Victoria Day Weekend

Yesterday and today I have been pulling weeds and planting vegetables. There were about twenty tomato plants to put in the ground as well as several beds for vegetables. In addition to the tomatoes I have also planted carrots, beets, lima beans, purple bush beans, scarlet runner beans, regular peas, swiss chard, lettuce, spinach, Chinese radish. Some of the garlic and some of the bunching onions I planted last Fall survived the Winter and are shafts of bright green in a couple of beds. All the asparagus I planted last Spring survived and looks terrific. A few of the stalks are more than one meter high. Each plant has only one or two stalks so I won't harvest those. At least one plant has a few more stalks coming so perhaps there will be half a dozen for eating before the season is over.

I am beginning to wonder why so many people go to so much work to get to Muskoka or Haliburton or "the cottage" for the Victoria Day weekend. Yes it is the first long weekend after Easter. So there is one extra day to do whatever one does at the cottage. But the middle of May to the middle of June is fly season. I worked outside in a bug jacket, long pants, socks and shoes and I still have bites on my hands, my neck and my face. The black flies are not as bad this year as they were last year. Last year, walking from the car to the house meant you kept your mouth closed unless you wanted to eat flies. This year I can work outside as long as I am fully clothed with the bug jacket. I went out about 9.30 this morning. The heat inside my clothes and jacket finally forced me inside about 11.30. The black flies swarmed all around me, trying to get through the mesh of the jacket, they never give up. Fortunately there were not enough of them this year to fill the mesh in front of my face and block my vision so I could work easily. I was not comfortable but I got some work done.

(It seems incongruous to me that this weekend I am north of Muskoka pulling weeds and planting vegetables and six weeks from now I will be in Beijing. I suppose sometime I will have to stop thinking my life revolves around two weeks vacation.)

My "niece" Bo, who will be my tour guide at times and my emergency support in Beijing, has reserved a place for me to stay in Beijing. It is a hostel / hotel call 365 Inn. It is some distance from her apartment, she said it will be about 35 minutes by transit but it is very close to Tian An M'en Square and many other historic parts of Beijing. The transit ride involves transferring from one subway line to another. That does not sound like much of a problem, and it would not be if I could read Chinese. However I don't think she would get me lost intentionally so I am sure she will give me good directions. One of the first things I hope to buy in Beijing is a map of the central area with some English on it. She sent me a set of basic characters that will be useful when I am there. I hope to learn more. And perhaps someone at the consulate in Toronto will be of assistance.

365 Inn is a fairly new youth hostel with the usual rooms of bunk beds for travelers who like using hostels or who don't or can't pay for more private accommodation. It also has some private and semi-private rooms on the upper floors. Staying there means there will probably always be young people around if I want a conversation or company. Bo says they have a cafe which opens into the street, or has a view of the street. So I will not feel alone in Beijing. That is important when traveling. I can get depressed if I feel isolated. Then I don't want to do anything - and that would be a mistake, although I will probably want one or two quieter, calmer days when I can recover from frantic rushing around. I find museums and art galleries a good antidote to shopping and hordes of people, particularly hordes of other tourists.

It is getting close to noon.After lunch I will check in with my online students, do any marking that needs to be done and relax until the sun is further in the West. Then back to playing / working in the dirt, pulling weeds, planting seed, thinking about eating vegetables fresh from the garden in August and September.