Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
Winter passing…..
A crap election. A sinus infection. (Gee those rhyme)…. and yet I’m feeling okay today, not quite as despairing, like spring is in the air and I am on the mend (thanks antibiotics!).
I’m not overly peppy or anything, but I don’t feel quite so bad as the last couple of days. A good thing since I have *lots* to get ready for B’s birthday dinner on Saturday. Like finish making a whole new set of linens (10 placemats, 10 matching napkins) for our new table – which I am hoping will happen tonight. Nine of the placemats are done and the napkins are on the agenda for this evening…… Time-consuming, but I am quite pleased with how it’s all turning out so I think the effort will be worth it. And the menu! I’m super-excited about that but I can’t post it here because B. might see and it’s a surprise.
In other news, I received an email yesterday that says I’ve been accepted into grad school for the fall which I am really super-happy about. My worklife has been in a bit of a rut lately, my union life is morphing into something else, and I have been hoping grad school might be my ticket to some new intellectual interests, writing inspiration, and connections with people. So yay! I get to go after all, even though I was sure I blew my interview last week, that my essay was no good, and that my reference letters never made it to their intended destinations. (I have a lot of angst about worthiness as you can tell).
So I’ve got some reading to do anyway. A whole summer’s worth, and at least one Greek play before the first “informal” seminar in June (classes don’t actually start until September). Hopefully I can keep up!
Urban Agriculture: Ideas and Designs for the New Food Revolution
David Tracey
New Society, 2011
Written by a local Vancouverite, I picked up Urban Agriculture looking for a little bit of early spring inspiration – it being so cold and all here this past April – and David Tracey did not disappoint. Outlining a vision of Vancouver (or any major center) as being “green and delicious”, he introduces the concept of the edible city thusly:
“Imagine a place shimmering under the canopy of the urban forest, the standard shade trees replaced by city orchards ripe with fruit and nuts. Picture the building walls green and alive with vine crops and vegetables in vertical gardens. See the berry shrubs defining the paths and decorating the park spaces. Watch locals of all ages, colors and backgrounds working together on the land, sharing tools, stories and harvests. Once-empty lots are now production-level farms. Flat roofs have come alive with crops and beehives. Aquaculture tanks with edible green covers are attractive features in public displays. Abandoned warehouses and factories have been reconfigured into indoor growing facilities for vegetables, fish, mushrooms and more. Organic fruit, flowers, herbs and vegetables taken fresh from the soil and still surging with vitality are sold at citywide farm gates, kiosks and street stalls……”
Sound good to you? That sure sounds like the kind of city I would like to live in. One in which people are connected to each other, their food supply, and ultimately their earth – recognizing how interdependent our relationships are through how we prioritize growing, shopping and eating. And not only that, this city would require us to think creatively, to utilize space in ways both aesthetic and productive, and to learn about the cycles of life sans pesticides and chemicals. Heavenly!
Urban Agriculture is one of the many books on the market these days designed to help us get that urban space – a book of practical tips, frightening facts, ideas, inspirational stories of projects on the go, gardening ideas and a whole lot more. Whether you have a balcony, want to add some produce to your home landscape, or aim for full-scale agriculture on your city lot – Tracey has lots of ideas and enthusiasm to pass along to you in a quick-read. Another exciting book for the sustainability shelf – and best of all it’s homegrown!
What are we up to now?
I’ve been busier doing these days than writing, hence the blog neglect for the past week or so. But I’m back at it! With more than one post this week!
It seems like spring has been taking forever to unroll – compare, for example – the above photo of my pink flowering dogwood taking today with this photo from April 25th of last year – seven days earlier on the calendar and about two full weeks of maturing difference. Not only that, but the cold rain that’s been coming down has been a major deterrent to yard work. But determined we are! And this past weekend we started working on the great front yard reno.
This photo from last spring (after planting the hazelnut tree) is what our front yard has mostly been like since moving here two years ago. Bland, mossy, neither interesting nor offensive. Just a front yard like a lot of the yards on our block. But that’s not what we want our home to project to the world around us (even though it would be easiest just to keep it low-maintenance and without too much work). Our goal, rather is to create an invitational front yard – an entry to our home that enriches the senses and inspires others to edible landscaping, critter-friendly spaces, and an end to lawn-dominance.
