Coming Home

PEI is home. There is no denying this. No matter how many times I uproot myself from this Island that I grew up on, no matter how many kilometres away I plant myself, or how many times zones I have to adjust my phone calls, this little cradle shaped piece of land on the East Coast of Canada will always be home. And I will forever find myself 'coming home', returning as the holidays demand or as another chapter of my life comes to a close. The chapters of my twenties are marked by the dog-eared months I spent in between adventures, recuperating and rejuvenating on PEI. And so it was throughout most of my twenties that I developed a pattern of flitting between the familiar and the unknown. I'd leave PEI for somewhere far far away, then return to home for a few months , get itchy feet and then find another country willing to entertain my fascination with accents, kilts and all things non-Canadian. And then, many months later, I'd be back on red soil, savouring the familiarity of this place called 'home', until I again felt the need to made tracks for somewhere else, anywhere else.

And always, coming home meant returning to an easy routine, where eating and food shopping were second nature, where barbecued salmon and green salads were as common place as the pints I slugged back in Scotland and I found excuses to go to the Superstore on a daily basis. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the eating and food shopping experiences of Scotland, Ireland and Australia (stay tuned for a post about my haggis and kangaroo days), but there's something to be said for having dinner with your parents and running into friends at the grocery store.

Last August, I started the latest chapter and the last of my twenties, when I moved to Kingston, Ontario to do my Masters in Environmental Studies. In June I decided I had to book a solid month (or more) long visit to PEI during the summer - a wedding and baby shower were calling me home (not the same girl!), as was the desire for some familiarity and peace. And so I find myself here yet again, savouring everything about this Island I was fully prepared, in fact I was downright giddy about the prospect of spending six weeks of summer on PEI purely for the gastronomical pleasures it would offer up. I actually booked my flight home so I wouldn't miss the short, but delectable strawberry season. And I envisioned many nights around the dinner table, enjoying barbecued salmon, new boiled PEI potatoes and fresh garden salads. Mussels would also be a must and, while I wasn't set on it, I figured a lobster dinner might be worth taking in during the month of July. I had also plotted my visits to the Farmer's Market in Charlottetown and penciled in Adam for a delicious dinner at the Dayboat Restaurant, in Oyster Bed Bridge. Clearly, I was going to make the most out of my short visit home by indulging in the fresh bounty of produce and seafood on offer.

What I didn't expect was that, in the time between summer of 2008 and summer of 2009, PEI would begin to embrace the very things that I have always believed to be amongst its greatest assets: strong community and delicious food. Almost daily since I've been home on PEI I have found myself pleasantly surprised by what is starting to take place here. On the surface, I see provincial government initiatives, such as the 'Buy PEI' campaign. Deeper and more meaningfully, I see members of the community starting to support local farmers and entrepreneurs, such as the three farm families that started Riverview Country Market. Then there are the creative, forward thinking people like Dave Cormier and Rob Paterson, championing a local food movement and encouraging people to think about where their food comes from. Dave recently started a website that will map farms across PEI, so people can find local food in real time - when it is available for purchase/picking. This coming weekend there's an Organic Food Festival, dubbed Nigwek (Miqmaw for 'something good is growing), on Victoria Row, where there'll be plenty of musical acts, food demonstrations and presentations by our own Chef Michael Smith and organic farmer Raymond Loo. Then there are the farmers of course. Like Jen & Derek Campbell, whose CSA in Brookvale is full of fresh, organic veggies and feeds several happy customers every week.

I think what I'm trying to say is that I'm impressed. Very impressed. PEI is finally beginning to build on its strengths. Yes, maybe these are just small sprouts right now, but they are sprouts nonetheless. On my part, I've found myself avoiding the Superstore as much as possible, preferring to make meals from fresh berries and produce that I can get from the Farmer's Market and roadside stands or, ideally, my mother's rather large garden. I've been eating a lot of fish too. I'm not close to eating a 100-mile diet, but I'm closer than I ever have been in the past. And that's progress.

To use a well-worn phrase of my good friend Joan Fleming: 'At the end of the day'....that's what life is about: progress. If we are progressing towards something that we can feel good about, if we are able to smile and shake the hand of the person who grew the food we're going to eat, if we can sit down to a meal and know that what we're eating is good for us and good for the earth, then I think we're doing well. And we all have the potential to progress - to individually and collectively transcend the norms that stagnate our evolution. You have potential, I have potential, communities have potential, even a little island on the East Coast of Canada has potential. Let's make something of our potential. Let's progress.

And on a final note - it's good to be home.

Change. Transition. Progress.

All Shanadian has been with me since January 2004. I believe I originally created this blog as a means of distraction from the current task at hand - at that time, it was my Business Honours research paper. Then it morphed into a travelogue for the next few years, while I ceilidhed it up in Scotland and Ozzed it up Down Under. During my stints in Canada it served more often as a scrawl wall, upon which I'd find msyelf writing a rant about something or other, typically involving politics or the environment. It's also been a faithful note-taker, tracking what I considered to be noteworthy events (getting kicked out of Scotland) and ho-hum everyday life kind of stuff that I deemed worthy of recording. It's seen me through two broken hearts, four places I think of as 'home', several jobs and non-jobs, countless encounters with amazing people, and endless moments worthy of remembrance, most of which have been captured by All Shanadian, in the words that were written or in the spaces between those words.

