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.

Last Winter there was three feet of snow for most of January. This Winter, although we have had wind storms, it has been very mild. Honeybees do not fly if it below about 8 degrees celcius. We beekeepers use the rule 10C and it’s warm enough to go into the hives. Last year, February 6th, it was 7C and I went into the hive to clean off the bottom board because the bees had died there and were clogging up the entrance.

This year, what a different year! The bees have been flying on several occasions throughout November, December and January. Today I got to pop into the hives quickly and scrape off the bottom board to check for dead bees. This year it was warm enough that the bees brought out their own dead and the bottom boards were relatively dead-bee-free. They are trucking in with yellow pollen strapped to their legs and they are quite yellow and happy, cleaning each other and enjoying the sun.

So this is the time of year when a lot of beekeepers report their losses. I heard that at the beekeepers meeting last Thursday, no one volunteered their losses and then they knew it was bad. After phoning around to some of the experienced beekeepers I know, I discovered that the loss this year was quite substantial. A commercial operation lost more than 50 hives, another hobbiest lost 6 out of 7 of her hives. What devastation! I would be so crushed.

But humbly and happy to report here, I have 4 out of 4 hives. I know if I lost even one I would have a good little cry. At the end of last Winter, I was employed to check on a hive and it was clear they were dead from the moment I cracked the inner cover. I felt so sad and I hadn’t even invested what I have in my own hives.

For those of you entertaining the idea of keeping bees, it is getting a lot more difficult. The people who do it for a living are having a hard time. They require a lot of attention and a check at least every 10-14 days. Controlling the invasive mite population is a very real concern. Medicating the bees for foulbrood and nosema is very important and knowing how to do it properly is crucial.

Thank goodness growing veggies isn’t quite as hard. My garlic is sprouting two months ahead of last year!

Anyway I did want to wish my mother-in-law a very Happy Birthday today! May your year be filled with good things and thick books!

Have you had a mild Winter where you’ve been hibernating too?

I entered the Tru Value (our grocer) with my plastic green shopping basket. My mission: to find something edible for dinner. In a grocery store, you’d think this wouldn’t be very hard. But in my recent book perusing, I’d come across some writing by Michael Pollen. His advice for good eating is to “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” After watching what I’ve put past my lips lately, it is not mostly plants. It seems so simple but it is not. Why?

(rhetorical question I suppose.)

So I went into the grocery store with all this in mind. Something for dinner. Mostly plants. When I go grocery shopping, I always start from the right of the store and work my way to the left. The left most aisle in our Tru Value is the deli, the bread and then the meat. I decided right then and there to only buy local, just to see what jamboree we’ll get for a meal. I bought Comox grown double smoked bacon (4 slices) for a couple bucks, a dozen mussels from Quadra Island for another couple bucks.

Then I went to the veggie section, usually my last stop. Isn’t it funny how we choose what meat we want for a meal and then what veggies go with the meat? Well what if we started at the veggies, and have meat as an optional side dish?

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Then real-life happened and the power went out as I was writing this. I had beautiful photos for it and everything. But I did not get back to this until the next day. Then the next day had it’s own set of surprises. A very dear family friend of mine, John Bradford, passed away whilst skiing on Mt Washington. I am headed up to Tofino to “gather together and mourn.”

When someone dies on the Reserve in Ucluelet, the Natives say that they “sit” with the family in mourning. This can encompass making meals, cleaning house, sharing memories, or just sitting so that the family is not alone. I love this concept.

So I am going to sit. To Mourn. I apologize for the irregular blogging lately but real life has a way of sneaking in.

I’ve been knitting for a friend who has suffered a great loss recently. I’ve knitted a hat with earflaps. To my astonishment, the more I knit, and thought and leaned consciously toward my friend in Inverness, Scotland, the more the toque ressembled the colours of Scotland.

The yarn is spun in Japan. It is 60% wool, 40% recycled silk. It changed colour from muted heather, to trailing stone walls, to the deep green of broom and the blue of the lochs.

How is it that you can send love in the form of something soft, time spent, love endowed and just hope that it is received with the same intention it was sent.

Thinking of you Becky, through this time of grief and healing.