be a future.  At almost 70, I guess I am a cautious optimist.

In other gardening news ...

I will also be asking Jim's advice about getting my composter working again.  It has stopped and I have been chopping up orange peels and such in the blender before adding them, in an attempt to get it going properly.  I was told yesterday that I should place the bin in the sun where the heat can help the action.  I have had the thing for years but have never used the compost.  Probably the richest soil on my property in under this thing.

I have laid a perimeter of broken eggshells around the hostas to discourage the slugs that have already begun to appear (often on Kenya's face ... she does find other species fascinating), and the mint I planted a couple of years ago on the hill is beginning to sprout anew, along with the indomitable oregano which thrives in a tiny patch of dappled sunshine nearby.

Last fall I transplanted  the chives and lavender to a new spot in a corner of my grey water field  because the lumber for the siding had to be piled where they grew.  Despite the fact that it is not the sunniest place, they seem happy enough too.  I want to have them in the zany zen garden, though ... and also the oregano ... not sure whether I will start new ones there or transplant these again.

Last fall, my friend, Sharon, planted nine little Mungo pines along the laneway and up by the parking lot.  All but two survived.  This year she is going to give me some low growing evergreens (the name is escaping me) for the lower garden ... and also some rocks and gravel from their gravel pit for the road. 

Rowboat Flo gave me several large pails in which to store lake water near the garden.  It will let the lake water warm up before I use it for watering.  She has also started some herbs indoors that she has offered to share.

So I may be a neophyte, and a very cautious optimist, but I am surrounded by inveterate gardeners who are knowledgeable and generous with their time, expertise, and energy.   These two gardens will produce good things.

Today I am going to buy two different types of paint so that I can turn a little garbage picking find into a useful piece of garden art.  It is one of those little glass topped tables ... with an ugly black metal frame and removable glass top.  When I am finished I hope it will look like a piece of abstract stained glass art.  And that it will hold a tea cup or wine glass with a bit of whimsical flair.

Enjoy your day whether you are gardening or not, and join me in believing in a future in which all growing things can thrive and provide happiness.

No Thinking Allowed

"The finest people marry the two sexes in their own person."  (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Apropos of nothing ... but I like the concept.

Yesterday I finally finished the taxes ... I know I made mistakes but I finally said "That's it!  They can figure it out," and I drove to the post office and deposited both envelopes.  The post mistress gave me the name of someone in Masham whom I will burden with my taxes next year.  Then I went to Le Hibou and ordered their most decadent and delicious platter of smoked nachos and drank two glasses of red wine to celebrate coming out from under the cloud of taxes.

I get utterly frustrated while working with the figures, explanations and tiny almost invisible lines and numbers.  I hate moving back and forth among the guide, the form, the extra sheets to fill in and the receipts and other documentation.  It is not the arithmetic involved.  That is no problem.  It is the chaos of trying to keep that many details aloft all at one time.

I find it as difficult as working with drawings of three dimensional objects and attempting to see the spatial relationships among them.

I empathize completely with people who are dyslexic and others who cannot function in our literate world when I am faced with a task that demands competence in areas where I am sadly deficient.

I have several areas of incompetence ... and they seem to proliferate as the world becomes more complex and my brain ages, but taxes are one of those things that we all should be able to handle ... just like we should all be able to read, operate a computer, and drive a vehicle, because those are now just basic life skills.

On a much more pleasant subject, a neighbour gave me some hydrangea roots ... they are the bushes that produce those lovely snowball flowers that turn russety in the fall.  I dug the holes for them (huge holes requiring removal of very large rocks), one in a corner within the perimeter of my new garden, the other just outside the perimeter near the opposite corner.  I prepared the biggest  hole with manure and fresh soil and tea leaves, and the other with the addition of crumbled egg shells.  This morning I gave them both a drink of tea before making my own pot. (No, I didn't pee on them, despite the fact that they like urine.)

I have some wood ash, but I think it will make the soil too alkaline for these shrubs.  Apparently hydrangeas like coffee grounds, citrus peel, as well as urine and tea ... and they might even turn blue or pink with the right PH.

I have also heard that copper added to the soil will encourage blue colouring. I have a bunch of copper piping that I want to use for trellises.  Do you suppose my green and yellow beans will turn blue if I use them?

Today I intend to accomplish tasks that make absolutely no demands on my intellect.  I will paint the garden furniture with the next coat of varnish and take my car to the village where I will vaccuum it and get it washed.  I also intend to eat chicken breasts done with oranges (so the hydrangeas can have  a treat later), basmati rice and some fiddleheads I picked yesterday afternoon at my secret spot on the other side of the lake.

If I decide I need some mental stimulation later I will do my April accounts and continue reading my newest book, In the Sanctuary of Outcasts by Neil White.  I just finished reading Ten Chickens for a Saddle by Robyn Scott... can recommend both.   Outcasts is about a man imprisoned for bank fraud in a leper colony, and Ten Chickens about a family that throws off their new Zealand life to raise their children in Botswana. Both reveal a great deal about what is important in life, but I think Ten Chickens is a better story ... less earnest.

And now I am off in pursuit of unthinking pleasures.  Have a great weekend.

Le Carousel, Lavender and Wild Flowers

I have been asked by my favourite Susan to re-name the lazy susans I am creating ... so now each will be one of "Le Carousel" series. I am still working on the first one, "Everything Under the Sun", and should complete it today. I'll post a photo.

