when a month is a year

Rain falling, all week, from the sky. Just falling or sometimes with the wind, and then pounding against windows and roof. In the pauses I go out to smell the air, check the mail, pull the weeds. Briefly existing in the drenched outdoor world before going back in to make tea. Tho through windows, still bird song, drops falling from trees, the smell. Pets inside with noses tucked under paws. Sweaters and socks for me.

June was quiet for writing but deserves a few more words. July 1st, hold on a sec!

Number one is the garden failed (dang!), but in a way to teach me things. Snow and frost the first week of June killed many seedlings, mainly my tomato patch. Replanted, and a week later ravaged by animals (deer I think), nibbling the tops off everything. Those plants unaffected instead eaten entirely, and surprisingly quickly, by bugs. Also, Toronto commitments, bad weather, general exhaustion... things were put off, unwatered, unplanted. Oh yeah, and the tiller died. Strike one for year one but am not put off by it as things can only go up from here. Next year, soil will be ready, a fence built, and more frequent checking for bugs, surely. Also lessons in patience, dedication, timing... basically, things that had to happen now in order for the endeavor of growing our own food to move forward. And I should quantify 'fail' - we are still eating some stuff! Just not to the capacity I thought we would. Fresh herbs, green onions, garlic scapes, lettuces, kale... yum.

Also, I turned 30! It is a comfortable age. The birthday panics of my 20's absent this time around. Instead, infused with the feeling experienced in even earlier years; the milestone of knowing that life will become even more exciting, rich, enlightening, and inspiring from here on in. (hey, I learned a lot in my 20's, but most importantly, the importance of optimism). D & I were going to celebrate with a camping trip but with the rain that weekend, we instead went up to Minden and spent Saturday night in a little inn called the Dominion Hotel. Good food, good beer, CAKE, and turns out Minden is a neat little place to hang out. My actual birthday was spent in the city (work conference) but I managed to steal away the night of for beers at the Victory with friends, including long-lost girlfriends from highschool. Thirty rules.

June also included... a cottage visit, blessings from a priest, friends at the farm, a cat that came home (not raj - that would've been crazy! mo was lost for a day), a nice new bathrobe, a swim in cameron lake, a band practice in the basement, and other summery things.

Ok July, it's all yours.

slow starts

Nice we wake early. This morning by 9am laundry was washed and on the line, beans were planted, pets were fed, dishes put away, etc. I also began resurrecting the tomato patch as I lost close to 30 plants from the combo of frost and dry days in the first week of June. Boo. But actually, a blessing in disguise: extra motivated now to keep the garden healthy and, well, less tomato plants to tend amidst a busy summer schedule. After the resurrection tho, I'll still have 36 in the ground, which still makes me happy. Everything is off to a pretty late start with spring taking so long to warm up. Still need to get a lot in. Actually, still need to till! Tiller still at the shop but am hoping it'll be back soon, in time for eggplants, peppers, cukes, zukes, and squash types to go in. Is it too late for corn?

Ah, it's okay. Gave myself a pass at the very start of the season. Not expecting too much this year, as it's the first year of many. Soil is newly worked, beds newly made. It will take some time to de-rock and build up the soil with compost and manure, to figure out proper rotations for each crop family, to get timing down. It's an experimental year. Am enjoying taking time to play, see what works, what doesn't, what I like, what we need more or less of, etc. Perennial beds will also take a couple of years to come together. Right now the beds by the house and near the driveway are great messes of veggies, annuals, baby perennials, and bulbs. Oh, and bindweed, grass, and assorted weeds. Good fun. I found a really cool old cultivator claw tool in the shed, left behind by previous owners.

Oh yeah, and we got another two bush cord of wood! You can see in the picture we're being slow to pile it. Reminds me about our chimney situation... but that's another story.

june, be juney

Am shivering a little, wrapped in a blanket with a cup of tea. June has come with frost-warnings and mornings so chilly I've had a fires on. What gives? Surely the cold will let go sooner than later. Surely.

