Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
Getting into the dirt.
Never in my younger years did I forsee a time when I would get so damned excited about dirt… but having just hung up the phone from my dirt delivery guy, I find myself positively giddy with a weekend of projects to look forward to: a shitaake-mushroom growing workshop on Saturday morning, a delivery of soil to finish off my raised boxes, building another planting box-structure for the backside of my fence, and the painting of our new studio-space with help from some friends. Plus I’ve got an old friend visiting, and at least one communal dinner to prepare on Sunday night. That’s some good living if you ask me.
I haven’t been writing much here lately – but if you go over to Among the Weeds you can see some photographs of my little veggie starts and also a new diagram of our backyard project. Since the weather is going to be good this weekend, I intend to make good use of it by getting a solid start on our garden. It’s still aways off before most things can go in, but I’ve got two kinds of peas, some kale, and some spinach that could get started about now. I’ve also got some kale starts that I might put out under plastic pop bottles.
B. and I are also getting excited about doing a little random guerilla gardening here and there. Peas along a backstop in the park? Sunflowers tucked along the sides of buildings? A random neighbourhood herb garden? We’ve got some plans. It finally feels time to get out and into the yard again and for that we are very grateful…. and also happy that the studio is finished at just the same time. No more workmen throwing debris all over my plants! We’ve just got one more small project to do with the patio extension and we’re hoping that can get done as soon as possible so I can construct the flower boxes, and also have our hottub delivered (I also just talked to our hottub guy today and ours is in earlier than expected and is ready for delivery when we are!)
So any day now we’re going to have the backyard of our dreams – dirt, water and plants galore…. And that means having people over for lots of summer socializing, fall eating and just general all-around hanging out.
Visioning and re-visioning
A combination of work still being done in the backyard and the rain of the last couple of weeks have conspired to make me a little stir-crazy as far as the garden goes. Too much construction debris strewn about to really get out there and prepare things, work still to be done on the patio, a hot tub yet to be delivered, etc. Not a complaint, really, but once all the *big* elements are in place there’s a lot of work to do and I’m excited to get going on it. True to form, rather than just wait, I’ve drafted up yet *another* backyard vision, this one involving beekeeping and mushroom-growing activities. Not that I expect to have bees by this summer…. but plans are certainly afoot! I’ve included a snapshot of my new vision drawing below (done in an old version of Pagemaker rather than by hand this time). Click on it for the full-sized PDF if this is of interest…… Just for interest, the potatoes figured below will be grown in flour sacks beside the raised beds.
Vote for my stepdaughter!
For those of you who haven’t received this via my Facebook or email – I’m asking you all for a favour 🙂 My stepdaughter has been listed as a finalist in a national writing contest sponsored by Parks Canada about diversity in Canada. Her essay, Freedom’s Borders, about the life of Lucie Blackburn, is one of fourteen short-listed in her category (9-12, English Writing) and currently posted on the Mathieu DaCosta Challenge Website. The final winner of the prize (trip to Ottawa) will be chosen by the number of votes each essay on the site receives – so I’m looking for all the support we can muster out there.
I would ask that you go to the site, take a look at the entries and vote (if you like another entry better, vote for that one – I’m not sure about this whole popularity contest aspect of the contest). In order to vote you have to create an account which you can do here: http://www.votemathieudacosta.com/wp-login.php?action=register. Once you have put in your chosen username and email address the system will email you a password. Then you can click on the link in the email that takes you to the login page and input your username and the password you just received. From there, return to the essay of your choice (again, M’s is posted here) and click on the vote link at the top. Easy? Not really, but please check it out on behalf of our family 🙂 We’re pretty proud!
Tomatoes and Peppers, oh my!
With the sleet coming down outside today it seems much too early to be thinking about the late summer goodness of these red, ripe fruits in our gardens. But I’ve just got to show off my happy little starts: Oregon Spring (the earliest of the early) Tomatoes, and my Gypsy and North Star Pepper plants.
Adventures of a new cyclist.
Well! It’s suddenly winter again what with the snow and the rain and the windstorms predicted and here I was all ready for spring! And not only spring, but specifically bicycling weather! Not that I consider myself a cyclist yet or anything, but since receiving my birthday-gift bike, I’ve had a few really enjoyable rides that have whetted my appetite and confidence for more riding once I can be assured that I won’t freeze or get soaked (I’m a wuss about such things).
This past weekend was particularly good, despite the fact half of it was taken up by a union meeting. On Saturday I decided that since the forecast was good and I had to go to an awkward part of town for me by bus that I would check out the new separated Dunsmuir Viaduct bike lane and also practice my city-riding on a less busy day (my goal is riding to work, but rush hour freaks me out a little). There was a time many, many years ago when I experimented with riding to work but the gauntlet from the end of the Adanac bikeway to my actual office seemed just a tad too perilous to me…… Now I can literally go door to door on a combination of bikeways, dedicated bike lanes and separated bike lanes which I’ve discovered makes an enormous difference! I’m also really appreciative of the fact that the bike lane on Dunsmuir utilized an existing vehicle lane rather than taking over the pedestrian walkway which is still separated from both bike and vehicle traffic. So, I managed to get too and from my meeting by bicycle without any significantly scary moments and only a minimum of walking my bike (damn you Adanac hill!) and everyone at the meeting was totally impressed! Plus, I made up for a couple of missed workouts earlier in the week which I was jonesing for.
My second good bicycle experience on the weekend happened despite the rain when we loaded the bikes onto my new car and drove out to Fort Langley for the day. One of the activities M. really seems to enjoy is bike-riding so B. and I have been trying to get the bike out more often when she is with us. This past weekend we decided to check out the Fort-to-Fort trail and a bit beyond which follows the banks of the Fraser River through historic fort territory and farmland. The trail itself is almost all flat which made for an easy ride, and we managed to do about twelve km before the rain started down too hard. By the time we got inside for mochas it was full-on raining and we were all feelin pretty good about our little foray along the river. For family cycling I would highly recommend the Fort-to-Fort trail, though our skinny road tires didn’t like the gravel too much!
Turns out there’s all sorts of really great biking opportunities right on our doorstep – and plans for a lot more in the community greenways strategy which really excites me as someone who has always wanted to cycle but been scared off by potential traffic disasters. The more off-road cycling paths, bike lanes, bridge lanes, and designated bike routes that exist the more chance there is that I and the rest of my family will ride our bikes for transportation and recreation purposes. I’m looking forward to commuting by bike this spring and summer as the weather gets more consistent, and planning at least one family biking trip along the galloping goose from Victoria to Sooke too!
Red Cedar 