New forum

Since my last posting, much has changed in my life.  No longer working for the local paper. Long story. I won’t be going back. Instead, I’m moving forward. With newspapers all across North America going “under”, this little paper might one day too. That would be a shame because of its history.

Instead of newspapers, I’m writing for an online forum/blog called Town Talk Canada – www.towntalk.ca

Anyone can write for this forum – all free – ads free – it’s very easy to post and lots of fun. We need a wider variety of opinions on all family-friendly subjects. I hope that anyone reading this post will click on the above link and “join the family.” Many subjects are explored. There’s a budding ‘fiction’ section, and an ‘arts’ section too – many other catagories as well. WE NEED MORE WRITERS!

Here we go…

Update:  I am back working at our local paper.  Last fall the editor quit, and they haven’t found another.  I’m there full-time since Jan., and eventually I will become the editor because there isn’t anyone else willing to do it.  It’s exciting, but I know I have quite a lot to learn, so it’s scary too.  When I think about it generally…quite scary.   I’m not even sure which questions to ask, or even who to ask.  I am learning and making mistakes under the view of the entire town.  This, from a person who was afraid to try and get a short story published not long ago!  These folks are harsh critics.  Talk about jumping off into the abyss!

 But I did get a taste of it last spring around this time, when the editor who used to be there was off with a back injury and I went in cold to try my best to do what I wasn’t qualified to do.  Still, I knew then that my situation was temporary.  Now it isn’t.  But I’m dealing with it.

The Raw Food Experiment

 

The last blog entry covered my rant about the pet food industry and how Science Diet has ripped me, and many other pet owners off by leading us to believe that SD is the very best food we could feed our pets.  My 14 year old female cat Allie is diabetic and overweight, even though she’s eaten SD all her life until recently.  The raw food experiment is all about getting her insulin levels either greatly reduced or even eliminated altogether if that is possible for this kitty, who has been insulin dependant now for nearly six years.

  

To this end, I’ve been on Internet doing my homework.  Found a wonderful site: www.catinfo.org written by a vet.  She gives a great cat food recipe which I am now feeding.  Allie missed her kibbles when I took them away because she was addicted to them.  I believe she’s over that now, as she takes the raw meat very well.  I mix in organ meat – chicken hearts for the taurine and chicken liver for other nutrients, plus brewers yeast and olive oil.  I’ve been freezing them in serving sized containers which I figure she’ll eat in 24 hrs.  She’s been eating a bit more than that, which is fine.  I don’t want her to be hungry unnecessarily, but I’m getting her used to the idea of mealtimes.  She was always a free-fed cat – food available 24/7.  That has been much tougher than changing her food.  She isn’t so far touching the small bones I’ve left in her food, so I am giving ground up eggshells to make sure she’s getting enough calcium.  Sometimes I add pumpkin seed oil, to make sure she’s getting enough omega 6 fats too.

  

Her doctor says I need to keep a good eye on her, as we expect her insulin requirements will go down.  We recently had to put her dosage up, as she wasn’t stable.  This was just before I began feeding raw.  Since then, I’ve noticed subtle changes in her.  Her coat is healthier looking, her eyes are looking very clear and her walk has improved.  Her walk was the typical walk of a cat who’s diabetes isn’t being controlled properly – it looks like they are walking on eggs.  Now she still walks ‘carefully’, but not as bad as she was five days ago when I took the kibbles away.

  

I have learned that I need to leave some small chunks of muscle meat in her food so she must chew.  This is good for her teeth as well as her jaw muscles.  I learned that kibbles shatter when the cat eats them.  The tiny pieces of kibble get caught between the teeth and sit there fermenting.  This is the main cause of dental problems in cats.  Muscle food doesn’t get caught between teeth designed to handle a diet of raw meat.

  

The other two cats aren’t taking the diet change so well.  Ringo hunts and always has, so I’m not worried about him.  He is totally addicted to his kibbles though – like a teenager to junk food.  But I know he gets his nutritional requirements met, as he is eating the diet he was designed to eat: mice and small birds.  He always eats his kill up – not wasting anything.  But I am not giving him kibbles in spite of the fact he hunts because of the damage I see it has done to Allie.  I don’t want Ringo’s health to suffer, and it eventually will if he is allowed to eat kibbles.  Currently he’s in great shape, but no thanks to what I’ve been feeding him.

