Experiential gifts

I've eschewed xmas for some years. While I love presents, I don't specifically need anything and I'd rather that friends and family members didn't spend their money to buy me something that I neither need nor want. I'll probably like and appreciate the gift but it really is unnecessary. A gift out-of-the-blue is way more cool than one bought during the festive season because that's just how things have been done.

The other night I was chatting to some friends - they work in retail. I was asking about business and whether they're seeing xmas-shopping traffic coming through. Although there's some, they're not yet completely in the season. They work at really cool outdoor stores so they get a lot of people coming in who ask, "My [partner/friend/sibling] has got everything - what can I get for them?!".

If you're in this situation then really, really don't get them anything because they really don't need it. Wrap your mind instead around an 'experiential gift'.

Earlier this year I did a photography course and I bumped into an old customer from back in the day when I waitressed as a student. He and his wife give each other courses as xmas gifts every second year (the photography course was his gift; she was going on a chocolate decorating course). My friends Lauren and Pam are also into experiential gifts.

It's more about doing and learning stuff rather than having stuff.

Experiential gifts extend across a range of things. Here are some ideas...

• Courses (probably over a few weeks or months) - language, photographic, creative writing, plant identification
• Workshops (usually one day/night or a weekend) - cooking, scrapbooking, beginner climbing/kayaking, gardening
• Classes/lessons - pay for a month of classes. Your gift recipient has an opportunity to try something they've been wanting to do and because you've given it to them they'll probably make the time - and a month is long enough to see whether they like; art, dance (perhaps go with them - like if it is something like ballroom dancing), yoga, ceramics...
• Events - submit and pay for their entry for an event you know they'd like to do - run, cycle, AR... the list here is near endless!
• Adventures - tons of stuff here like rafting, caving, hot air ballooning, climbing
• Other - massages, facials, manicure-pedicure (these are good for guys too!)

Some of these things can be pricey so rope in family members and make it one great pressie rather than many so-so items.

I was telling my friends about my Running Retreat, scheduled for weekend of 19 & 20 January 2013. I decided to put it in January because it is a great kick-start to the year. It's an opportunity to cast away festive slothfulness and to get your mind in the right place for being fit and active for the year ahead. It rocks in the mega-motivation department.

This running retreat is exactly that - a running-focused get-away with plenty of time for reading and chilling and bird-watching. It's a no-pressure, social weekend of running where you can choose which of the four runs to do (Fri evening, Sat morning and evening and Sun morning) and also the informative sessions (yoga for runners, foot care, form and technique). Full catering sorted too. And there are things like horse riding and floating in a boat on the dam as additional activities.

Goodness, how often do you go away - not for an event, but something more social and casual and 'therapeutic' - to spend a weekend where you get to run on lovely routes that have been planned for you and all you have to do is lace up your shoes? Now this is a super wonderful experiential treat for you or the runner in your life.

Green 'n growing

My veggie garden is rocking - a combination of this cooler weather and my anti-bird system, I think.

I set up my veggie garden in mid-September and there have been many 'opportunities for learning' since.

Within two weeks of planting the first seedlings were looking promising. I'd made my own little seed 'sachets' to protect the seed and little germinating seedling and it seemed to work but had its pitfalls. Some of the weaker germinators seemed to battle to get their roots through if the sachet hadn't sufficiently dissolved. I wasn't very impressed with my 'back-up' seed trays where not much germinated except the sunflowers and spinach (actually, it's Swiss Chard). The idea behind the tray was that I could replace anything that didn't grow in the garden with seedlings from the tray. So, I planted more seeds in the tray and in the garden.

Then, things were looking good by early/mid-October and then I had a bird attack. They ate the lovely fresh little leaves off the baby spinach plants and really messed up my cherry tomato plants. So, I built and anti-bird system with a plastic mesh cover and CDs.

Then, I set up another tray - currently mostly the leafy stuff is up - not yet big enough to be transplanted. Also, my heritage seeds arrived from Living Seeds. I planted two seeds from each of the six varieties of tomatoes (most are cherry tomato varieties with two medium sized tomato varieties) and two peas. The peas came up first and I transplanted them yesterday - they've got another part of the garden, not the veggie bed. I think there are five tomato seedlings that have come up. I'll only move these when they're bigger. The interesting thing is that two were up within say 10 days and like more than 20 days after planting suddenly others have come up, even of the same variety!

And this is a strange thing with the second tray. There are some seedlings coming up now and I planted them like 30 days ago! They should have been up two weeks ago already. Maybe waiting for the right conditions?

This is quite exciting... I transplanted this cherry tomato plant yesterday from another bed. Last season I bought a high-yield cherry tomato pot plant from a nursery. It is one of those designed to go on your kitchen windowsill. I planted it in the garden and it didn't like that. I left the cherry tomatoes that were on it to rot so the seeds would go into the ground. Some little plants came up but then died in winter. This guy came up of his own accord and it has a little flower already.

My system worked and my plants are doing well. Some of the tomato plants really, really battled to recover but are now doing much better. I've transplanted two from the tray to replace the ones that just didn't make it. I think there were two spinach plants that I transplanted and three sunflowers.

This poor little tomato plant (foreground) really got nailed by the bird. It has one leaf now (it was nothing more than a little stick after the attack) and I hope it will make it. Determined little fellow.

Very sturdy sunflower plant. That's a cherry tomato to his right and another sunflower plant in the background.

The damaged spinach plants have new leaves and the butter lettuce is flourishing. Not much happening with the red lettuce (none germinated in the garden and only one in the tray, which I'll transplant when it is stronger and bigger) nor the crisp lettuce (haven't seen one germinating).

