This is my first column of 2015, so please accept my best wishes for you and yours this New Year. Unfortunately, 2015 will be a difficult one for millions of Canadians as our economy suddenly is on the brink of a severe economic downturn due to the risky and irresponsible […]
Columnists
Sometimes when you write a story, facts and figures conflict and may or may not be accurate. I take, for instance, information that was published in the Fort Frances Times on Nov. 5 when the minister of natural resources and forestry revealed that Expera had been offered more than 700,000 […]
I love all kinds of pickles–sweet dill pickles, pickled beets, gherkins, capers, pickled eggs, pickled cauliflower, green tomato pickles, bread and butter pickles, “stackers,” and especially my mother’s homemade pickles. According to legend, pickles have been spicing up otherwise bland meals for more than 4,000 years, when the people of […]
I must confess—I am a rule follower. I never harboured any notions of being a rebel while I was growing up. I didn’t stay out late to break curfew. I was a relatively well-behaved teenager. I struggle, as an adult, to enter a building through the exit, like at Home […]
As a young kid who had an extreme interest in fishing, I was very lucky to have parents who were able to give me the opportunity to go fishing as often as I could. I also was fortunate that we lived just one block away from Gord Pyzer, who was […]
Frosty temperatures are supposed to be leaving us later this week, so I’ve decided to hold off undecorating my farm buildings for a few more days. I dread the darkness of the yard without all the Christmas lights anyway. I certainly have been noticing how we are seeing more and […]
I have a tough assignment this week. One of my daughters solicited me for a handwritten list of the best “life” advice I had for her. Don’t get me wrong. I believe I have good advice to give. I’ve had a myriad of experiences and I’m blessed with an open […]
Happy 2015 to everyone! If nothing else, 2015 has brought us some very winter-like weather with both snow and cold reaching us. We seemed to coast right through December but now the normally-long month of January is proving to be a little more stubborn. I found 2014 to be a […]
I like January sunshine—sunshine that melts the snow and ice off the roads and leaves the roads bare and dry, looking almost brand new. Last Friday was just such a day with everything looking beautiful and peaceful. It’s early January days, with 2015 just barely out of the starting blocks, […]
Honestly, this has been the best, most genuinely “soul-filled-with-peace” holiday season I’ve had in years. I didn’t mope about my past, I didn’t pick apart my present day, and I didn’t fret about my future. I, quite simply, was “right here, right now.” I won’t be able to express, within […]
Last August, forms from the federal government arrived in the mail for me to apply for my Canada pension and Old Age Security. They came as a shock since I really had not thought that I was “old.” To me, my mother and her friends were old—all having well passed […]
After rolling through December with some nice, mild weather, we have been welcomed into the New Year with some real Canadian winter temperatures. It’s been so cold over the past few days that I’ve been getting flashbacks to the “polar vortex” we experienced last year. Fortunately, the long-range forecast is […]
