It was so warm on the walk back from the library that I shucked my coat. When I got home, I took my bicycle down from the wall hook. The warmth and sun made me think about biking, and gardening, and other wonderful springtime pursuits. I’ve started a set of bitter melon, basil, tomatoes, and peppers. We’ll see how they work out.

When I was planting peas in the garden, I realized that last year’s parsley had self-seeded and the new sprouts were starting to come up. The Internet says that parsley germination can be a slow and difficult process, taking four to six weeks to grow from seed, so I’m happy that the parsley decided to get a head start. I took a picture, but it didn’t feel just like that, so I drew what it felt like: life reaching towards the sun.

First game of lacrosse catch, first bicycle ride, first gardening session… Life is good.

All the seasons take some getting used to. Winter is the big attention-getter, of course, but even spring, summer, and fall have surprises for immigrants like me. Planning around growing seasons and frost dates? Dealing with super-long days? Raking leaves and staving off the anxieties of a looming winter? But it is what it is, and I’m where I am, so I’ll make the most of what I’ve got.

What do I want to do and learn this spring?

• Help celebrate my sister’s wedding. (Whee!)
• Grow more of our favourite herbs and vegetables.
• Pick up lots of skills at work.
• Practise drawing, writing, teaching, etc.
• Organize more get-togethers
• Bike farther
• Have more fun! =)

As I head into summer, I want to be even more comfortable on my bike, I want to have friends over more often, I want to have an even more productive garden, and I want to fill notebooks with drawings and photographs. Hmm…

It turns out that it’s pretty easy to knock the power cord out of my laptop by, say, tripping on it or accidentally pulling it when drawing. I had to draw that three times! <laugh>

A former teacher of mine asked me, “If you were a season, what would you be, and why?” I thought about it because I wanted to dig beyond the trite answers that tempted me: summer for sun, spring for new beginnings.

If I were to pick a season, it would be autumn – and not because of the breeze or the brilliant colours. (Isn't it funny that the colours are always there in the leaves, but the green must die to let the other colours show?)

I’d choose it for harvest, celebration, preparation, and the ever-present awareness of winter.

If life is a year of seasons, it might be strange that I often think of winter, and of other years I’ll never see. That’s why it’s good to do the work now: to save the seeds from what’s working well, to plan and prepare the soil so that next year’s beds can bear more fruit.

The harvest is abundant, although it might not much resemble the plans from spring. Save some for the long winter – stored sunshine and water and nutrients in a variety of forms.

There may even be just enough time to sneak in one more cool-weather crop of lettuce, which frost makes sweeter. Who knows? Start it anyway.

And then, when winter embraces the garden, let go. You have done your work. Underneath the blanket of stillness is a future you can influence but not predict.

We live in a semi-detached house and often chat with our immediate neighbors, Dan and Jen. Their kids sometimes come over to play with J
-. When we make jams or jelly, we share it with them, and they share other interesting things with us.

Dan recently bought a smoker because he was pining for the briskets of his Texan youth. He made pulled pork recently, and he brought over some for us. We sprinkled it on pizzas, sandwiches, and other yummy treats. When we finished it, I washed the container and filled it with freshly-picked jalapeno peppers from our garden. (We have too many to eat, and not enough to make jelly.)

It's nice getting along with your neighbors, particularly when there's food involved. =)

2010-08-21 Sat 10:13

One of the first things J- did when she woke up this morning was to pick fresh vegetables from the garden. She came in with a bowl of sugar peas, green beans, and cherry tomatoes, all plump and perfect.

The tomatoes have hit their stride and are ripening at a rate of 3-4 tomatoes or so a day, which is just right for snacking. The peas are starting to wind down, and it's about time to start a second crop. I should harvest the cilantro seeds and start those again, too. Some volunteer zucchini has snuck into my garden by way of the compost.

Pesto is on my cooking plan this weekend: different kinds of basil, garlic scapes, mmm…

Ah, the garden. Have kings and queens ever eaten as well as this?

W- and I have graduated to making furniture. =)

From Starred Photos

He finished his chair this weekend. It's awesome! I'm working on a chair of my own (below):

From Starred Photos

In other news, gardening rocks.

From Starred Photos

From Starred Photos

This weekend, I finished my finger joint jig (my very first!), bought my own workbench (a Black & Decker WorkMate 425), and made my finger-jointed box sides. Whee! It was a lot of fun working on the deck with W- and J-, routing my box while W- sawed the pieces for his chair and J- collected sawdust. Progress! I think we might be getting the hang of this.

I did a lot of gardening, too. I turned the compost twice, and it’s getting close to the right texture. Next weekend, I think I’ll build a sifter and shake out the twigs so that I can use the compost to feed the strawberries, tomatoes, and peas, all of which are doing quite well. I revamped the back planter box and planted some more lettuce, and I planted jalapeno peppers along the path. Gardening is a great way to get more greens into our diet, and I’m looking forward to more harvests. Next time, I’ll be more consistent with succession planting. Just because you’re swimming in lettuce one week doesn’t mean you can skip planting the lettuce you’ll harvest in a few weeks’ time. =)

From last week’s plans:

Work

• [  ] Update Idea Lab guide
• [X] Give talk on Idea Labs
• Added more Smarter Planet experts to my list
• Gave students advice
• Worked on Lotus Connections Java library, stuck on multipart/related PUT
• Helped HR person with mail merge

Relationships

• [  ] Check out more photographers
• [  ] Catch up with Maira Bay de Souza and Leigh Honeywell at hacklab.to
• [X] Finish box joint jig
• [X] Make box-jointed box
• [  ] Finish influence map stories
• Set up my own work bench
• Went to science fair, yay!
• Attended U of T lab potluck
• Lent J- shoes (she’s growing up so fast!)

Life

• [X] Set up new webserver
• [X] Take it easy
• Made a pair of Thai fisherman’s pants
• Planted hot peppers

Plans for next week:

Work

• [  ] Update Idea Lab moderator guide
• [  ] Import Smarter Planet experts into expertise locator tool
• [  ] Create expertise locator batch importer tool
• [  ] Create Activity set-up tool
• [  ] Lead team enablement call
• [  ] Plug into other expertise location initiatives

Relationships

• [  ] Apply for marriage licence
• [  ] Check out more photographers
• [  ] Catch up with Maira Bay de Souza and Leigh Honeywell at hacklab.to
• [  ] Finish influence map stories
• [  ] Make box bottom and top

Life

• [  ] Figure out proper configuration for php-fastcgi
• [  ] Convert more planting space
• [  ] Bike during sunny days

I’m starting to figure out what works for me in terms of gardening. I start seeds indoors on a seed tray, keeping them cat-proof by stashing them in an indoor greenhouse. I don’t get enough light indoors, so I move seedlings out to larger containers in a small outdoor greenhouse, or in the pots on the deck. As seedlings grow, I move them into the garden bed, where chickenwire keeps them safe from squirrels and birds.

How is this better than planting directly in the ground?

• Because I start the seeds in sterile soil mix, I don’t have to figure out whether a seedling is one of my plants or a weed.
• It’s easier to weed around larger transplants than in a seedling bed.
• I make better use of the sunny garden areas because I don’t have to wait for seeds to start.
• I can use a heating mat to germinate seeds that need warm temperatures (bitter melon, canteloupes).

Things that are doing well: cilantro, lettuce (many kinds), tomatoes, spinach