The Frog Pond Rocker looks a lot happier than it did, but it really is impossible to create a silk purse from a sow's ear or a beautiful piece of furniture from something that was always ordinary and whose mistreatment has made it ugly over the years. That said ... this little rocking chair should make some little person happy. I am thinking about donating it to a friend's daycare which will be starting up in the fall.

Yesterday I drove in to Hull to see a doll's cradle at a garage sale. The garage sale had been canceled because of the rain, so instead, I went for a long walk with Carlos and all three dogs, spoke to Tamarack(she's away on a course) on the phone, and had lunch at their place. We had potatoes, squash done with maple syrup and cinnamon, and pork chops ... yummy!

On the way home I stopped at another garage sale advertised in Chelsea and found it rained out too, so continued on up the line to the Wakefield Hospital's annual fund raising Tea in the Park. Some of my neighbours were there and I bought a beautiful crocheted necklace and some wild flower seeds to strew in my side yard.

The day before, Eric and Renee stopped by to talk to me about what needs to be done with the lakeside garden where the old cottage stood. I am going to have stone put in first to cover any remaining debris, and then I will make square foot gardening boxes for the back area where the upstairs was, and a pleasant area with patches of perennials, large rocks, planters and seating in the other part where the kitchen and livingroom were. Next year will be its first real year but I want to get it started now so that it will be ready. Because they are going to bring in a small machine to move the rock I will lose my tiny garden box that is filled with lavender, chives, tomatoes and basil. It will be no loss for the tomatoes as they are doing almost nothing, but I want to transplant everything anyway.

The lavender will be planted somewhere on the septic field with the wild flowers. Imagine a whole side yard of lavender and wild flowers, and a clothesline full of laundry drying over it absorbing the scent!

It looks like another rainy day so I will brighten mine by working on the carousels and starting the next chair. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

This ‘n that on another rainy day ...

This has got to be the rainiest June I can remember. It comes after a winter with near record snowfall, and the gardens are thriving. I have planted one hill with mint and it loves the rain, and the ferns and other forest growth are beginning to remind me of the lushness of a rain forest.

I have a fire going downstairs and have spent my morning making phone calls, responding to email, combing Kenya's tangled undercoat over her tail bone ... the part she can't reach, and reading The Book of Negroes by Laurence Hill.

I received a note from "The Perfect Man" ... the one who was just TOOO perfect. He said he really liked me but got the impression last year that I was not interested. But then he decided to try again. Oh dear.

Someone emailed me to tell me that one of the victims in the tragic fire in Labrador was the twenty year old niece of a former colleague. Suddenly the news reports became more meaningful. That shouldn't happen, but it does all the time, to most of us. We feel sorry when we hear bad news but we keep our hearts at a distance.

Only the massive destruction of lives in a 9-11, a tsunami in Thailand or an earthquake in China ... natural or manmade disasters that attract the attention of the whole world seem to make us empathise.

We feel the pain of the victims because the media inundates us with their images and tells us their stories. We cannot ignore the fact that we are all human and that the tragedy belongs to all of us. Paul Coelho would say that we are suffering with them because we are all part of the Soul of the World.

Stephen Lewis reminded us during the tsunami that there are people whose suffering is hidden away, people whose suffering is no longer news, and we must not forget them either.

Our humanity is what connects us to all human beings ... our souls to the Soul of the World.

Lazy Saturday

Another beautiful day ... I considered doing a bunch of stuff but discovered when I began to sweep and mop up mounds of dog hair that I was not operating competently at all, so I left the broom and anti-static mop leaning on walls, and wrote something for my blog. Then I ate breakfast. Both Kenya and I had tenderly poached eggs for breakfast. Hers accompanied kibble. I had homemade multigrain toast smeared with dandelion honey on the side.

That made me remember that I wanted to buy local honey as house guest gifts for the trip so I went to the Saturday morning market in the village. While I was there I picked up a couple of bags of soil and some chives and sage for planting. Then Kenya and took the long way home along River Road.


We parked on Maxwell and got out to walk for a while. Kenya smelled wonderful things ... I recognized horse manure and cows and we followed the sound of rushing water to a patch of woods where a piddling cow and several calves hid among the trees. And then there were the wonderful flowery scents. Kenya kept dragging me away from these to clamber about in the long grass on the verges of the road. She emerged covered in the frothy spittle that is left on leaves every night.





When we got home I made Coconut Milk Bean Soup. It is an east African recipe and is chockful of veggies and very good. I was still not operating competently and there is a huge mess for me to clean up when I return to the scene.

But first I want to play some more. And finish this. And post photos. And plant the herbs. And re-pot the plants that needs a trough to contain them now.

Then maybe I will vaccuum up the dog hair and sand, dust, and clean the kitchen ...

But perhaps before I do any of that ... I will bring the laundry in off the line. It has been getting re- rinsed and re-dried for almost two days now. It will smell glorious, and when I wear the cotton nightgown tonight I will be reminded of this lovely lazy day.

Ouch!

I have ONE SORE BUTT ... I just fell on the wet wooden stairs outside (I was going to plant a couple of herbs I had left at the top of the 39 steps yesterday) .


The muscle has swelled up like a rock that my hand cannot close around. It feels like a ledge.

You know how we work out to get rock hard butts? Well I have now have one and would trade it for the familiar squishy one any day.

Debbie just called and said the same thing happened to her on the steps at the farm and it lasted for months! When it happened, Rob said, "Oh, I think you just hurt your feelings," and she whipped down her pants saying, "Does that look like my feelings?"

Anyway I didn't want to hear that it took weeks to stop hurting or months to go back to normal ... I leave in a week and a bit, and I can' t sit down.