Going on Vacation
A tearful goodbye to the flourishing garden, keeping kids busy in the car, sightseeing plans and a whole lot of family.
I’m leaving for vacation this week and all I can think about is my garden!
The berries on the blackberry bramble are finally starting to turn colour, from dusty red to black. It’s a bumper crop this year and my husband was excited to make a blackberry and tarragon mead, but we’ll see what remains when we get back.
He isn’t hopeful.
The first beans are coming in. Lemon cucumbers are developing on their vines. I harvested my first yellow zucchini last week and in the next week or two, the tomatoes will be ready for picking. It feels like I’m harvesting something everyday, whether it’s calendula flowers for future teas and salves, or the many herbs that are waiting patiently for my attention. Yesterday afternoon, I could be spotted harvesting plantain from in between the cracks of my patio stones. There’s always something in the summer.
Last week I was chopping up echinacea, yarrow and self-heal from my yard to infuse in vodka and honey for my annual throat spray. That stuff is amazing in the winter. Yesterday, I was heaving up bulbs of garlic from the garden. On Saturday, my friend spotted me with an armful of onions that I hoped to hide away in my shed before our dinner party. I’m as busy as a bee with dozens of things to do and I’m leaving before the week is through. It pulls at the heartstrings a bit.
While thousands of people pour into beautiful Québec to take their own summer vacations, I’ll be exiting the province, making way for the maritimes. My mother moved there during the troubling year of 2020 and the last time we went for a visit, it didn’t feel like a real vacation. At the time, she was in New Brunswick, which is a fine province in its own right, but she was inland. When I think of Eastern Canada, my imagination turns to the colourful buildings of Lunenburg, the iconic light house of Peggy’s Cove, white-sand beaches and tidal pools. We didn’t get that experience a couple of years ago, but this time it’s different.
From where I live, it’s an 18-hour drive to my mother’s current home base in Nova Scotia. Today, of all days, we’re trading in our faithful (yet crumbling) car of six years and driving away in an SUV comfortably sized to fit giants. Seriously. My husband stands tall at 6ft 6” and I’m a tall glass of water myself at 6 feet. Our sons are destined for great heights themselves. We needed this upgrade.
I have several books set aside to read aloud to the children during the long drive, as well as Edith Nesbit’s The Railway Children on audiobook. I’m filling busy bins for them to while away the time. Songs will be sung, games of I Spy will be played. When my mother was a child, her parents had the kids look for things on car trips, like animals and road signs, so I’ll see about putting together some car bingo cards for them to check off, as well.
Maybe it’s punishing to myself, but I’m not a big believer in screens on the road. Instead, I believe in playground pit stops, picnics and lots of singing and stories. It’s that stubborn, old-fashioned spirit in me. If you have other ideas, I want to hear them in the comments! Any little tip helps when a mountain of a drive faces you with two young kids in the car.
Of course, when we get there, we won’t stop driving. I want to take the kids to the beaches to dip their toes in the cold ocean and to explore tidal pools. My mom proposed being a tourist at the Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens. No need to ask me twice!
We want to visit Lunenburg again and spot Canada’s famous Bluenose schooner. The best sunset I ever watched was in Nova Scotia: as the sun sank, a random musician started playing the bagpipes in the distance, making it all the more magical. Catching another one of those would be pretty swell. I want to get our shoes muddy at Burntcoat Head Park and let my kids go nuts hunting for rocks and shells (they’re big collectors).
We have plans to take a rest from driving and let a ferry carry us some of the way. The last time we did that, we spotted humpback whales peeking out of the ocean. How cool is that? Of course, I’m going to hike around and see what kinds of new flora I can learn about, and every so often, I’m going to check in with our house sitter to see how the garden is doing.
As much as I love sightseeing and adventures, this vacation is mostly about family. It’s the season of life we’re in. As thrilling as it would be to jet around the world visiting foreign countries, I just need a hug from my mom and to give her more opportunities to connect with her grandchildren. I have aunts, uncles and cousins that I want to visit with. My mother has been missing out on the family foraging walks I’ve been leading this summer, so I’ll be giving her a one-on-one tour of what’s growing around her. I can’t wait.
We’ll stay up late to play cards and share stories. I’ll pick vegetables from her garden and feel better about all the weeds growing in mine because my weed problem is never as bad as her weed problem. There will be lots of swimming and forest walks. Some sightseeing and hopefully, a bit of lobster. It’s a budget vacation, but when you’re in the land of seafood, you’ve gotta treat yourself.
I haven’t decided if I’m going to write my weekly article while I’m away. In my mind, I’d like to, but it’s different when I’m in vacation mode. The pace changes and rhythms are interrupted. It’s about going with the flow. Much to my husband’s chagrin, I’m very much led by spontaneity while on vacation. It’s something I inherited from my mother. We used to take off for two-day car trips and not know where we were going to eat or spend the night. It led to some incredible finds.
Even if you don’t find an email from me in your inbox for the next couple of weeks, I’ll be thinking of you. Be sure to look out for notes that I share on my Substack page; I know I’ll be posting those!
Love and gratitude,
Sylvia
Bon voyage! Sounds like a fabulous trip!