Bugs have become a recurring theme lately around our house. If it isn’t gypsy moth caterpillars in the apple trees, it’s yellow jackets building a nest under our patio table. Fortunately we noticed a lot of activity around the table and discovered the nest before giving the table a good yank or knocking into the nest with our knees. Gary did the honours of removing the nest and let it be noted that he showed exceptional valour.

I spent some time in Victoria’s chinatown this week, while waiting for our car to be repaired. We are a one-car family, so I hopped the bus into town and brought my sketchbook with me. Which was a good thing to have, since there’s not much open in Victoria at 8:30 am. I love that time of morning when the coffee shops and breakfast places are busy and people are off to work. Stores are closed and different city things are happening: window washing, trucks making deliveries. It was a beautiful sunny spring day.

Our veggie patch is now tilled, amended, and planted. Radishes, chard and lettuce are sprouting so far. I’m also happy to see that my years of neglect are paying off in the herb garden. I love those plants that just want to be ignored. Some of my sage, oregano, parsley and thyme plants that I started two years ago are pretty well established now. My plan is to keep reclaiming ground from the overgrown gardens and plant more of those neglect-tolerant plants. I call it the “clear, hold and grow” strategy. And then eat.

Is there something wrong with me? I get a giddy feeling seeing stuff like this knitted swiffer cover. Yes! A knitted swiffer cover! And what’s better than the fact that a knitted swiffer cover exists? The fact that I know about it, because someone thought it was worth mentioning.

This particular piece of genius came to my attention through Sew Green, a collaborative blog of crafty DIY environmentalism. That such a thing exists is also a measure of these heady times in which we are fortunate to live.

I don’t always feel so excited and encouraged about these times, and not just because Blake bumped Melinda off American Idol. Awareness can be quite the downer. But sometimes I run across a piece of inventiveness like the swiffer cover and it makes me feel like a lot of things are actually going right. And I’m not so ridiculous to be trying to do my little bit to reduce my big old bootprint on the planet. Things are happening out there people! Its exciting. And its even fun.

And check out the radishes (top photo). First sprouts of the season!