Our first flight

Dwayne and I had not yet been together for a year when we decided we would embark upon what we now call our "trip of a lifetime".  For months we planned, daydreamed and talked about our first flight.  First class or coach?  From Edmonton or Calgary?  What was more direct - via Frankfurt or through London?  Research was done, costs were analyzed, time-tables consulted, decisions were made.   We were headed to Europe and a three week excursion that would include stops in Monte Carlo, Florence, Rome and Paris - the romance tour of Europe with the love of my life.

It seemed while we were busy making plans to explore Europe together, the universe was busy making other plans.  Those plans included an unscheduled flight via air ambulance from Jasper to Edmonton where Dwayne had emergency surgery for a collapsed lung brought on by an undiagnosed pnemonia mere weeks before our planned vacation.

I have flown a lot in my lifetime...aboard floatplanes, jets, helicopters & even the Concorde once.  But no flight was more memorable to me than flying over the Rockies, east toward Edmonton with my dear, sick, Dwayne strapped onto a gurney in the back.  We have laughed a lot since that trip that we never imagined our first plane ride together would be in a rickety old tub, held together with not much more than spit and a couple of bolts.

While that excursion was one of the most scary ones I've ever taken, ultimately, three short weeks later we were able to board our flight to Nice.   Dwayne was on the mend, we were in love and we had three weeks without any cares in the world.  Enroute to the Calgary airport we stopped at a local burger joint for one last meal before boarding.  Tagged on the side of Dwayne's drink:  "T'as du gout."  Life is good.  It sure was.

I had them in the palm of my hand...

One of the great things about being self-employed is the opportunity to try your hand at a variety of occupations.  Since moving to PEI last March I have been a mini-Martha Stewart - a professional organizer, an interior decorator and a landscape architect.  I've been a marketing consultant, a free-lance writer, an art-director and a public relations manager.    I've produced events (okay, it was my wedding, but none-the-less), websites and marketing plans.  Head Gardener, Executive Chef, Head Housekeeper are three more labels that would apply.  Add to this illustrious list, the titles philanthropist, fund-raiser and wife.  

Aside from writing, the most enjoyment I've had this year is teaching Business Communications at Holland College Tourism & Culinary Arts Centre.   None of my other "jobs" have pushed me as hard, made me question my abilities more or given me as much discomfort as my first week teaching these first year culinarians has.   

I'm not a graduate of any accredited college or university, unless you consider the University of Life.  I've never formally studied the subject I'm teaching - yet somehow I qualified for the job.  I guess a 25-year career in tourism, marketing & sales must account for something!  I was told I was hired because I would "have lots of real world examples" to give the students.   Teaching effective communicating skills has provided me ample opportunity to reflect on all the really great and not-so-great communicators I've worked with over the years.  It's also forced me to revisit how I can improve myself.  Who are we, if we're not growing?  Which is why I love teaching this course!

Today, I turned a corner with my students.  Up until now there have been a select handful of students that participated.  The rest either took notes or kept their eyes down in the hopes that I wouldn't call on them.  But today, with the subject being "effective communication and overcoming barriers in the workplace" I had the class in the palm of my hand.  

I don't think it was the subject matter, because frankly, there's nothing more dry than the today's topic.  I think it's because for the first time since I started, I didn't feel like a fraud.  I was on my game.  I had lots of "real life examples" to use.  The material was familiar.  The students were engaged and together we had a meaningful dialogue about what it means to really communicate.  Go figure.

Can it be spring?

You can literally smell it in the air.  It's that musky, earthy smell of the ground coming awake again.  It's the sight of 3 feet of snow, slowly (oh so slowly) melting into the ground.  It's the thrill of seeing the pavement on your driveway and not the sheet of ice that's covered it for the past 3 months.  The birds are back, searching the patches of open grass for grubs or whatever  else may be lurking beneath the surface.  It's the warmth of the sun shining through the kitchen windows.

