Maggie – Jaxon

Maggie passed away after living a year longer than predicted, and about three years longer than her breed’s life expectancy. She had a nice life here, after being rescued by Gary’s parents in Florida. She was an amazing dog with our son.

We intended to wait a bit – we’ve been saying that we’re staying in this house until she passes away, as when we went looking at condos it turned out many of them had rules against pit bulls. But then we saw Jaxon’s picture and met him on Zoom and fell in love – Gary and I have never not had a dog in the house since we’ve been together and we were missing the click-clack of little paws and how could you resist this face?

He’s been with us two weeks already – and he’s kind of perfect. Scary-smart and just a lovely character. We’ve had rescues (all great dogs but quirky!) for so long we’d forgotten what it was like to have a dog who wants to make us happy. And while we’d been warned off his breed because they can be so busy, he’s happy to be busy but also really laid back most of the time. He loves attention but sincerely doesn’t want to be a bother (with Maggie we’d say that in a Jewish woman’s kind of Harvey Fierstein voice, “I don’t want to be a bother!” and it meant the opposite – invoking some characters we knew and loved. We’d also use that voice when she walked in the rain or snow and lamented how we might be living in Florida). He refused to stay in his crate the first night but the second day started gathering his toys and going in on his own: “I got this – I’m crate training myself!” Two weeks ago I was thinking we needed a smaller crate and today I realized he’s wall to wall when he stretches out – we might need a bigger one!

It’s amazing how attentive he is to everything, and he gets us out walking and looking and playing… so much joy.

Gardening

I have gardened most of my life – sometimes on balconies of apartments but mostly I’ve been lucky enough to have homes with lawns ready to tear up and make gardens of. It’s led to lots of good things. The first house I owned was organized and supported by a neighbour who had watched me garden in this little urban space and when they found out we were renting they made it possible for us to buy another, bigger house with a larger garden. A developer wanted it to be part of a housing development and we said we’d sell if we could get enough money to move to Gabriola Island – by the time we got there we only had enough cash for a half-acre but then we made a new garden and I started writing about gardening – a monthly article for a magazine that I loved, and a weekly column for the local paper, and assorted other articles that appeared in other places. That led to the purchase of a hobby farm and more project, always on tight budget with big visions, and then I came back to the city and mostly enjoyed my friend’s garden (the product of a gardening family, so always something interesting going on!). Gary and I then bought our current New Westminster house, not least because it is almost a double lot…

After nearly 20 years here our garden is re-emerging and changing. A couple of trees that grew way bigger than I ever expected had to go… more need to be taken out or shaped down to size so I got a little chainsaw for my birthday and will see what I can manage. While I was working on my last degrees I didn’t pay enough attention to what was happening (after we had the very bad idea of “let’s leave this blackberry bush here and see what happens!” – what happened was that it took over the whole yard!). So we’ve spent the last month lopping back brambles, digging out roots, bagging it all up and sending it to the compost works. What’s emerging is very cool – some densely shaded areas – and I am loving spending time there, as is Gary and Zev.

Introduce Yourself (Example Post)

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

  • Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
  • Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

  • Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
  • What topics do you think you’ll write about?
  • Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
  • If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.