  

I am currently cat sitting for my daughter.  Her cat, Jackson, will eat wet cat food, but won’t try raw food.  He’s another kibble freak, but he has had to survive for 48 hours without kibbles now.  I regularly offer him wet and raw food, but he is stubborn.  He likes tuna, and even though fish isn’t all that good for cats, I broke down and gave him some.  In spite of it not being that good to feed a cat, I figured it was still better than kibbles, and it would make him happy for awhile.  He hunts, but will not eat his kill in spite of being shown how to do this by Ringo.  I think perhaps he may change his mind over time. Where I live, hunting is easy.

  I will continue to monitor Allie especially, but also the other two cats.  I am glad to know the truth about these commercial kibbles, but it does make me angry.  I spent all that extra money on SD, thinking I was doing the best thing for my cats, but instead I was slowly killing them.  I can see the improvement in Allie after only five days of proper diet.  The other two cats aren’t so quick to change, but I won’t give up.  I’m pretty stubborn when I’m sure I’m right.

Is Commercial Pet Food Cutting Short the Life of Our Friends?

Since the recent pet food recalls, I’ve been taking the time to research what ingredients go into pet foods, and have been both surprised and disgusted to learn what I’ve been feeding my good friends. 

It was easy to switch my two little dogs over to homemade food.  They took to it right away, and as a result their coats are shinier, teeth and breath much better and they are healthier.  The cats are a different story. 

I don’t have to worry about my one cat, Ringo.  He hunts every day and eats what he catches.  His diet is a perfect one for a cat.  Cats are carnivores and as such they absolutely need animal protein and calcium from raw bone.  The best diet for a cat is mice or small birds which they can hunt and eat.  In these small creatures, there’s the exact balance of nutrients cats need.  Unfortunately some kitties just won’t hunt.  For these, the next best diet is the B.A.R.F. diet – bones and raw food. 

I didn’t realize how much carbohydrates are in cat food – 35- 55%!  Cats don’t need any carbs in their diets at all.  Their bodies don’t know what to do with carbs, since they were designed to eat only meat.  These unnecessary carbs go to fat and effect the poor cat’s health. The cat keeps eating because they aren’t getting the proper nutrients, and they get fat and develop other health problems such as diabetes. 

Along with millions of other pet owners, I was brainwashed into believing that Science Diet is the very best thing I could give my pets.  But S.D. puts corn meal into their cat food, something a cat simply can’t digest.  They also use meat by-products, the unusable animal parts left over after butchering.  (Check ingredient list on side of package.) 

Our kitty Allie has been with us for 14 years now and is diabetic.  Most of her life she’s eaten Science Diet, supposedly the best on the market.   I discovered that most commercial pet foods are species inappropriate, and cat foods are the worst offenders.  Often you will find high levels of carbs in the dry foods.  Even worse, the oils they use have gone rancid, so they use hormones to get the cat to eat it.  Some of the cheaper brands use both road kill and ground up deceased pets, making your friends cannibals –  very unhealthy.   I know what a big deal it is to change a cat’s preferences though.  Allie is very addicted to her dry food, and I’m having a tough time convincing her otherwise.  I offer wet cat food at the same time she ‘asks’ for dry.   

Wet cat food has a much better balance of nutrients than dry – even the cheaper stuff.  Also, wet cat food has a high water content.  That’s good because cats are supposed to get most of their water requirements from their food, in the form of blood.  Fortunately Allie likes wet food, so now she’s getting more of it.  On top of the wet food, I’ve been giving her some good raw food.  I chop up some raw chicken with the bone along with raw chicken heart and spoon a little of this mixture on top.  So far she’s eating it with reservations.  She does eat some, but tends to leave some also.  It is good food, but doesn’t have that hormone fix she’s used to receiving. 

I really need to get her off the dry food as soon as possible because of her diabetes and the fact that she currently isn’t stable.  Her blood sugars are much higher than they should be, so I’ve had to increase her insulin.  I’m hoping that the levels will decrease as she is fed more wet food with raw, or better still – has mostly or totally a raw diet. We bought a grinder to grind up the raw bone we will be feeding.  I plan to make up a bunch of little containers for the freezer with the right mixture of raw foods. I think the pet industry wants us to go through animals faster because they end up making more money from us.  I think the average veterinarian isn’t consciously part of this conspiracy, but most will admit they don’t know much about feline nutrition. 

