The Conversation Books
It was mostly when I pulled into my driveway and got out of the car that I heard something less familiar. I oriented to the sound of the small rapids of Slab Creek, a stone’s throw away from where I stood. It winds through a clay ravine woven with spent lilac, heaving Manitoba maples and […]
My tiny island beachfront paradise fixer upper
There comes a time when a man is ready just to sink into his chair and watch television, mindlessly, on his own. Actually, if you ask a spouse familiar with his habits, she will probably say that time seems to arrive whenever there is a game of some sort on, or failing that, whenever a […]
Weather or not
This might be my last Sunday in sunny Brandon for a wee while. It’s been a real eyeopener, here on the Canadian Prairies in the “near winter”. The good folks of Manitoba seem to take the cold and the snow in their stride. It’s an adaptation thing, I suppose. What surprises me most is the […]
Salt: 2B or not 2B
Now that we’re getting into oatmeal season, I am reminded of a domestic experience I had at the start of last year’s season that shook me up. I developed an ‘oatmeal for the winter’ approach to breakfast a few years ago. And I’m not afraid to a admit that I like a dash of salt […]
Child care with dummies
So, here I am, still in Brandon playing at being grandmother/mother/advisor. Honestly, I had forgotten how much work it is to have a newborn. It isn’t all cuddles and coos, that’s for sure. Tell me, was there ever a book or guide written that tells new parents how frustrating, beautiful, annoying, tiresome and delightful parenting […]
Hill Street
It was an evening back in September that I found myself on Hill Street in Picton. Hill Street? There is no hill on Hill Street, unless I guess you refer to the steep road that runs off it and descends to the yacht club below. The street could be called Running at the High Edge […]
Backing up a zombie
If I’m free on November 17, I can go to the Regent Theatre to watch Abbamania, where lookalikes perform note-perfect renditions of the ABBA songbook. On the same bill, just to cover the bases a little more broadly, I can also hear Cher and Bee Gees impersonators knocking off the greatest hits of the star […]
November remembrances
Remembrance Day. The first time I was aware there was such a day I might have been about eight or nine years of age. My dad and my uncles were veterans of the Second World War, but I don’t recall hearing too much about it when I was a kid. Dad’s uniform hung in my […]
For the sake of remembrance
It is mainly this morning when I attempt to mind-connect recent events. I sit in the company of my simmering woodstove as a mean November clatters at my window. Just beyond, a robin is perched on a branch of a buckthorn tree. The bird awaits gusts of wind to fetch the fine endtwigs that hold […]
Goodbye parks
The government of Doug Ford is getting pretty serious about cutting back expenditures. Got to fix that deficit problem. So the chopping has begun. And now comes the rumour that next on the chopping block will be provincial parks —all of them, closed down tight, with just two exceptions, namely Sandbanks park and Algonquin park. […]