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!!