The Holman Grand doesn’t have bicycle parking, but it does have an ashtray.

Olivia was insistent that we go out to the tea in New Glasgow yesterday held to celebrate our friends Bruce and Shirley passing the PEI Preserve Company on to a new family to steward.

I was non-committal: I’d already debriefed with Bruce over coffee, and driving all the way out to the middle of the Island for a cup of tea and some squares seemed excessive.

But we went.

And, as often happens when Olivia seizes the moment and insists that we engage in ritual and routine, I was happy we did so: seeing Shirley and Bruce’s friends and familiars gathered together to fête them was a joy, and this photo of Bruce and Olivia is a testament to that.

I’ve been getting up at 5:45 a.m. this week, something an earlier me would have thought fantastical.

Olivia’s self-contained in the mornings now, so my urge with the blank canvas of the morning unfurled is to pounce: grab a quick coffee out and rush to the office to start with the productivity.

This morning I demurred: I slowed myself down, made breakfast, went out to the back yard.

It was the right choice.

Sarah Kennedy writes about grief and distraction for Film Stories:

Grief makes you more vulnerable and that’s frightening, but in that there’s a strength; something I couldn’t even begin to comprehend a decade ago. I can empathise with my favourite characters better now, and enjoy their stories with a whole new, sometimes painful, perspective. That means I can empathise with you better too. And hopefully treat you with the kindness you deserve. Let’s sit here together. We don’t have to talk. What do you want to watch?

From James’ Coffee Blog:

I am intrigued by the IndieWeb’s approach to plurality and building technologies that don’t serve the creation of monocultures or single ways of thinking about things. IndieWeb technologies help build plug-and-play social bridges. The technologies are your pipes. You get to decide how they connect and what you make with those pipes. This idea excites me to a great degree.

In that paragraph they neatly encapsulate much of what I have loved about web culture, both as it applies to the code and the coders.

The tulips in the front garden at 100 Prince Street are earlier this year. And they are stunning.

This Saturday, May 14th, 2022 the G’Ma Circle of Charlottetown Fabric and Yarn Plus Sale will be held at Spring Park United Church Hall, 65 Kirkwood Drive from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Fabric, yarn, jewellery, quilting squares, needlework kits, knitting needles, crochet hooks, books and patterns, notions, etc. Individual prices & by bag (yours or ours) starting at $10 per bag.

Proceeds support African Grandmothers raising grandchildren orphaned by HIV/AIDS via the Stephen Lewis Foundation.

When Catherine died in 2020 she left a studio filled with fabric, yarn, thread, fleece, and all manner of tools and notions. With the cooperation of the estimable Sharon Reesor, I was able, mid-COVID, to arrange to donate most of it to this sale, so you’ll find many strands of her there this weekend.

Catherine was so deeply engaged with the needle arts: they connected her to a rich past; she used them to communicate progressive messages. It would give her great solace to know that the stuff of her studio will live on in new hands to make new things.

Please be generous with your support of this initiative.

Little Black Dress is a delightful and progressive clothing store, and has newly opened a shop in Charlottetown on Great George Street. Please go and shop there.

The only fly in the ointment is their sign: simple, solid, and after my own heart, but for a botched kerning job.

It was a year ago today that my darling Olivia came out as a trans-woman. I am so proud of her for boldly finding her way to her true self.

Over the last year she has continued to explore the nooks and crannies of her gender identity and expression; it has not always been easy, especially when she’s struggled to communicate her finely-tuned self-regard to others in a way that does it justice.

In parallel she’s made great leaps and bounds toward independence, self-confidence, and self-determination. And she’s continued to confront her grief over her mother’s death.

She is an estimable young woman; I love her dearly, and am in awe of who she’s becoming.

Three of our motley crew went riding at Venture Stables yesterday. (Young) L’s friend S. came out with us and took photos, including this one, admittedly a little blurry, of me and Jack.

She happens to have captured me with my eyes up, my heels (mostly) down, and my hands in a (pretty) good position.

I have developed a great fondness for Jack; I’ve been riding him since the fall—more than six months now—and we have a developed a good rhythm together.