Someone emailed me this recently. This is a photo taken in Burma, the bottles on the tables are filled with honey!

See the ducks hanging by the ankles? So strange but I love the differences in culture.

Think I could sell my honey in recycled salvaged glass bottles?

How do you buy your honey?

Just thought I’d share moments from my good day with you.

A pancake with a beauty mark.

Cleaning up a home.

Planting the potential, the hopeful, the tomatoes.

Indulging in thick conversation with one of my favourites.

Watching a thirst quenched.

Crossing a natural boundary.

How was your day? Can you sum it up in a sentence or two?

I had a really good day today. I hope you don’t mind if I share with you a couple highlights. We stayed over on the “Big Island” last night and caught the morning ferry back to our little island. I had a beekeeping lesson with a friend of mine as he’s going to help me out with some of the hives waaaay down on South Pender. (They are practically in a different time zone to us up here on the North… and they dress funny….) And then Marc and I spent some good quality time in La Garden.

After digging around in the dirt for a while, trying our hand at planting some early seeds, we took a break for chips and water and watched the kittens pounce on each other through the lavendar.

I planted (above) spinach in September when we had a streak of sunshine. I’ve taken a couple snippings from it. But ya know those big plastic boxes of spinach you can buy at the grocery store? Yeah I can polish one of those off in one sitting. I’m a little spinach-enthusiast and could rival Popeye with one spoon behind my back. So this tiny patch did not fulfill the craving but it took the edge off and complimented a couple homemade pizzas.

And I wasn’t even lying when I said we had flowers coming up. These snow drops and big yellow daffodils are brightening up the garden already. We’ve had one bumble bee come by for a visit on our early-blooming heather and the cats have taken offense to the intrusion.

We have another one of these heather bushes down by the lower garden where Gertrudabelle hive is. (That is, my first hive.) They love these tiny pink blossoms and it is a great early nectar source.

This is the top garden, right outside my front door. In the summer, this was a tomato jungle with potatoes accidentally growing between and snap dragons and various herbs sneaking where they could. Another year, now it is another volley of hopeful seeds nestled in quiet rows waiting for the miracle of germination.

Yes, I know it may be too early. I mean, is February 21st too early to start a garden? Time will tell…

And for you readers that are not gardeners, I went down to the coup to put the chickens to bed (can you still not relate?) and I was turning over the warm little egg in my pocket, looking at the moon, thinking of my good friend and husband back at the house, my full belly, my great day of keeping bees and digging in the dirt and I was very thankful.

I’ve been thinking about the pursuit of happiness lately. What are people looking for? Why are they not finding it? I have been thinking that happiness perhaps, is not what we should be searching for. Perhaps Contentment should be the goal instead. Contentment is more attainable and more consistent. Happiness seems to come and go. It seems that a state of euphoria would be exhausting, even to the most optimistic of us. Maybe Happiness, especially generated by a series of pleasing situations, is overrated. I know I sound bitter and pessimistic when I say this but I think my next thought is actually more hopeful.

If we, instead, pursue contentment, then it is a state of being that is generated from inside us. We choose it and our circumstances do not have to deter us from our aim. If we obtain a real daily satisfaction, then whether it rains tomorrow, or snows (ack! seeds!) or sleets or is another sunny day that I am not outside to enjoy, then no matter the situation, I can still be thankful and satisfied.

Getting to this place is the tough part for me. When I can be satisfied, thankful and content no matter the situation, I’ll let you know. Because today, I had a very good day. It’s best to talk about theoretical happiness on a good day.

Happy Sunday. I hope it was satisfying for you too.

We have placed our seed order, we have wrangled our seed-saving inventory and we are getting ready to do some planting.

It’s funny that I’ve lived so oblivious to season changes all my life. I mean, I think of the season changes as what clothes I can now wear or put away. Now my seasons mean very different things. This is my second year growing a vegetable garden. This is my second upcoming Spring with honeybees and I’m gearing up. Anticipating.

This is our second year buying seeds from Salt Spring Seeds. Last year we purchased leek seeds, multi-hued quinoa and some other varieties that we were well-pleased with.

We purchased our beans and peas last year from West Coast seeds. We also got to eat food that another farm ordered seeds from these guys so we’ve seen great results.

