Mother’s Day stroll
There is sheen to the land. Dew caught in the dawn, wet varnish: On the branches of the dogwood; the tin roof of a drive shed; on the holding wires tracing turned-up ground of a vine patch. A sweet scent of manure and earth; bitter ash from the fire of yesterday’s clean-up; last night’s road […]
Patient discipline
The rich rewards of the Nebbiolo grape requires great patience. While it customarily offers notes of violets, tar and anise, it may take at least a decade of aging to manifest its deep flavours of orange, black fruits, leather and spice. Grown almost exclusively in Italy’s Piedmont, the Nebbiolo vine readily demonstrates the influence of […]
The Road to Hockeytown
To say that Jimmy Devellano is a sports fan would be a gross understatement. He lives and breathes sports virtually 24 hours a day. He has executive roles with the Detroit Red Wings and the Detroit Tigers, and he follows other sports and teams as well. Jimmy grew up in Toronto and, as a kid, […]
The Hunk Brothers
On the minus side, coming out of our endless and brutal winter, I realize I watched far too many home decorating shows for my liking. On the plus side, however, I have learned that most of these shows have a very similar theme: a commonsense and, quite coincidentally, handsome contractor saves the bacon of a […]
County sisters
On this Mother’s Day I don’t expect flowers, cards, gifts or visits. Nope. Today, Mother’s Day, I am thinking about all of the wonderful women who have helped me become a better mom. Many of those women lived, or are living, here in the County. For those of you who know me, and very few […]
Heartbreaker
The Toronto Raptors certainly captured the imagination of their die-hard fans, and a larger group of casual fans, last week. They played a tight series in the first round of the National Basketball Association championships, losing 104-103 to the Brooklyn Nets in the seventh and deciding game. It ignited the interest in the game on […]
On the cusp
Doing something just because one can isn’t always the best idea. Sometimes you need to consider what should be done. Making wine in Ireland is a cautionary tale. The difference between winter and summer in Ireland is basically the temperature of the rain. It will always be a challenge to get the amount of heat […]
Anyone for a game of…
I had better confess right off the bat that I don’t own a smartphone and have never been into playing electronic video games on any device. So that might colour what follows. What had caught my eye was a short article in a recent edition of the Sunday New York Times entitled “Monopoly Loosens Grip […]
Blessed
This morning, Sunday, I have to get up and at ‘em early, early, early. Well, early for me. I’m not an early morning person. I used to be an early morning person. I had kids and a job and, at one time, a long commute. But I hadn’t even heard the seven a.m. bells of […]
Delightful complexity
It beggars the mind to think that Ireland is listed as a wine producing country by the labyrinthine bureaucracy of the European Union. Grapes do have, admittedly, a history in the Emerald Isle. Cistercian monks first planted vines in the late fifth century—most likely for the production of sacramental wine. I suspect they laboured long […]