I’m not working over the summer, although I am thinking about my fall and spring courses. I have things that I want to do, but I can never find the time to get to them. Just like writing in this blog. I’ve been thinking about writing for weeks, but just haven’t been able to get to it.

I decided to look at my day yesterday to see why I don’t have time. Or maybe, let’s look at both Thursday and Friday.

Thursday – I started the morning with a Treehouse Village Meeting (2 hours), then took the dog to the groomer, went grocery shopping, then picked the dog up from the groomer. Then I went for a massage, as my back has been bothering me. Then home to make dinner before another 2 hour Treehouse Village meeting. That way my day.

Friday – I started off with a morning of uPick Haskap berries. I had done this last weekend as well, so we have a bunch of frozen haskap berries now. I’m hoping to make some jam with this batch.

Let me pause here for a second. A haskap is a berry that looks like a long blueberry and tastes like a tangy blackberry. They are quite delicate and squish easily. Unlike blueberries, they all ripen at the same time so the season is short – about 2 weeks. The berries grow in clusters, so if you have a good plant, you can get quite a few. The larger clusters were lower to the ground which made it a little more challenging. Once the berries are exposed, the birds will eat them pretty quickly. The farm where we pick do not use any chemicals on them – so you can eat them right off the tree – so picking involves a bit of test tasting to ensure they are perfectly ripe 🙂

After planting Haskaps, I had brunch and then took Cali out for a walk while also bringing the car over for a quick charge. There is a great place at the Best Western in Cooksville that has a Flo fast charger – meaning my car will go from empty to 80% in just over an hour. What is great is that there is both shopping (Canadian Tire, pet store, etc) and a great trail for a short hike available while charging. I brought Cali along so that we could go for a nice hike while the car got juiced up. I notices along the trail a lot of unripe blackberries (they don’t ripen until late August, early September) and wild raspberries, which are just now starting to ripen. That meant that I got a little snack of fresh raspberries while I walked.

Then home for a snack and a cooldown – it was rather warm outside. In the late afternoon we went out to the nearby lake for some stand up paddleboard (SUP) training. That is, I’m training Cali to go paddleboarding with me. I really like paddling and I’m looking forward to a time when we are able to go circumnavigate the various lakes around here. The water is warm, so it is just a delight to go for a swim. I took this picture while I was in the water and she was on the board.

Then it was home to make dinner and a social visit via Zoom. And when that was finished, I took Cali out for her evening walk, which turned into what we call “Tucker time”, that is, time when she gets to play offleach with the neighbours dog Tucker. They play so well together and are so incredibly cute!

Somewhere in the day, I managed to do a few smaller tasks of organization, but I just couldn’t get to things that require longer periods of concentration – like writing a blog post or making jam. These are my typical days at the moment. They are filled with outdoor time, which is awesome, but it is also difficult to try and fit in time for work, especially when Cali wants to play when we are at home.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. I live a privileged live and I am very happy to be here and to be able to get out and do as much as I do. I just ask for patience if you want me to do anything that looks like concentrated work, because I’m struggling to find the time to make that happen.

I love that I get to call Nova Scotia home!