Beth Day

Friday mid-day, the sun came out and everything looked fresh and vibrant after cooler weather and Thursday night’s welcome rain. Today will be a fine Spring day. Beth arrives at 2:00.

Yesterday was a day of supremely modest accomplishment. I was busy all day doing nothing worth mentioning. This morning, I’ll go in into the village to go to the farmers’ market and I’ll putz in the garden until Beth arrives.

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I wonder what it’s like to be a Toronto Raptor; I wonder how they sleep on the night before a game. What an incredible ride they, and their fans, are on. Such a win! And it has come without any news of rioting or vandalism (unlike in Vancouver when a Canadian hockey team in in the Stanley Cup finals). 

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I am earning another badge! I’ve started composting. The challenge will be finding enough “brown” material. I’ll have my vegetable greens, but I’ve no deciduous trees here to provide a healthy yield of leaves. So come Fall, I’m going to harvest some from the 707 land where there’s a massive Maple growing.

Good Riddance Bartels

Surprise: It rained, and rather heavily, last night. Hooray! I won’t have to do any watering today. Not only that, I found my ring. I hadn’t lost it; I’d mindlessly put it on my scanner and rediscovered it yesterday. I truly thought it was gone.

There are clouds out there, but there’s also blue sky; we’re on our way back to endless sunshine and hot temperatures (28°).

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When I was a young fresh arts administrator, the head of every major arts organization in Vancouver (except the art gallery) was British. I petitioned, wrote letters and got politically active to ensure leadership in the Canadian arts was by Canadians.

My antipathy for both Kathleen Bartels and the board of the Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) is, therefore, consistent with my past. Bartels was hired from L.A. The decision to hire her was insulting to Canadians; the VAG board convinced the Immigration department that there was no Canadian applicant capable of running the gallery. Balderdash!

When Daina Augaitis, the VAG’s head curator, left her position, Bartels and the board hired another American, another Angelino and a woman who, in her first few months of service, caused five VAG staff members to file official complaints about her professional conduct with their Human Resources department. 

Bartels alienated the VAG’s two most important donors, alienated the Mayor and council by commissioning proposals for a building to cover an entire city block after the Mayor made it clear to her that she could only use three-quarters of the lot, grossly mismanaged the fundraising campaign for the new building, took a salary greater than the Prime Minister’s and drove the staff to strike in opposition to her policies. She was a disaster and I’ve felt so from the get go.

Now both Bartels and her chosen chief curator are gone. And thank God! Plans for a new gallery may be better than ever; an ambitious, arrogant, narcissistic, combative negotiating voice is gone. 

A Chilly Day

It’s June, it’s 5:30 am and it’s 6° outside. It feels like winter, but it’s sunny. What the Hell? When it’s unseasonably cold like this is an ideal time to be in the hot tub. At least it won’t last. There’s nothing but sunshine and rising temperatures in the forecast. One nice thing about the cooler temperatures is the pleasure of being in the sunshine. It’s not too hot to enjoy being in the sun.

There will be no hard work until my wrist heals. I can barely rotate it or bear any weight. 

Could a blog be duller? There are no more travel stories, nor creative projects, nor interesting volunteer experiences, but there are no stories about speech or seizures either.

A friend asked me, yesterday, about Dr. Shoja. Dr. S. and the Speech Clinic seem far, far away to me now. I doubt I’ll ever return. I’m the expert about my condition now; I’m happy now with my experiential understanding of my condition. However, I still profoundly appreciate the incredibly valuable help she provided to me through my first couple of years of adjustment.

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I’m failing with my Radishes, Beets and Spinach. I’ve more book learnin’ to do on growin’ ‘em. But my Lettuce is coming along, and so are the Peas and Beans and Garlic. The berries are thriving, too, but I have scads of birds here and I don’t want that to change. I’ll continue to fill my feeders but it looks like I’ll be netting my berries (inside the fence that keeps the Deer out).

I’ve enjoyed today, not working myself to exhaustion on tilling rock-hard soil. I’ve been transplanting, planting new Petunias for some colour, watering everything (leisurely) and cleaning up the courtyard.

By Request

Section two: The brown part is the dry, hard-packed part (like section one).
The greener part has caked Firs needles supporting growth over the stone.

This is a close-up of the surface of section two.

This is more of section two—to the red line, behind which, will be the
Fern garden.

This is section one and how the other sections will look when I am done with
them. I will soil and seed sections 1-3 in the Fall.

The lush green is the test section. It was seeded with the same seed I will use
on the other sections. I may mow it; I may not.

This is section three, up close. What you don't see is the
dense network of roots that cover the rock surface and 
burrow deep into the cracks of the rock.

A friend requested the photos above and this info; they show sections two and three as they currently exist. They will resemble the current state of section three (also above) when I’m finished prepping them—ready for a layer of soil and seeding.

Section one was largely hard-packed sandstone with years of Fir needles on it that hosted weeds. Section two is similar, plus an area that as some soil and, thereofore, more weeds. It is quite shady, too. Section three is really dense with weeds because there is soil there and lots of light. 

Section five will be the Fern garden. I may get started this year; I’m not sure. Section five will be more lawn but it’s a project for next year. Section six (that is likely to remain wild because Sheba likes wild land for doing her business) is a long narrow strip of land between two sections (the Garden of Stolen Stones and section three) and the fence between Meryl’s lot and mine.

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It’s been cloudy all day, but the sun came out at 3:30 and so I’m heading for the spa after I post this. I couldn’t do yard work today; the pain in my shoulders and one wrist is nasty. My wrist is swollen, too.. 

Plus, I awoke with a start. Actually, with a question: “Where is my ring?” I was getting a callous from a ring I wear and so I took it off the other day and put it on my little finger where I thought it would stay until I could put it in a safe place. It was expensive; I commissioned it from an artist I met and now it’s where all the lost things go. It fell off somewhere without me noticing. Sigh.

So I lit the fire—partly for heat, partly to make me feel cozy as compensation for the pain in my wrist. I’ve had a lovey day.

Section 1 Done!

This is the view from the courtyard. The garden is new.
The area I tilled vigorously is behind the garden.

Here, you can see the whole of "section one" of my project, with the garden
on the right. The wild green at the end is my "meadow" where I'll plant more
wildflowers and thin the Salal. 

This is what part of section one looked like before. It's dry caked sandstone
with weeds anchored in cracks.

Where there wasn't sandstone, there was a thick blanket of Fir needles hosting
vines and weeds, some with remarkable root systems. And beneath much of the
area that looked like this, was construction garbage.

This area was the worst, so earlier this Spring, I threw
some leftover soil on it and grass seed. I haven't mowed
it yet, but this is the seed I'l use on section one in the Fall.

Section one is done. It’s all ready for the addition of soil and seed in the Fall. I’m terrifically satisfied with what I’ve done and can hardly wait to get to work on section two. And then section three!

In spite of my sore shoulder, I moved many wheelbarrows full of large and small pebbles this morning, from my lot to the forest and many more of soil from the forest into my yard. While working, I decided to buy the topsoil I need from the local nursery and have it delivered. I’m going to need a lot  of it.. What you see above is just the first of three large sections of the yard I want to seed to lawn in the Fall.