History in the making on PEI

Well, today I was part of something that really didn't register in my mind until someone pointed out the obvious. We have just formed the legal entity called the PEI Gay Tourism Association. The coolest thing of all was that it was pointed out by a straight person who stated "We're witnessing history in the making and now maybe things will get shaken up a little". How fantastic was that to hear!

To everyone who has been part of this, thank you for including me and for those who are just reading this for the first time, Welcome to PEI's Gentle Island where we do indeed include all.

http://www.arcofpei.com/reviews.html

Pride listing for 2009 on PEI.. just one of the things you can look forward to.

Pansies and Gay Gardners go hand in hand

To those who don't find my title funny... too bad! My blog, my thoughts... you are not in the driver's seat. :P



I'm feeling a little empowered today. The weather is showing promise, the plants in the greenhouse are actually growing, and the dirt lanes are now open and the freshest of greenery has exploded across the island. All good things have come to those of us who have waited.... and whined.



With the summer months, the returning of the Tourists, and I'm out and about with a renewed sense of drive. I also have several coffee in me at the moment as well.

On the weekend I created yet another plant bed with the assistance of my father-in-law's tractor. I'm glad the guy I love happens to have a farmer dad up the road. Anyway, the island stone raised bed now had the beginnings of giant pumpkins along with watermelon plants. I have to be careful with the plant side of things. Last year my tomato plants took on a life of their own. I didn't know a tomato plant could grow over 7 feet high... and all those tomatoes... OMG ... everywhere.

This year I've scaled back a lot. I'm going with Grapevine slips to see if I can begin a small vinyard of my own over the next few years. With 10 acres to play with.. I can do just about anything I want... so why not.

I've got some handyman jobs for friends, one being the renovation of a cabin near the Confederation Bridge. He wants to rent what used to be a family cabin so that it's suitable for vacationers. The difference between a 'Family' cottage and a 'Rental' cottage is about 6000 worth the work! In the end, he's got a new 12 x 25 ft deck, new floors, refitted bathroom, new paint and tongue and groove trim, and trimwork.

I'll have to get pictures and insert them into this posting later on. I've already got one friend who is going to sail up the straight and take the cottage for a weekend. All-n-all... a nice little get away plan.

Everyone is now out and about

It's now the time of the year when the whole Island comes to life... soon the elusive "Tourist" will return from where ever they winter! LOL



Right now we have wildlife such as raccoons and foxes passing by our cottage door at all times of the day and night. Lucky we don't have anything larger than a dog that is wild on PEI.



Every day something else happens to reinforce that summer is truly upon us. Mind you, be careful for what you wish. You just may get it. Only last night I was told that instead of going to see the latest Star Trek movie out, we were instead heading to S'side to pick up a 1/2 ton of dirt for the front flower garden!



I'm not sure where the love of summer also meant I'd want to give up a movie night out with my partner to play in mud. Perhaps I should check into just where it slid off the rails in order to avoid future occurrences from taking place.

Showers followed by Rainbows!

It is amazing what living on an Island offers that perhaps not many other people can experience. Because we're more 'flat' we can see forever and with rain and sun often always within eyeshot, rainbows are a common sight. Even double rainbows from one end of the arc to the other. Gotta love it!

It has indeed been a very rapid change in surroundings in just two weeks. The grass is now very green, the fresh new leaves are opening and the birds.. wow.. the birds have just landed. Our feeder, although only showing one here, has a full house of feeding birds and some in waiting.

Welcome to the end of spring and the launch of the summer... NOW.. you can enjoy our Island.

catching the greening

Okay... it's PEI. Spring has arrived. I'm out taking photos of something.... anything green and flowering! Photos and mini-movies to follow. Warning.. the blooming flowers movies may be a bit slow in their content!

Keeping sanity in the family...

Until the last of the snowbanks have melted, I've sworn to endure this pre-spring spring by living vicariously through my friends who actually have travelled!





I've tried to keep a nice wide variety of friends who come and go to exotic lands in swing shifts, so to speak. Therefore, I'm always being entertained by someone just returning from someplace I wished I had been. Stay with me on this!





One particular set of friends, Lisa and Mary, went to Mexico, returned to a late season snow storm, then fell into a deep depression. I was the smart one. I stayed home, let them pay for those fantastic pictures, and I was elated to hear of the wonders. See my mind game here?





I have my mind getting a reprieve from the long winter by being told about these wonderful vacations. I, almost a third person here, become elated by the stories as if I, were there. This is almost always a plus! To them, it's a horrible realization that they didn't stay away long enough.





Some would argue that they, the "returned", at least have their tanned bodies to show for the time away and that my body, which has the colour tone of a miner who's never seen the surface, is almost translucent in tone. My rebuttal to that statement is that yes, while they are tanned, it is I who looks normal when I get that cold and look horrible, a tanned person with a cold just looks out of place. Don't you agree?





If you don't agree, keep it to yourself, I'm trying to construct my own sustainable reality here and so far it's working.

spring runoff

Well, we may not be like those poor victims of the Manitoba floods, but we do get some rise in our water levels.

It is fair to say that we do have rising waters... but only for a couple of weeks and then we're back to normal. The water running through our property, which is normally a nice crisp (ice cold) clear running stream, has become an island mud colour! This too will resume it's normal state and become a clear look in about a week. It is not a time of the year that I'd suggest for hiking, unless you know the area you're going into, and you own hip waders!

On the plus side, fishing season has started and even I have the urge to head out to the river banks for a day's fishing. Then, when I look at the guys sitting on the bank next to the melting snowbanks... I rethink my devotion to the fishing experience!

Don't get me wrong, I've done the 4 am trek through the muddy fields with my buddies so we could be down at the best spots along the river, on the first day of fishing season.

The memories come back to me now. The last time was a frosty morning after a heavy downpour the day before. It made for a mud consistency that would halt a bigfoot truck! I don't think it would have been too bad had I not been loaded down the backpack with beer!

I was doing well slopping my way through the rain soaked plowed fields, until I had to maneuver my body over the barbed wire fence. You can see where this is going, can't you?

As I put my weight on one foot, I soon recalled my basic junior high school physics lessons, in that lifting one foot only increases the weight per square inch on the only remaining foot. Into the mud I descended and thus lowered my crotch on to the barbed wire. There I was, caught up on barbed wire in the pre-dawn hours in the middle of a farmer's field playing a tug of war with the fence. Lucky for me I have the strength of 3 fishermen at that time of the day and I just went for the whole nine yards and lept over the fence while doing what equated to some sort of exquisite dance move.... all the while using my crotch as the center of balance because it was the pivot point at that moment!

As I gracefully landed both feet on the far side of the fence, I realized that in tipping forward, my beer landed out in the mud. This was only a preview of the rest of my day. Let's just say, picture it raining, the woods being too wet to start a fire for warmth, and too stubborn to leave. Lucky for us we salvaged the beer!

Due to there still being a lot of ice on the river, we didn't really get any fish... but we gave it a great shot! I was never so glad to get home to a hot shower, as I was that day. After that.. I didn't go for opening season. I gladly wait until the temperature has warmed up the river banks so that I can sit there enjoying ... the bugs!