growing

and here are a few from my garden.
i did a photo shoot with my friend derek with my garden, but still don't have the photos. *cough, cough*
so here are some gold nuggets to tide you over in the meantime.

wee baby collards:

nasturtiums which are growing like mad:

and my 5 buck glow-in-the-dark buddha who oversees everything from the corner pocket behind the shelling peas. he makes my day everytime.

fsj photo-taking

still gerunds.... i have been trying to post these photos for a week now, to no avail. maybe because it's friday, the blogging gods will let me do what i want and let me post the damn things...

SUCCESS!!!

so here's the peace river from a lookout point. it's purdy and contends with the kootenay for open valley beauty in the purdiest river contest.


people routinely drive their cars off the lookout for fun. some cars make it further than others, and some cars have been rotting long than others.


we crossed the peace and this is it from the other side.


then i had to take a picture of the flowers since they were pretty too. i actually bought a wildflower book since i am seeing such amazing flowers (oh, don't worry - you'll see them too) but am still stumped as to what this one is other than beautiful. i was kind of hoping it was an albertan wild rose since i did a project on alberta in gr. 4 and the allure of the blue skies, fields and provincial flower hasn't exactly worn off yet, but we'll see.


see - it's not a dustbowl!

travelling

i recently went to fort st. john which was great. my work went well, i met some great people, and it totally defied any expectations i had of the place and people there.

a) i thought it would be a dust bowl. it's very green.

b) i thought i would be a redneck's paradise. it's not a redneck paradise. it's a boomtown. there's a difference. it might have all of the accoutrements of a redneck paradise, but the median age is 28, the culture is completely transitioning from the influx of younger folks and money, the infrastructure is new and alluring, and the town (sorry -city) is buzzing with energy. it also has a diversified economy based on forestry, oil and gas and farming.

c) i thought that it would be cold. it was hot. much hotter than vancouver and the sun set at 11 PM and rose at 4:30 AM.

most of these expectations might not have been countered if the local rec programmer hadn't taken me on a tour after the roundtable. we got into his truck and drove to a lookout on one side of the peace, crossed the peace and looked back and then hit the hot spots. it was lovely.

i also realized looking at the peace, that i've seen some pretty rivers this year. here's the list:
* skeena
* bulkley
* nechako
* thompson
* fraser
* kootenay
* peace
and i'm off to the columbia river tomorrow.

wrestling

today is the day of the gerund. see other blog posts for an -ing kind of day.

so i haven't posted in so long since i'm wrestling, scrabbling with, tossing around a number of larger issues in my head that needed to simmer in my brain before being blurted out in the blogosphere. and most of me was pretty sure that they didn't even belong here, but now, after much fermenting in the old cranium, here they are.

the past couple of months have been consumed with a whole lot of homesickness in its various forms, all which raised the following questions:
* If everyone is getting older, and i want to be around them when they are around, how can i live on the west coast and make it work?
* If Air Canada and every other airline on the planet is charging fuel surcharges on the only mode of transportation that allows me to see my family, can i really afford to live here?
* And if my friends and family are spread out over the globe, where is home?
* And who is trusted and safe and feels most like home, if my energy is not infinite and i have to be discerning with my time?

and smaller issues like:
* I love my job, but what's the next step?
* How can i live my dream of having a hobby farm, doing and teaching yoga and meditation, writing the great Canadian novel and snowboarding?

i gotta tell you, i'm stumped. but maybe simply by asking the questions, i'll get some answers.
i have a funny feeling that i'm either becoming a grown-up or am one already. probably the latter.