Map of Cows

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Thursday, July 23, 2020 – in the first summer of the Pandemic The garden is beginning to get bossy. I have been making my lunch from the produce Attila brings in from the garden every morning, since early June. These sauteed meals have featured Spinach, Beets and Greens, Swiss Chard, Peas, Carrots, and Zucchini from the garden. Chopped onion and garlic are always added to the mixture of the day. Our garden is organic, ten years now with no chemical anything. The price we would have paid for my lunches over the last seven or eight weeks, would have paid for all of the seeds, peat moss, manure, t-bars, netting, and municipal water that was used to get this years garden going. By the time the snow flies, I think the price of the rain tanks and the evestrough will have been covered as well. But really, we could not have purchased this quality of food in our grocery store, it isn’t available. A few days ago there were too many English Cucumbers from the garden to eat! It seemed a perfect opportunity to try Refrigerator Dill Pickles. Two 500-ml jars are now sitting in the refrigerator, waiting until the … Continue reading →

Maggie’s Song

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Yesterday I wrote another journal entry with pen and paper, sitting on the back porch. But it has not been typed into this page. Perhaps someday. This morning my ears take me on a magical journey through memory. Light My Fire, Feliciano, Jose Feliciano1969When I was accepted into Ryerson University, I moved to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. My father had a high income, which meant I was not eligible for student loans. My father contributed no funds towards my education, my Mom stretched her budget to the limit to buy me a winter coat. I worked picking fruit all summer to pay my tuition, and worked three part time jobs to pay my rent. Food was a bag of dry rice, and butter and condiments were pocketed in the cafeteria. I drank tap water. My accommodation was a couch, in the living room of a one bedroom apartment. The couple that rented me the couch were in transition, he was almost always gone, studying architecture in Portland, Oregon, and she was a social butterfly. So I was alone a lot. They had a record player, and just a few records, which I had free access to. My two favourite albums were … Continue reading →

Luddite Day

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I am writing this morning in the heat and glory of the morning. I wanted to write while sitting on the back porch yesterday morning. But I have become accustomed to hammering out my thoughts, my words, on a machine, a keyboard, and my aging laptop lacks a functioning battery; so it is tied to an electrical cord, which is in turn tied to an electrical outlet in the living room. The memory of pen and paper had faded, forgotten really, until this morning when the thoughts and words began to form an internal dam, painfully pushing against me. Only then did I remember ink, paper, touch. These words are committed to paper. Earlier this morning Attila arose in a panic, after I gently called his name to let him know how late it was. We lost power during the night, so the set alarm did not go off. After ascertaining that there was no possibility of arriving to work on time, the morning preparations took on a more relaxed tone. These things happen. My morning moved to the back porch fairly early, 7 a.m. Soon I was lost to the sound of rustling leaves, and the soft caresses of … Continue reading →

If I Had Thought This Through…

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Hot! Humid! This morning it was 30C in the shade on the back porch, at 9:00 a.m. The temperature rose from there. Both Attila and I chose to do indoor projects today. Attila is working on the last stretch of basement wall, building studs, installing insulation, then vapour barrier, then drywall, then painting. He has to do this one small section at at time, because there objects that have to be moved to give him access to the wall are big and heavy, and some of the this wall is behind the furnace. Yesterday we moved 4 drawer filing cabinets, full drawers. Of course my contribution was removing the rollers as Attila tipped the cabinet, not much, but significant. Today Attila is working on moving two cupboards full of tools, so that he can work on that section of the wall. In a few weeks the entire basement insulation project will finally be complete! As usual these projects take a lot longer than planned or hoped. My day consisted of trying some new foods in the kitchen, and back porch. The first item on the agenda was to find a way to use large Zucchinis from the garden. I found … Continue reading →