Spring, etc.

Why is it that the onset of warmer weather gets folks energized? It’s a wonderful thing, for sure! Yesterday I spent doing stoop labour in the gardens – raking swathes of dried miscanthus and swearing to mulch it over so that I don’t have the huge dusty windrows to move next year. Relocating Rudbeckia and bergamot for the hummingbird/bee garden, pruning the grape vines, splitting unruly clumps of day-lillies and trying to enforce some type of order in the borders. The spring bulbs are rampant this year and it feels so HAPPY to watch them bobbing in the breeze. The trees wear that luscious green fuzz of emerging leaves that makes me want to take a bite and feel the juice (if there was any) run down my chin.

Speaking of juices…. We were in Niagara-on-the-Lake last week, in the rain and weak, intermittent sunshine. Driving past the acres and acres of neatly-trimmed grape orchards was amazing, even though I felt like a total schlub for leaving ours untended for so long. But Ma Nature is forgiving and if we don’t get a decent crop this year for grape jelly, then I’ll go to Vince’s and buy a couple of baskets and be done with it. We had a fantastic meal in the dining room of the Prince of Wales hotel. Brad, our server, was amazing, explaining what we were being served and how it was prepared. We shared a bottle of exquisite wine – THE FOREIGN AFFAIR CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2007. Party in the glass, party in the mouth… we were speechless at how good it was with our steak. There’s not much left around. I know because I searched the Vintages website (LCBO 127324 | 750 mL bottle – $37.95)  and found some in Guelph, Brampton and Hawkesbury. So I called the Brampton store and they’ll ship 4 bottles to Newmarket. Hooray for technology and customer service!

Have you seen the Writers Community of Durham Region website (http://wcdr.ca/wcdr/)? My goodness, but this is an incredibly active, well-organized group – the volume and diversity of events is staggering. Well, we’re going to start one in York Region, with the first breakfast meeting scheduled for October 2! The Writers Community of York Region – http://wcyork.ca/york/. Huzzah!! There are so many people toiling away at the craft of writing – poetry, songs, screenplays, novels of many genres, short fiction, cosies, technical & business, children’s books, etc. We’ll be a hub for writing groups and all of these folks to network and engage in professional development activities through breakfast meetings, seminars, workshops and retreats.

This has been a long time coming. Our exploratory meeting was held a couple of months ago at the Aurora Cultural Centre, facilitated by Sue Reynolds, Past President of WCDR and James Dewar, current President of WCDR. They are acting as our mentors (we will feed and wine them because they are so very good and helpful and wise and are steering us clear of reinventing the wheel!) so we’re confident this Provisional Board will be successful in developing the framework for a vibrant writers’ organization in York Region.