As well, society’s general attitude seems to be more lax when it comes to cats over dogs.  When I adopted my two doggies, I had a long form to fill out, and an interview to go through before I was accepted.  While I have no objection to that and would support that, I was surprised when my daughter adopted a cat from the same agency and they never asked her a single question, never mind put her through an interview.  Is a cat’s life less valuable?  Generally people believe dogs live longer. Not true.  A cat can live 20 years, but the average dog lives 12 -15.  Cats are believed to be more independent.  While that is true on some level, they can’t survive without us, contrary to what some would have you believe.  Even Ringo who feeds himself, relies on us for shelter and love.  We have given him kibbles, without knowing any better and he eats them.  Even kitties like their junk food I suppose.  Still, he’s the healthiest of all.

Season Changing

I can already feel the beginning of the season shifting here.  I’ve been trying to paint the outside of our house, or least get the worst of the painting done this season before winter hits.  It’s a lot of painting for one person, let alone a middle aged woman with a compromised shoulder, but I’m a nice ‘boss’ for myself.  I work at it awhile and take long breaks whenever I feel I need it, so I don’t ‘do’ the shoulder.  I’ve been working on this a few years now. 

I’m also running the veggie garden, something I neglected until late in the season due to a full-time job in town and other commitments. The garden is just starting to produce in any great amounts.  I planted quite late this year, but wanted to get veggies in.  The veggie garden is important enough that I keep it going, the perennial border was sort of sacrificed, and some of it has burned out.  The best plants here are drought resistant.  The flower garden is now recovering, since we had some cooler days for about a week, so I guess that setting up the sprinkler now and again as I dashed out the door, was enough to sustain most of it.  There are usually casualties at this time of year, but this year they’ve been minor.  I’ve just been lucky. 

Most gardeners are shocked when they see my garden.  “Where’s the garden?” is the unspoken question in their eyes especially when shown the veggie garden.  Most hard-core gardeners have their grass all nicely clipped and everything is carefully weeded.  Mulch – often cedar, or something pretty – is present around each shrub or plant. Veggie gardens are always in neat rows or mixed in with flower beds in interesting ways. 

In my veggie garden I use raised beds, as I’ve said in previous blogs.  Or, I use garden boxes with open bottoms which I move by taking them apart.  This year I’ve let the fall rye grass and white Dutch clover grow to its full length in the pathways.  This makes it a challenge to walk through, which I don’t mind, but most people probably would.  The tall grasses and weeds give me good protection again the winds which are extremely drying here.  It also gives the ground grouse something green to eat; and now they aren’t touching my chard, lettuce mixes or any other produce.  It acts like a living shield, protecting my produce.  My bush beans get wind burn on their tips.  The rest of the plant is OK because the fall rye is high enough and bushy enough to mostly protect it.   

I’ve got mature weeds in the beds as well as sprinkled throughout the garden.  It happened when I got so far behind on tasks this season, due to working outside our place as well.  I decided that since I had an overwhelming number of chores to catch up on, weed pulling couldn’t be too close to the top of the list.  If they’re helping to hold down soil, but aren’t choking off anything – stay.  Dandelions are welcome if they aren’t bothering anything else. Ragweed is everywhere here, but the big ones will overwhelm the smaller ones.  Since they’ve got a short tap root, they’re easy to pull.  So if I wait until there’s a few big ones, the chore is easier. 

Of course I couldn’t get away with doing this if I lived anywhere near another gardener, or even near enough to someone’s house.  We’re pretty isolated here.  However, if I lived in town, chances are we’d have a much smaller property to maintain, so I might have been able to keep on top of weeds – or at least have a better chance.  Less wind there too.  

I’m currently harvesting huge amounts of chard, rhubarb and an abundance of herbs such as basil, thyme, sage, motherwort, caraway/thyme, loveage.  The bush beans I planted late are just beginning to produce beans, and are mostly still in flower.  I probably planted them just in time or a tad late, as beans don’t like cool weather.  I hope they are finished completely before the temperatures noticeably dip.  Peas planted  about two weeks ago are a couple of inches high.  They’ll be maturing when the evening temps are much cooler – weather they like.   

