Move out. Move in. Put stuff in closets and drawers. Shake your head at the things you stored. Start another bag of things to donate. Remember what a privilege it is to choose to move…or to stay still.

Landscape: What to do with the stretches and swales of dirt around the house? I find myself at the juncture of looking and living, leisure and labour, owning and being, exchange and use, settling and decolonizing. (D. Mitchell, K. Olwig,…

As Edmonton air turned a heavy orange grey today, I was struck by the irony of our solar panels being blocked from the gift of the sun’s rays by wildfire smoke. 

There is something about building anew, and with purpose, on a site you already call home. Less alienation. More neighbours invested in the outcome. Peonies that unexpectedly rise again in the same place.

The condenser unit will leave a mound of 200 litres of ice over the course of a winter as it sucks the precious heat out of -20 air. Tiling our bathrooms and entryways required 20 gallons of water per day….

Glazing: I ask about % glazing we can have on the south wall. “As much as you want,” answers our draftsperson as he sketches away. Our net zero builder quietly writes “8 – 10%” on the edge of the graph…

Forsythia: Somehow it survived the hubbub of construction. Planted in our front yard several years ago, it connects our home in Edmonton to Seoul, my first home, where blooming forsythia mark the coming of spring.