Into our fourth year now and so far no sign of getting voted off the island. Either it is proof they haven’t met the real me yet or the people on this island have low standards. One of our dinner guests on the weekend implied that we need eccentric neighbours. It helps us look more normal…. I’m not sure that I have met any one on the island who could be considered eccentric but the questionable decision to live off grid makes us just a little less normal than people who enjoy power supplied by BC Hydro.
Buying this property we had the advantage of an established garden with a secure fenced area filled with beautiful soil. The R’s who used to own the property used the gardening area for vegetables and to breed lilies. I am sure when BR was in the garden he was working.. I take a different perspective on gardening.. When I am gardening I am usually sitting and quite often drinking a glass of wine.. First thing I had to do when we took over was add a seating area… When I am sitting I want to watch birds and bees and butterflies… To attract birds and bees and butterflies you need flowers… Lots and lots of flowers and bird feeders.. Lots and lots of bird feeders 
With every addition to the garden, I ask myself “Who will it attract to my garden?” At the moment my garden is full of finches. I was under the impression that yellow finches were the males and the plainer finches were the females.. I was concerned as I have dozens of female looking finches and only one male… It seemed inappropriate some how… So I looked it up on the google.
All finches lose their entire coat of feathers in a year cycle…. and when the males feathers grow back at first they look the same in color as the female.. But they eventually become all yellow… I can see the difference now when I look at them on the feeder some have a yellow tinge to their coloring as they proceed with their change of feather. I feel much relieved. It wouldn’t be much of a dance party with only one male partner.
In addition to flowers and bird feeders… Birds need lots of water, for bathing and for drinking.. The sound of running water attracts them to their baths….. I have added a garden pond to our to-do list… I have just the right spot beside my seating area.. I will be able to sit comfortably with my wine watching the birds play in the pond.
E has a problem with my to-do list… We have a two page to-do list which we are currently attacking. It is an ever evolving list… E doesn’t have a problem with having to-dos on a list.. He doesn’t even mind the fact that most of the to-dos on the list are his… His problem is the number of words I use. He maintains that the number of words I use to describe a chore should be indicative of the amount of time the chore will take to accomplish.
For example… My name was beside the following to-do. It took me fifteen minutes.
Item – Go up to the neighbours and prune the geraniums.
But the item beneath it with E’s name read
Item – Pond
E maintains one word does not validate the week it is going to take him to build me a pond. You can see his point.. But I am nothing if not flexible.. I will use as many words as he wants on the list as long as he builds me a pond.. I have a lot of
“gardening” to do
Off the Grid Islander 