Yes, I think Spring must finally be on the way.  And just in time too - after all, the calendar said Spring happened two weeks ago!

Spring on PEI means it's time to start thinking about the garden.  Being a rural island, lots of farmers have been thinking about their crops for months, planning out crop rotation and planting and harvesting schedules.  My approach is much more simple than that.  I simply ask myself - what do we like to eat?  Will it grow here?  When do I need to start the plants from seed, or should I just buy small starter plants later in the Spring?  How much will I plant and how will I lay out the beds?  

Last summer, our first summer on the island, I created my very first vegetable garden.  Being an urbanite for most of my life, I had never had enough land or garden space to plant a vegetable garden.  But buying a house with two acres solved that problem - we have plenty of land to cultivate here in the Oyster Bed Bridge.  I had no idea if I'd be successful at growing our own food.  But, I come from farmers and I figured I could at least give it a try and see if any of my grandparent's talents for growing vegetables made it to my blood line!  I'm happy to report it did.

While Dwayne tilled out our garden patch, I poured over packets of seeds...peppers, peas, 3 different kinds of lettuces, carrots.  Sunflowers, zucchini, green beans and more.  I started everything (but the tomatoes) from seeds that I planted in tiny little starter pots that sat basking in the western sun on my office desk.  I was thrilled beyond belief at the sight of the first shoots poking their heads through the soil.  I did it.  I grew something from a seed.   I am a "GARDENER."

Of course the trick was transplanting those tiny starters into the bigger garden once all the risk of frost was gone, hoping they survived.  On PEI that was any date after June 9th.  I remember thinking that it seemed so late, but the almanac was right - because people that planted before June 9th often had to replant when they got hit with one last frost.   

Of course some things I could plant directly from seed into the ground...most specifically peas, green beans, lettuces, carrots.  I waited with great anticipation for their tiny shoots to pop through the soil...I waited...and I waited.  Then, one morning on garden patrol I saw it...the tops of the green beans shooting up through the ground!  I had done it again.  I had grown something from almost nothing.

Sadly, I never got to taste a single green bean.  It seemed the ravens and crows really liked green beans and before we could gather any fresh beans they were gone.  I'll try again this year, but with the protection of bird netting over the beans in the hopes that we get to enjoy them this year and not the resident bird population.  

But everything else did grow.  Our sunflowers were 5-feet tall the day of our August wedding. Brilliant yellow, bathing in the sun, standing tall over the wild poppies & cosmos as their feet.  My dahlia's were simply stunning in shades of hot pinks and purples.  

Our most prolific crop was zucchini.  I had no idea three zucchini plants could render so much!  We harvested zucchini from August through November, serving them with virtually every meal, giving them out to colleagues at Dwayne's hotel.  We had an over-abundance of zucchini.  This year perhaps we'll put in only one plant.  

My favorite memory of my first vegetable garden, however,  is standing in the garden, picking peas and eating them right out of their pods, still warm from the summer sun.  Now that's FRESH.    Shakespeare said "a rose by any other name will still smell as sweet".  That simply is not true of vegetables grown 30-steps from your kitchen door.  A carrot is a carrot is a carrot is simply not true.  Peas out of the garden are like nature's candy.  Carrots have a completely different and more powerful flavor than anything you'll buy at a grocery store.  And a toasted tomato sandwich made from tomatoes you picked while the bread is toasting, simply does not compare to one made with store bought, hot-house tomatoes.

So, a kitchen gardener I became.  This year I hope to hone my skills and try some different vegetables.   My peppers failed last year, but I'll give them another go this year.  I'm thinking a lot about fennel.  We love fennel and it'd be great to grow our own.  This year - more tomatoes and carrots.  Definitely more peas.  And we'll give green beans a try and see if we can win the war with the birds.   I'll expand my herb garden to include more basil, thyme and lavender.   And this year, at the end of the season, I will harvest every last herb and create my own dried herb collection.

Yes, Spring is here.  I can hear the garden calling now.