When I begin the weekend, especially in the Spring, I have quite the “To-Do” list. I’m not sure if my husband dreads this list as he knows that there will be only guilty relaxing- as we have things to do Sir!

On my To-Do list this weekend included a few things we got done and a few we didn’t.

I got the buttons sewn on my tiny vest so that it’s ready to ship off for baby. This thing is just about the cutest thing ever!

The top buttons totally don’t match. Somehow I’m hoping that it just doesn’t matter to my friends. These are the friends, after all, who put up their bare Christmas Tree, named it Franken-Pine, and sat on the couch 5 feet away and threw the ornaments at the tree, hoping they’d stick. The tree was incredibly lop-sided and the first time the top star was adjusted, the tree fell on the unsuspecting victim. These are some of my favourite friends!

Another item on the to-do list was seedlings.

This is our potential tomato seedlings. Yup, pots of dirt. Trust me, it will get more exciting. Planting seeds is such an act of faith. It seems like the most unlikely thing to happen. Putting a grain into the dirt, pouring some water over it, and hoping. Somehow, the seeds wants to grow, it knows how to grow, and it grows. I love this small miracle.

After all our hard work, we decided a reward was in order. A picnic. And not just anywhere. Somewhere really special.

Hope your weekend was as productive as mine!

We have already received our order from Salt Spring Seeds. Those guys are super-hero fast! I was so impressed!

Yesterday I was asked how I’d changed since moving to a tiny island. It was a great opportunity to self-examine what has happened to me in the past 2 years that we’ve been living here and then what has happened since we’ve been slowly learning to farm.

One of the biggest realizations was garbage. Yup. On Pender Island, you have to deal with your garbage differently because any garbage you create, you have to take it off the island with you or pay someone $5 a bag to take it off for you. This is a huge change in consciousness. We have a fantastic recycling centre on Pender that will take just about anything, from clean plastic wrappers, to bottles, to milk cartons, to old batteries. They do an incredible job down there and even though people get intimidating by their strict sorting regime, they provide the island an excellent service. And, at the recycling centre, they have a “free stuff” section. Marc has scalped screen doors there for making bat-houses, old glass sliding doors for cold frames (for the garden) as well as cast iron pots, enamel pots that are great for melting beeswax and even a couple books.

We’ve had to learn how to compost properly because we any food scraps we have can be turned into fertilizer for the garden. It’s been really neat seeing our food scraps (plant matter only please) turn into useable soil to nourish more food. I tend to have a fondness for most things cyclical.

We also fully utilize our woodstove. Any paper or cardboard that we can burn to heat our house, we take pleasure in becoming little pyro-maniacs.

Another way we’ve changed from living on a tiny island, is the way we eat. This has been somewhat conscious but a lot of what has changed our eating has been sub-conscious as well. We want to eat in seasons but sometimes we do so accidentally. When it is October and the apples are dripping off the trees and the trees so laden with fruit, we take full advantage. For a month, we squeeze, dry, bake, nibble and ferment apples. This results in the rest of the year being rather sick of anything to do with apples. Sure, we take them out of our freezer sometimes for an apple pie or an apple crips, or maybe even apple pancakes. We grab a bag of dehydrated apple slices for a snack. But we do not buy apples in the store anymore because of our over-dose on them in apple season.

This same principle applies to blueberries. We have 500 blueberry bushes here, that is an acre of blueberry plants! In July, when it is blueberry season, we wake up in the morning and pick blueberries, then we scheme on ways to sell blueberries, we talk to everyone about how many blueberries we have and if you’d like another bag just let us know. And we are blueberried-out by the time August hits. Then we do it all over again with blackberries. Of course, we freeze blueberries and blackberries because who can get enough of these sunshine bombs, especially in the darkest of Winters. But to think of buying these fruits, it seems rather absurd.

I haven’t bought a banana in ages. I love bananas but because I have other fruit available to me for free, I do not even think of their yellow goodness.

In the past two years, how have you changed because of where you live? Do you think where you live affects your lifestyle?

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.)

This is what I’d prefer to be doing.

This is what I am doing instead,  as my portfolio for my Poetry Class is due tomorrow.

At least I have good company. And chocolate. What do you prefer to do these days?