And now, I think it might be time for a change. Not an ending or a beginning, but a transition. Looking at the statistics, the number of times I've blogged each year has dropped steadily since 2004. I've been neglecting All Shanadian and I've been neglecting my artist for some time now. My heart has been trying to tell me for some time and I've ignored it, caught up in trying to get through grad school, get my body back to the way it was when I was 21 and, let's face it, spending far too much time on Facebook and MSN Messenger. Not that there's anything wrong with FB or Messenger, but they tend to act as 'gleaners' and they definitely don't demand or even encourage thoughtful words composed in multiple paragraphs.

I need to return to my writing. Writing is what I am meant to do. Admittedly my blog has never served to showcase my writing abilities, mostly because I tended to write them while typing against a clock (when in Internet cafes in Scotland), or late at night (like now), or when I should have been writing a thesis (also like now).

So why, if I want to return to writing, do I not just start writing more entries in All Shanadian? I've been struggling with the answer to that myself and I guess it comes down to the advice of What Not To Wear hosts Clinton and Stacy" 'Dress for the job you want, not for the one you have'. Likewise - 'Write as the writer you want to be, not as the blogger you have been'. And I want to be a writer, I want to flex my writing muscles and see how much they can take. I want to transition from a sometimes lazy blogger to a writer who blogs regularly and with some sort of direction. Ah and there it is, the other piece to the puzzle - I want to be a writer who blogs with focus, passion and, on occasion, intent.

So what am I trying to say? I think I'm trying to say one of two things:

A) that it may be time to retire All Shanadian and transition to a new adventure in blogging.

B) that it's time to try on two blogs for size - maintain All Shanadian and start a new blog with a focus on food (in the broadest of senses possible)

Ack. I am torn. I want to believe that I can do Option B, but my gut tells me that if I try to maintain two blogs, while also writing a Masters thesis and doing research for the City of Kingston I will fail to maintain either, thus ending my career as a blogger for ever and ever. OK, OK, I know I'm being dramatic, but my heart is truly aching as I contemplate the possibility of retiring All-Shanadian. I think I need to break and come back to this later. Or maybe earlier in the day.

AFTER A BREAK

OK, I've eaten chocolate almonds, reread some of my All Shanadian posts and made a mental lists of the pros and cons of Options A and Options B. What I've come up with is Option C, which will be rolled out in the coming days. But here's a sneak peek at what to expect:

No need to memorize a new address, or change any bookmarks, the address of my blog will remain the same: http://allshanadian.blogspot.com

The name of the blog, however, will change. Stay tuned.

And as with the name, the focus and style of this blog will (hopefully) shift. As mentioned in Option B, I feel driven to write about food and everything related. No, this won't become a recipes blog, or yawny academic type blog. The truth is, I don't know exactly what this blog will transform into, I only know what I won't let it become (see previous sentence). Right now, I envision the 'everything related' of my food blogging to include, but not be limited to:

*food systems*cooking*actively being*being active*love*the environment *grassroots* people power*traveling*nature*being green*going slow*politics*going local*home*friendships* relationships*being passionate*fear*hope*the future*

Forgive me for my ramblings. I am tying All Shanadian up to the dock for now, and setting sail on a new ship (yet to be christened), without being quite certain of my destination and having only a sense of the direction I want to go in. But what's life without a bit of uncertainty? Where's the adventure when you Google map your way from Point A to Point B and use a GPS for back-up?

I'm excited, possibly moreso than would be considered normal when all I am planning is a name and template change, along with some food blogging. And yet my heart is racing a little faster - thanking me for finally taking a baby step in response to its persistent tugging.

Thank you for sailing with me on All Shanadian, I do hope you'll join me on my next sail into the sunset.

Do you know the PEI song?

It starts something like this:

'I was Prince Edward Island born, and Prince Edward Island bred
and when I die, I'll be Prince Edward Island dead!'
Oh Prince Edward Island Island, Prince Edward Island
Island, Prince Edward Island Island
P.E.I.!!!
Some come from the West
and some come from the East
But where ever they go, they know PEI's the Best!


Hmm...from thereon in, it gets a bit fuzzy, but you get the idea.

So, I've been back on PEI since Sunday at midnight after an awesome weekend in Toronto. What a stopover on the way - Kingston to Toronto to PEI. Population wise, that goes something like: 117,000 to 3,000,000 to 140,000. Note that the last number represents the population of an ENTIRE province!

Random numbers and notes since my landing in PEI 2 nights ago:

15 kilometers - distance I've covered in training for marathon - 13 kms jogged, 2 kms walked

2 hours - amount of time I've spent working on my thesis research

4 hours - approx amount of time I've spent procrastinating on working on my thesis research

$140 - amount of money spent loading up on groceries only to discover after the fact that the
M&J boarding house that I am staying at (aka MOm & Jim's) is well stocked, especially in
in blueberries and haddock

1 - number of premiers I've seen since arriving on the Island. Yes, that's right I saw PEI premier Robert Ghiz at The Pilot House tonight, eating dinner with his wife. Only on PEI.

1 - number of UPEI professors I saw eating at the Pilot House who have decided that the leopard print look is so very 'hip' that he should get his head dyed to look like that of the spotted cat

49 seconds - length of my first stint as a videographer, where I assisted Jen Mac and Janielle Furness in getting one step closer to their dream of winning a 67 day trip to Orlando, Florida

And that's all for now. I am oover and oot!