Be prepared
Let me start by apologizing to my beautiful, little sister (in-law). I secretly wondered why anyone needed to be so ready for everything. And then? Well, and then this past weekend happened. The woman is the essence of what a Girl Guide is—prepared. She has a crate in the back of her car that contains […]
The case for Willy-willy
As a matter of interest, the outfit you need to wear if you were to stand against a southwesterly blow like the one of very recent should consist of a swimmer’s cap and scuba diver’s goggles. I’m referring to standing on a dune at North Beach and taking joy out of being able to lean, […]
Prestidigitation goes to college
The advertisement was nestled in the business section of the paper beside the usual dull ads announcing open positions for professors of business studies and deans of dentistry. This one, however, invited applications for the “Allan Slaight Chair for the Study of the Conjuring Arts” at Carleton University. Conjuring Arts? At a university? You bet! […]
File thirteen
There’s a pile of bank statements, receipts, T-somethings and charitable donation slips resting, quietly, on our dining room table. Our bookkeeper has taken some kind of leave of absence and we are faced with the possibility of doing our own taxes. Doing the taxes shouldn’t be a burden, right? It should make us feel like […]
Farmhouse cider
Yesterday, far from the County, I met Derek. He lives on a farm outside a small village in a forgotten corner of England. His cidery, Hartland, doesn’t get many visitors. I wish it did.We followed hand-painted signs down weaving, narrow roads. Derek emerged from the barn and smiled. His cider is stored in 300-litre barrels […]
The old-fashioned way
Two old-fashioned methods of communication— the typewritten letter and the handwritten letter—are making quite a comeback. The typewriter has been endorsed by celebrities such as Tom Hanks, and a documentary movie (California Typewriter) has been made about people who swear by the typewriter as a creative tool. And you can’t escape the deluge of paeans […]
A house that is home
Affordable housing, in Prince Edward County, appears to be a very hot topic these days. It seems to me there are a lot of people who, deep down, feel as if they are to blame for the inflated market. If you’ve moved here to retire from the hustle and bustle of the city, you are […]
Bottled up
Did you catch that item a couple of weeks ago about a couple from Western Australia who found a message in a bottle washed up on the beach—just like in the stories. The message, somehow intact, was written in German, and contained an excerpt from a sea captain’s log, together with the coordinates of his […]
A place to call home
“Buy real estate. They aren’t making it anymore.” Any time my dad said that he’d laugh. I never really understood what it meant until LOML and I decided to buy a home of our own. At the time, we couldn’t believe how much money we’d be investing in our piece of real estate and how […]
A communal place
I visited the Three Dog Winery sugar shack about two weeks ago. Bakkus, a rescued golden retriever, kept watch. John fed the fire while Sacha tidied up after the day’s visitors. I wanted to learn about boiling sap, but instead learned of a school fighting to survive. Three Dog Winery got a new maple syrup […]