Our Theme Music
http://www.panhala.net/Alan_Watts_Blues.html
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Monday, September 17, 2007
The Tidal Bore is Not What You May Think
Then again, no.
Tidal bore |
Monday, September 03, 2007
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Too Hot, Otherwise Perfect
Left: Sharon with the balloons she brought that morning. Sharon also brought flowers from her own garden.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Summer's Here
I'm proud of having used my new-found skills as a blogger to help out two worthy organizations, both of which were in need of websites. The Nova Scotia Woodlot Owners and Operators Association is the oldest woodlot-owner organization in the province, dedicated to sustainable and ecologically sensitive management of our forests. Green Gatherings is a newly created local grassroots organization that wants to inform rural Maritimers about global warming.
Other than that, I kept working on the garden as long as the weather cooperated, and Tim created a very nice drainage ditch for us to take rainwater away from the house. I'm proud to say that Tim seems to have gotten healthier with every month that he's lived here since arriving from Los Angeles two years ago. It's remarkable what physical activity, good food, and low stress can do.
Now that the weather has turned warm, the tomato plants are finally starting to become worthy of their tomato cages. For more on the garden, see the gardening blog.
But of course, the big news from the farm, already known to most people we know, is that Tim and I are getting remarried--or, as I've been saying, de-divorced--at the end of the month. It will be a simple ceremony with a justice of the peace and two witnesses, our dear neighbors and long-time friends George and Sharon O'Leary, in our own living room. The decorations will be whatever flowers are blooming, even if they're weeds. The bride will wear whatever's clean. The bridal party will be confined.* We'll repair to the local restaurant and farm market for a meal, where we'll be joined by another dear friend and neighbor who has invited us back to her house for cake. We will drink something cheap, celebratory, and fizzy.
If you would like to join us in spirit, please do. On July 28, lift a glass and have a piece of cake and know that we always have our friends with us in our hearts.
* As is appropriate for a bridal party consisting of two dogs, four ducks, and a 20-year-old cat.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Just Ducky
Wild Flora Farm Mid May to Mid June 2007 |
ONCE SPRING SPRUNG, I was spending much of my time in the garden and the rest of my time trying to recover from too much unaccustomed physical activity. So it's only now, when the days have turned a bit too warm for me to want to be outside for hours and the heat has brought out the biting insects that are my nemesis, that I put fingers to keyboard and report the news from Wild Flora's Farm.
Our lead for this installment is the arrival of the ducks. For details on the breed and how and why I got them, see the post "Old Frontiers in Pest Control" from my Wild Gardening blog. For sheer cuteness, see the photo above, which shows the ducklings on their first morning with me, May 22, when they were just three weeks old. (Click on the photo to go to a web album with more photos of farm life over the past 6 weeks.)
But they grow up fast, don't they? The photo below shows the same ducks less than a month later. In the intervening weeks, they have proven to be just as comical as I thought they were going to be, but a whole lot more work. They eat anything they can lay their beaks on, including any prize plants I'm stupid enough to let them get at. (And even though they can't fly yet--I dread that day--it turns out that those necks can stretch for miles.) They then convert everything they eat into large, wet messes that are produced (with a self-satisfied splooting sound) on an average of every 10 minutes. I spend a truly amazing amount of time feeding them and then cleaning up the results.
But here's the good news: 1. This is a great way to appreciate (by which I mean hate) the great circle of life. 2. Duck poop is good fertilizer: My perennials are starting to look like shrubs. 3. At last I have a theme for the comic novel every writer is obliged to produce after moving to the country. Working title: SNADU. That is, Situation Normal, All Ducked Up.
A footnote: I finally gave in to the requests of one dear friend who wanted me to post a photo of myself to this blog, and you'll find it below. It's the photo that accompanied my application for Canadian citizenship--news that would be more exciting than the ducks except that it takes about a year for the application to be processed. I am happy about this development, however, and looking forward to being a full-fledged Canuck.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
This is What I Look Like When You're Drunk
ONLY KIDDING. Actually, this is what I look like when I'm drunk. OK, still kidding. This is the photo Tim took to go with my application for Canadian citizenship. They require two identical photos; hence the duplication. This is the other big news for April, by the way: I did submit my application to become a citizen of this wonderful country. No wonder I'm smiling. It will be about a year before I find out whether they're willing to have me.