On November 10, 2016, along with many Canadians, I vowed that I would not set foot in the U.S. as long as the current president remained in office. Since then, until last week, I had crossed the border just once, to visit a friend who lives just across the river…
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A few weeks ago, I bit the proverbial bullet and sent a collection of personal essays off to an editor for some advice. I’m imagining a book. My main question—aside from the perennial “are these as worthless as they seem to me as I am hitting the ‘send’ button?”—was whether…
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“Are kitchen stoves going the way of the sewing machine?“ That was a headline in a recent Globe and Mail opinion piece by Sylvain Charlebois. Apparently, in order to make condos more affordable in cities like Toronto, where housing prices are astronomical, builders are reducing them to the size of a…
3 CommentsIf you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that in a moment of madness about a year ago I decided I’d like to learn to play the violin. Well, I want you to know I haven’t given up. Not quite. But the cards are stacked against me.…
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I’m not averse to technology. Actually, I depend on it. But I am averse to self-promotion. I fret about being obnoxious, too in-your-face. I don’t want to annoy people. So I tremble before the mountains of advice for authors about how to promote their work online, and I almost always turn…
2 CommentsI haven’t been to a high school graduation for many years. I used to attend regularly. As a school trustee for some fifteen years, it was part of the job. Of course, I watched my own children graduate—except the father of this young man who was already employed and had…
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Water, water, see the water flow…Oh wizard of changes, teach me the lesson of flowing. The Water Song, Incredible String Band It’s a lesson I’m still struggling with, perhaps now more than ever. Although I have become an enthusiastic apologist for denial, reality leaps into my consciousness from time to…
11 CommentsWhy is it that you’re most likely to mess up what you care about most? My blog post yesterday, celebrating the work my daughter does with youth theatre, suffered from last-minute tweaking and appeared with several paragraphs out of order. Fixed now.
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“I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.” ― Oscar Wilde No doubt most of you have encountered those annoying, cloying memes that urge you…
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When we returned from Mexico to our northern Ontario home two and a half weeks ago, a bit earlier than usual, we were warned: gloat—or complain— and you’ll put your lives at risk. It’s been a brutal winter here. My other half had to bite his tongue, but not me.…
2 CommentsSometime in September, something in the air turns to Fall. Not the temperature yet, and the leaves have only just begun to turn. Still, something has changed. The light, perhaps, or the sound of grasshoppers singing all day. Maybe it’s the heavy morning dew. I know crisper mornings are coming,…
4 CommentsCuppa tea? When I first moved to Canada, I was surprised to be offered tea wherever I went. Tea, not coffee, was—and is—the sociable drink. Often, but not always, offered with something sweet. My dad sometimes drank tea, but as a child I associated it with illness. Weak, tepid tea…
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A few days ago I read a newspaper column about the joy of grocery shopping and its potential—or perhaps inevitable—demise in the era of big boxes and Amazon. The author conflated roaming the cereal aisle with roaming the savannah in search of breakfast, and she lauded the casual exchanges with…
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I had a little love affair with a word yesterday before I was jilted by a tilde. After taking a few years off, I am once again taking Spanish lessons here in our winter city of Guanajuato, Mexico. It’s tricky for me to know what it is I need. On…
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I know I’ve said this before, and I’ll surely say it again. But it bears repeating. We are so lucky to have been adopted into this wonderful Mexican family. We’ve known these people for more than twenty years now and have watched their family grow and thrive. We celebrated Antonio’s…
3 CommentsWe’ve been back in Guanajuato for less than a week, and already I’m having to ration my social/event time. The day after we arrived, we attended an annual seasonal gathering of the expat community here where we saw friends we haven’t seen since the Spring. The next day, another gathering…
2 CommentsIf you’re reading this, you’re on my new website. Welcome! Take a look around, and let me know if you run into any glitches. In theory all the contacts have been transferred from the old site, but I’ll be looking for confirmation. So, if you get this via email, send…
3 CommentsI am being held hostage by a violin. It’s a lovely instrument, so fine that it cringes in horror whenever I struggle through Old Macdonald or O Susanna. (Now, I’m working on Amazing Grace, hoping for divine intervention.) It expresses its displeasure by wailing and squealing at random moments, making…
1 CommentA few days ago I began my morning as I usually do—yes, on my laptop, scrolling through the mostly-nonsense and occasionally interesting facebook postings of the past twenty-four…okay, maybe twelve…hours. Someone I barely know went to a wonderful concert; it’s a friend’s birthday and do I want to send him…
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