Off The Beaten Path

The rest of the weekend was mostly about trying to keep an overproud British Senior man in his bed and not moving around too much. When one refuses to be seen as ‘showing weakness’, that is not a simple task. I found him in the kitchen at 5 am, trying to feed the cats. He…

My mom is away this week. At about 5 this evening she texted me. Her husband had taken a bad fall and was in extreme pain. A neighbour had been called to attend to him, as had the ambulance. Would we please move into her house for the weekend and take care of the assorted…

(Originally tried to post this last night at 10. It wouldn’t post then) Well..today has been….interesting. The children were up well before the sun and if they’re up, that’s it. Sleep is over for everyone else. So I started things off cranky and not feeling fantastic. The younger two treated me to a full day…

It is snowing today. Tomorrow is the last day of October. It is far too early. While we have indeed tarped the woodpiles and brought the smaller kindling inside to dry, I am not ready yet for winter snow. There is yet more kindling to bring in, plus the bag of birchbark. The toys and…

The weather is decidedly autumnal now. There is no escaping the inevitability of winter. It is now a question of when the cold will descend. I have lived in Canada all my life. I have lived in some of the coldest areas short of the actual arctic circle. I have experienced -60°C, I have driven…

Friday, family was here. My brother and his wife, sister and her kids, mom. Mom I see a couple times a week. Sister a couple times a year, brother once a year or less. Having them here was lovely. Food, conversation, time spent together. It was supposed to rain all day, but there were some…

Yesterday morning, I got the serviceberry shrubs, kiwi, lilies, and linum in the ground. I haven’t decided yet whether to stick the little apple trees in or not. Probably, but they’ll need some sort of miniature greenhouse or snow support. As I plant something, I flag it with an orange wire flag. It keeps me…

I visited a friend yesterday. We share an interest in gardening, among other things. A visit to her place always involves a garden tour, a search through the greenhouse, conversation around fruit trees and berry shrubs and future plans for expansion. It also usually involves me taking home fruits or vegetables or seeds. This time,…

This was another storm day. Even less of a storm than the last one, to be true, but windy and rainy and altogether yuck. All the same, this time it has been a couple weeks since we had rain, so the amount that fell should soak in relatively easily. Friday, we spent getting prepared for…

Other than getting our building up, which was for obvious reasons priority #1, the major goal for this year was to set down roots in the most literal of senses — getting my ‘food forest’ established. Once we had the proceeds of the sale of our home, I spent a considerable figure on trees and…