42 tomatoes in the ground so far, with a few more to get in for a nice number of 50. Everything else is on the porch, shying away from the chilly fields. Actually, am just too busy to get to work out there - plus the freakin' tiller needs another visit to the engine shop. The tines quit spinning, so my gardening quit spinning too. Actually, I did plant a few cucumbers with neat chicken-wire bridges, but they were dug up minutes later by my shadow-happy dog. Sigh. Whatta goof. Going to have to revisit that one.

The other night after putting tomatoes in, it started to rain. My love and I sat on the porch with a beer watching the sky change from darkness and thunder to a beautiful, surreal, full double rainbow. Glorious.

into the city

As I write this, the commuter train is pulling into Rouge Hill station... still about 25min away from downtown Toronto's Union. Difficult to see out the windows in this grey night, in the pouring rain. I have my laptop with me as I'm in between computers at the office (someone needed my Sun station). Ah, this little MacBook is my electronic heartbeat, a metal and plastic friend.

Staying at Shoe's tonight, this night of many a couch-sleeping night. Haven't seen him in awhile despite his living room futon being a favourite crash pad of mine. On Saturday it was instead the lovely guest room and bed in the home of my bandmate, his wife, and their 7mo old jolly jumper. Lovely post-rock snooze and delicious blueberry waffles. Before that, the blow-up mattress at J&N's, another frequented spot to spend the night. Always good chats, good tea, and a good sleep. I love their cat Gary (female) and the morning muffins. These are the ones that keep me afloat in this crazy life I've organised, living in the boonies and working in the city. Once a week, I'm bestowed the generous gift of urban resting place, with friends, and for this I feel extremely grateful. I hope someday my abode can be as welcome to them, whenever the desire for a country-visit comes. (A few weekends like this already planned for this summer!)

The landscape is changing from suburbia and highway to... city outskirts. Apartment buildings, Lake Ontario, big-chain stores, slick wet pavement, smoggy dense air. I should pack up, as that means we're almost there. Then onto the subway, then a streetcar, then up an elevator. 3hrs from then, I was home - a completely different place.

inside the living land

A walk in our bush on the long weekend - beautiful. Wish we could go further and further in without the risk of getting lost (need compass) or being confronted by a bear (need bear-bells? pepper spray?). The feeling of being a guest, a foreigner, a stranger in the unknown depths of trees and trees and fields and trees and trees and stone fences and trees and trees and trees and swamp land... haunting, yet alluring. Like a dream. And it is interesting to me that as captivating as the forest is, we spend so little time in it, have explored so few acres of it.

I've no doubt the issue is perceived safety, but I also know this is mostly fueled by ignorance. I grew up in the fields and bush and creeks of Killaloe (mom called us to dinner with a cow bell), but that was many years ago, and traveling/city streets have instilled in me that 'needing to know' hyper-awareness of one's surroundings, for actual safety. I am sure here the animals will leave me be, for the most part, and the branches will stay put high in the rafters of the forest ceiling, for the most part, but there is never assurance. There is a lot going on in these depths I have yet to understand and trust to know my place in. So instead I respect my unknowing, and leave the acres of trees and trees and animals unscouted. I will learn and wander more as our years together let us grow accustomed. Despite officially being the owner of this land, I know it is not mine.

basils

clockwise from top left: mrs. burns lemon basil, sweet basil, cinnamon basil, purple delight basil

mmm!

terra cotta

A summer's day today. Hardening off tomatoes, peppers, miscellaneous plants. Working on the porch with my laptop. Clothes drying in the sun, dog panting and sleepy, cat playing in the grass (we've been letting her out... supervised), bees and hummingbirds stopping to visit, a peaceful wind, and earfuls of glorious birdsong.

Alas, off to Toronto tonight. But small price to pay for this beautiful lifestyle. And I'll be staying with great friends, checking in at the office, and practicing for our show on Saturday in Mississauga. Good things. My finger is starting to bend again, so should be a better practice than last week (could barely play plus my amp died. ugh). Strack is lending me his music man till mine's outta the shop. Will have to tape my finger up good so it doesn't split... stitches are out!

