Apparently, the unexpected benefit of layering cardboard over good compost filled soil, surrounded by flat island stones, is a bounty of Morel mushrooms. There are quite a few in my garden where there never were before. I didn’t even know what they were. We are not big fans of wild mushrooms of any type, but my sister and brother in law are. E was busy today planing the fir which our brother in law kindly milled for us to finish the bedroom baseboards and trim. Two hundred board feet of fir trim in return for a few mushrooms. Seemed like a good trade.

Years ago when we wanted to sell our house with the massive garden, the realtor told us it would be hard to sell ’cause most young people do not have the time to keep a garden. Certainly, our son and his wife are way too busy for weeding. He can be deployed for weeks at a time in the summer, fighting wild fires, and they will have two kids soon. DIL works full time and both have two hour daily commutes. In between working full time last year, parenting, and finishing her degree with a full course load, our DIL has been kept busy with her art.

Her name is Diamond Point. A Coast Salish artist from the Musqueam Indian Band. She was invited to design the banners displayed down the length of main mall at UBC. They have been up for the last year.https://belkin.ubc.ca/events/kids-take-over-diamond-point/

Then this summer, while our son was deployed and she was writing exams, she participated in the Vancouver Mural Festival, painting a mural on a building at Main and 49th.

In August she also finished her contribution to the Yoko Ono sponsored exhibition currently running at the Vancouver Art Gallery. https://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/exhibitions/yoko-ono-water-event

Last year she designed a wall mural for the Bridgeport sky train station.https://www.richmondartgallery.org/diamond-point

When they bought their new home with a garden that needs a lot of upkeep, they looked at all of the plants and saw work. I graciously offered to take them off their hands. We came back from town on Friday with a boat load of the plants from their yard, which I could identify. We left behind many which need to flower before I will know what they are. Then I will hopefully take them too.

As a woman without an artistic bone in her body, I am in awe of our daughter in law’s talent and am happy to help free up her time to create, while I assume the role of family weeder. It is

another good trade