A few of the onions another gardener gave me survived and are getting big now.  I had planted most of them in with the carrots in order to fool the carrot rust fly.  That trick works too – but not against greedy little black bears who have a thing for carrots.  As soon as the carrots were 2″, he pawed through the whole box, looking for carrot.  This wiped out the carrots and the little transplanted onions.  Fortunately I’d planted just a few around the gooseberry bush I just put in this year.  They are the large Spanish type, and they’re just getting some real size on now.  I can see their ‘hips’. 

The basil and tomatoes in pots, growing close to the house are doing well.  I’ve been making and freezing pesto.  So far I haven’t harvested enough tomatoes to freeze any, as they are just beginning.   

My blueberry bushes growing in pots are still struggling on.  Actually one of them has produced reasonably well for being such a little bush right now.  I probably need a huge rectangular container and a ton of peat moss mixed with spruce needles, old cones broken down and sawdust to plant them in.  Our local soil is alkaline.  Blueberries love very acidic soil – about 4.4 – very acidic for most plants.  I love blueberries.  They don’t mind shade, so I keep trying to get them going here.  I’ve been feeding them fish fertilizer, and they seem to like that.   

Since it is so challenging to garden here, I am leaning more toward all native plants except for the veggie garden.  Went on a garden tour here earlier in the summer and saw a great garden for our climate.  The gardeners rarely water, and use mostly native plantings with a few well-chosen perennials – hardy and very drought tolerant.  Smartest garden I ever saw.  They hired someone to set up the hardscape, recommend plants, place them etc.  I paid careful attention – that’s what we need here!

On Depression

I believe depression is one of the greatest challenges of aging.  Life is everything – beauty and sadness, unimaginable cruelty and mercy, love and hate – what Joesph Campbell called “The pairs of opposites – and they go on forever.  And because we live this life and experience these things as humans, we develop deep emotions about it – the beautiful and terrible forces of life, the nature of this planet we all live on. 

And our lives are so short – average 70 odd to 80 odd – a few years longer if we’re both lucky and one of nature’s ‘chosen.’  We get to witness such a small snipet of it.  But since we are ’self-aware’ we can research /read about the past and learn more about ourselves in the present.  We tend to reach forward into it through the lives of our children and their children and try to imagine a future we can no longer attempt to imagine because the technological advances we are living through right now are so plentiful and are moving so quickly that no one can really keep up any more, never mind imagine something more advanced.

We are witnessing what we would have called the ‘unimaginable’ in the U.S. with Canada and other developed countires following on it’s coat tails regarding war practices, unimaginable voilations of human rights, torture and a host of other uglies that the average person would rather not know about.  From this long term nightmarish U.S. administration comes a long, long list of other ugly fall-out situations world-wide which are far too numerous to list here.  The point being, there’s not a lot to pin your hopes on for the future of our kids, grandkids and …?  So the “Baby Boomer” generation has some of the biggest challenges going to ward off depression.  And the governments recognize this as a serious problem – DRUGS!  Quick!  Drug ‘em up!

I find at this age when I visit a doctor, they regard me and then my chart.  First question: “What medications are you taking?” As they paw frantically through my chart.  “None,” I reply.  You can see the wheels moving in their heads, trying to think of what they could put me on.  Very scary. 

 

For a short time period in my forties, I took Paxil for depression.  I tried it for a month because I was told I couldn’t properly judge it unless I took it for a four week period.  Weirdest drug I ever took.  Felt like a zombie, also was very dizzy and nauseous all the time.  Stopped taking it and felt MUCH better in a day.  I find smoking a joint works a little, or sometimes does the reverse but really…nope.  There’s no drug for depression. There’s a few herbs which help, such as St. John’s wart, but really you gotta give the emotion some respect.  It does have something worthwhile to tell you.

