scheduling summer

Flipping through a Vesey's catalogue on a Saturday morning with a small cup of coffee. Still have some birthday money from my mother-in-law I think I'll put toward a few new bulbs. May-haps.

Today is a garden day. D will be at the store, then off to Toronto for band practice, so I've a wide open day and night, solo (and these wide open solo times will come to an end, I'm aware, I savour). I'd also like to do some writing. Mom lent me her copy of "writing down the bones" ages ago and I just pulled it down off the shelf. See what happens. I've pulled some cookbooks out too. It's that kind of day.

Friend M has got me into lemon water - I've unearthed a clay pitcher, a wedding present from J&M, and it is my new table companion. A full lemon, some ice, some water. Summer. Summer and a bowl full of lemons.

In belly news I finally, at 23 weeks, look undeniably like a pregnant lady. It's nice. It makes me feel like smiling at everyone and I think it might make everyone smile at me. My back has been difficult to manage so I've started frequenting massage and chiropractor offices and feeling better. Of course the real answer is to swim and walk and stretch - I'm having such trouble injecting these things into my schedule. The growing belly and sore muscles make the reality of inevitable labour and birth more apparent, and that I need to better prepare for this event physically. I'm getting quite excited to meet the baby, D too. Lately we feel like it's a little boy, but I think only because we just have a boy name ready. D insulated baby's room and will paint the ceiling and dry wall next week. Getting there. We also got a new baby name book so trying to make more progress there too.

The store is busy and summery and doing well. We've hired a friend to come in two days a week. She works M/Th, closed T, I work Wed, and most of the time D works F/S/S but we flex. It's odd to have 3 full time jobs between us, on top of house work (the wood still not piled or gravel spread... so it goes) yet I still feel optimistic about it all getting done in good time. We're capable people. The "little" things, like sewing wipes and burp clothes, organising my potting station, cleaning out the chicken coop, weeding the gardens, general cleaning also need to be fit into the spare moments. But it's nice to have things to do.

make way

New favourite garden flower is a hardy geranium called 'patricia' - a surprisingly large plant this year absolutely covered in long-blooming, dark pink flowers. The rest of the perennial garden is coming along... I think in a couple more years it could be glorious.

D's been working hard on the house whenever time allows - the small bedroom and hallway have been gutted (contents taken away by a dumpster we rented), and D's currently pulling up the old, scuffed parquet flooring. It's a slow, big job, but can already tell it's a worthwhile endeavour, good to get in before baby arrives.

There's also a load of gravel in the driveway (scored from D's work site for $50) and 4 cord of wood coming. Really have to watch the heavy lifting as it's tempting to get to work.

In other preggo news, grocery shopping has become more of a free for all than before, and it's kind of fun. One theme seems to be weird fake cheese eats (nacho cheese, kraft dinner, cheddar flavoured crackers). The nacho cheese and KD were thankfully one-timers, but sticking with the crackers. Am also super into honey nut cheerios. One day last week I ate some pickles chased with icecream and didn't realise till later how cliche I was being. Mmm.

I'm 32 this upcoming Wednesday which feels about right. Time is going quickly now. Funny to not be making time to slow time (meditation). Or physically/mentally prepping for things more... exercise, projects, reading, etc. We lost the internet for a couple days mid-reno and D and I both agreed it was kind of nice. I started reading a Charles De Lint novel mom lent me and it's a much nicer way to spend mental time than surfing the web. Speaking of which... think I'll see what happens next.

jet fueled

The reality of solo-dom disappearing soon hits me almost everyday, and in rushes a profound tender admiration for the woman I was in my 20's. Lost yes, but exploring, free to investigate, stuck, then free again, unleashed into the world. There's so much to see.

The other day a breeze hit me and I was transported back to the entrance of the Zurich art museum. Sometimes it's Spain, and a particular set of stairs in Seville. Or a bench I sat on in Edinburgh. Pizza in a small cafe in Solerno, a cheese pie in Croatia. Sometimes the train station in Paris, or the bus stop in Toulouse. A dirty sidewalk of NYC, a park in Boston, a bike ride on the beach of North Carolina's Outer Banks. Even the red sands of PEI's national park and the cobblestone of Montreal's old town. A dart of fear hits me: will I travel so freely again?

It's made me want to count my aeroplan points and devise a plan. A pregnant lady adventuring (desperately?) into an unknown, for the sake of that rush of uncertainty, something or someone new, freedom. Spending time in the beauty and wonder of the world, away from chores and work and any kind of responsibility other than finding some good food to eat and a decent place to sleep.

Travelling anywhere in summer is expensive, hot, and touristy... by fall I'll be too huge for a plane to carry me. Plus money and time that should be spent on other things, in preparation. Perhaps when I'm 60, an art class in Florence. Till then, a family and the adventure that IT is. Perhaps a family that travels.

one domestic eveninggg

Long day at the office on top of a slow day at the store, home a bit after 5. Husband working late. Pet dogs, sit on porch, breath. Deadhead baskets and pots of porch flowers. Rub belly, smile. Pet dogs again, sit on porch again, breath. Strip bed, throw blankets and pillowcases in the wash, start washing breakfast dishes. Put eggs on to boil, cut up potatoes, put those on to boil. Bring chickens kitchen scraps, clean water, collect eggs. Feed dogs. Pick chives, make potato salad for my hard-working husband and put in fridge. Eat a pickle. Eat some hummus. Eat crackers, drink water. Take butter out of fridge and find a cookie recipe with hopes it'll turn out and be a gift for neighbour's birthday, and excuse to visit. Hang laundry on the line, breath. Make cookies (chewy oatmeal choc chip), bake cookies, smell cookies. Smell lilacs in vase on kitchen table. Call, bribe, chain Luna who seems to wander to the road in the evenings to chase neighbourhood walkers, joggers, rabbits. Wash potato salad and cookie dishes. Yell at barking dogs. Eat cookie... not bad. Drink water, take vitamin, enjoy breeze through windows, singing frogs. Three hours of barefoot, pregnant, domestic bliss. Blog.

gardening begins again

It's been too long since I've written - have to not do that because I so enjoy reading back years later on the happenings of each month. Above is a photo of our deck in action: garden stuff, chairs, leftover wood, dogs. I came home the other day and Luna was chewing on Whisk's electric collar, so now we're tying it to him till we fix it - the sound of the thing warning him of the parameter is enough to keep him in. He's a timid dude. Lune's generally always chewing/destroying something... looks like a hunk of wood in pic, leaving a trail of wood shards throughout the front lawn. Messy but cute.

We split on a tiller rental with the neighbours this weekend, and D tilled up our big garden this morning, while the rain let up. So nice to have a huge spot of soil ready and waiting. Last week I planted greens, peas, beets, radishes, dill, cilantro. The garlic is up and mulched with chicken straw (the rest of the coop to be cleaned out soon and also dumped on the garden).

The flower beds are in full swing, with spring bulbs in bloom and a few other earlies brightening up the place. I went nutty at the local greenhouse yesterday and bought a flat of pansies, a flat of imaptiens, a flat of petunias... and a few other odds and ends (geraniums, potato vine, creeping charley, fushcia, million bells). I told the town flower-planning guy I'd be creating the hanging baskets for the store myself this year instead of buying from him... and the theme is "hot pink" - we'll see how I do.

Other things are growing too but more on that later...!