Gratitude #54

Oh yes, I love long weekends.

And I love Canada Day - and I look forward to the day when I can really celebrate this day - that will be the day we have booted Harper out of office.

Meanwhile, another great morning at the Cedar Farmer's Market: potatoes, cauliflower, kohlrabi, bread, eggs, peppers, tomatoes - wonderful!

And this afternoon I'll be picking lettuce, herbs and strawberries from the garden. I also need to catch up on the weeding - and right now it's a constant catch-up. It seems that for every weed I pull six more spring up. And they grow so darn fast. Can't we just hybridize the weeds to make them taste really good? Then we don't even have to bother planting the garden - just go out and pick from the year-round proliferation.

Gratitude #53

If every cloud has a silver lining, then this month we've all been awash in precious metals - if we've been looking hard enough. I wonder if we've topped the records yet for amount of rainfall and cool, cloudy days in June - or as the pundits are calling it Junuary?

No matter - the more clouds, the more silver - that's how I choose to see it. Yes, I adore warmth and sunshine, but this weather has its upsides. The lettuce, kale and chard are thriving. I don't have to water my little seedlings - they are growing beautifully. I'm picking lettuce by the bucketful every day.

And weather like this gives me much needed downtime. For most of my life I have been the first one to say, "I'm bored! There's nothing to do!"

In other words, I've been a human doing rather that a human being. And I think that's because I am in constant pursuit of feeding my achievement drive. You don't achieve much by just being. But I'm getting better at this (as long as you don't make me sit down and meditate). Today J called to suggest we cancel Mount Benson and do a shorter hike. Sure I said and suggested Extension Ridges. So we did that - three hours. Plenty of time to get back for lunch and a nice post-prandial nap and a complete lazy rest of the day.

I'm getting it that being lazy and doing nothing are okay. Nothing wrong with it. Good for the soul actually. The grey weather acts as a perfect excuse. Not for one minute do I feel guilty or like I "should" be out weeding the garden. Later today - a bubble bath - yet another silver lining.

Gratitude #52

So these are the new watercolours I had framed at Gallery 223 - they did a really superb job!

I hung them in the bedroom and they completely finish off the new decor! Perfect. Beauty is such a high value for me - and I get extreme satisfaction every time I walk into the room now and see how wonderful it looks. It's a serene and pretty space.

So I'm grateful that my home re-decorating project is complete. I even framed another watercolour for the main room and it too works beautifully. Here it is -

Completely different but it too gives me immense satisfaction.

In fact, let me just say that today was filled with satisfaction. It was the kind of day I like - a day when I madly and efficiently tick things off my to-do list and it's going so well that I get even more ambitious and drunk by the sheer accomplishment of it all that I move into the next day's list and start ticking that off too.

I love, love, love that feeling. It's called achievement on steroids. I know I am a high achiever - have been all my life. Knowing how to meet that need constructively is a true gift.

I feel so ambitious I'm even considering moving on to cleaning the house - but no - let's save that for tomorrow. It's enough that I went to the chicken farm and got Abby's dog food for the next month or more, got all my grocery shopping done, got my invoicing done, met deadline on my stories, booked my next three assignments, ordered my office supplies - and I'm sure there were a few other things that I can't even remember. What I do remember is taking out my daytimer - check, check, check....

Gratitude #51

Sometimes it's just enough to be busy.

The past two days have been hectic to say the least. It's one of those weeks with lots and lots of work. And then, there's nothing that beats the feeling of having it all done - to be followed on Friday by the excellent feeling of invoicing for the work done - to be subsequently followed by the even better feeling of receiving a cheque and depositing it to the bank account.

Yup - I am crass enough and material enough to enjoy all of these stages of work - in fact, I enjoy them so much that I can't see myself giving them up any time soon.

I sometimes wonder what the difference is between now and a year ago. I was working then and I'm working now but officially I retired last September. I suppose the real difference is that I can say no to work I don't want to do. There is tremendous freedom in that - or, I should say - autonomy. I thrive best when I am autonomous.

And so, life is good. I am spending more time in the garden where I am reaping heaps and heaps of lettuce and eating a bucket (literally) of it every other day - or even more often. I am also harvesting kale and chard and soon the peas will be ready. My strawberries are amazing. What a blessing to live where I do and to have this bounty right outside my front door.

I am so blessed.

Gratitude #50

Two things to be grateful for today: the farmers' market - and not just my own Cedar Farmers' Market but for all farmers' markets. You can't beat fresh, local produce, often organic - always tastier and healthier than stuff trucked in over thousands of miles. Going hand in hand with that is my enormous gratitude for having my own organic vegetable garden. There is a simple pleasure in spending a couple of hours hoeing weeds, thinning seedlings, picking lettuce, sowing more seeds. tidying up - and then standing back and admiring the results of all the hard work.

I imagine making a living as a small local farmer must be very hard work but intensely rewarding.

So the following is my ode to our local farmers (in photos).

Gratitude #49

I'm madly grateful that my home re-decorating project is completed - and not only because I love the new look. I am also madly excited that I got a chance to clean every nook and crevice that I never get around to - mainly because I can't reach them.

So I got all the dust bunnies (more like jack rabbits actually) out from behind the bed and the fridge (and retrieved many of Abby's long lost toys) and I vacuumed everywhere - even those wee cracks between the floor and the baseboards.

So - here's my happy picture gallery:

Gratitude #48

I love my new bedroom - I love everything about it! I love the white on white on white with a touch of green in the duvet cover. I love the white lace curtain and the freshness of new paint and new Egyptian cotton sheets. I love that I had the chance to vacuum where I never can reach - behind the bed and along the baseboards etc. etc. - Sucked up all that dog hair and other dust jackrabbits (bigger than bunnies by far).

I even love the hectic and chaotic day I had - and the fun I created around the fact that I was "homeless." Visited with friends, did my shopping, hiked with Abby and had a fabulous lunch at Powerhouse Foods - such good food!

One more "Homeless" day tomorrow and then my home will look lovely and everything will simmer back down to normal.

Oh yes - I'm also grateful for shorts weather today. Do I love shorts weather? Do Great White Sharks like flimsy fishing boats off Cape Cod?