An Island Tour...


A little tour of things I saw on the island these past two days.
This is my view of Victoria on Vancouver Island.
I love this place.
Great shops the most excellent little Chinatown and of course, Rebar restaurant.


I loved my four pillows on my king bed.


 I loved the sea planes flying by.
After an hour, not so much.


I stopped in Cowichan Bay.
I had done a shoot here years ago for a magazine, and had to come for more cheese and bread.



It's a sea side small town on the water.


Worth the trip and the detour.


I mean...


...come on, how sweet is this place.
Next stop, my friends new farm.


Where she can now keep her horse close to her.


and give him fancy braids.


She brought me here...to the edge of a cliff up top a mountain where you can see forever.



..but then she brought me here, where you can get ice cream, slushies, a hot dog, 30 foot tall statues for your garden and home of the worlds smallest merry go round.
Seriously, 30 foot tall statues, teeny tiny merry go round.

My speach went very well by the way.
A million thank you's for the kind words.


Inspiration...


So, I'm off to Victoria to the Western Canada Book Fair..or something like that.
I have to give another speech.
I've shared that it's not, well, my best talent in life.
I was so bummed out last time, that I had blown my speech.
I shared this with a friend from my hotel room in Toronto. 
She sent me this note back, and I thought I would share it with you.
Kim I hope you don't mind, but I will save this speech for the rest of my life.
I'm not sharing to make myself sound 'wonderful' or brag about how fabulous I am. 
I'm sharing to inspire you or anyone you know who in those 'big' moments ...stumble.

The words of my dear friend Kim Christie:

You didn't "blow" the speech.  What you did is fail to contort yourself into a vision of what you … and you alone … deemed to be an appropriate and "good" speaker.  But you're not a speaker … you're a wholesome artist, a mom, a friend … a real, live girl!  :)
What's happening on the internet right now … and I mean, like, ALL OVER THE WORLD … is that even experienced "speakers" are pointing a camera at themselves and just blathering away on the front porch.  Because it's more honest.  More real.  People connect with you more when you are absolutely authentic.  And you're not a statesman.   You're a beautiful, fresh, ADORABLE crazy creative Full-of-Love-and-Goodness farm girl.  You're honest and unguarded and unpracticed.  There's nothing complicated or conniving or controlling in your world … and that's what people are ACHING for right now.  The polished perfection and contrivances are driving the world mad.  Everywhere the veneer is cracking.  Because we all want it to.  Because every last one of us is sick to death of pretending to be someone we are not.  So your speech was perfect.  You were absolutely you … unsure, a bit overwhelmed by all the fanfare, tripping it up a bit … in other words, Positively CHARMING.
You're trying to "impress" a room full of people who wish like crazy that they were YOU!  They want to be young and lithe and uncomplicated.  They want to swing in the sunshine and run laughing out of a shabby shack chasing a precious and perfect Lily.  They want to be able to whip up apple pie on a whim, from scratch, without a recipe.  Every single person in that room got a taste of someone laughing, someone hesitant, maybe flustered … and they were hooked IMMEDIATELY.  Because you are absolutely Real and absolutely Perfect.  No one who meets you, or sees anything at all that you've ever created, or visits your farm or drops into your blog … doesn't fall IMMEDIATELY in love with you.  The only thing you can do to mess that up is train and contort yourself into being a polished persona.  They're a dime a dozen and everybody's sick of that.

Love...

 
This past week has been full of things I love.
I love collecting these momiji dolls for my girl.
 
 
I love that we finally bought a new pasta maker.
I've been stealing my sisters for years.
 
 
I will miss the old one though.  It took three of us to make it work.
It was broken and wouldn't mount to the counter top.
Good memories.
 
 
I loved watching all the kindergarten kids on valentines day.

 
I love that my husband uses this hot pink kitty stereo to play music while he works.

 
I love that we have all the new vegetable beds finished.

 
Love that her favourite thing is still a stick and a rope.
And, I love that I found this new market on the North Shore of Vancouver.
They now carry our Missing Goat jam line too.
Loving that a lot.

 


Surprise...

 
 
It came today.
Just waiting on the porch for us when we came home.
 
 
My girl then surprised me with a floor picnic to celebrate.
 She made it all by herself.
Best day ever.

Like Most of Us..

 
..he's just trying to fit in.


Dirt, Bugs & Popsicles...

 
...don't go together.
But this last week has been full of them all.
 
 
All the chia pudding and sprouts in the world didn't manage to keep the various 
flu bugs away from our house.
So, out came the popsicle maker. 
My beloved Zuko...makes them in just 7 minutes!
Which is absolutely awesome...

 
..unless you can only find one popsicle stick and you already poured in the juice.

 
But today, we all got outside.
 
 
I love that they wait for her to catch up.

 
We are completely re-working the vegetable patch.

 
And that means everyone digs.