winter's last kiss...

this happens every year it seems, we have a few weeks of almost summer weather and then we experience a mid-May cold snap.. this one came as such a shock as the temperatures went from mid twenties right back down to freezing in about a day. i woke up frozen as i realized the furnace never kicked on..

it's the perfect weather to bundle up in a couple of nice thick sweaters. can still get away with no jacket if i'm smart about it, truth be told... i love sweater weather. so i'm kinda glad winter came back around with it's final kiss, i was starting to feel the heat.

the sky is crisp on the walk to work.. painted with clouds of bright white and deep chilling grey. the view is stunning as i make my way over the bridge, i stop to take it in. the smell of wood burning stoves fills my nose... nostalgia. i am thankful for the peaceful walk.. to reflect, and project future dreams into reality.

welcome back winter if only for a minute.. you prepare my heart for a spring of hard work and gardening.

cold sunday.

brrr. mid May cold snap... i'm pretty sure i went to the laundromat just as much to warm up as i did to do the laundry. it was also a good day to drag a couple carts full of soil and manure from the market across the street. the wind and hail discouraged me from digging though, so i retreated to our subterrarium homestead. by the way, i thought i made that word up, turns out it's the name of a place in germany which happens to be some sort of underground [literally?!] art studio/club. neato! ...yoink...

anyhoo.. i promised myself i'd write more, and make some use of this blogger thing, so here goes.. imma use it to keep track of all these crazy ideas i get about what i'm going to do with my home or my yard, or my food or my life or whatever.. so i don't forget to use them! facebook is great and all, but not as much geared towards free form writing. awesome for pictures, but i like to share a few here with the story too.

so we just moved to our new basement apartment, and we have access to a pretty big back yard. to make times a little more interesting, Matt lost his job, so he's been relying on random temp labour jobs and handing out resumes, and the penny jar is pretty low. we can afford to get by if we are very frugal, so we're getting some practice at being super resourceful. being broke also makes us more conscious of our possessions and re-purposing things instead of buying new.

a lot of what we have for kitchen wares was given to us from our previous roommates who wanted to thin their collection, and from Matt's mom.. so we have a crazy odd-ball collection of dishes, but it's all we need. two other friends gave me two awesome sets of storage jars and canisters, and we found a bunch of stuff in storage that hadn't seen the light of day in years that we finally got to unpack. between the two of us we could probably start a library, our collections rival one another. amongst some of our other collectibles, cards and figurines that had been stashed away from our kidhoods.

i didn't quite get to paint right away as i had hoped, we don't have the money right away to get it done. it's kinda cool though because we have more time to think about how we want to finish our space to make it 'us'. plus if imma be a domesticated animal, i gotta do it up right. i'll start in the bathroom.. it's a small space and we can paint and decorate for next to nothing. since we're in a basement apartment with strange lines, textures and spaces, i was thinking we could keep it funky, maybe a little on the colourful side to brighten it up and make it fresh. it's pretty dingy and neglected so whatever we change will be for the better. so anyway the bathroom.. i was thinking to make it look kinda like a bamboo outhouse all rugged and stuff, like the one in Jurassic park! haha..

the center wall in our apartment is exposed painted concrete block. one side is our living room wall, the other side is the hallway to the bathroom. i'm trying to come up with some ideas of how i can use the texture creatively. so far i was thinking since i'm starting with the bathroom, i could continue out into that hallway, and paint the blocks to look like big old mossy bricks. i know this sounds ridiculous, but i'm pretty ridiculous. him too. so it works!

well that's all i got for now. i already threw down a couple more posts on my other blogs, one about the garden, and one aboout the challenge.. most particularily about the experience i had finally cutting off my dreadlocks. what a change.. i feel.. different. change is good.

five years.

five years ago todayish.. i stepped off a bus out in the canadian prairies and stuck out my thumb. i didn't have a plan, any idea where i'd end up, or any home to go back to. just a tent, a rucksack and a little company. i walked away from a full time job, a nicely furnished apartment.. a sane, regular life that i had become bored of. i felt useless, stuck.. like i could do better for myself. so i cashed out my stocks, sold all my stuff and took off to find where i belong.

