time.

i am not certain that there is enough time for everything... hm. time. if only i could bottle and sell you.
v.xo

what do you do with a space?

i read an article this week that told me carrots are "tricky".

cam wants to grow carrots, and beets, and lettuce, and beans, and potatoes.... i totally agree with each of these choices... and so - excited, i started to read about growing things.  The result - now, i am very, very, nervous... what if i am not good at growing these things? what if i am not good at growoing anything?

these thoughts are troubling as i have never handled failure well. i have never accepted my own failings with dignity. i can be very hard on myself. i can opt out of things i am not good at... cut and run, as they say... i can be a coward.

i am also troubled by my apparent project finicky-ness affliction.  it appears, on reflection (and candidly, on obesrvation) that i have a  problem finishing projects.  this is a bit of a concern; this fickleness.

this came to light while i was surveying my knitting basket yesterday when i got home from the office yesterday.  it was shocking to realise that i have about 8 projects o the go - each at a different level of completeness... though none is actually complete.  orphaned knitting.  negligent knitter...

this is, of course, not to say that i have never finished a project - i most certainly have... hats and scarves and blankets and mittens... all finished. and yet the basket teems with projects i have started and now neglect in favour of some new, more delicious wool...

will this happen in the garden? will my carrots suffer this very same fate??? will they be favourites for a brief time... only to be replaced by the sexy newness of neighbouring rows of broccoli?

i suppose only time will tell. in advance, i would like to apologise, both for my failings and my neglect, to the carrots...

sprung

i love spring.  it is my favourite season.  spring in vancouver is particularly delightfiul as it seems to last longer here than anywhere else i have ever lived. 

spring arrives, typically it seems, in january with snowdrops and crocuses... followed by those amazing daffodils. riotously callling out springs official arrival.... and the season runs straight through until some time in june, when summer decides to visit.  we are in high   

daffodil time right now...

spring also means flowering trees: cherry, crab apple and, of course, magnolias. 

when i was small i thought my grandmorher's magnolia tree was the only one in the world.  a beautiful od tree wih blossoms so magnificent that when they fell to the ground in a pink carpet a tiny bit of my heart broke. but that was toronto. since moving to vancouver i have learned that there exists an army of magnificent magnolias (though my grandmother's tree is still queen).  in this army we find one magnolia more magestically beautiful than the next. 

The magnolia tree just outside our house is in bloom now.  and every morning it makes me smile.  i even look forward to walking on the pink carpet of petals... though a bit of my heart may still find itself a little broken...

i wonder if we can plant flowers and tree in our garden. there do not appear to be any rules against it... maybe i will get to have my own magnolia tree... and maybe, just maybe a small person will gaze at it from across the streeet and marvel at its majesty...  

and it all started saturday the 13th...

well. that is not entirely true.


when i was little my nono gigi had a small plot of land behind the condominium building where he lived in north york. all of the italian nonos had plots of land out behind the building. a beautiful, orderly fragrant row of lettuces, herbs and tomatoes, growing under the hydro lines at jane and finch...

my mother has also always had a giardino... cucumbers, basil, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, thyme, rosemary (always, for luck), parsley, peppers, lavender... i always loved the giardino. ("vero, go and get some pressemolo from the garden!").


but really, i think maybe it started, in earnest, on an early visit to vancouver, back when cam and i were still a bi-costal (ish) couple and infrequent visits to my now fully adopted home were like tiny holidays.


whether it was by bike or by foot is a detail i have lost in the eight plus years since, but the other delicious details... the butterflies and poppies and sweet peas and sunflowers... the zucchini blossoms and tomato vines... and the riot of colours, imagination, and life... those details i remember. those details, lining the sides of the once-railway-track that had long ago seen the last rail car traveling between the fraser river and the molson brewery. previously unwanted and unused lands taken over by ingenious neighbours, made beautiful, useful and coveted; all with seeds and soil and thoughtfulness. the cypress community gardens really are amazing. if you have not been, you really should go.


so inspiration struck like a match and lit a tiny flame. a couple of years, and a very long train ride later, i put my name on the waiting list for a community garden plot of my own. i had my name on that list before i had my first real home in this city. i had my name on that list within weeks of moving to vancouver.

that was nearly 5 years ago. this past saturday i finally signed the papers - cam and i now have a community garden plot. a tiny piece of land in a space shared with strangers, neighbours, potential friends., potential nemesi (?) in a new garden... on the ridgeway bike route at elgin street.... near home, in east van.

so, we have the plot. the question is... now what?

hm... other than poppies and seeds and soil and a rosemary bush (always, for luck) i have no clue. so, stay tuned...


v.xo