Despite having all sorts of (better?) ways of making notes, I persist with using scraps of paper and a pen. It may not have served me particularly well as technology has advanced, but old habits die hard. I am trying. Among the notations on my phone at this moment are the combination to our floor… Read more »
Sometimes, life can best be defined by adjectives. I’m proud: that I was able to (successfully) program a seventy-dollar universal remote when the original began spazzing and sputtering during my binge watching of The Mindy Project. I had to keep my thumb on the play button to keep the images from hopping and skipping. This… Read more »
In this space I’ve written about the ongoing drama of building our new garage. It is complete enough that this weekend it housed my long-awaited three-day garage sale. In great style. Roy, that lucky bugger, was registered for a conference in Edmonton and was nowhere in sight. That meant I needed to put up all… Read more »
For years I believed that if I read anything other than non-fiction I was wasting my time. I knew that, in one short lifetime, there were more books I absolutely must read than there was time to read them. Or, if I did tackle some fiction, it had to be the ?good stuff.? What snobs… Read more »
Except for a five-foot wide strip of ceiling needing a third coat of paint, our garage is largely done. Roy insisted the tongue and groove plywood sheathing the walls and ceiling of this thirty by forty-four foot building be covered with Tremclad paint. It is a durable but stinky alkyd paint. As I work in… Read more »
Despite having been born in Edmonton, I’ve spent the majority of my life in rural Alberta. We moved to the farm when I was in grade three. After high school graduation I did what every other farm kid does; I got the hell out and headed for the bright lights. I went to college. After… Read more »
Sometimes when we push the limits, circumstances snap us back. Sometimes when we think we’re invincible, we get flattened. Sometimes when we misalign our priorities, we’re forced to regroup. Those setbacks can be anything from job loss to personal disappointments to health problems. They all serve to put us back on our heels and screw… Read more »
Mothers come in all sizes, shapes, colours, ages, and dispositions. Mothers have been vilified and mocked, glorified and revered, often by the same people on different days. To say the mother-child relationship is complicated is to state the obvious. In the beginning we look to mom for our very survival. In our teens (and terrible… Read more »
Because Hilary was coming to the farm for Easter dinner I knew I could try a more daring menu than what Roy alone would tolerate. I planned the menu and bought the ingredients. When I added an elderly aunt and her bachelor son to the guest list I began to second-guess myself. What if they… Read more »
When a child is first born into a family everything changes. A couple becomes parents; their parents become grandparents. Everyone’s cameras come out to capture every smile, every move, every nuance in expression that the infant makes. We are fascinated by the miracle of life. The ten perfect fingers and toes; the eyes, ears, mouth… Read more »