Do you remember Woody Woodpecker? He came to life in 1940, created by Walter Lantz and his studio after a sleepless night in the California woods on his honeymoon where a woodpecker insisted on hammering away on the cabin’s roof for most of the night. The next night a heavy […]
Wendi Stewart – Wendi with an ‘eye’
Wendi lives in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley, but the farm on Rainy River in Crozier will always be her home. MEADOWLARK, her debut novel released September 15, is published by NeWest Press of Edmonton. She is the mother of four daughters who did the unforgivable: they grew up. http://wendistewart.writersresidence.com
Hurricane Dorian has come and gone, one of those uninvited guests that you are glad to see the last of, but there is always a lesson to be learned while he is here. Ample warning was given by Environment Canada and the Nova Scotia Weather Service, but readiness has never […]
Dear Mr. Douglass: It was Maryland. Not Maryland now, but Maryland in 1824, though more often than not it feels the same, the lessons of two hundred years easily forgotten. You had blood that blended well, of Native American they call it in Maryland, and African, neither white, never white […]
The butter in the butter dish was hard this morning, which can only mean one thing: it is September. And every year at this time I throw up my hands and cry out, “How did this happen?” Then I remind myself of all the good things that come with September […]
My daughter recently shared on Facebook a post from Meryl Streep with a photo of herself circa 1974, I am guessing, on the way to an audition for King Kong where she was told she was “too ugly”–not just ugly, but too ugly for the role of Dwan. Meryl has […]
I recently stumbled upon a Ted Talk given by Robert Holden in 2018. Robert is a British psychologist who focuses his attention on “positive psychology and well-being.” Anyone who calls himself an expert on happiness is a friend of mine. I wasn’t familiar with Robert Holden or his psychology until […]
The temperature went down to 13 degrees last night. I flung open the windows and crawled beneath my heavy blanket pulled up to my chin and slept comfortably, the air coming in the window fragrant and fresh. When I got up this morning, the air was still chilly as Gracie […]
I was weeding this morning, pulling invaders while the sun was busy elsewhere. Thankfully, I no longer have a lawn to tend to, but I have a few areas of perennials, with hosta and brown-eyed Susans and the like. A small stone wall marks the perimeter of my property; in […]
A close friend has died. It took two years for cancer, a brain tumour specifically, to claim Wally, while we looked on with encouragement and positive thoughts, looked on with fear at times, wanting to beg of those or that which seems to be in charge of our inevitable departure, […]
I have just spent three days walking a few of the many Nova Scotia beaches. They are quite incredible, breathtaking, soul-soothing. I think a love of water is in the blood of most of us who grew up around and in Fort Frances and it would be easy to take […]
In 1940, Virginia Woolf wrote an essay entitled “The Humane Art.” In it she said, “A self that goes on changing is a self that goes on living.” She was reviewing a biography of Horace Walpole who had written sixteen volumes of letters that earned him the title of historian. […]
I might be cranky. Wait here while I check. I won’t be a minute. Pick up a magazine or pour yourself a coffee or cut the grass. Not my grass; I have retired from having a lawn. Okay, I’m back. I’ve run a few tests and the results were somewhat […]
