One day late

I moved to Canada about two years ago. I had taken early retirement from The University of Ulster in Coleraine, N Ireland at the ripe old age of 60. The move to Canada was my wife's idea. She had always wanted to work abroad and I have no doubt  that this move has been one of the best things that I have done in a long, long time.

I do not intend to give a lot of biographical detail at this time. As time goes on I am sure that I will tell a bit more about my life. Most of it has been the usual humdrum stuff with the addition of lots of intense happiness and times of deep sadness.

My wife Susan and I live in a condo in downtown Toronto which has a small balcony. Last year we grew some herbs and lettuce in pots. We wished we could do a little more so I put my name down for a plot in the local Community Garden. I was told that my name was 23rd on the list of people waiting to take over a plot so I resigned myself to a long wait. To my surprise I got an e-mail on April 1st informing me that my name had come up.

Now please don't think that I have taken over some sort of smallholding. Far from it. It measures 4ft by 8 ft. It is half of a square raised bed and is exactly what I want. I haven't met the person who has the other half of the bed but if she is like the other plotholders that I met yesterday then I am sure we will get along very well.

I had intended to start this blog yesterday but other matters intervened. I want to keep a record of what I do in my plot and the sucess or failure that comes with it. All that I have done so far is to clear all the plants that had survived the winter and tidy up the bed. I was very pleasantly surprised by how good the soil was to work with. Much better than the clay that I experienced back in Coleraine.

See? I said it wasn't large.

There is still some work to be done on the surround. There is the possibility of raising a fence to keep out the gophers (more of them later).

Enough for today. I will add more tomorrow.