When I crawled into bed last night and shut my eyes, exhausted and buzzing from two and a half full days, phantom base lines were still beating in my ears. So many highlights and I don’t have the stamina for complete sentences…

Best music:

:: Grand Analog

:: Horse Feathers

:: Shad

:: Royal Wood

:: Brasstronaut

:: Alex Cuba

:: Sunday morning Gospel Hour with Sarah Harmer, Frazey Ford, Horse Feathers, Basia Bulat, The Good Lovelies & Sam Doores

(so wish I hadn’t missed Matt Andersen, Beardyman and Shane Koyzcan but my oh my revelers are spoiled for choice with four stages and 67 bands)

Best of the rest:

:: Friday sunset and good laughs with old and new friends

:: farm sleepovers and breakfasts with most amazing Marianne, Tim, Heidi, Emily and Bo

:: Saturday rain and mud - ankle-deep and so many pairs of gorgeous mucky barefeet!

:: sparky mid-afternoon sunshine buzz courtesy of my local - Wellington Brewery

:: Main Stage living roof, solar-powered Sun Stage, water tanker of Guelph tap water, reusable dishes and wash stations

:: Mapleton Organics ice cream - oh the power of suggestion at work with sun-kissed beauties licking dripping waffle cones

:: baby Wyatt - just the most playful eight-month old and helping round out the next generation of Hillside lifers

:: solid Sunday sunshine mingled with Guelph Lake breezes

:: intimate and interactive jam sessions and musicians chilling out in the grass next to revelers (Hello Sarah Harmer! Would you like to share my ice cream cone?)

:: Bollywood dance lesson (please, please bring classes to Guelph!)

Until next year, Hillside, I’m so grateful you’re in my backyard!

:: a visit

:: sun, sun, sun!

:: swimming in Guelph Lake - so refreshing

:: dipping in c-c-c-cold Lake Ontario amongst sandy little kids

:: new Cee-Lo, old Talking Heads, and all-time-best funk tracks here and here

:: amazing Toronto Island - big old trees, endless tucked away green spaces, long beaches and bike paths

:: bare feet on hot sand and sand sticking to suntan lotion-lathered skin

:: the World Cup in car-free Little Italy

:: thousands of bees buzzing in the yellow field - vuvuzelas at Gothic Cottage

:: laughing in the garden

:: sturdy tomatoes surrounded by a bed of straw mulch

:: reminiscing, de-mythologizing and storytelling

:: the original karate kid’s self-deprecating humour

:: peonies filling every room with their luscious aroma

:: the vireo down the road - most original bird song

:: homemade rhubarb ginger jam and iced tea

:: new-to-me lawnmower with power wheels (where have you been all these snow-free months, you beauty!)

I’m back at Gothic Cottage after a few full days in Vancouver for work. Olympians Sara Renner (above) and Ben Rutledge were representing David Suzuki’s Play It Cool with me at the Canadian Green Building Council national conference. Ben’s gold and Sara’s silver medal drew lots of attention but they’re pretty nonchalant about their medals. Sara’s fell silently out of her luggage once at home and her husband happened to find it in their woodpile underneath the stairs. Needless to say it’s pretty scratched up.

Sara is one of the founders of our carbon neutral elite athlete program and she really walks the talk. She and her husband, former Canadian Alpine Team member Thomas Grandi, line-dry all their clothes, collect rainwater in barrels for their veggie garden, cycle through Canmore, organized a 350.org event, spread the word of climate action to school groups, and are installing a green roof on their chalet.

I learned some interesting things at the CaGBC conference about green roofs which focus on native plants - LiveRoof - and the next generation of LEED certification - Living Buildings. Exciting movement in the right direction.

And on the ground in Vancouver the corner of Burrard and Cambie has been given a major facelift with the lush and large Cambie Community Garden. Oh Vancouver, how I love thee. Greenspace and community gardens abound, even downtown.

I was actually tempted to stay at the farm to get my tall tomatoes in the garden but I couldn’t spend my birthday alone. Best to be with sisters Cathie and Tori on the eve of my day at Tori’s fantastic ‘Iterations’ closing party (all the better with delicious Venezuelan arepas).

And with sis and Nancy for a scrumptious lunch today (love the cow).

Big city plans with urban pals are in the pipe for tonight and simply the best gift ever to anticipate: my first trip to the spa with best friends tomorrow. Freshly brewed ice tea and fine dark chocolate at my side, I’m a happy birthday girl indeed!

These tomatoes and herbs are well-traveled little sun goddesses. They’ve toured Eramosa Township and sunned on the mobile greenhouse dashboard of my little Mazda. They’ve taken the trip along the 401, 427, and Gardiner Expressway into downtown Toronto.

From the Kensington loft window they broke from the soil, soaked up the southern sun and cityscape. “You have baaabies! Baaa-aaabies! Little babies!” - I still playback that message. They’ve also toured the countryside between Gothic Cottage and Barrie, where they spent a weekend in my parents’ big and bright bay window. Short of buckling them into the front seat, these little guys have been mothered well.

A month later, they’re recently potted up - 6 varieties, 33 in total - and strong enough to handle warm, sunshiney days outdoors and long weekends home alone.

How are your babies doing? Happy long weekend, fellow Canadians!