You can’t ‘handle’ depression the way you might other things.  You must give it some space without letting it take over.  Find somewhere you can go to be alone that’s beautiful, peaceful.  Bring something to blow your nose on and some bottled water and have yourself a good old howl until you can’t cry anymore.  Then, blow your nose, drink water and move on, going for as long a walk as you can handle.  When
you return home exhausted, have a nap.  When you wake up you’ll feel a whole lot better.  That evening, watch a comedy or entertain or do something fun. You’ll feel better the next day too.  And if you feel it necessary – go again and do the same thing.  Give tears the space and time without letting them take over everything.  You can’t ‘discipline’ yourself into not feeling sad.  You feel sad and MUST express it.

When my daughter first moved out of home on her own it felt like having my arm ripped off emotionally.  It took years to get over that feeling, and I still weep a little when I think of it.  That was eight years ago now, and a whole lot has changed.  But life at this age is slowing down in some senses – even when I’m very busy – and so is my sense of time.  Eight years is awhile in a younger person’s life.  At age 55, eight years isn’t so long. 

 

From a very young person’s view, life is all new and miraculous.  At this age, people realize the ‘newness’ comes with some of the details, but the  cycles of life repeat over and over – the great spirals of life and death – the seasons of life and death and renewal.  Even much smaller things which occur in life fit into that ’spiral’ theme – spirals within spirals.  And it is incredibly beautiful and miraculous, although in order to be all that it really is, it is also cruel and horrible.

We’re living through one of the most dramatic times in history, where we might well be witnessing the fall of the U.S. empire.  Yet the ‘monster’ seems to be taking a very long time to die, and we don’t know what this will eventually mean for Canada, the rest of the world.  There’s a lot of shit going on, so maybe the real question is: if we aren’t feeling sad about all this, what should we be feeling?  Or if we aren’t sad, what are we feeling? 

  

There’s an expression popular now that I hate: “suck it up.”  A quick recipe for psychosis.  Suck it up – push it all down, way, way down, sit on it.  Stuff it.  Sure, a person has to get on with life and do what they must to keep going but that doesn’t mean there can’t be balance.  If you never allow yourself to be weak, to cry, to feel whatever, how on earth can you be strong when you must?  You’ve spent all your spirit “sucking it up.”Sometimes there’s a tendancy to feel guilty for feeling depressed, since I live in this great place and have a good life.  I’m not living inBagdad. But still, you live the life you’re ‘given’ to live and make the best of it.  I try not to feel guilty because I have so much to be thankful for and yet sometimes feel sad, because I
obviously haven’t given ‘voice’ to my sadness, and all humans have that right.  It isn’t about ‘degree’ or the amount of horrible things which have happened, it’s about your reactions and feelings about them, and what it means to you. 

  

I don’t think a person can properly put things into perspective unless you give yourself the time you need to have a cry.  But you can also make rules for yourself such as: I will take no more than 1 1/2 hours – or whatever.  Then follow with something active – like a walk.

  

Finding time and space to cry alone is powerful because you are deliberately giving yourself the time and space away from everyone to pour out your heart without worry over how others around you feel.  You could bring a notebook for journaling if you want.  I find it sometimes helps. 

Quitting Office Politics

A couple of weeks ago, I rendered my resignation to the paper.  I was having a lot of pain in my right shoulder, and one Mon. morning, it became critical when I couldn’t move my arm at all without sharp pain.  I didn’t know how long I was going to be down with it, and I was originally hired to be relief for the editor with back troubles.  It didn’t seem fair to the paper to hang them up while I recovered, so I told them I wasn’t capable of doing the job now, so they could advertise for someone else if they wanted.

  

As well I was having other problems at the paper.  I would be told to go out and cover an event, but most of my pieces weren’t making it into the paper, and when they did, they were heavily edited to sound like the editor’s style of writing.  Although I tried to have a forthright conversation with her, and I’ve been open with her all along, I think she might’ve somehow been threatened by me.  I tried to end this paranoia after the publisher told me in front of the editor that she wanted to keep me on indefinitely.  I said I would stay until the end of the summer but that this wasn’t what I wanted to do. 

  

Ms Editor isn’t new to the idea of having an assistant, but her usual summer assistants were young journalist students.  I am totally opposite – not young, not interested in becoming a journalist, but somehow I still wrote the local paper for a few months without any training at all, and some people enjoyed it while others missed the paper as it was.  I actually obtained a small audience appreciative of my writing, much to my surprise and delight.  Still, I think this lady had an insecure feeling about me, plus she likely wasn’t sure what to do with me.   I didn’t think the publisher factored into my problems at the paper, but she did.

