Wendi Stewart – Wendi with an ‘eye’

All my daughters are with me in Nova Scotia for a lovely family reunion visit. Of course, now it is in the past tense, because Thea had to return to Alberta after a much too brief a visit. My four grandchildren are here with their mommies and I am in […]

I love Jason Bateman. Well, I don’t love love him but I love the character he is in all his movies, and I like to think (and I do so with reasonable certainty) that he is cast as the dependable good guy because he is just that. So when the […]

I was a fan of Mr. Rogers, even when I was old enough not to be. I was thirteen when Mr. Rogers hit the air. I had grown up with the likes of Captain Kangaroo and Mr. Green Jeans with Mr. Moose and Dancing Bear who hit the airwaves in […]

I heard Rick Hansen on CBC Radio the other morning when I climbed into my car. He was a guest on “The Current” with Anna-Maria Tremonti. When I turned the radio on, before I heard him discuss the rights of the disabled and before Anna-Maria mentioned his name, I knew […]

I confess that I’m not particularly fond of cooking, though on some occasions such as Christmas and Thanksgiving, I’ve been known to put on a decent spread and most of it quite edible. To the best of my knowledge, I haven’t killed anyone off with my culinary skill (or lack […]

I am in a state of emotional rage and I’m struggling to focus on the simplest of tasks–tasks as simple as flossing or walking. I can’t think straight and all I can think about is the images of children taken from their mothers at the U.S.-Mexican border, oftentimes removed with […]

The news is filled these days with talk about techniques to combat anxiety and worry while we each try to find a solution that works for us as an individual. Worry on any given day is present; is picking and poking at our peace of mind, wrestling with our sense […]

I have friends visiting from Dawson City, the kind of people you meet and feel instantly as if you have known them your whole life. So off we went the other day to Fishermen’s Cove on the Eastern Passage of Nova Scotia, a small historic village on the Atlantic Shore […]

The prime minister of New Zealand has just gone on maternity leave, and something about that warms and calms me. Jacinda Ardern, at age 37 the youngest female government head in the world, has a team in place who will help her do her job. But no doubt the time […]

When we are young, we think many “things” will be the answer to our pursuit of happiness. A new bike, our first car, cool glasses (though when I first started wearing glasses at age 13, there was not a single thing cool about them, no matter the colour or shape). […]

I have written about libraries a few times in my last 524 columns, 385 of which have been printed here. But who’s counting? I guess I am. Libraries are the past and the future, and everything in between. I was at the Kentville Public Library one morning last week, doing […]

I went a little crazy with my pre-gardening plans this year. I’ve started seeds and no longer have a spare room. That room now is a seedling nursery, with the bed and a table covered with little pots housing plants of every variety in excessive numbers. It’s a bit like […]