May 2016 - Garden Update

Here it is May 2016 time flies and bees buzz.  Well, I have just had a week off work and have blitzed my little patch of tranquility as best I could.  After Evannia did all of the hard-scaping for me last year I have been having a whale of a time planting it up like crazy...Who knew a tiny spot like this could hold so many  plants.

I really love it and had a lovely cool, mild week to do my planting.  Other than that I have been doing my usual painting...when I get a bit of time it is really a godsend, I am duly blessed.

THE PATCH

The Patch as I refer to it, is my tiny garden.  Tiny as it is, it is quite enough for me! 

This is the first year since my Mom's passing that I have gone into my garden...sounds crazy right?  Well, you see, thing is, my Mother was the "gardener" of the family.  Once the spring planting was complete, it was necessary to show Mom.  She would gratuitously OOOh and ahhhh and then let me know what I had done wrong, specifically.  Once she passed away it was pretty bleak outside (inside too) 

"Time heals all wounds." Mom would say after something catastrophic happened.  As usual that proved true. Time, however, really dragged on and it took me three years to "get over it".  Get over the emotion and depression...I will forever miss my Mom.  Of course.
I think she would have been proud of me now...I am almost back to my healthy self! o.k. to the garden.

I actually purchased a few plants, a new umbrella and little outdoor rug...then a wonderful thing happened, I met a landscaper!  She was the girlfriend of a work mate, came out to the townhouse, took photos, asked me what I envisioned and voila!  I have another patio.

That is almost complete now and we are on to the next phase...on the other side a dry creek bed and natural plantings.

Before she began, I plotted out the shape and position of the patio for her.

The result is so cute!

The other side of the garden...

The result is that I have an additional 2 rooms to "live in" outdoors in the summer...I can relax or draw, paint or chat with a friend...it's pretty wonderful...I am full of gratitude. 
Amongst the potted flowers, I planted lettuce and herbs, multiplier onions...so nice!

I'm back.

o.k., so - I know it has been around 3-4 years since I made a post to this blog, but now I am determined to get busy! 
I have been sorely troubled by personal "stuff" however, that's just life.
Recently, June 2015 I began painting pictures again.  So I have a new blog with Wordpress.

www.brendakaneblog.wordpress.com

This blog however is about all the "other stuff" that occurs to me outside the painting zone...edited down into bite sized pieces! (I hate ramblings...hope I am not doing that now!)
 I am going to yammer on about my little garden, about thoughts and I will include some of my work that is computer based.
Hope folks pop by every once in a while to check it out, slam, enjoy, make comments, or just shake their heads in bemusement.

The World is a Giant Theme Park

A couple of years ago, probably 3 or 4 now, I decided it was time for a break from my everyday routine.  Accompanied by a friend from work, off we set for Drumheller...a place I love to go.
I had not been on the highway from Vancouver to Alberta in a number of years.
What I saw, shocked me. (I am naïve)
As the wheels of the car spun over the pavement, a feeling of unease crept over me.  This continued to grow as we travelled along.
The highway, once a place where one felt the raw natural majesty on either side, albeit fenced, was now dotted with little bridges and underpasses "for wildlife safety" and I realized again, what extent mankind has taken to control - everything. It sickened me.  I am ashamed of my part.
Where once man lived in harmony with nature, we now seek to control it, every blade of grass, every drop of rain.  What a poor, poor job we are doing.  We have succeeded in poisoning almost every form of life on the planet and destroying the very form of the lovely earth we were placed upon.  I struggled there...with the word "given" and chose placed upon as humans were not "given" the earth, we merely thrived here.

Life as a specimen

Life as a specimen.

For a long while now ,  I've felt  as though my life is a specimen.  Not one lived from ones own perspective, rather one lived for the sole purpose of research.  Not my own of course  and that is what is so maddening.  Who would possibly see my life as  a research worthy endeavour?  Yes, there have been one or two peculiar /painful/embarrassing/obnoxious/overwhelming and distasteful moments.  But there have been many more mundane days of which it seems merely the waiting out was the most exciting part of that day!  Some of these of course were very pleasing days...days of idyll ...I recall living far from the city and laying in the shade on the porch, closing my eyes, listening to the stillness, the only break to which being the droning of an "heavier than air" bumble bee, or the mewing of a gull.  However, I digress...yes, a feeling that I am living my life for another's amusement.  Being pull/pushed along and making decisions that didn't seem like mine in the end at all. 

What I did recognize as my very own, was a feeling of dread, deep sadness, disappointment in my fellow man...(when I say "my fellow man" it just seems so false)  

I don't feel a part of mankind at all.  Some would say I have  a feeling of disenchantment, disengagement, of not belonging.  Not so,  I say.  It is a feeling that I belong, but the rest of you are trespassing in my world.  To add to that - you are making a right bloody mess of it! More to follow I think...perhaps.

COOKIE HEAD

My sister Wendy and I are making some cookies for Christmas this year...here are a few of mine that I have made so far.

• 
  
  Pfefferneusse


• 
  
  Orange Almond Shortbread


• 
  
  Christmas Cookies


• 
  
  (Ice Box Cookies)


• 
  
  Finnish Nut Logs

It was fun and seems like it's the beginning of a new hobby...or something!

It had to happen...

Yes, it did have to happen...personal cleansing of my innards.

So after a strange journey, Lithotripsy, and having a stone blasted, the ensuing collection of specimens...very weird, I felt the time had come to take action. Always interested in nutrition but of late very half hearted application. I knew the value of fasting, the value of reducing red meat, sodium, fats, sugars, processed foods, etc., but until I was diagnosed with Kidney stones it didn't seem to hit home. So, no time like the present for a good old fashioned Kidney flush. The more I read, the more amazed I am that it took me so long to get straight! Yuck, what I've been eating...how could I.

So, I'm now on the third day of cleansing and am rapidly detoxifying...the only side effects so far is a mild, underlying headache...have to increase my plain water intake I'm told, so will do.

I thought it would be crazy, no food, but guess what? No hunger pangs at all...mind you I am keeping to a pretty strict regimine and schedule, so sure that helps!

The photos are of the ingredients and how I do it is prepare the days glog in the morning, one container for am and one container for pm, keeping the one for pm in the fridge until I am ready to use it. So lets see how it goes, I'm feeling pretty good so far!