and i took my time doing it. time was all i had really, and enough loot to float by for a while. i didn't bother with a phone. back then there wasn't plans like there are today, and a calling card was enough for when i came across a telephone. random use of computers at libraries and internet cafes was my connection to the world. each day was slow and steady. every moment counted, everything was so brand new. i was wide open for whatever the wide open country would bring to me.

eventually, it brought me right back to where i started, but in a different place in my mind. though i had an amazing time wandering and camping and working crazy cool temp jobs on either coast of the country, i had a greater appreciation for all that i had at home. 

it's usually about this time each year that i get restless, yearn for the roadlife once again. this year i got to move to a new place right at the beginning of may, with a friend.. we start a new journey together now, finding our way and the balance between adventure and stability. it's usually a lot harder to resist that urge to just ditch out with a rucksack. this time i'm so excited for every new day and all of the work [and play] lined up for the season that escaping is far out of the question. and it feels good.

project newhouse.. time to thrive!

so we moved quite suddenly. we weren't expecting to get in until the end of May but thankfully, here we are. i will now have a week off at the end of the month to start some home renovations and get the back yard ready to garden. our apartment is the basement of a house. it needs a little fixing but it's a great space, big windows all along the west side. the fact that it was left in need of a facelift gives us an opportunity to get creative.

the back yard is a story of it's own, it's quite big for inner city. there's a large black walnut tree and a maple, and yet still a fair bit of space that gets sun for most of the day. the previous tenants built us a housewarming gift, a cool bench seat for beside the firepit. and a garden box along the back fence, which we haven't decided what to plant in.

the past week has been a blur, moving, cleaning, unpacking and rediscovering things that have long been stored away.. and enjoying our very own space. Matt and i have been couch hopping and roomsharing for a little under a year, and it's awesome to finally have a whole apartment to ourselves. so peaceful! as much as we loved the people that housed us, we are enjoying what we have now. something to make our own.

now that i'm all domesticated, may as well play the part. i think i'm gonna start in the bathroom.. go with a little rustic and nature theme. the kitchen i am undecided on how to finish, and the livingroom is looking like it will be kind of oriental style by default.. we like to be close to the ground, and as we only had a room in the last place we are lacking in livingroom furniture. so for now, it's floor pillows and a couple small ground level tables. the bedroom will likely be red and black, and then the storage/play room... well, that's going to be fun! and this is what happens when streetkids become unhomeless. ha..

i should probably get some sleep, five a.m. comes early. we've been so busy getting our place together [and pausing to whoop each other at nintendo64 games] that we forgot about the internet, and writing and stuff. at least i'm managing to keep on top of my thrive challenge, even if i haven't found a moment to write about it in a while. anyways.... bed!

i can do this..

i can make it a habit to write. i'm just taking a break from cleaning and packing.. and enjoying the spring breeze and sunrays coming through the window. still don't know when exactly i'm moving, but i hope it's before i leave for Arkansas so i can get the garden started at least. we went out for a stroll in the downtown core last night to check out the scenes and peek around at the In the Soil art festival to take our minds off the stresses of everything happening at once.

what else.. oh yeah, i turned 28 a few days ago.. i'd have to say it was a pretty good birthday. i feel like i accomplished a lot since the last one, like i've changed as a person for the better. learned some lessons that will keep with me for a long time to come, and i am grateful.

i have learned a thing or two about self confidence, and gained the motivation i needed to take better care of myself. since january i have been focusing on my overall health and expanding on skills and knowledge. not to mention networking, i went from having no place to garden this year to having so many places to choose from i could visit a different one each day of the week.

also, i've managed to settle down into a pretty cushy position in my job, i love the schedule.. it's the shift i have been waiting years for, ever since i started working full time.finally i'll be able to enjoy my evenings and weekends and work out a routine like a 'normal' person, and plan ahead for mini adventures.