It’s the last day of March. It’s too early for the snow to be gone, the ground to be thawed, frigid days to be a thing of the past and buds already revealing themselves! With the added encouragement of the sun and warm whisperings on the air, the urge to burst forth into new life is irresistible. The buds just can’t contain themselves. The draw is too strong this year.

Multiple simultaneous fireworks. Bright magenta and flame red. Such a beautiful process and so refreshing to witness the gradual, drawn out spring of Ontario for the first time in a few years. Spring doesn’t smack you in the face here. It takes its time. It’s alluring and enticing.

This is the first new life I’ve spotted at Gothic Gottage. These silver maple buds (above) look like jellyfish, don’t you think? Now that I’ve noticed the first signs of a big thaw, I’m going to keep a close eye on how new life progresses. I’m already amazed at how much more attention I pay to my surroundings just living alone in the country.

I’m also amazed at how much more attention I pay to my own rhythms. I’ve had some major personal breakthroughs in the past when I’ve struck out on my own. But I think this past month at Gothic Cottage tops them all. Being alone on the farm has given me the peace and tranquility to learn how to really be with myself, how to love myself, and how to open my heart completely to my home, my surroundings and the amazing people in my life. To be clear, I haven’t spent 29 days in complete solitude. I’ve had visitors, left to visit others, had many fantastic phone conversations, e-conversations and even exchanged old fashioned letters. My fabulous circle of friends and family have been an integral part of me bursting to new life.

But it’s also been a glorious feeling to crave returning to my space when I’ve been away for a wee while. To turn down an invitation, or to let the answering machine take a call so I can stay focused on what I’m doing in the moment. I’m very outgoing and quite social, so this is new to me.

I am new to me.

:: nesting

:: finding a hidden stream on a run, splashing my hot face with the icey water, and running back in the 20 degree sunshine with beads of water bouncing on my lashes like little crystal balls

:: long talks and laughs with great friends

:: robin sightings and sweet bird songs

:: exciting projects in the pipeline after productive meetings in Montreal

:: a clothesline chorus line - first of the season

:: the return of hunger and organic meatballs in spicy homemade tomato sauce

:: bright emerald green - I can’t get enough of this colour right now

:: music - so much music but right now it’s Edith Piaf’s beautiful old French tunes warbling through these walls

:: my clawfoot tub brought to life with a coat of lavender AND now complete with shower. A bit girlie, yes, but entirely appropriate don’t you think?

:: a big flower seed order. Poppies and cosmos and morning glory, oh my!

:: the hot sun casting shadows on hardwood

:: a successful skunk eviction with a five-year warranty - good riddance despicable stinkers! - and a spring airing of Gothic Cottage

:: curling into bed at night with David Sedaris’ hilarious tales, chamomile tea, and my Great Grandmother’s quilt (I had no idea they had such funky fabric in the late 30s?!)

:: winter sunsets

:: windows of down time to recoup from a frantic work schedule

:: stimulating Kensington Loft conversations with Tori, Nancy and Roddy of art, architecture and culture spiced up with pop-culture-and-in-stitches YouTube entertainment topped off with homemade French onion soup and wine. The perfect evening really.

:: farm tetris - stacking wood by the fire. The only predicament being that some pieces are just too beautiful to burn

:: Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love (I thought it would be flaky and now I wonder why I waited so long)

:: Nag Champa, bees wax candles and a great reduction in skunk sprayings of late

:: Joseph Campbell and the power of myth - wow, what a brilliant grasp of cultures and the myths that guide them!

:: snow falling in the sunshine

:: a widening circle - a warming Monday night meal with new farmer friends just down the road and Everdale’s new farm manager

:: fireside crop planning and seed shopping

:: the new and the old - the new K-OS album and learning more about Louis Armstrong’s genius

:: hot apple cider with a cinnamon stick

:: my new doctor’s name: Stella Pasion

:: preparations for a warm welcome of farmer friends from Peterborough way for the weekend

Back at the ranch we’re still on UK time, which means early to bed and early to rise - between 5:00 and 6:00 am. I love this routine. I’m able to get so much done before day breaks.

There’s far less snow here in Wellington County than in Scotland. It feels much colder though: at -12 degrees C this morning it’s bitter outside. The snow is gently falling now so maybe we’ll catch up to Scotland’s record snowfalls.

2010 feels more real since returning to our little farm. It’s good to be home so we can start putting plans into high gear!

What a bonus these last couple of days have been.

In my years in Edinburgh I never saw it blanketed in snow as it is now. It’s slippy, icy cold and beautiful. The extra days have given us the opportunity to stroll through the Royal Botanic Gardens (above)

take in a couple of galleries, soak up the view of the castle, Princes Street Gardens and the city’s many monuments,

and be inspired by a number of craftsman’s creations with a massive old wych elm tree - one of which was this yurt with ash roof poles. Our friend Daniel is building one in the Highlands and we were getting tips from him as we consider building a yurt of our own some day. They’re such welcoming spaces. I love tipis for the same reason. Shona and Alistair have a fantastic tipi which I’ve missed on our last two cold weather visits. Has anyone come across good suppliers of canvas for tipis or yurts?

We’ve also had more time to pop into favourite haunts, watch the BBC, buy gifts, cook an Italian meal with ingredients from the amazing Valvona & Crolla, curl up in the flat Roddy lived in when we first started dating almost seven years ago(!), and catch up with friends which we’re off to do again just now. Blizzards never looked so good!