Hello, my friends. Did you think I’d quit writing? For a while I was afraid I might have.

November

After the stressful season of extreme heat and drought with wildfires rampant throughout the province, a new disaster arrived on the west coast in mid-November in the form of an atmospheric river that dumped vast amounts of rain and caused flooding and widespread damage. The devastation around us here in the Fraser Valley was heartbreaking. Farms and homes were lost. Many had to evacuate, leaving their livestock behind. So much grief.

It’s a small thing in light of all that loss, but our community garden was also in the flood zone and under six feet of water. I published some photos on the community garden website. If you’re interested, click on the picture below to go to that post. Whatever contaminants the flood waters picked up would have saturated our plots so there will be no more organic vegetables from that source any time soon. At the moment we are forbidden even to enter the site until testing is completed and the area assessed for risk. (Thankfully the other land we garden at a private farm is well away from the floods so Jim and I can continue to grow food there at least.)

December

Then came the dark days of winter. I twisted my spine on the last day of November, although I didn’t realize it right away. The pain waited a few days to kick in, but when it did, I was in agony. Nerve spasms whenever I changed position, barely able to walk and, I have to confess, more than a little worried until I pinpointed how I’d done it (helping to lift something beyond my capacity and twisting to put it down in a new spot). Finally I got in to see my chiropractor just before Christmas. He found that my spine was twisted from bottom to top. He isn’t often surprised, but that seemed to do it. The adjustment helped a lot, but I could have used a follow up appointment soon. Unfortunately their office was closed over Christmas, and then the snow kept me housebound, so it took some time to get sorted out. By then the muscles were so distressed that I still could hardly bear to walk. Now physiotherapy is helping to complete my recovery.

And now …

Well, that was the long way around to tell you that I’ve mostly been hibernating for the last nine weeks. As my naturopath says, “Pain really messes with your mind.” My get-up-and-go took a hike and all my creativity went dormant. Languishing. Definitely not flourishing.

Thankfully, the daylight is getting longer, the sap is rising, and I’ve turned the corner. I begin to feel excited once more about life and learning.

Hoping to send you some interesting stuff soon.