After a year and a half of at-home shifts, I worked, yesterday and today, on site. I feel unusually tired. My head aches a bit. But I am thankful – oh so thankful. Monday is Thanksgiving in Canada. This weekend I am thankful for flowers and colourful leaves. For work. […]
Do you shy away from situations that scare you? Try to keep life tidy to stay safe? Doubt that a mess has anything to offer? Recently an old friend sent me a card in the mail. At first glance, it seemed garish and ugly to me, but then I looked […]
It’s been ages since I’ve seen family face to face. Although our province has, once again, initiated a state of lock-down for us all, we drove to see my sisters over the Easter weekend (visiting outside by a campfire with one and taking advantage of the chance to ‘join households’ […]
The past months have been unlike any I can remember, culminating in Ontario’s stay-at-home order, which permitted leaving home only for work or essentials such as groceries. I could share with you all the things I’ve missed most – I’m sure you’ve longed for some of the same things I […]
Growing up, everyone I knew hung prints on their walls: large landscapes, idyllic small town scenes, abstract splashes. Then, as a young adult, I met a man who filled my life with texture and pigment. He was always talking about Peru, his homeland: the food, the warmth, the history, the […]
As a child I found squash odious. Consequently, as an adult I never cooked it. Then, I discovered the joy of a simple, homemade butternut squash soup: fry an apple and onions in a generous amount of curry before adding broth and squash and you have the makings of a […]
A world in quarantine changed us all, I think, in big and small ways. We’ve heard about wild life returning, the clearing of the skies, people singing on balconies. Personally, I find it hard to articulate the subtle changes I sense in myself after months of forced seclusion. Stopping for […]
Subtle flavour and gentle sweetness are sensory pleasures I discovered later in life. My husband and I stumbled, together, across an obscure Japanese bakery in Markham, years ago, and the lightness of a strawberry shortcake we found there is with us still. Later, I tried, for the first time, an […]
Four years ago I became interested in bees and pollinator plants. A number of books about Colony collapse disorder caught my eye and, the way I saw it, with more bees in my backyard I could help save a species essential to our food supply and have more tomatoes and […]
This morning my garden looked beautiful – full of promise. Japanese irises, discovered at a community plant sale last spring, unfurled in a show of purple. I bought five clusters, but only two have rooted deeply enough to bloom this summer. Roots: living things that must push hard in a […]