This year we’re keeping in mind what food we ate last year, what did well, what food we’d like to eat and what plants will be good bee food. With so many choices, we definitely have to prioritize. We’ll keep you posted as we make the final plans for our garden. Anything you’ve had particular success with or recommend we try growing? We’ve been looking for Jerusalem artichokes (or sunchokes) but so far, we’ve only found a seed company in New Brunswick that sells them. Any suggestions?

Any plants in your area that you noticed the bees were all over?

Because those are the ones that I’ll want too! (Photo curtesy of West Coast seeds.)

Before you get excited seeing these photos, they are borrowed from various internet sources because when I tried to go out and take photos of my darling herbs, they were not photogenic. Could have been the lighting but they were also making faces at the camera. And that cannot be tolerated.

My mom has a beautiful herb garden. She would spice up our meal by frequent visits to her garden, right out her kitchen door. Many of the herbs that I cut fresh from my garden are offshoots of her plants. Which is appropriate as my habits tend to be offshoots of hers. (And that is a very good thing.)

I’ve included these photos borrowed, as previously mentioned, so that if you are unfamiliar with the way some herbs look, you will have an idea.

Chives are a herb we use all the time. They die back in the Winter and then rise again in the summer, like I’m certain we should. (I am a strong advocate for hibernation.) My chives are already coming back up green and fluffy. It’s an amazing testament to how mild our Winter has been. Usually I don’t see this resurrection until late February, or March. We also love eating the chive flowers, but we have to fight the bees for them. They look so lovely in salads, like purple pom-poms.

This is a curry plant. I just got this from my mom late Autumn, so I haven’t had a chance to trim it’s culinary delights yet. It smells amazing and I look forward to the kitchen potential that it will unleash. To me, it looks a lot like tarragon.

To prove my point, Tarragon. We use this when we cook salmon. It has a lovely nearly licorice taste. If you do not use this herb very often, I encourage you to try it. It imparts a beautifully sweet flavour.

Marjoram is a plant I haven’t used a lot of prior to this year. I think I just didn’t think of it and it wasn’t called for in a lot of recipes. But this plant has taken off in our garden. I designated such a tiny rock circle for her, and she has surpassed my expectations. Marc sneaks this in as often as possible. And the best thing is that the bees are just as in love with her. We often see bees crawling on her tight purple flowers.

Oregano goes so nicely with the tomatoes we grew all summer long. The bees love her flowers too. Her leaves seem so delicate but she’s survived very well over the winter. This is definitely a staple in our kitchen.

We are very lucky to have inherited a booming rosemary bush when we moved into the cottage. It flowers early and we use this plant with lamb, chicken and pasta among other delicious dishes. Rosemary is a necessity for tomato sauce and often goes really nicely with mushrooms.

This one is my favourite for mushrooms though. Thyme adds such depth to our oyster mushrooms that Marc has been growing. We use thyme with spaghetti, fish, and we throw the flowers into salads as often as possible. (As you can guess, I am very fond of eating flowers.)

Just so I don’t gloss over my terrible photo-taking skills of last night, this blurry photo is my sage bush. I had to show this girly off because of her busty hips. I’ve had this plant when we first got married and she has gone through some hard times. Yes, the transition from her sunny place at my mom’s (and the first couple years of our transient marriage) was hard on this one. But she is one of the reasons why I am so happy to be where I am. One of the first things I did when we moved into the cottage was to take my cramped herbs out of their pots and put their toes into real ground. And look how Sagey-pants has flourished! She had beautiful fragrant flowers this year that the bees were all over. And she has provided many a good flavouring to our dinners. I hear rumour that she makes a killer pesto too but I have yet to try that one.

Beside her is some lavendar. We have lots of lavendar and in the fall, I snipped off all the flowers to dry them. We use lavendar in our humidifier on the stove, I have a little sachel of it in my underwear box. And I’ve been known to slip a pouch of it in my pillow case to help me sleep.

Tugwell Creak Meadery has a beautiful recipe for Lavendar Honey cheesecake which I’d highly recommend. Especially if you can use honey from a local beekeeper. This dessert is one you’ll want to encore. I also add lavendar to my peppermint tea.

There are many herbs we use often: peppermint, basil, chamomile, parsley etc, but I am still collecting for my little herb garden. Do you have any recommendations? Any must have herbs? Have I forgotten any important uses for herbs that you depend on?