Greetings from gorgeous Galiano! In my last blog, I mentioned the concept of an “alternate lifestyle” that I am trying to implement this summer, including growing and making more of our food and spending more time in and on the water. Well, I’ve run into a few challenges.
First, the garden. Overall, our garden grows!
However, it turns out that other living things also love our garden. John had to pull out an entire kale plant that was covered in aphids. Then many of our leafy greens started to have large munches removed from the outsides of the leaves. We had no idea what predators we were dealing with so I emailed a gardening expert from whom I took a webinar on vegetable gardening. I sent her photos of my poor plants and she responded that I, and many other gardeners this year, are having their gardens attacked by finches, Purple Finches to be exact. So now we have to think about covering our lovely raised beds. Sigh. The battle is on!
Onto bread baking. While my friend Barbara was visiting, we baked a loaf from the Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book.
It was a fun experience as we took turns kneading and the bread turned out well with a nice even crumb. However, after eating one piece John informed me that he much prefers chewy sourdough bread to the kind of whole wheat bread that my mother made. He has continued to buy lots of sourdough so we are awash in bread. Thus, my motivation has dried up since I can’t eat that much bread by myself. He is planning to purchase a standalone freezer for the garage so we’ll have more food storage space but I see no point in baking fresh bread to then freeze it.
I’ve patiently explained to him that if he’s not willing to eat what I cook or bake (as I enthusiastically eat everything he cooks and then compliment the food, express my sincere appreciation, and consume all leftovers) then I will not cook or bake and he will have to do all of the cooking. This information has not altered his behavior. Thus, he continues to do all of the cooking.
Onto ocean swimming. It turns out that it’s not that easy to swim in a wetsuit when I’m not in great swim shape. I need to learn to pace myself better as I get winded. Also, its just hard to get excited about getting into very cold water on a cool-ish day. I’m going to keep trying. I know it will be great for me if I can just get to the point of being able to swim for 30 minutes without coming back to shore. I’ll report back again in another month. I’m feeling like a bit of a loser on this one but am motivated to make it work. This goal will only be achieved with more time in the water. As I said last blog, I’m working on my persistence. I have, however, been playing more golf than in previous summers so though that wasn’t one of my goals, it is another new sport I’m attempting.
So the count for those first three goals is, I’d say, somewhere between 0 for 3 and 0.5 for 3 since the garden did look good before it was attacked. But, who’s counting?
On a more positive note, John and I have completed two additional carpentry projects following the raised beds. The first was a potting bench on the outside of our garage. In these projects, I am generally the designer and planner and John wields the power tools, particularly his new miter saw. I also enjoy carpentry but am less keen on the big saws and prefer using hand tools such as the electric drill. On all our outdoor carpentry projects, we are buying locally milled cedar from Galiano trees. The mill is run by a fellow who came to Canada to avoid being drafted during Vietnam, one of many war resisters in these islands.
After completing the potting bench, the next project was a work bench inside the garage. This project resulted in our first AI induced fight. I had already created a plan for the work bench including a list of materials that we needed to buy. John then decided to ask Claude for a design and enthusiastically showed me the three page printout of the totally overbuilt structure that Claude recommended. I, feeling that my design and engineering skills were being questioned, suggested that John use that design instead and take the lead on the project and I would be the sous chef. And on and on. In the end, we modified my design slightly (and unnecessarily) and the workbench was built. April: 1, Claude 0.5! But, who’s counting?
The irony is that the potting bench and the work bench were the projects. Now that they are done, it’s not clear what projects we have for which we need either a potting bench or a work bench. It is helpful to have places to put various things but I guess we’ll need to come up with more projects in order to use the result of our last projects; birdhouses? wooden children’s toys? Send in your ideas.
Another fun thing is that we are starting to buy Galiano art. There are many artists on the island and some paint the surrounding beauty. Our idea is to find paintings that evoke what we love about the island, the beautiful forests along with the rocky shoreline and stunning Salish Sea. Our hallway will become our Galiano gallery. We have purchased two so far, shown below, both forest paintings but we will keep our eye out for some of the coastline. Maybe those are the ones that sell first.
By the way, the term “Salish Sea,” which refers to the interconnected marine waters of Puget Sound, the Strait of Georgia, and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, was coined by a marine biologist in the 1988 but only caught on and was made official around 2010. Before that, each body of water was referred to separately. I love the alliterative moniker as it refers to the indigenous people who live here and uses the term “sea” which is so much more lyrical than ocean.
The island has been beautiful this summer. We’ve had more rain than I remember in past summers, though it usually only lasts a day or two and is often more of a sprinkle. This has resulted in some gorgeous, moody vistas in addition to the many bright sunny ones.
I’m off tomorrow for 10 days to visit Kelsey, Garet, and grandbaby Winter in Portland. I’m traveling via the Clipper ferry to Seattle and then Flix Bus to Portland and then taking Amtrak on the way back. Ground transport! Wish me luck…
p.s. WARNING: POLITICAL CONTENT
A short commentary on why it’s so upsetting to read news from Canada this summer. I was listening to an Ezra Klein podcast recently with Kevin Rudd discussing Xi Jinping. Rudd points out that Xi believes, based on his reading of China’s history, that China will prevail as long as it stays united and the rest of the world does not. Our president is doing his best to tear apart the rest of the world, including the century old friendship between the US and Canada, our closest ally for a century. He is stirring up anti-Canadian sentiment, often successfully, and preferring Putin and Russia to Canada. When the US has had terrible wildfires, the Canadians have sent help, including water bombers (John’s brother is flying one this summer). When Canada has fires, our president hurls accusations and threats. In addition to betraying the people of this lovely country, it plays right into the hands of the Chinese.
The continual attacks on Canada coming from the US administration leave Canadians feeling betrayed and hurt and have led to a total loss of regard for the US. Canada is now charting its own course signing trade deals with countries around the world. It has accepted that the US is no longer its friend and is moving on. It’s hard not to feel ashamed and I do.
I still don’t understand how your idea of a good summer is to keep setting goals for yourself. If I were in your shoes, I’d just be sitting out on the porch saying “This sure is pretty!”
I do quite a bit of that as well.
Your stories of island life evoke feelings of what I imagine to be the perfect Summer. When I was a kid I went to Lake Tahoe every Summer and had the time of my life…now I read your blog and feel happy. Lakes, Islands, Summer and Sea are good for the soul. Keep writing and sharing-
Thank you.