DESIGNI NG green THE HAND MADE SPRING
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e’re in the last stretch, just days before spring equinox. “I’m so excited! I just can’t hide it! Boom, boom , boom, boom, boom boom, I like it!” Alright, break out every tool you have. I love to start this most celebrated season in tradition. Dad always prepared me with the essential basics. Take everything apart, clean it, burnish it, then put back together and oil it or grease it up for the season. These were days gone by when families were large and we had to share limited resources. A bike lasted a lifetime. Mine was a 1935 CCM handed down from my aunt Pat. So did a tool, a shovel, a ball glove and often a special home made project around the house that says “I did it”. The ‘hand made spring I’ll call it’
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I really think that everyone should exercise their creative bone and build, plant, wreck, paint, nail or assemble just about anything to mark the spring of 2014. Start with preparing soils in the yard. All compost in layers and layers. Lasagne style with sheet cardboard, mulch, compost and prunings. Vegetarian style regardless of your habits. Aerate. Dig small holes everywhere and fill with breathable material. Again, compost, sand or just about anything new. Dig in and dig it. This applies to your work, your relationships and your friends. Stir it up a bit but infuse good fresh ingredients. How about a friendly fence? Even just to speak through to your neighbours , never mind keeping out the critters. Maybe the design will create some new neighbourly
chatter. Or a bench to sit and reflect why you should not build a fence at all. A weekend in the bush will
net you some discarded organically shaped cedar limbs, some split cedar rails (if you find a tall burnt out