wholesome pursuits

my new household has a communal garden out back, with our friends who live in the apartment upstairs (who need names. hmm. . .) we had two work parties with lots of friends to dig up two big beds, and dig in compost we trucked out from the city dump in ladner (buzzards circling above the rubbish). lots of worms!

now the beds have teeny tiny seedlings sprouting all over, from the seeds eleanor and i put in weeks ago. it's been lovely and warm, so we're tag teaming daily watering. expect more photos as things get bigger and greener.

the garden is one of my main pleasures at the moment. it's so simple and rewarding.

i also have the usual things in pots, including 18 tiny tomato plants on my desk and this bag of strawberries in the planter grot and ddd sent me for christmas:


they've got much bigger since i took this photo, as has the rhubarb:


also in the wholesome activity vein is the dog agility trails i've been attending with pantimalion, and her dog, lyra. here's lyra whizzing through one of the tunnels:


lyra has speed but no focus, but the two of them have a grand time running round the agility track. i enjoy watching them and meeting all the other lovely dogs that attend these things, including a huge beardie with a topknot.

lyra in slow-mo, being loved on by cassandra:


now i'm off to the island for the weekend. i'm going to take my bike and work on getting my calf muscles back.

and eat salad and go to bed early and knit socks for my grandmother and read _pilgrim's progress_ and wash behind my ears and

pamplemouse oui oui?

ah, montreal, land of bagels. i had a grad conference a month or so ago, and took a five hour flight out east.


it's a very european city, kind of like paris or amsterdam (being the last european cities i've visited), except chockers with canadians, which is kind of weird. most everybody speaks french, and usually english as well. i think i could live there, but i think i'd have to learn french first.



i stayed with some friends of friends, who turned out to be funky academic queers, so we drank a lot of wine, played with the dog and talked shop. they were great!


all the staircases are outside, all twisty and slippery and beautiful. you can still see snow on the ground, but it wasn't too too cold when i was there.


i spent two days wandering the city, drinking very good coffee and buying nice clothes, and two days at the conference, listening to lots of english nerds talk about dracula and 18th century novels and victorian prostitution laws and film adaptions and science fiction novels. i'd forgotten how historical english lit is, and also how much of it i'm familiar with. it was very relaxing to be in that environment.


bike lane separated from traffic! so simple! so safe! there was also very sweet public sculpture, which made me happy.