Today’s Crowsnest update is not about one topic specifically; it’s about the enormous list of possible subjects there are and the impossibility of writing about them all.
Last week, with civil insurrection surging up the steps and into the corridors of the United States Capitol, I counted my good fortune in not being part of any of that.
Again this week, with the United States Congress taking the unprecedented step of impeaching the current president for a second time, an unrepentant President Trump (despite the words he reads off of teleprompters), continues to encourage his disaffected supporters to turn out en masse, armed, in front of state capitols, in just a few days.
Again, fortunate we are to be here, not there; lucky so far not to have been infected with the Sars 2 Corona Virus, felled by Covid 19, nor to know anyone who has been. Not yet: hopefully not ever.
As observed by Paul Samyn, editor of the Winnipeg Free Press in one of his daily Covid 19 updates a few days ago, all of that can change in an instant, . . . it can be when you take your chances with this virus, when you let down your guard, when you fool yourself into thinking that meeting down at the pub for a few pints of Guinness is a good way to celebrate Christmas. [emphasis mine]
Mr. Samyn was talking about Ireland, which had the lowest coronavirus infection rate in the European Union in early December, but has the world’s highest rate now. His point: It could just as easily happen, right in his city, Winnipeg, but just as easily your country, town, village or family, no matter where you reside: it could even happen to you!
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Last week’s blogpost caught the attention of two people, both gardeners, one of whom became a subscriber. Thank you for your responses!
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Fortunately, gardening is on my seemingly endless list of topics to write about in this space, so while I wait for the 2019-2020 garden report to be written, a continuing theme will be our #sustainability garden, where it was, is now, and where we hope to see it going in 2021. Has there ever been a better time than now to ‘get growing’?
A question for the ‘armchair’ or ‘active’ gardeners reading this: “What books/seed catalogues/other printed gardening resources are you making the most use of right now? Feel free to reply in the comments section; there’s lots of room for as long or short a comment you’d like to make!
For a nominal US$5.00 fee, I downloaded and printed a copy of the 2021 garden planner distributed by the U.S. National Gardening Association website. https://garden.org/store/view/8/2021-Download-and-Print-Planner-and-Organizer/
The Planner/organizer offers templates and pages for each of the 12 months and 52 weeks the gardening year. I don’t think this was a mistake, but here near the end of “Week 2” I realize I’m already behind schedule.
Among my many other gardening mistakes so far, since committing to the resurgence of the sustainability garden in 2018, was my failure yesterday to take advantage of the unseasonably warm, +7 degree (celsius) outdoor temperatures. I should have headed over to the Super Paul Compound (SPC) to dig more Winter Carrots and Rutabaga, but I did not. Last night the mercury dropped back to -7 degrees, making digging today more difficult, maybe impossible.
Something else. One garden-related task I will commit to this do this week and one that is worthy of week 2 of the gardening year, especially when the ground is still covered with snow, is to to a walk-around, both inside and outside the compound, to make note of the current situation, the lay of the land. I could easily do it from my desk, but I know that the best motivation for the would-be gardeners comes from their feet.
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Besides U.S. politics, the pandemic, and the garden, there’s always the easy default subjects of weather and traffic to write about, but since urban market morning TV seems to have a lock on those, I’ll probably weigh-in on those topics as a last resort.
I’ve jotted down a fair list of possible subjects, all worthy of treatment here: Health & Wellness; books; healthful cookery; cooperatives; obesity; acoustic music; consumerism; and Delza are all subjects I know some of the people who have read my stuff seem to be interested in. And there are many other subjects I haven’t mentioned, enough to keep me busy for a long time.
So, leave a comment, share, subscribe, especially if you have constructive criticism, advice or other support to offer.
As for me, I’m still trying to figure things out as I go, so please forgive me if there are a few glitches along the way
The Crowsnest Alliance 