Check out my new wheels...

Check out my new helmet. Totally Super-Dave Osborne. If you don't know who that is, you're probably too young, or not Canadian. Not knowing, of course, if young non-Canadians even read this blog.

This photo was taken back in January, around day two of ownership, before I learned to wear a wind-breaker. Back when I thought a thrift-shop jean jacket was Safety First, and also the heighth of circa-1978 dirt bike fashion.

Around day three of ownership, I was pulled off the road by a fellow Honda Ruckus owner who had--I think the term is--"pimped" his ride. Every bit of plastic was replaced with chrome. His ignition key was a silver skull. He had tattoos, black leather, and a diamond nose stud.

Wow, I thought. I am so in a motorcycle gang. I acted very cool, just so you know.

He told me his 7-year old had made him the skull key. He told me about an online Ruckus forum that will help me with any maintenance questions that come up. Then we did the secret Ruckus salute and sped away.

So. The Bicycle-Gardening Chronicles are in for revisions.

What can I call me now?

Before somebody calls me a sell-out, let me clarify that according to the most flattering timeline possible, you may think I'm a late-twenty-something riding my bicycle all over the North Shore and gardening. Oh ho ho ho. No. I'm definitely a late-thirty-something. I'm like that Olympic "grizzled" snow-boarder guy: still doing it.

Furthermore, I'm still riding my bicycle. I love my bicycle. My bicycle is the reason my life is one long endorphin high. I'm still not used to the concept of just sitting there on my scoot.

So, considering my advancing age and infirmity, I decided that now is a good time to start diversifying my skills. I'm taking a part-time online Tech Writing course this year, which means I have to prop myself up at a computer and think at the end of the day. Thus, the scooter.

Check this out:

I can fit all my loppers/shears etc. under the seat and tie in long-handle gear like my telescoping pole pruner!! One year, when I was transiting to Ghana through Amsterdam, I went on a (cobble-)stoned bike-shop quest and found these water-proof paniers (cheap!) which fit the Ruckus perfectly. There are bicycle-goodies in Amsterdam we only dream of here.

Also check this out:

This is the back of the scooter. I've stuffed a tarp in over the loppers etc. so you can't see them here. There's a bar just where I tie in the pruner (under the panier strap), so the pruner's not resting on the relatively flimsy plastic tail-lights. I also tie it in under the seat in front, so it's not going anywhere--largely thanks to the Best Tie-Ins ever: old bicycle tubes cut in strips. They don't mark paint, and hold a knot so tight you can get away with an over-and-under, unless you're a wee bit Safety First and go for a full knot, like me. (I will do another post on the amazing versatility of old bicycle tubes.)

I'm almost giddy about my carrying capacity--no comparison to conventional scooters that have panels and zero storage space. And this is a mere 50 cc, button-start, 4-stroke, standard driver's licence, 220 lb capacity, town-speed only. I can get to 60 km/hr on the flat, and grind up some of North Van's steepest hills at 30-40 km/hr. Takin' the slow lane.

I filled up after 150 km for $3.76. La.

Green Roof?

Cools in summer, insulates from the elements in winter.

What the heck. Just live in the tree.

A little Vancouver holiday sparkle

This is Pierre & Patti's Japanese maple, with garlands of raindrops in a brief sunshower.




Japanese maples are sooo beautiful. They do things when you're not looking.


Remember to look at plants in the winter-time too. They like the attention.

Harry Lauder's Walking Stick

Only a comedian would look at this tree and declare it a fine specimen from which to cut a walking stick.


This is Sabra's contorted hazel/Corylus avellana 'Contorta', also known as Harry Lauder's Walking Stick--named for the Scottish musician/comedian who used a branch as a staff for a bit of a gag. (This was circa early 20th Century. Sabra doesn't know Harry. I didn't know who Harry was either until I googled him a moment ago--and there he is, in a kilt, with a squiggly stick. Neat.)

This bit of horti-culture is brought to you because it did indeed rain this week, melting all traces of winter, so I'm still working. Bypassed my traditional hibernation date of December 15th so I was getting grumpy until I happened upon this ree-diculous tree, at which point I rolled about in mirth, spilling my meade. Ya, not quite. Anyways, I do like it, and now is the time to look for it, because all the rest of the year it is disguised by its hairy filberty wrinkly leaves. And when the catkins bloom, it gets even better. Comes with it's own Christmas decorations.

The only significant maintenance tips are:
--Harries are grafted onto normal (unfunny) hazel rootstocks which may periodically send up straight suckers, so rip them off if you can (takes the initiating bud with it), or cut them if you can't rip them.
--Once a Harry gets to mature size, I periodically prune out branches in the summertime to create "windows" into the gnarly trunk, so Harry doesn't look like a big hairy filberty wrinkly green blob. These branches are very groovy, and are often used in groovy floral arrangements by Thomas Hobbs, our modern-day horti-cultural icon.

Here's a full shot of this fine speciman. He's squiggling toward the light, as a greenbelt of enormous fir/cedar is behind him.

Icicle-Gardening

I know, it's getting cold outside. Time to wrap it up. We've had some "flurries" and yes, any leaf piles left on the lawn are now welded there until spring. Or maybe next week. Could rain next week. This is Vancouver after all.

Nevertheless, this is the best time of year for big thermoses of homemade soup and thick-cut-cheese sandwiches, and I don't mind when frosty mornings and early darkness bookend a short and sweet working day.


Ran about Sheena & Terry's garden on Friday, in a last-minute clean-up before the "flurries" in the forecast. I want Nick and Terry to see their little waterfall below, because Nick will be constructing his own version of similar size in the spring. The catchment pond (in which the pump is submerged) is obviously iced over.

In particular, notice the evergreen Lonicera pileata--one of the shrubby honeysuckles (that bears no apparent resemblance to the vine) which I have stockpiled for Nick & Terry's new waterfall planting. I really like how its horizontal branch structure softens the sides of a man-made waterfall, and it gets a surprising crop of very purple berries in late spring. The great big spiky purplish New Zealand flax (Phormium tenax) that is usually visible in the gap on the upper right is still a shadow of its former self after last winter.
I built this mini-fall and pond...eight years ago? Hol-ee. With the help of Paul Sra, a very funny man. We used a layer of pond felt and pond liner under the falls and pond (I have the construction pictures in the July 28 2008 entry) and basalt slabs for the step-down falls. As I recall, the pump was about $400, chosen for the height of water drop, and it has churned away for eight years and counting. Now there are pre-form plastic waterfall runs available, which probably does help water loss on longer, more convoluted waterfall configurations.

It's verrry important, if you do have an exposed catchment pond (unlike some of the "secret springs" water bubblers) to position a "rescue/perching rock" for birds that might fall in.

The water level can sink in summer due to splashing or evaporation so has to be topped up. And-ha-if you think, oh, my waterfall doesn't splash that much, these photos have pretty much caught those splashes, frozen in the act. That's why it's also important to extend the pond liner farther out than you think along the sides, and angle the grade back to the falls/pond, so the splashes drain back in.