Spring Gardening I

This week we've got spring and it was so good to get up to a snow-free Kaslo Community Garden yesterday.     I planted 5 rows of  onion sets and starts. If these are successful I plan to "give a row" to our local food hub.   I hope that the water gets turned on there soon because I may need to water if the weather continues.  

On the Pine Ridge estate just south of Kaslo it looks as if the garlic are recovering from the mule deer who keeps leaping the fence.  Dave raised the wire by placing blocks of wood under it and that seems to be doing the trick.  There's a few blooms here and there but many spring bulbs have been victims of hungry deer.  We had a lot of snow this winter and it's been slow to melt so the deer are really keeping an eye out.  I've placed netting over most of the raised beds.  The lettuce, spinach, green onions, kale and peas are planted.  Now we wait!

Back to the Piano

I don't think that I've played the piano in nearly two years.  Someone asked me if I wanted to sell it a few months ago and I declined so I guess I had planned to get back at it "sometime in the future."  This has been the perfect opportunity!  I notice how crippled my fingers have become over the years and being able to move the fingers quickly enough is not a task I will be able to accomplish in my lifetime.  I try to spend about 15 minutes per day at the piano.  I play some finger exercise for a few minutes, then some short skill pieces from the Hanon book.  Some of you will be familiar with it. I try to do a scale each day and remember how to do it with the chords, etc.  I'm really going back to basics and I am trying to play pieces from Volume 2 of the Suzuki Piano School.  I like those pieces and it's about what I am capable of playing at the present time. 

Schooling!

Our local CBC station had someone on radio today talking about by next week they really hope to have something out to the students.  I can't believe how slack the province has been about the school program.  It was announced on March 17th that the schools would not be returning "indefinitely" and the teachers began a two week break on March 13th.  I realize that this was "vacation time" for the teachers and I'm sure that many of them had to cancel travels.  I did.  On March 30th I would have expected that something would be ready to send to the students over email.  I know that all of the parents have the ability to communicate with the teachers via email and vice versa.   It is now April 2nd and we are still waiting for something to be sent to them. 

I've been pretty impressed with how technology can meet so many needs during this pandemic and schooling is an obvious possibility.  I gotta stop writing:  I have an online visit with my optometrist, followed by online schooling with my grandsons, then I register for online bridge and two hours later I get to play a bridge game and enjoy every minute of it with very few distractions!

Deer Dung!

We can occasionally get manure from friends who have horses in exchange for "computer consultations".  It's a valuable resource!  Now that we can't be welcome at their estate I resorted to collecting deer dung in the forest north of us.  We've had dozens of deer and elk wandering through our neighbourhood throughout the winter so now we can take advantage of their leavings.  It will be interesting to see how this manure will compare to that of the horse!  Happy planting, everyone!

Distance Education

The BC kids are back "in school" today so Dave and I are started our distance education program with the grandsons in Rossland from our home in Kaslo.   He's doing a unit on bird watching and what to look for in the natural world (and they LOVE the natural world) and I did a lesson on time (digital only at this point) for their Math class.  It's been a while since we've done any formal teaching and it was great fun.  I didn't have to deal with discipline problems, although both of them were "late" for class today.  Technology or parents???  Hmmm.   We plan to continue with a "program" for as long as needed and I can only hope that they concentrate as well when things begin to get "boring".  Novelty is all!  I'm getting my "plans" from the JUMP Math series out of ON.  We already have one student who has math anxiety - my goal is to get him over that. 

The NJ girls are getting a regular program at home via their own emails at the school.  They have work to do every school day.  And they have two teachers, who are also working remotely, to supervise them at home.    I know they are in good hands.  I'm excited to be able to share poetry with Callie on a daily basis now.

A Time to Garden

Yes, gardening season is nearly upon us.

 When I took this amaryllis out of the cold  room  a few weeks ago, my plan was to have it bloom before we left for our 3 day hike in the bottom of the Grand Canyon.  Well, it turned out that we didn't get to go to the Canyon and now I'm enjoying its beauty.   I laughed to see that the last time I posted it was in 2019 when I promised that I would "renew" the blog.  I haven't done it yet and there's no time like today!  The snow is slowly disappearing, a wee bit of the garden are planted, and I'm playing bridge online.  Tomorrow "school" will begin with the grandsons for about an hour over the internet.  We'll see how that all shakes down!

It's Been Awhile

I've pretty much quit going on FB so I figure if people want to figure out what is going on with me I will give them the link to my blog posts.  It's time to revive it - it's been 5 years.  I don't really know why I quit blogging because I do like to spend a few minutes writing every day and it's time to get back into that practice.  And I have lots of opinions on things.  I remember that it seemed important to have some photos in each post.  Don't know how I'm going to accomplish that since most of my photos are now in my phone.  One bit of inspiration for renewing the blog is that Scott wrote a really good one recording his family's trip to France this July.  It was entertaining and had great photos.  Guess it's time for me to go on a learning curve!