Tag: marriage

garden, life

July Garden Tour – on two feet ! 💃💃💃

Amanda, walkamyelinmyshoes

I can walk! After doing the June tour on crutches, I finally got an X-ray and found out that what I thought was a sprained ankle was actually a spiral fracture of my fibula. So, I’m madly rehabbing my ankle constantly and being very careful but I’m thrilled to be mobile again. I have even more appreciation and compassion for people with permanent mobility difficulties. I tried not to whine, really.

Can you say ‘atrophy’?

Vegetables and irrigation

Needless to say, the garden isn’t quite where I envisioned it would be pre-wipeout. Although I give my husband, who is more of a landscaper than a gardener, full credit for managing single-handedly as well as he did. Hand watering the vegetable containers alone could take an hour or more to do properly, so in the last few days I finally built a drip irrigation system. Hallelujah!

It’s not pretty (yet, but the tweaking is half the fun) but it only takes four minutes per zone to get everything watered through. It’s mind-boggling to me, I wouldn’t believe it if I wasn’t seeing it but the plants are showing the difference just from two days watering, and plants don’t lie. Why did I wait so long???

Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, beans, carrots, leeks, lettuce, dill, etc.
Peppers!
Cucumbers and tomatoes. I was amazed at how quickly these tomatoes ripened after I removed the leaves beneath them, and others, in order to direct all the ‘power’ to the fruit.
Onions were not bad, but I think I can do better next year. Leeks still to come though!

The Garlic Experiment

I grew garlic for the first time last year, not altogether successfully. I didn’t know that the ‘flowers’ that garlic throws up are called ‘scapes’, and beyond being my new favourite raw vegetable to snip over my salad, now I know that you need to clip them so the growing power goes into the bulb, not the flower. One of those duh-in-retrospect moments.

This year has been much more successful, due mostly to better planting, fertilizing and watering – and snipping the scapes. There is just no comparison with grocery store garlic when you slice into it. So satisfying!

But check this out, last fall I planted some of my garlic in the ground (left) and the rest of it in half gallon containers (right). I transplanted the container garlic into the ground in the early spring, and the difference was unreal. It was all absolutely huge, whereas the in-ground garlic developed into several smaller heads. I’ll also wait longer to harvest it next year because I just pulled out this monster (bottom right) the other day! I intend to use the bigger heads as my seed garlic in the fall.

And now for the flowers…

The sunflowers are lovely but I’m rethinking my decision to try to use them as trellises. While kind of amusing to go bushwhacking hunting for peas, beans and cucumbers, it’s not especially efficient – or user-friendly. So the vegetables will stay in the containers close to the house in future, and the back garden will be for perennials, annuals and herbs.

Sunflowers everywhere!
Dahlias on Ilam Road, named for our house in NZ where we first fell in love with them.
Gladiolus, here there and everywhere. They always make me think of my oldest BFF, who has given them to me on many special occasions.
Echinacea
Lilies
I would have enjoyed eating this artichoke, but the flower isn’t a bad consolation prize.
Wild kingdom – not ‘the spider on the fly’ but the ‘fruit fly on the crazy translucent spider on the honey bee on the cosmos’.
I grew these cosmos from seed. Check out the mutant on the left – it’s taller than me! Easy for a person, tougher for a flower!
The calla lilies have finally found a home.
This is an orange calla lily that hasn’t flowered yet but I love the sunshine and the petunias surrounding it.
View from the shady spot.

Alright, we’re off to our favourite spot on the west coast for my 50th 😱 birthday holiday. Be kind, stay calm and stay safe.

❤️ Amanda

garden, Health, life, mental health

Deer Decimation 😣

Amanda, walkamyelinmyshoes

Well, yesterday was DD day at our house. Apparently, the deer around here read WordPress, and my May Garden Tour post was an invitation. Whoops.

They ate the kale…

They nibbled the potatoes …

And snarfed ALL but two of the bush beans!

And that’s not all…

The hostas, alstroemeria, lilac, everlasting sweet pea, lupin, the biggest sunflower and the apple tree for dessert.

So when the deer come chomping, the gardener(‘s husband) builds a fence.

Fingers crossed…

But there’s always something positive happening in the garden. I’m thrilled that this method of interplanting worked. I planted radishes and carrots together so the fast-sprouting radishes shade the finicky slow-sprouting carrots until they germinate. Now I’ve pulled the radishes and the carrots are perfectly thinned and ready to keep growing.

Radishes, carrots
There’s always something positive in the garden.

❤️Amanda

Health, life, mental health

Love. Not Fear.

Amanda, walkamyelinmyshoes

View at Medium.com

It has been far too long since I’ve published anything but this article is important enough to share. If you allow your fear to spiral out of control, that lowers your immunity and makes you more susceptible to getting sick.

Stay informed, but focus on connection and gratitude. Turn off the screens and get outside. Wash your hands, and stay home unless it’s essential to go out. Stay safe and healthy out there!

❤️ Amanda

life

1986: I met my forever Valentine

Amanda, walkamyelinmyshoes

I was sitting in the back room at Marg’s tea house, a converted bungalow where we could hide out and smoke without worry of getting busted by prefects or teachers. Marg, the wizened old lady (she was probably my age now 🤣🤣🤣) would run to the back room and warn us so we could scurry into her basement until the coast was clear.

I was rewriting my French notes, my Walkman playing a Metallica tape, hating boarding school life, school on Saturdays and wearing a uniform. I always hid my short kilt under my giant blue flea market sweater, so only an inch peeked out the bottom. There had been an unusually heavy snow fall for Vancouver Island, so I also had my wooly blue tights on, which turned out to be a stroke of good luck.

I had just lit another Winston (🤢-how did I ever??) when someone walked in. I bit back a growl at having my solitude invaded, privacy was the commodity I missed most, until I saw who it was.

Then, my heart picked up speed at the same time my stomach did a weird somersault. I flashed him a quick smile and looked back down at my notes. What was he doing there? I’d never seen him there before, I’d only seen him a few times around campus. Always with a different girl.

I tried to ignore him but then my tape ended and the Walkman shut off with a loud click. As I fumbled to switch the tape to the other side, he came over to bum a smoke. Next thing I knew, he was sitting at my table and we were talking and joking around like we’d known each other forever.

It all ended with me ‘stealing’ his wallet, and him dumping me in a snow bank. And that was the beginning of everything…

Happy Valentines Day!!! ❤️❤️❤️

❤️ Amanda

Oh so young!
life

A Lesson in Grief

Amanda, walkamyelinmyshoes

Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.

A year ago this week, my mother lost her husband. They had been married less than five years but they made the absolute most of every minute they had together. Theirs was a great love story.

Joe was a special person. Sometimes people say that to be nice after someone dies, but he was truly an incredible human being. Some people exude a particular kind of warmth and caring, which makes us lesser humans crave being in their presence. That was Joe.

As shocking and tragic as his death was, only three weeks after his 80th birthday, where a huge community of family and friends came out to honour him, I learned an important lesson from my mother about love and grief. In the midst of her heartbreak at losing the love of her life, she already had it in perspective.

Rather than wallowing in her grief and their short time together, as I imagine I might, she focussed on the fact that they’d had any time at all. Five years of a great love provides countless wonderful memories, and is more than many are lucky enough to experience. It’s better to have loved and lost, right?

RIP Joe. I feel so fortunate to have known you. We all miss you so much. I love you Mom! Hug your loved ones and don’t wait to say the important things. Life is precious and fleeting.

Have a wonderful week!

❤️ Amanda