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Victoria

Sublime

I was honoured to be one of the 110 poets included in Yvonne Blomer’s latest and last poetry anthology dealing with the difficult aspects of climate change and water.

Sublime: Poems for Vanishing Ice is now freshly launched, following two days of readings, commencing on what was appropriately both World Poetry Day and World Water Day.

Not all 110 poets featured read, but 28 of us came from near and far, with pleasure, gratitude and admiration for Yvonne’s perseverance over the past decade of her work on the trilogy.

Three gorgeous posters for silent auction: Refugium, Sweet Water, and Sublime.

Boulevard Gardens

boulevard garden sign with qr codeVic West is a neighbourhood of the city of Victoria, one of the 13 municipalities that make up the Capital Regional District (CRD), collectively known as Victoria. It’s a working-class residential neighbourhood with a lot of single family homes, with a good selection of boulevard gardens.

The sign posted next to many of them offers a QR code that links to instructions on how to build a bed suitable for growing fruit, vegetables, flowers or hers between the sidewalk and the street. I went on a tour to see what some of the approaches have been.

This is what the sign’s instructions suggest – open wood base and PVC hoops that can be covered with mesh to keep out deer or other garden browsers. This one also has added wooden trellises in  adjoining beds, and filled the spaces between beds with pots.

Down an alleyway we found a boulevard orchard. Neighbours water and maintain the trees and signs are posted to tell people if the fruit is ready to harvest or not (and to remember it’s a community resource).

This creative garden was the work of someone who rents her home; the landlord did not want a garden on the property, so the entire glorious creation runs along the side of the property, fully on the boulevard.

chair surrounded by garden
Even a cosy seat
stacked plastic tubs growing plants
Using vertical space
Lush & pollinator-friendly
fence with planters made from plastic bottles
Creative use of old bleach (?) bottles

And this is the approach in nearby district of Saanich. Composted soil deposited in late summer, just in time for a mast year for Garry Oaks who clearly want to create a forest. What Saanich wants is yet to be revealed, but is likely grass.

Playing catch-up

Time has got away from me, but here are a few highlights of my doings since November.

Christmas came and went – abbreviated by pandemic restrictions, but enlivened by snow, which after a couple of days of heavy shovelling became old fairly soon, particularly when accompanied by a polar vortex. Which was then followed by an atmospheric river, though happily not to the degree we experienced in November.

And then some signs of spring (rhubarb) to come, though it’s frozen and thawed and frozen and thawed since then. It will be a while until the soil is warm and dry enough to start planting anything. Meanwhile, I’m sorting and swapping seeds with neighbours and getting ready to plan this year’s garden.

In literary news, one of my poems, Tasting Dirt (all about compost!) appears boldly on the front inner cover of the current issue of Small Farmer’s Journal (winter 2021). Fascinating and one of a kind journal, lavishly illustrated, with lots on farming with horses and oxen, and all kinds of interesting detail on everything from setting up a binder to a report on the apples of New York in 1908.

Another poem, Hügelkultur, which happens also to be on a soil-amendment theme, appeared in the autumn issue of the long running UK literary journal Acumen, and was featured as a guest poem.

And finally, an update on the rice porridge post below, from last summer: I made some with black (“Forbidden”) rice and it was as delicious as I remembered. In addition to the spring onions, crispy shallots, cilantro, sesame oil etc, I added some winter broccoli and Romanesco florets, and fennel fronds and slices and a dash of gomasio. A perfect winter food.

Full steam ahead: a week of talks!

Lots going on this week. If you’re in town I hope you can make it to one or more of these different events!

On Tuesday evening, March 19, look for me in Fernwood, where I’m talking urban agriculture at Fernwood U. Cornerstone Cafe, 1301 Gladstone Avenue, Victoria, at 7pm. (Free!)

