Wendi Stewart – Wendi with an ‘eye’

I love the stories my daughters share about the antics of their wee ones. My grandchildren are learning to maneuver through this crazy world and the stories of them make me smile, giggle and guffaw on a regular basis, even the tales that involve emotional meltdowns. The beauty of being […]

I’m not sure there are many tasks I find more gratifying than making maple syrup. It’s a bit like magic. It’s called sugarin’ season by some but whatever you call it, the act of collecting sap and putting it on my wood stove makes me happy. I have a gargantuan […]

I may have been watching too many spy movies lately. Let me explain. I was walking one morning last week, checking my maple tree buckets and shaking my fist at Mother Nature, who promised ideal temperatures that week. I got an eyelash in my eye and I was fussing and […]

I love an umbrella and not for the obvious reason of keeping dry in a downpour, though I suppose that reason may play a part. And it can’t be any umbrella. It must be an umbrella that looks as though it has a story to tell, a secret perhaps, and […]

Aristotle had some firm ideas on writing and how to present a valid argument to an audience of readers. The elements of ethos, pathos, and logos must be present in balance, according to Aristotle. And though Aristotle was born more than 2,000 years ago, his sense of a written argument […]

One of the rules in my five-year-old grandson’s classroom is “no hugging.” When I heard this, I was puzzled. I know we are called upon to be vigilant in our awareness of, and recognizing and preventing, physical abuse but I’m still wondering. I’m thinking back to the first few days […]

I don’t often wrestle with the unhealthy affliction of envy. Not being envious certainly has nothing to do with having an honourable disposition. The reasons are simple and straightforward: I didn’t grow up hungry, I was loved and safe at night, and I had clothes to wear and shoes that […]

“The best way out is always through.” Robert Frost penned those wise words but for some of us, “through” is not as easy as it sounds. I have a confession and I hope you won’t judge me too harshly, though I have judged myself with merciless vigour for many years. […]

A friend of mine from Dawson City recently sent me a joke with the headline, “You must be from Nova Scotia if you shovel snow in the rain.” That’s true, more often than not. But I’m not from Nova Scotia. I’m from Northwestern Ontario, where you have to be hardy […]

There are those who dedicate their lives to the study of one thing: stars, insects, migration paths of the Monarch butterfly, the fatality rate of those who insist on texting while driving, or whether the toilet paper be fed from the top or the bottom. I think you probably know […]

I’m not sure poetry can be taught. We can be taught to arrange words together that rhyme, just the same as we can be taught to play the notes we see on a sheet of music, but that is not the same as creating magic. I think writing poetry is […]

I regularly bemoan January’s negative qualities and whine about January to anyone who will listen. How January pulls my shoulders to my ears, my chin to my chest, and hunches my shoulders as I hurry in with wood and hurry “Gracie” as we walk–not to mention how difficult the struggle […]