Saturday, April 11, 2015

Sitting in a Coffee Shop, Watching April Showers

It occurs to me as I sit here in a crowded Seattle coffee shop, sipping my second large-size caffeinated heartburn inducer of the day as I wait for a concert by a beloved local to start, that I haven’t written much (again) on this blog. I do have my excuses, and yet none of them seem acceptable. I’m not sure why I feel compelled, now of all times, to put some of my thoughts into words.

Regarding my last post, which I shared on behalf of my employer, we've been successful in hiring some new employees in the last couple of weeks, so this is great news for everyone. The days are much more enjoyable when shared with coworkers, and they’re all a great bunch of folks (one of whom I went to hort school with). Hopefully it will mean getting through the weekly maintenance routines more quickly and efficiently, and opening up opportunities for more interesting projects.

In other news, I finally took the CPH exam in March (I missed both exam dates last year because I was in the middle of moving, along with other out-of-my-control setbacks). This year has also thrown me some curve balls, for sure, which once again made studying difficult, but I still passed! Yay! What a relief. I feel like I've been knocked down quite a bit in the past year, so it’s good to experience a small victory.

Caera and I are renting a 40x40 plot of land at a community farm in Everett, so this is also an exciting new development. It's located in a flood plain and will require quite a bit of work (raised beds, amended soil, some manner of deer and vole prevention, setting up irrigation, building a hoop house, etc.), but I'm looking forward to the project, which has the potential to last for several years (unlike all of the home-gardening efforts which had to be restarted every time I moved). The only problem as usual, is finding the time to get out there during my days off. My schedule is busy, and my body not always cooperating. I'll be sure to post more about it (including pictures!) later.