Wow so much has happened in the last few weeks I can hardly keep up. Of course, in the end I found myself sick in bed for nearly a week with the same crazy end o’ winter virus everyone seemed to be carrying so that’s my official excuse for the delayed posting about recent events.

The Launch Party was fabulous! We were very worried in the hour or two preceeding the event as our gorgeous springy weather suddenly turned into a winter blizzard. You should have seen us transporting bags of soil and other props through the neighbourhood (thankfully the Gladstone is only a block or so from my place) in my trusty “shopping cart” through a blizzard wondering how we were going to push that thing back if the snow kept up! Happily TONS of people still managed to make it out. I was very thrilled by the turnout and appreciate the effort that everyone made to come out and support the book.

Unfortunately, we were all so busy during the party that we forgot to take pictures, waiting until the end when most of the crowd had gone home. Here are a few pictures I did take:

• Davin runs the merch table – This photo does not do the awesome tulip lamps we borrowed from INabstracto justice. That’s a slideshow of garden photos in the background.
• The party reception table (before people arrived) where guests were given raffle tickets and free stuff.
• The bar area at the end of the night – MattB, Johanna, her friend who won one of the raffle books, my community plot pals Uvie and Vivienne and others.
• Hanging out – Jim, Jim’s mom, Claudia and Scott in the foreground.

Thanks to the team at Simon & Schuster Canada who not only made it downtown to support the launch but took turns working the door too! They also brought me this lovely bouquet of flowers. Orange just happens to be my favourite colour!

I want to thank all my Parkdale locals who have supported both the party and the book including The Gladstone Hotel (I think they got pics for their newsletter), Kate at InAbstracto who dedicated an entire window of her store to promoting the book, and all the stores (too many to name) that displayed our poster for a month.

To DJ General Eclectic for donating his skills and time playing tunes, setting up, and promoting like mad. He fell sick a day or two before the party but still came out with his party hat on.

To my partner Davin who worked on all aspects of the event — there’s too much ground to cover here.

I also want to thank my You Grow Girl gals for coming out to the event. And to the two women who took control of the Mystery Seedling Swap table. Thanks!

If you took a Mystery Seedling home from the party, please do send me an email, or pic to update me on what you got. I will post a list here in a month of all the seeds I donated to the swap. I can assure you my donations were all edible and legal!