Friday, January 30, 2009

Pick a Pack of Peppers.


So, the very first seeds of the season will be planted today (not outside of course -- the garden is still under a foot of snow!) Peppers are best started early indoors, then transplanted when the weather is indisputably warm. I'll be planting all kinds of peppers at the farm, but in my own little patio herb and spice garden, the pepper family will be represented by the lovely red cayenne pepper. I'm determined this year to spend less time growing things that I think are cool and more time growing things I actually eat enough of to warrant owning several plants. This means purple cauliflower is out and russet potatoes are in. Red runner beans? Out. Butternut squash? In like Flynn. By the way, for all my soil needs, I use this -- not the weird crap from Home Depot that has bits of fertilizer in it. And oh yeah, for all my hand protecting needs, I (and Oprah) like these.

Happy germinating!
h

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

it begins.


the list of seeds to buy is made.
the seedling heat lamps are ready.
the snow is melting.
it's time to get back into the garden (so i can stop paying $2.50 a bunch for kale, and instead spend $2.50 for a year's worth of seeds for it...)

pictured left: a basket full of september bounty from last season awaits cookage. clockwise from top left, purple dinosaur kale, red runner beans, baby leeks, young beets, carrots, broccoli, and city lights swiss chard.


Thursday, January 8, 2009

Yinter Wonderland.



The snow isn't this deep here anymore, but I am still having trouble getting around. 
I've decided to fully embrace  the yin element of this season and go with the slow.
Soon I will be elbow deep in itchy soil planting garlic, I might as well take this time to sit and listen to the rain fall.
xo.h

Friday, January 2, 2009

Mothers in a Labourious Time.



This is me when I was about six or seven months pregnant with Kai. It's the only pregnancy photo I have. I'm not really the "hire-a-photographer-to-document-my-swollen-beauty" type, but I definitely needed a picture of me wearing my "Def Lep-Bird" fake rock and roll poster Big Bird shirt that I wore through almost all of the first trimester, through non-stop "morning" sickness and the long walks up and down Roncesvalles Avenue when I could handle the sight and smell of all the harvest fruit piled up along the sidewalks.

I didn't talk about my pregnancy much when I was pregnant, or the birth itself after. It's not that there was nothing to say, or that it's all been said -- in fact, now that I have been through it, I am amazed at how much is not said in all the usual books, classes, etc. that women are directed to during pregnancy. 

I've decided to post some stuff here occasionally about different aspects of the whole experience. I want to do this, in part, as a record for myself. I have ceased to believe that my brain will only let go of the less important details of my life -- there seems only to be so much room up there!

Anyway, I thought I would start with this picture of me with little Kai in my belly, already dancing when I would sing love songs through the winter afternoon.

xo.h

I Do Many Things in Tens.


So here is my list of ten New Year's Resolutions.
I resolve...
1. To learn how to use my new sewing machine. 
2. To go to the gym three times a week.
3. To do yoga every day. 
4. To finish submitting all those years of unfiled tax returns that I've been sitting on because I know that they owe me for them and it feels like some kind of weird savings account.
5. To stop swearing and use more interesting, less aggressive words instead.
6. To eat sugar only one day a week.
7. Same with caffeine.
8. To put in more volunteer hours per month at the David Suzuki Foundation.
9. To do more creative writing.
10. To finally incorporate meditation into my day every day.

I'll probably post a few more of these. I live for lists and self-improvement, so I'm all over this shit. Oops, I mean...all over this...snazzle?

xo.h

pictured above - Kai works his way through a foot of smuddle-jinkin' snow.