Dirt Under my Nails

On a show about gardening by CBC Radio someone mentioned that if each of us were to devote half of the space that we have outdoors (half a yard for house-folks or even half of a balcony with potted plants for apartment folks) to growing food we could noticeably reduce the strain of the world's food supply (not to mention cut carbon used to ship 'fresh' foods) in just one season!

That got me thinking about our garden outside. So far it is nowhere near half at 3.5' by 7' (ish) but it will be enough for our family when it blooms. Yesterday I purchased the seeds and prepared the soil. Today I planted carrots, peas (the yummy kind where you eat the pod!), beans, cucumber, and will be adding potatoes (little teeny baby red ones), tomatoes, and yellow peppers! This was my first attempt at planting without much guidance so my father assured me that if I screwed up there was still time in the season to replant. I felt greatly encouraged.

The garden got a late start yesterday due to my Saturday morning ritual garage saling. I purchased two games (Outburst for just 10 cents!), some necklaces and waaayyy too many children's books. The only adult books were "The English Patient" and........that may have been it. But they were so cheap! Bernstein Bears, Robert Munsch, a potty book, Critter, and hardcover children's books for just 5 or 25 cents! One of the best finds was a "You Are Mine" by Max Lucado in perfect condition. I will keep the ones i really did mean to buy for the future and give away the others to some of the many many children at our church.

Last weekend I took out the digital SLR for the first real time. It was in Blind River (ie. a little bush town 1.5 hours outside the Soo). The pictures were ok, just nice to have a camera in hand again. Something odd happened with the colour, though, and most were on the blue end of the spectrum. Thank goodness Picasa has a function to fix that.