  

Before I realized the shoulder was really bad, I was sent out of town to cover an important event in a neighbouring town.  It was a groundbreaking ceremony with local politicians and heads of various organizations etc.  The editor told me exactly what she wanted, and I delivered it very well.  The paper came out and I saw my picture on the front page, but the credit was to someone else.  I called the publisher and told her a mistake was made, but she denied it.  I re-sent her the picture, showing they were identical with details in the background matched perfectly and she still insisted another person gave her the front page picture.  I asked her to send the other photo to me at home.  She did, but it was my photo.  The specs were identical to mine.  I re-sent both photos with the specs open, but she still insisted someone else took the picture, even though that was proven to be impossible.  Another woman who works more closely with this publisher says she lies all the time, and that everyone else in the office knows and are trying to deal with it.  I believe she made a mistake and then covered it up.

  

I hate office politics, and I’ve never been any ‘good’ at it.  I’m too blunt because I hate all the ‘he-said-she-said’ things which seem to happen when you group human beings together.  And this flavour of office politicking was making me crazy.  Also, I felt like a pawn between the publisher and the editor.  And both seem to have silly ‘pumped up’ opinions of their own self worth.  We aren’t talking about the editor or publisher of a major paper here, it’s a small circulation! 

  

So this was my first exposure to working for a publication of any sort, and it did give me just enough experience to let me realize what working for any publication as regular staff would be like.  Freelance is tough – getting and finding work is ongoing – but you don’t have to deal with office politics.  Either they like and buy it or they don’t.  Pressure is controlled by the freelancer, at least in terms of controlling what you take on.

  

I suppose what cheeses me off most of all, is that I gave the paper valuable summer time – when I usually spend my days doing the staining on the house, repairing things that need repairing, managing the garden and my own writing, entertaining – because I thought I was really needed.  I worked hard for them and then they barely used what I gave them.  I would be told not to worry.  I’d get paid for my time.  But this was besides the point.  I wasn’t doing it for the money so much as I was trying to gain experience.  And when the editor edited my stuff down to sound like hers, I couldn’t insist on a by-line on my work, since what was published was at least 40% hers.  Frequently I didn’t like it anymore. 

So I couldn’t think of any good reason for me to be there.  They certainly needed me when I began, but I couldn’t see where I made much difference by the time I left.  I really should have left as soon as the editor returned to work, but they asked me to stay and seemed to still need me.  I was told they usually have a summer student, but wouldn’t this year because I was already there.  It seemed like a good idea to stay on at the time. 

  It gets very busy around here during the summer, and it was heartbreaking to see my garden get weedy and the chores go undone.  As time went on, and they weren’t using most of my work anyway, I began to really resent them, especially since I gave them the option of only using my services on a freelance basis, telling them I could be very flexible.  They simply had no respect for my time or for me.  My respect for them ran out after I realized they didn’t deserve it.

Dog Days of Summer

Dog Days of Summer We are now in the “Dog Days of Summer” at least out where I live.  The seasonal temperatures reach into the high 30’s and the wind is hot, like a hair-blower turned up on the ‘high’ setting.  It shrivels the leaves off the trees.  Summer veggies aren’t happening, the wind is too hot, there’s no way to protect foliage from those strong hot winds which come ripping off the lake.  Mulch helps the soil, but those winds are strong enough to tear medium sized branches from the mature spruce trees on our property which provide the 100 – 150 foot shade canapé for our house and grounds.   

During all this summer drama, I’ve planted what will be the fall crop of veggies:  broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts are started in 1″ square pots and I’ve planted peas in the garden.  By the time these are tall enough to be affected by the wind, the weather will have changed to warm days and cool evenings:  just the right sort of weather for these cool temperature loving plants.  I’ll wait until late August to put in my spinach since it matures much faster and has such a low tolerance to heat. This year I’ve grown tomatoes in pots close to the house.  They seem to be doing very well and they’re the early ripening sort – the only kind I can grow here.  I’m just starting to pick some tomatoes from these.  I should have done the same with my poor deer-bitten peppers in the upper garden.  It’s the only plant they’ve nibbled so far this year though. 

