Not Black and White

It’s that time of year when I have “downtime” for philosophical thoughts. That’s what three hours of hauling water and watering trees allows for. Lots of alone time for thinking and Siri for dictation. Or maybe it’s that I’m a trauma nurse, I have a friend in a war zone right now and even locally, bad shit happens to good people. I try to make sense of it all; really to no avail because it seems that so much of life boils down to choices and chances. The road more travelled, the road less travelled. By the book or off the beaten track. Learning from our mistakes or being tied to them?

Take even our trees for example. If we had gone with the standard poplars we probably have a few more visual trees around the yard . They have that fluff which Ron is allergic to and they tend to die off in about 25 years. So we’ve gone with trees that are a lot more slow growing like green ash and Manitoba maple. Trees that incidentally seemed need a lot of water and the climate really has changed. Where did those rainy years go?

But extrapolate this to the bigger view of life about choices and chances. The crazy thing is that some of those chances and some of those choices aren’t even ours. Government policies, insurance companies, freak weather or strange events can all wreck incredible havoc with lives. Indeed even with life it self. One quick decision can have such far reaching consequences.

While the picture shows a cute black and white calf life isn’t that clear cut. One side one choice, opposite side opposite choice. Life is full of so many shades of grey. So many chances not taken or taken. You can’t erase the past and one hopes we can all learn from the it. Letting go and moving on is often very difficult.

Meanwhile the sun has set and its time to move along with other tasks. As usual though, I will choice to focus on the gratitude for my bounties.

Bernie

Location, location, location

This is what the real estate shows talk about endlessly. Location, location, location.

I was thinking about that today while I was outside for lunch in the Queen’s Garden at RUH. It’s such a sweet spot for lunch with plenty of sunshine and zero wind.

Which is why that location has peonies that are a foot tall and about to bloom while the irises have already bloomed.

I have a location that I love but man it’s a tough sell when it comes to plants. The wind is brutal in the winter and takes away the snow which leaves the plants exposed. Then when the plant finally grows the wind whips it like crazy. Add to that mix the fact that we can only water sporadically and you have a recipe for plants that must be hardy. They are, regularly, about 3 weeks behind city plants as this picture will prove. The first picture is of my one little piece of the peony that is popping up. The second photo is the irises which are just coming through last year’s growth. I cleaned it all up last week but despite the warm weather and the bit of rain they are just starting to show signs of growth.

The garden was tilled today while the raspberries were cleaned last weekend. They are all looking quite perky and filling in the holes in the patch quite nicely.

I’m extremely pleased to report that, as of today, there is finally some new growth of both the rhubarb and the asparagus. It seems like they are on a 10 year get established plan. It’s been 4 years and we’ve yet to take more than half a dozen stocks off the rhubarb in one year while not a single asparagus spear has graced our mouths. We live in hope every year!

The location is what drew us here. We knew that homesteading a yard wasn’t easy or quick. We will see trees that eventually provide some wind break. The down side to that is they will be in the way of this stunning evening view!

Location, location, location. I love it!

Bernie

So Intense

In all my years of hanging out around native prairie in the spring I’ve never seen anything like this year’s crocuses. I’ve made time for

Pay It Forward Day

Today is, apparently, Pay it Forward Day. So if you pay it forward do you step forward and take credit for it or just quietly let your actions speak for themselves? I’ve decided it will

Lost and Found

I’ve been so busy writing for my volunteer life that I’ve had no time to write for pleasure. It’s way more fun when no one edits what you write!

Today I’d like to write about what a fabulous job the

Happenstance

I remember once, when I was about 13 or 14, flying to Vancouver Island with my mom. We saw people she knew in Calgary and Vancouver. I was like “what the heck?”; we lived in a small farming community so how could my mom know so many people?

Fast forward to my kids going anywhere with me when they were teenagers. It kind of drove them a bit crazy that I would find people whom I knew to stop and visit with.

Flying thousand of miles away should probably have prevented that. Or so you

Signal Hill and Cabot Trail

We stood steeped in history as we walked up Signal Hill. It is one of the most iconic sites in Canada and yet the years haven’t changed it.

Seventh Heaven

I was in my version of seventh heaven for the last 4 days. Tons and tons of

Meandering

I can’t find that illusive opening paragraph that draws the reader in so perhaps I’ll just let the pictures do the talking.

Report Card 1

Report card day was never my favourite day as I never really had an idea what the teacher or the exam results would say. Then of course add in the fact that I failed one of my five final nursing exams. Makes sense why report card day brings a sense of trepidation to me.

So why would I