spring and snow

Just when the West coast was feeling like spring, we've been hit with a snow storm!  The birds were chirping, the sun was coming out to dry the mud and the plants were pushing through the dirt getting ready to flower our spring colours.  And today, we're sitting in inches of snow, wrapped in sweaters!

I guess this is life on the West coast.  Spring is a long process and takes up the majority of time that other provinces are dealing with full on winter.

Regardless of the weather, I'm already setting my sights on planting the seeds that will become this year's garden plants.  Tomatoes, squash, you name it!  Last year, the seeds were planted on March 20th, but when I moved them out in May, they were still smaller than I would have liked, so this year, I'm pushing it back 20 days and starting them on March 1st.  This should give the young plants time to grow up nice and strong before I switch them to the bed outside.

I've been wondering where to put my starters while they start their lives, and I think I'm taking out my "office" and putting in shelves to hold the trays.  My office is really too small to use, and has ended up becoming a place where I stack papers.  Hardly the creative space I had hoped it would be!  There is the real possibility that I will be taking over the basement room as my new, improved, LARGER office in the near future.  That in itself is a real exciting and huge project, which I will save for another post!

So, in the meantime, I'm dreaming of tomatoes and baby squash while I sit in a winter wonderland!

anger, heartbreak and the desire to change the past.

When 2011 started, when most people were celebrating with champagne and sparklers, Brent Malcom Connors rang in the new year brutally killing a pit bull puppy in a Victoria hotel room.  Bandit, the pup, suffered broken bones, internal injuries and human bite marks.  It was horrific to everyone and a sign that this year, we HAVE to change the laws regarding animal abuse and cruelty.  I thought it couldn't get worse, that would be the major blow that rocked the core of animal advocates in our province and around the globe.

And then, beyond everyone's wildest nightmares, news broke that Outdoor Adventures, a company near Whistler who ran dog sled tours, brutally killed 100 sled dogs after the Olympics because business was down.  They were loosing money keeping 300 dogs, and after shooting them, slashing their throats and dying horrible deaths, these dogs were dumped in a mass grave.

The details of this case are truly horrific.  Although I couldn't read it all, what I did stomach silenced my spirit and changed me forever.  It is of no surprise that the man who carried out the killings is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.  I will spare you the details on this blog, but for those curious, or for those who don't truly understand the level of cruelty happening in our country, please search out this information.  I simply cannot put what they did into words.

The dogs who witnessed the massacre of their pack, went into a frenzy, smart enough to know what was coming.  To them and to the souls of the dead, I send peace and the hope that they understand that we are not all like the monsters who did this.

To anyone involved with or that had the power to stop this, you must all equally live with that blood on your hands.  Even if you didn't pull the trigger, shame on you.  Any one of my friends would have housed even one of those dogs if they had known what they were preventing.  Their death, especially their horrible torture, was uncalled for and needless.

Run free, little wolves.