Last night in the kitchen, I burst into tears because the cauliflower I was preparing for our evening meal was "insanely buggy".
(In my defense, this effing cauliflower WAS riddled with tiny bugs but by the time I was ready to give up on it, I'd already assiduously de-bugged two thirds of it and it felt dumb not to soldier on.)
Still, I don't think I was really crying about the cauliflower. I also burst into tears when, after a power outage on Monday, I couldn't figure out how to reprogram the goddamn clock on the effing microwave. (Also in my defense, neither could Katr.)
Between my own family sadness and all the other crazy shit going on in the world, it's been a pretty heavy week and a half all 'round. So while I may not be capable of Katr's eloquence, as demonstrated by her excellent post this week "Increasing our capacity for compassion", I thought I would try to focus this week's post on something equally life-affirming and, perhaps a little dirty.
Aw yeah, that's right - motherfuckin' GARDENING.
This year our upstairs neighbours and all around manly men Jaco and Jeea built each of the units in our triplex a huge planter box on the boulevard, so that we could take advantage of the sun there and grow some motherfuckin' lavender.
There are three of these babies on our boulevard now and people are impressed. They stop to look at the boxes. They check out all the plants. They ask us how the boxes got there and where the dirt came from.
It's been fun talking to neighbours who I've seen over the past three years but have never actually conversed with. I also hope that now that they know who lives here and that we are nice people who don't like to step in dog shit, they'll quit letting their dogs shit on our lawn.
Here's the dirty part:
There was a lot of dirt. Jaco ordered extra so that we would be able to fill the boxes, but then there was a LOT left over. Katr and I wiled away a sunny afternoon slowly moving this dirt, one bucket at a time, to various dirt-free areas on our collective property. Newsflash - dirt is heavy! You're welcome.
We decided to use our box mainly for herbs and poppies and a few below-ground items (radishes, scallions). My reasoning was that if someone wants to help themselves to a handful of herbs as they wander by, I'm fine with that - but if they take my tomatoes, it's a swift kick to the nutsack. Best to keep the tomatoes in the yard.
Here's our planter - cilantro, marjoram, thyme, rosemary, lavender, chives, garlic chives, scallions, radishes, poppies, one random geranium.
Syvo's planter is a lovely mix of lettuces and flowers, with an aspiring peony in the middle.
Kico and Jaco's planter is like the Versailles of planters - pansies, tulips, ferns and lettuces.
A few weeks and a lot of rain later, things are sprouting! Radishes!
Poppies!
Katr also got the peas going in our yard and they're sprouting too. Peas!
The kale is sprouting too, because we're Vancouver douchebags now and must grow kale. But that doesn't mean I have to photograph it.
That's all the gardening news - FOR NOW. I know you'll all be DESPERATE to know when we get the beans and tomatoes in the ground!!!!111!!! so I'll keep you posted.
In the meantime, when shit gets real, it's nice to be able to look out my office window and see these:
Pretty.