Plant splurge on Saturday: two hydrangeas (anabelle and pink diamond), rosemary, pineapple sage, silver thyme, woolly thyme, curry plant, oregano, chocolate mint, english ivy, a pretty trailer called helichrysum 'mini silver', some red onions, and a japanese barberry bush. ta da!

It was an otherwise lazy long weekend, but much needed, and we spent some time exploring the bush a little - it's so beautiful. Photos to come.

merrily may

Back home...
And spring has arrived!
Lovin' it. Despite laziness, travel, a broken tiller (my fault trying to be handy with the recoil starter. oops), four stitches and a tetanus shot (from washing dishes of all things), I've finally got some seeds in the ground! Radishes, lettuces, spinach, arugula, peas, carrots, beets, and onions are now ready to rock. Soon I'll transplant broccoli, cauliflower, and kale...

While I was away in san fran, D kept almost everything alive ♥ (didn't really need that german thyme anyway), so my small army of seedlings are still happily growing inside, awaiting warmer weather.

San Francisco was lovely. Tho mostly kept busy with work, I managed to get out a see a few things:

Lookout tower at de Young Museum (self-portrait w timer)
Sea Lions!
Redwoods!
I also rode the cable car. Twice.
This was my first time travelling like a grown up (i.e nice hotel, work), and I really enjoyed it, but always so good to be home.

a week away

I'm in San Francisco! WOOO!

Enjoying work, spring blooms, and hilly streets.

journey

It's a long ways away but it's a good way. Quietest GO ride yet. I suppose we were all solo travellers in our particular train car. I read my newest issue of 'Canadian Gardening' (thanks mom!) with heavy eyes. Wasn't till the later stops when came shuffling, key jangles, coughs - humans readying to get off, go home, hug family, put feet up. I still had another 100km of sunset till home, family, feet. A pink sky sailor's delight. Sang out loud to old cassette tapes, sipped coffee from Brooklin Timmy's, thought about life and the journey here and now, life and roads, memories...

Pulling in in the last shards of twilight to my babe on the porch and our dog (Mo was pressing against the front door with tiny paws. She's not allowed out as we're scared of loosing another to coyotes). Sat down and compared days, his on a roof with a hammer, mine in the office with a computer. Looked over the beautiful fields, starting to green, the nights getting warmer. It's good to have got here, through it all.

spring take two

Another snow fall, another big melt. But this time I think we're in the clear - temperatures for the week are calling for above 10C every day which means... actual SPRING. YES.

This long Easter weekend, some family came to see me! Mom arrived Friday and bro came for a bit on Saturday. Scrabble, wine, grilled-cheeses, and lots of yardwork. Old gardens remade, and other old gardens dismantled. A little effort to make the place look cared for. There's still a lot to do, but it's a good start. Also, Mom brought me a chocolate bunny and I've almost demolished the entire thing. Wheeeee!

We also did a little trip to Bobcaygeon. With Bigley's store being the big destination for many, we dropped in so mom could check it out. And we bought shoes. Boy, did I ever buy shoes:
Shiny!

In other news, Mo is really into the blanket mom crocheted me.
I guess she likes being able to hide but still see through the holes? She falls asleep like this, buried. It's adorable.

One more thing - work is sending me to San Francisco for a week! I leave Apr 25th and get to stay in a nice hotel and work on a cool project at Berkeley. Pinch me.

one year later

Gee, it's been one whole year since I moved out of the city. Last March I said goodbye to my lovely downtown Toronto apartment to live in Meaford with D and JP, then after a spring of house-hunting, D & I moved into our beautiful farm here in Fenelon in July. What a difference a year makes...