Lovely lookin' lettuce

If you put one seed in front of the stick and one behind it you should get two plants eh? How come I have four? Maybe earlier planted seeds germinating in the current cooler weather?

Green! Green! I can see green! My mom bought me some eggplant seedling this weekend. I've put them at the front of the bed where other stuff (catnip and red lettuce) hasn't come up.

Heritage pea variety - freshly transplanted from my tray. They're getting their climbing tendrils already. I planted two seeds and two came up - one a bit before the other. I hope they handle the travel to their new home - complete with trellis.

Just over a week ago I set up more 'trays'. I'm using toilet roll holders and egg boxes. The thing is that I think I should get one plant from one seed - at least a 90% seedling success rate. And it hasn't been so. My dad, who has pretty green fingers, says that you're meant to scatter the seeds, let them germinate and then thin the seedlings later (this is how seedling companies do it). What a waste! So my current system aims to look at seedling yield as I've put in two seeds per 'slot'.

The other thing is that I thought that I was being too harsh on my germinating seeds. The trays are outside and exposed to the elements. Sure, they're being kept moist but they're in the sun, which is probably too much for them. My new trays are undercover and in the shade and the results are showing. Just over a week in and I've got more little baby seedlings coming up than I had with my previous trays.

I gave up mountain bike orienteering to go to a permaculture talk last Sunday. It was a complete waste of time. The guy, Jamie Stephens, looks like a gardening version of Kingsley Holgate. It seems like he has done incredible things with permaculture gardens in KZN but his presentation was unstructured and a bit of scare tactic (earth running out of agricultural resources, population growth over our life time, agriculture in tropical areas can only be sustained by ground for three years). The first half was spent convincing us why we should grow our own sustainable veg gardens (surely if you pay to come to a talk that promises to teach you "how to create your own permaculture garden" you're already the converted?).

The second half was a little more interesting about the range of plants that should be included in a permaculture garden (about eight or nine categories) but I'm none the wiser as to what to do for my 5m x 1.5m bed... I knew more from Wikipedia before I went to the talk (I did write to the talk organiser about the presentation not delivering what had been promised in the talk promotional information but he hasn't replied a week later). Oh, but if I paid R1,400 and went to the workshop that was this past weekend I may have learned what the talk promised I would... I'll stick to reading the web.

So, I'm kinda learning as I go.

Husky running companions

Back in August I passed on a note about the Husky Shelter in Cape Town - they were looking for runners to help with running the dogs there. Well, I have me a pair of huskies in Jo'burg to run.

During a recent vet visit, when my kitty was ill (she is doing so-so-so much better!), I mentioned to the receptionist that I was thinking of running people's dogs for them - especially the breeds that really need to run. Almost every day I run past houses where bored dogs hang at the gate and I can bet that a very small fraction of them ever get taken for a walk. No matter how big the property, dogs have to be taken out. Indeed, you can live in a palace but you still get cabin fever and go out of your mind.

Not even a few hours later I get a call from Dino, who got my number from Shelly when he popped in to get food for his dogs. Not even two weeks earlier he'd adopted two huskies from the shelter. He has a friend who volunteers there and she assists with finding homes for dogs. He'd been keen to get one but she insisted on two. So, they were flown up to Jo'burg and it wasn't long before he felt overwhelmed. Huskies are high intensity dogs; probably much like border collies.

He takes them out running about three times a week and on Wednesdays the gardener takes them in the morning and afternoon. But they need more.

I met Dino and the dogs - Toscana and Angel - last weekend and we went out for a run. They're not very fit but OMG do they pull. I can now understand how a dozen of them are able to haul sleds across snowscapes for hundreds of kilometres. Dino has the proper running leads for them -  a harness for the runner with a y-shaped bungy lead going to harnesses on the dogs.

This pair is very well behaved. Angel is the girl and she's about a year old. She's the really energetic one. Toscana is about three and he is beautifully fluffy (she has had her fur trimmed shorter).

Dino says they were absolutely fried after our outing on Saturday - and I made them walk quite a bit because they were huffing and puffing. Yesterday evening I took them out for a run and walk and they were very good. I ran from home - takes me 15 mins - and off we went to the park. They run really nicely, especially once they start to get a little tired and pull less. We met a nice pointer and German Shepherd and their friendly folks. They're very good with other dogs.

I tried to take some pics (on my phone) of my running buddies - they're a little blury from movement but you get the picture. I've been reading up on running huskies on the web. Golden rule: never, ever let them off the lead. Their running instinct is so strong that they will just run away, no matter how well you've schooled them. If something is more interesting than you then you have no hope in hell of getting them back. They'll just run and run and run.

Toscana on the left and Angel on the right

We'll be running together once a week - Friday evenings.

I write A LOT of stuff

I've been thinking about how much stuff I write and it is A LOT!

FEAT website: 56 news posts and 8 newsletters

Media releases for clients: 16 so far this year

Magazine articles: 12 to 15 a year

www.AR.co.za: 26 news items and 4 FAQ entries plus 20 race reports placed online (not written by me; often minor editing/checking)

Blog: 141 posts already this year (including this one)

Orienteering website: 22 news articles

Emails: I probably reply to and send 800 - 1000 emails a month!

And then there are the posts and newsy stuff on the AR Club website, writing up event information, four trail contributions to Trail Runner's Guide, a manual and lesson plans (and game designs) for two levels of school orienteering programmes (just finished level 2 and busy on a mapping course), Metrogaine newsletters... and probably a bunch of other stuff I've already forgotten about.

It's no wonder that I sometimes don't feel like stringing another sentence together!