..and now that we're finally getting some sun, i'm taking breaks from packing and cleaning to soak it up. i'll be hitting up my papa's house tomorrow for further birthday celebrations, and the weather is supposed to be amazing. and i get to introduce matt to my parents.. even though we've been living together forever we finally started dating. it's hard these days to find someone you can trust, his presence in my life has been a blessing..

2013 is going to be a good year. it already is.. so much freshness. well i've got so much to do, and more sun to soak up.. so imma head outta the interwebs. i'm attempting to use thins thing as a way to keep track of myself and what i've been up to and how i grow, so here's hoping i can keep up with the habit. cheers..!

...really?

wow.. it's been a month since i've hit this blog... well, i've been busy i suppose! getting ready to fly out to Arkansas [i won!], definitely more decisive [i'm moving!], and excited to plant some gardens!! not only do i have a bunch of different plots to help out with, i get to have my own.. the new place has a big ol' back yard, and i can do what i want to it. overjoyed..

what have i been up to? dang.. everything. i'm still on my get healthy venture, i managed to quit smoking, it's been 25 days! unbelievably, i don't want a cigarette. i'm on a mission, this is my year to get fit and kick ass, and i'm bloggin' it out right here:
http://sagethrivechallenge.blogspot.ca/

hmm.. then there's the gardening.. always about the gardening. at the beginning of the year i was under the impression that i wouldn't have my own garden space, but many people had offered up their yards. now we discover that we're moving to a place with a yard and i can garden all i want... and i still get to help others too! it's gonna be a busy year.. and i'm blogging that stuff here:
http://southernontariourbanpermaculture.blogspot.ca/

what else? oh yeah, i came up with a new style of 'gardening'... similar to guerrilla gardening but not quite the same.. more like hiding food plants right out in the open. i blended my two favourite hobbies, gardening and geocaching.. and came up with gardenCaching! and i'm excited to get on it.. and yup, you guessed it, it has it's own blog too:
 http://gardencaching.blogspot.ca/

well that's all i got for now.. i gotta get packing! only two more weekends before we move, and i've only just begun to go through my stuff. it's the perfect rainy weekend to do so, probably a blessing in disguise that the weather has been so cold. i'll stay inside to get my chores done, and save playing outside for may. peace for now..

sprung ahead... and indecisive.

wow, as if time isn't going fast enough, another hour right out the window... i just realized i haven't typed anything in over a week. haven't had a day off work either. it's been slightly less winter out, so i've been spending most of my week outside of the house. more or less vagabonding around, i've spent more hours trekking the town with a rucksack or surfing other people's couches [when i'm not at work].

in the past week and a bit i've been nominated to go to Arkansas for work, helped a friend deck out his new urban apartment with luscious tropicals [2 day project, soon to be augmented with herbs and vegetables], got a couple of runs in, worked every single day [did i mention tomorrow is 10 of 10 in a row?]... lost an hour of sleep that ended up being all night somehow, had my audition for said possible work trip [find out if i win by Friday], walked a sh*t ton [deployed 25 Munzees around town, on foot..], and survived mostly off of shakes and eastern-ish cuisine. i think i forgot to breathe a few times, but at least i remembered to shower [ha!]. oh yeah, and i went to that Geocaching event downtown, at a grill joint that had some damn amazing wings.

om. nom.

so much to do, house cleaning.. laundry! writing, printing... planting, digging, mapping, planning... ohh man this is gonna be a crazy year. possibly relocating?! who knows.... maybe, back to the rucksack for a little while. i'm becoming claustrophobic [as i seem to every spring] and i'm feeling the need for more space. or maybe just my own space? i've been hunting for studio or bachelor apartments that i could have all for myself, one with a kitchen... it seems that i may have a wait ahead of me. so maybe i'll spend the season living out of my backpack once again.. it depends on some luck, opportunities and timing. stay tuned...