Spent last weekend and a couple extra days in cities, playing shows with the band. My walk to work on Friday wafted pig smells of the abattoirs below King street. I saw a cop fresh on the scene of a break-in at the LCBO on Queen St... he was dusting for finger prints. (I actually loved seeing him do that - so into that stuff when I was a kid. I remember dusting my bedroom door knob with an old makeup brush and baby powder, comparing my finds to ink prints I'd taken of my brothers' little hands). A couple construction workers were unloading fresh tar out of the back of a truck into a wheelbarrow, then carting and dumping it onto the road, shouting at each other all the while. Men were unloading huge keg barrels into the basements of bars, a hot-dog stand went by on the back of a trailer, on its way to work. Then I got on a streetcar to rattle me the rest of the way north, to sit in front of a computer 7 stories up. Had my friend's apartment to crash at while he's at a gaming conference in San Fran.

The shows were good (Friday night was packed beyond capacity!), and it was good to see friends. La belle province is a long enough drive tho, and they're still allowed to smoke in some venues! But the kids were singing along, and C-lo made an amazing breakfast. Returned to Toronto tired, full of timbits, ready to head home.
Bags packed, on the streetcar, I meet Olive. She's 82 and on her way to a senior's fitness class, then an art class after that. I ask her how she does it and she's all "how do YOU do it!" Should've given her my number. She and her husband used to rent a boathouse up here in the summers.

This morning before 7, tea steeping, my love almost out the door, the pets being cute, the bath almost full, I think "so love life here"... I really really really do.

First flower this morning: a yellow crocus.

seeing green

Spent a solid bunch of minutes sitting on the porch last night and was restored with a feeling or rightness and wellness. Red-wing blackbirds are starting to sing and visit the feeders - I love them. Robins are picking around the fields too. The smell of soil and water and wind are all coming back full-force, and it fills me. Our first long winter in the country (since childhood) - we made it through warm-ish, dry, and happy.

Seed starting is starting to really get going. This weekend/next week, 8 weeks before the no frost date, I'll start the tomatoes and brassicas. Food-wise, peppers are starting to come up, eggplants still waiting, onions and chives are up, strawberries, rosemary, parsley.... Lots of flowers up too: pansies and lamb's ear (above photo), petunias, tansy, pink, russian sage, hyssop, catnip. So much more to come!

Nice things:
1. new ipod touch
2. how much i love D
3. peach tea
4. a good job
5. SPRING!!

in with the new

Tolerating the tail end of a cold that has had me worn out and coughing for the past two weeks. Taking it with stride tho, my first sickness of the winter, it was due. A little reminder as to how precious good health is... and how welcome spring will be. Finally, the snow is melting, the kindling is getting low, and the dog's happy to be out all day. Scarves more accessory than necessity. Can hear the ice cracking from the porch.

The extra hour ahead means I get to drive in twilight when going into the city, much preferred. It's a dreamy time of day-to-evening that adds quiet sparkle to my already cinematic drives through the countryside.

Have been working a lot - two projects to finish this month for work and lots of ideas for side-projects of my own. The latest and greatest thoughts have influenced the purchase of an ipod touch. Should be here this afternoon! What I'll use it for I'm not exactly sure, but for right now... research. Ahem. Funny because am fully aware of how much time I already spend on the computer (10hrs a day-ish), so adding another that lets me compute while not in front of the computer? Oh dear.

Nice things:
1. a box full of new seeds
2. halls cough drops
3. d's blueberry scones
4. visits with family
5. watching mo watch birds

valentine city

Pretty roses from my valentine. Am a lucky gal. So nice to have flowers in vases in the house... need to plan for ample cut flowers in the garden, tho so many pretty wildflowers around too. I don't know much about the cut-flower industry but curious about cut flower farms in Ontario and local flower shops that stock them.

Got my 2009 grow list somewhat figured out... a few things missing but nothing a seedy saturday can't fix!

Was in the big city this weekend for a band practice and D's band's last gig eva/Ancestors' 7" release. Very enjoyable. Old Toronto friends, head-banging, late night tea. Before that, a homemade mezza at J&N: falafel, stuffed grape leaves, bulgar salad, fried cheese, pita, and maple-walnut pie for dessert. MMM!

Nice things:
1. D's Burmese chickpea mash thing
2. a tow truck driven by nice retired dairy farmer
3. february almost being over
4. rock shows at sneaky dee's
5. norma's orchid collection