I am so excited I can barely type.  I know you’re going to be thrilled too, so hold onto your socks.  This morning when I went out to feed the chickens I discovered (drum roll please) my first egg!    As I held the shelled prize in my palm the past six months tripped through [...]

Rusty the Rooster is a coward.  He’s chicken even for a chicken. Convinced the world is out to get him his life has become a self fulfilling prophecy.  The other chickens plop down off the roosts in the morning and stroll outside to see what pleasures await, but not Rusty.  Rusty explodes off the roost [...]

I’m a list maker.  I love to make lists for the sheer pleasure of crossing things off when I finish them.  If I do some extra stuff I have even been known to add it to the list after I’ve finished, just so I can cross it off.  Now that fall is upon us I [...]

When you’re young and in love you never think about the little things.  It’s all starry skies and carriage rides in the park.  You dream a life of holding hands, staring deep into each other’s eyes and pretty much laughing yourself silly as you stroll along the confetti strewn path of life.  You never think [...]

  One minute I was filling the wheelbarrow with spoiled hay to spread on the garden and the next I had plunged the pitchfork right into my leg.   You might wonder how that could happen.  I was pretty curious too.  What kind of disconnect could possibly have occurred between my brain and my body to [...]

Well here comes September swishing her colourful skirts around her tanned ankles as she dances around the bend.  I’ve been expecting her.  Not in an “I can’t wait to see you” kind of way but more in a Visa statement arriving in the mail kind of way.    It’s not her fault.  I blame all the [...]

  I have bee hives in the corner of my garden.  I would love to call myself a beekeeper but I am reserving that distinction until I get through my first year and have actually managed to keep my bees.  That’s what I think makes you a beekeeper.  Otherwise you’re just a bee-loser.  Or a bee-used-to-haver.  [...]

Picking beans is a tedious task during which the mind tends to wander to all manner of subjects.  A couple buckets down the row I started thinking about beanstalks.  Surprising I know, but true nonetheless.  Then I started thinking about Jack and the Beanstalk.  If you are familiar with the fairy tale you might recall [...]

I will never be a flight attendant.  The realization smacked me right in my midlife while waiting to pick up a loved one at an airport recently.  And oh how I had once wanted to be a flight attendant!  It was the second occupation to capture my young imagination, the first being a server at [...]

In the last two weeks I have gone on three garden tours.  What a lot of green thumbs there are! The gardens were amazing.  It makes me look at my own catastrophe I call a garden and want to weep. While it’s true that when we first moved here there was no yard at all, [...]

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who took the time to reply with advice on how to master the exasperating task of extracting a loose piece of egg shell from the batter! In the spirit of paying it forward, here are some of the tips I received in no certain order. Tip One: Wash your [...]

 Want to know if you have the necessary genes to live to be 100? Apparently scientists have come up with a test to do just that. There was a time I would have been compelled to find out, but I don’t want to know stuff like that anymore. I even used to wish life came [...]

I was having coffee with a couple friends when our conversation suddenly went blonde.  I can say that because I am blonde.  “Have you noticed all those Muster Area signs outside stores and such?” Deena asked.  “What is a Muster Area anyway?” “It must be a condiment thing.” Moira said.  “Maybe it’s where they have [...]

I always know summer is in full swing when restaurants and coffee shops start putting up their signs that read “No Shoes No Shirts No Service”. You don’t see the signs around the rest of the year. I guess it just seems too cruel or something. Living as far north as we do, anyone wearing [...]

I have a trick ankle. An odd expression when you stop to think about it. It makes it sound like I have an ankle with the surprising talent of pulling rabbits from a top hat or something. The rest of me might be challenged to blow up a balloon, but you should come and see [...]

People are always asking which came first the chicken or the egg. I just want to know how to crack an egg without getting pieces of the shell in the bowl. And when I do get pieces of shell in the bowl, how do I get them back out? Chasing that piece of shell around [...]

After meeting Patrick and Sheila – a couple who shared an enthusiastic passion for gardening – I could see straight away that Darcy and I were missing out on something wonderful. “The couple that grows together stays together,” I told Darcy as I herded him past the tools and automotive parts and into the seasonal [...]

Whenever people are asked to introduce someone who is well known they always say the same thing.  “Ladies and gentlemen, here’s a person who needs no introduction” and then they go on to introduce the person anyway.  I would love to be at an event where the MC stands before the microphone, smoothly delivers the [...]

Up in our neck of the woods the May long weekend has traditionally been set aside by gardeners for planting, while non gardeners choose to hook up their boats and RV’s and set off on their inaugural camp of the year.  Pity the fools.  As you may have gleaned, I am a gardener.  And I [...]

A garden has a curious innocent way of consuming cash while all the time you are under the illusion that you are spending nothing. ~ Esther Meynell   I have a friend who suggested it might be good idea for me to keep track of how much I spend on the simple self sufficient life [...]