I completely lose the sun by mid to late Sept., because it moves around behind the mountain located near our house, and the mountain blocks direct sunlight from our lot during the fall and winter months, returning again beginning in March.  Timing for garden veggies is essential.  I can’t grow anything which needs sun-ripening past Sept. I must also pay a visit to our local U-Pic to buy veggies I didn’t have either the room or time to grow this year.  We’re lucky – our local U-Pic is organically grown produce, so I can confidently can up what I buy there – or freeze depending on whatever it is and how I plan to use it. 

I can never have enough tomatoes, now that I realize how easy they are to freeze and what fantastic tomato sauce they make in the winter!  Sun dried tomatoes are easy to do up from cherry tomato plants – usually wonderful producers.  Years ago I bought a small food dryer for around $30 which works fine.  In this climate I could likely just put them on an old screen and leave them in a semi-wind sheltered spot outside.  They may dry faster that way. 

Anyone reading this – how is your garden going?  Where do you live?  Comments are always very welcome.  

 

Gardening this Year

While I’ve been running around town, trying to be a reporter, my poor garden has been left pretty much alone, except for the odd supplemental watering. This is the first year since I started gardening that I haven’t been out there trying to keep the weeds down, planting, harvesting etc. 

But I do have a few things on the ‘go.’ Peas are currently flowering in two garden boxes.  The bush beans are coming along in 4 different beds.  The mule deer have been munching my pepper plants, so I’m not so sure I’ll get any of those, but I’m growing tomatoes in pots close to the house, so I hope I’ll have lots for freezing. 

Basil is also growing in pots close to the house, but the wind here is making the stems tough.  It’s tasty though, but doesn’t look very pretty. We harvested all the spinach weeks ago now, and I was planning to put chard in the vacant beds, but so far haven’t planted any. 

My days off have been spent trying to catch up on other chores, which I’ve ranted about in previous blogs. As I pass by my perennial border, I yank the odd weed that is taller than my plants.  Yesterday was the first day I mowed the grass – it was nearly three feet high! 

However, my black beauty elderberry bush is in full bloom and looks fantastic!  Hopefully it will produce berries this year.  It’s a baby, and last year was it’s first bloom.  As well the campanula are also blooming – I’ve got the pink and light purple ones.  My other flowers were put in late and are still getting ready to bloom, but aren’t there yet. 

I have an unusual garden story: A few years ago I planted some honeysuckle to grow up a fence.  It never made it through the first winter, so last spring I dug up most of it and planted a pink clematis.  The clematis did well in the location and spread up the fence to the top.  Last fall I chopped the clematis down almost to the ground to make it bushier and prevent it from getting too sparse on the bottom.  It came back this year with great gusto.  Recently I couldn’t help but notice that there are completely different looking leaves growing at the bottom. 

Clematis have long oval shaped leaves, but these other ones are lobed, and resemble more the shape and type of leaf to a tomato plant. 

Slowly it dawned on me: the honeysuckle is alive!  So now I’ve got a pink clematis and a deep purple honeysuckle both trying to grow in the same spot.  I wonder if it’s possible?  The honeysuckle isn’t very big yet, and may not get there, I don’t know.  If it grows, I think they’ll look good together.  I am not about to dig one of them up now.  Besides, I don’t have another spot for a vine that I can see, so I’ll let the two vines either co-exist or battle it out. 

I was hoping that this year all the vines I’ve planted will cover the chain link fence.  Probably not this year, but maybe next. My climbing hydrangea is getting big and has already bloomed.  Nearby, my climbing pink roses are budding up for a bloom soon.  On the other side of the gate, the male kiwi vine has been looking great with his pink tipped leaves and little white flowers.  However, the young female hasn’t set any flowers, so no fruit this year.  They’ve found each other and are growing together now.  I’ve planted them side by side, and the female is a vigorous grower.  She’s a different variety, so hopefully they’re compatible. 

I’ve lost my cut leaf Japanese maple.  I tried hard to get it to grow in this location, but unless you’re willing to baby it along every step, it’s too harsh a climate I guess.  Others in town have them, but they aren’t on the lake with the winds blowing all the time.  I planted it in the calmest spot I have, but it still isn’t any good. 