Friday night, March 22, I’ll be reading at Planet Earth Poetry alongside Rosemary Griebel. Moka House Cafe, #103-1633 Hillside Avenue, Victoria, at 7:30pm. (Nearly free – just $3)

Saturday afternoon, March 23, I’m on the Food Writing panel at the WordsThaw Spring Writing Symposium, hosted by the Malahat Review, an all day affair that runs 10am until 10pm at the University of Victoria, Human & Social Development Building, Room A240. ($40-50, but you get a whole day of literary fun for your money)

Farewell to 2012

Tis the season to look back over a busy year at the Iambic Cafe, as I wish you all a happy, healthy and sustainable 2013!

January… Copenhagen, mostly in the rain, and then some Cambridge…

 

 

 

 

 

then a farewell to London and then back to Victoria in the snow, just in time for GTUF’s seed swap:

 

 

 

 

February… the Victoria READ anniversary party at Government House, and then to Saskatchewan for a winter writing retreat in the snow, with nuthatch.

 

 

 

 

March… a mega-presentation (at the Imax theatre) by Wade Davis, in support of efforts to save the Sacred Headwaters – source of four of BC’s major salmon rivers – from extensive hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for methane gas extraction by Shell (and thankfully it worked, whether by Davis’ tread softly efforts or the more confrontational approach by Forest Ethics); the start of my studies towards a Permaculture Design Certificate in Nanaimo, with Brandon Bauer and others; and a poetry reading in Vancouver with Ruth Pierson and Ted Blodgett.

 

 

 

April…. freshly-hatched hummingbird chicks on my garden fence; work parties at Haliburton Farm and Gorge Park; plus more permaculture, a wild food festival and the Cucumbers to Clams discussion about local food, all in Nanaim0.

Pulling gorse root

 

 

 

May…. A beautiful day at Alderlea Farm – with a beautiful lunch – and a chance to learn more about biodynamics from Dennis Klocek; and a trip to La Conner, WA to enjoy the Skagit River Poetry Festival (and an oyster taco or two!)

 

 

 

June …. tent caterpillar season with a vengeance; the Island Chefs Collaborative annual food festival; a tour of Terra Nossa Farm; and some lessons in wild food foraging with Roger Foucher.

Tent caterpillar Veggie platterTerra Nossa piglets

 

 

 

 

 

July…. Canada Day of course; plus a tour of O.U.R. Ecovillage; a garlic harvest and the emergence of my mason bees plus a tribe of bumblebees from my Bombus Box.

Roving musiciansBombus vosnesenskii

 

 

 

 

August….at Sage Hill Writing Experience in Saskatchewan, then Calgary, then to the Okanagan for the ALECC conference; back in Victoria to discover the loss of my bombus colony; a tour of the Garden Path, with wildlife; and a rather special rural lamb roast with Slow Food Vancouver Island.

Alberta skyWriting in the woodsArtichoke with Treefrog

 

 

 

 

September… the Eat Here Now festival feeds bodies and minds at Market Square in Victoria; the Kneading Conference West teaches kneading skills and much more in Mt Vernon WA; the first Flavour Picnic feeds hundreds in Black Creek, near Courtenay; and panelists Trevor, Angela, Guy and Andrew give us words to chew on as they discuss community supported food systems in Victoria. Undocumented on these pages was my newest project which began in September and will finish in August 2014: a new course of study in holistic nutrition, which will skew my thinking in new directions over the next couple of years.

 

 

 

October… Raj Patel comes to entertain us with his thoughts on the global food system, swiftly followed by Gary Nabhan reflecting on climate change and traditional diets; Open Cinema turns 10; and Digging the City is born.

 

 

 

November… Digging the City gets some time in the spotlight at the Heritage House promotion; I get to hear my hero Sandor Katz at the Weston A Price Foundation conference in Santa Clara CA, with numerous others on the science of nutrition; and Digging the City gets dug some more at the Cornerstone Cafe in Fernwood.

 

 

 

 

December… Victoria Stone Soup event; visit to the Edible Garden Project in North Vancouver; my debut on national television; and finally, elves rest during the annual Christmas hamper stuffing party (this year 137 hampers made from donated turkeys & trimmings were collected by the Salvation Army for local families, including 4 vegetarian and 21 gluten-free baskets).