To wit we have started putting in a pond, added an arbor, built a raised garden box, and planted a number of woodland flowers, native (edible) fern, oregon grape, sea berry bushes, a gooseberry bush, plus two hardy kiwi plants.
At the moment it’s still pretty rough but it looks like this:
The eventual goal is to get rid of all the moss/grass and have it be fully planted – but with the cost of doing such a large space, we will be forced to take our time. Also, our yard is an odd one – south-facing though in partial shade with lots of sun during at least half the year when the leaves are off the boulevard beech trees – so this year is a bit of an experiment. Is there enough sun for the berry bushes? Will my winter veggies do well in the box? Is there too much sun for the columbine and ferns? Only time will tell, so I’m making a note of everything we planted and see how it does. I also need to work on amending the soil as we go since our top soil is obviously acidic (moss!) and hasn’t been attended to in many years. Some good heavy mulching with compost added to every planting will help us get started without having to truck in yards of soil right now.
I’m really keeping my fingers crossed on the berries and hardy kiwis. Hoping that they will produce something despite the summer canopy. I’m also pretty excited to have put an olive tree in the backyard (sunny spot) that supposedly will put out fruit even in our climate. I’ll write more about that one later. For now I’m just thinking we’ve got a lot farther to go before I’ll feel like the front yard is done for this year – but I’m liking the plan we’ve got going on right now.
Now that was depressing.
I find myself wondering what country I live in this morning with a Conservative majority government elected last night. Is this really a country that doesn’t believe in social programs, health care, womens’ rights, international diplomacy, peace-keeping, higher education, workers’ rights, parliamentary rules, scientific independence or the environment? Because the Conservatives under Stephen Harper have only expressed repeated contempt for all of the above and “we” have just given them the power to do whatever they want. Though admittedly, only 24% of Canadians gave them that power – a broken electoral system and an electorate where only 60% of the people vote – have allowed this anti-Canada party to form government.
For god’s sake people! This is the party who wants to merge Canada and the United States!
*sigh*
I know I should find a silver lining in the NDP surge last night – their historic victory in becoming the official opposition for the first time in their fifty-year history. But really, the devastation of a Conservative majority is just too great to feel much joy about who will be taking them to task. And without strong social movements, it won’t matter anyway (so let’s get building – we’ve got four years of fighting to do to keep Canada ours!)
I expect the first three months will be the worst, followed by a slow-grinding dissolution of Canada over the next decade if they can’t be stopped. I am utterly shocked by this. Shocked, and angered that so many Canadians just couldn’t be bothered to come out and vote at all.
Details, details, details.
One of the tasks at work that’s I’ve been dreading is finally complete – as I’ve just finished the second stage of a screening process for my current hiring competition. Talk about tedious! This was the testing round, where a number of people submitted web pages they had developed according to my instructions (or not). Because there were a number of elements to the test, scoring them took several hours – but in the end I got what I wanted…. which was far less people to interview.
You see, testing in hiring processes has less to do with the skills of applicants and more to do with their ability to follow instructions, and at least half of my test-ees missed at least one component they were asked to complete. That surprised me. Additionally, a number of people couldn’t do basic editing even though the job posting is for someone in communications.What was particularly notable to me though is that those things went hand in hand. That is, if someone failed to follow the basic instructions, they also missed more than half the errors I wanted them to catch in editing. Attention to detail! Very important.
And speaking of competitive processes, my interview with SFU yesterday went well and I should hear shortly about whether or not I’ve been accepted in the the program. I’m never sure how gauge my performance in such situations, but I think I piqued their interest a little bit – not only do I read difficult things, but I’ve got definite opinions on them. And I suppose that’s what makes for a graduate student if I’m lucky.
In the meantime I am crocheting, and trying to finish some quilted placemats before Brian’s birthday dinner next weekend, and hoping to get into the garden if the rain will ever stop. So many things to do and for the first time in ages I’m actually feeling excited about getting them done.
Red Cedar 