Nearby, the snowball tree I put in a year ago is taking off.  It’s putting some height on this year, as it was tiny last year.  No flowers yet.  I hope it will one day. 

Mock orange is indigenous to this area.  I’ve got two of them.  Neither one has bloomed for me yet.  Both seem to be growing well, but no buds.  Perhaps they need more sun than I can give them, I don’t know.  No one else in this area has had that problem.  However, most other gardens here have tons of sun, whereas we don’t because we’re in the shadow of a mountain. 

I hope there’s some time this summer to just relax and enjoy the garden.  I’ve committed to staying with the paper until the end of the summer.  I wish now that I hadn’t.  There’s a lot of other things I feel I should be doing, but they needed someone, or think they do.  I don’t like the idea of leaving them stranded, but my heart isn’t in it anymore. 

I already know I don’t want to be a reporter, and it’s a good thing.  At my age, I doubt I’ve got a promising career ahead as a journalist.  However, I will try to do my best for a couple more months.  

Out Of Breath…

I feel like I’ve been running, and now I’m slowing down; out of breath.  I’ve never been forced into a postion where I had to write every day before.  Since I’ve been with the paper, that’s pretty much what I’ve been forced to do – so like a runner who is out of shape, I’m gasping.  I actually do want to ‘get into shape’ as a writer, and to that end, I think my best course of action is to take some writing courses.  I’ve done fairly well without them, but now I’d better get ready for the next race; even while I’m still on this one, for that is the nature of this type of race.

I wrote an editorial about the gun registry a few weeks back in the local paper. I think the current gun registry is disasterous and a total waste of time and money, but I do think there should be one in place.  There was a well written letter which ‘corrected’ some of the statements in my editorial from a professor at SFU.  Our editor was consoling about it when we spoke together about it.  I didn’t feel that way.  I was flattered that this man even read the piece. I realize too, that he was right, I didn’t properly research the topic before spouting off about it.  I’m feeling a time crunch, and this is definately affecting the material I’m putting out.

Perhaps too it is because I’m really still learning about research.  Another time crunch issue.  There’s too many things I’m trying to do, and there’s never enough time.  I realize too how whiny this sounds…everyone feels a time crunch today!  Our human world we’ve created just keeps moving faster and faster, with more and more stuff going on, flying by. 

Since I’ve been living here, I’ve learned to mark time differently in a more sane manner.  However it doesn’t work with the age of technology which we all must live in to one extent or another.  I suppose I should look at it like I was lucky to have had that time during which things moved so much more in sync. with the cycles of nature.  Now I suppose I’m adjusting not only to writing a lot, but re-integrating myself back into the world of humans – rush. rush, rush!

I whined the other day to one of our local friends that I’m still learning how to balance a working life with the rest of my life – getting the garden done, house cleaned, laundry done, plus seasonal jobs that must be done, such as continuing to stain the outside of the house, annual cleaning and sorting chores and the constant watering which must be done in the veggie garden especially due to the heat here.  My friend looked amused and just nodded his head.  I know – he’s been doing it all along, so it isn’t so much of a challenge for him.  I used to be able to do it too, although I did find it exhausting.

I won’t be at the paper for very long, so this may be the very best time to look for an ideal writing course to move me along to the next step.  I will try hard not to wince when I read something I’ve written which sounds bad to me, since I am still learning.  I’ve read plenty of really bad writing from other people, so giving myself permission to suck now and again shouldn’t be so daunting.  I’ll never write unless I give myself permission to suck.  Anyone who writes anything sucked at least at one time or another.  It’s part of the learning process.

I think part of it is that when you’re learning something new as an older person, most people don’t believe that you’re a beginner, just because of your age.  When young, no one takes you seriously.  When older, everyone tends to take you seriously to begin with, so they don’t believe you’re a beginner – you MUST be an expert because you’ve got gray hair.  Either that, or you’re a moron.  Well, in this day and age, unless you’re willing to be a beginner and get going on something new, you’d better be rich.  Only the rich and the ’still working’ will adjust to all the changes, I’m thinking.

Today I’ll rest for now, at least as a writer.  Day off – I’m cleaning out the basement today.  Gotta get some of this stuff out of here while we still have summer.  I hate hanging onto stuff we might use ‘one day’ but never do.  This is where it is sometimes tough to negotiate with your partner…