Red Cedar

oh my! i just realized that today is the one-year anniversary of the beginnings of this blog. in the past year i have posted 331 times – not quite an average of once a day but almost!

happy anniversary red cedar blog!

there isn’t enough time in a day-a week-a month for all the things i feel like doing right now. i’m not talking here about things i have to do – but want to do… read more, go for walks and hikes more, get the big and small stitching projects finished, set up my house, play more music, have more social time, have more quiet time, get more letters written….. the list goes on and on. it feels like magic, this new life of being undepressed again…. of actually wanting to do things rather than simply going through the motions in order to keep myself in the flow.

and herein lies the tendency to get over-booked. i had forgotten all about that busy-life i had before, but it has come upon me again and i’ve got most of this month full up with commitments in the city, on vancouver island and in seattle. i am trying to keep my time on the sunshine coast unbooked so i have an excuse to stay home and be a hermit when i feel like it.

this weekend my father is coming to help me with some household chores like steam- cleaning the rugs, painting the outside trim, and cleaning the moss off the roof (there isn’t much on there, but it needs to be done). once we get the rugs done i can move the rest of my stuff in properly. i currently have several boxes that either need to be stored in the small room downstairs or unpacked, but have been trying to leave the carpets free of clutter to facilitate the cleaning. this means that everytime i need something i have to root through boxes to find it – and that box-room has become a giant mess in the process.

on monday i ran up and down the coast in my little tercel burning gas on errands, but i managed to not only put in an order for 2 loveseats (first time i’ve ever bought new furniture that wasn’t a futon or an ikea table) but picked up a flat of plants for my deck. i still need to get some more dirt and plant pots to fit them all in, but i’m going to have gorgeous tomatoes and peppers and basil and lavender and bay leaf and curry plant and oregano all basking in the sun on the deck in no time. i haven’t put this much into plants since i moved out of the house on kitchener street and had to leave the garden and the greenhouse we built behind. finally i feel rooted enough (and with space) that i can make things grow again. once i am done with the house and deck, i will start on the small garden bed below to prepare it for fall and winter vegetables.

i promise updated pictures of my house will come soon – i just need to get a few more things done before i am ready to show it off. i am not sure whether the loveseats will be delivered in time for my housewarming party (on the 11th of june), because they take 4-6 weeks, but i did convince the people at the furniture store to ask for a rush job on them so maybe they will be ready on time. who knows? it’s not that much of an issue in any case – since if the weather is good people will want to be hanging out on the deck anyhow.

perhaps the beginning of may is busy for almost everyone, as most of my friends with blogs don’t seem to be updating much these days. i’ve been too busy the past couple of days to write much, but on the weekend i took pictures of some stitching projects to share since it’s been ages since i’ve posted on what creative projects i’m working on.

this is a small bookmark i made on sunday. i decided it was high time i learn more than just the traditional cross stitch because i am interested in stitching more freeform on linen and other fabrics. this is my first freeform stitching project and it utilizes four different types of stitches. it’s somewhat rough… but it does the job of holding my book place and it was fun to experiment with a nice simple pattern like this. i’m working on making simple hankerchiefs at the moment with butterflies and flowers in the corner, just to practice my stitches.

this is the large project i’m working on at the moment – a pillow front that is about 2 feet across and will eventually be 1.5 feet down. because it is long and thin at the moment, it is hard to get a good picture of, so i just focused on one third of the stitching near the end. the design is taken from an indian embroidery pattern meant for a handbag. it seems to be working quite well as a large canvas and wool project. i’ve been working on this since i finished the rug back in january.

friday turned out well, even though i went in to work in the morning and then had a hell of time prying myself out of there to attend the dialogue on democracy. the colloquium turned out to be so popular there was almost no seating left when i arrived a few minutes late. more than 70 people spent the afternoon participating in discussions about radical scholarship, the labour movement, and the grounds for activist-organizing. my biggest difficulty was in attempting to understand the grad students there, who all seem to be speaking some other language completely unrelated from the way people in the rest of society talk. once upon a time i did attend university so it’s not entirely foreign, but half the time i am not sure if the speaker is actually saying anything at all or if i’m just not getting it.

i was complimented afterwards for my part in the talking (speaking notes are in the post below this one), and other than a few small self-criticisms, i am pleased with how it went. my speaking skills are getting better lately, and i think mostly what i need is more practice and opportunities. i have been invited to speak on police brutality themes on may 19th at an east vancouver citizen’s assembly on police violence in the neighbourhood.

after the evening program which ended at nine, i walked over the silkhaus with some friends to see the ever-talented norman nawrocki and submission hold. both acts rocked (as usual) but the real highlight of my evening was in seeing some people i haven’t hung out with in awhile and whom i have known for a long time. being an activist can at times be alienating, and i have really come to cherish the people i have known for years who are in the radically alienated place. there is so much shared about that existence no matter how different our lives might be in other ways, i appreciate so much all that can be left unsaid as i muddle through my own questions and seek the way forward as an individual and as an organizer. i really am starting to feel recharged and able to engage with people and organizations on a more consistent basis again.

on my way home late saturday morning (a little hung over, but esssentially feeling generous of spirit), i ended up in a conversation with a senior in the ferry lounge with me. we started out talking about our hopes for the upcoming election but progressed from there into all sorts of other topics about the failures of the ndp in being true agents of change the why the labour movement is problematic. turns out he is an activist from way way back in the day – involved in labour and was a member of the infamous socialist caucus inside the bc ndp back in 1972 (of which svend robinson was also a part). he was a teacher in grenada just after the revolution and had the misfortune of being there when the us invaded, and told me a bunch of stories about working up north in the 50s. i got to fill him in on the radical caucas forming up in the labour movement in bc, and what some of the younger scoundrels are up to… we ended up eating lunch together on the ferry and talking the whole way, and as enjoyable as it was for me to hear the old stories, he seemed very pleased to get to tell them as well as realize that there are still people out there resisting just the way he did when he was my age. it was one of those nice moments of serendipity when two people meet and share something a little special, completely on accident.

i have managed to get more of my house set up as well this weekend, but today have really just been taking it easy. i am feeling the need to just work on some stitching projects i have on the go and be restful for a day. turns out this evening alison and ben are coming over to the coast and with sean we will have a band practice and then they will stay at my place for the night. fun stuff! it’s been ages since we have played music together.