Herons, community meetings, poets and wood chips

All this rain and cold must have been getting to me and I've got a bit behind with postings, so here's a grab-bag of things.

The herons are nesting in a nearby park which makes for great spectator sport... if you are very careful which tree you stand beneath.



Our local community association had its AGM on a food security theme which made for interesting talks and - if I do say so myself - excellent snacks, since our urban farming group brought the food, which included local grape and apple juices; what I am pretty sure are very local devilled eggs; some fabulous pizza; some of my own squash, caramelised garlic and goat cheese tart, and molasses brownies. Some of our members brought some interesting gadgets with them, including a solar oven and a hand-cranked blender; as well as some vegetable seedlings to give away.



I was up-island a couple of weeks ago and watched some amazing sockeye salmon go into this beautiful old Moffat stove. Check out the dials on this beauty...



Meanwhile, back on the poetry trail, I was lucky enough to get to Planet Earth Poetry in time to grab a seat for an excellent double bill: Jan Zwicky and Robert Bringhurst.



And - although we've been blessed by a few days of spring sunshine - it's been a hard slog this spring through the puddles and gloom, which have delayed all kinds of things.



I spent one chilly afternoon at Haliburton, doing various things including spreading wood chips on the paths. They have a partnership going with a local tree-topping company that trims branches away from electricity lines, high enough that the foliage would not have been sprayed and therefore ok to throw around an organic farm.