Guns, Morns and Meals

Some random thoughts:

Go biodiversity! Perhaps I'm just more perceptive these days but I'm seeing all kinds of different creatures in our gardens that I didn't see last year. From field mice to dragonflies to snakes and toads. And the birds seem to be following us around and talking to us whenever we are out and digging. I expect they are just thanking us for revealing so many yummy worms.


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I recently took the Firearms Safety Course with the long-term goal of learning to hunt. It was an interesting experience to say the least. If you weren't confident and didn't know anything about firearms then you were cast adrift. It was very male-centred despite a bunch of women on the course. I didn't know anything about guns but I got up at the breaks and learned how to cock and half cock a number of rifles and how to safely load and unload.

Of the men in attendance there was a distinct difference in attitude between the older and younger generations. I sat next to a nice old man who was forced to take the course after having hunt for years but had just purchased a new rifle and it fell under the new regulations. All the old men seemed level headed and mature.

Contrast that with the men between 15-40 (yes you can take the course when you are 12 even I think). It was all "I want to get an assault rifle" and "Canada is way to strict when it comes to guns" and "Wish I lived in the states". I overheard one fellow who had come back home from Alberta telling a story about how his friend and he had been drinking and his friend pulled out all his guns and lay them on his bed (yes they covered the whole bed). Then they called "the whores" and when they got them in to the bedroom they ran away screaming having seen all the weapons arrayed there. It was bizarre and creepy and says a lot about our culture.

I trust that these young men will grow up one day but I'm not betting on it. Violence is the middle name of civilization after all.

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Back to some good news: the strawberries that we planted last year have arrived. We have a bowl of fresh strawberries with each meal it seems. And if you get hungry in the garden you can wander down and pick a few too give you a little boost. It's pretty nice I must admit.

And we have lots of garlic scapes and things are growing nicely. Though the summer squash have been decimated by cucumber beetles and slugs despite my best efforts to kill them all (don't worry, you never can, and I know they are part of a diverse garden, grumble, grumble).