I have grandchildren visiting, the best of summer. We have been swimming, riding the neighbour’s paddle boat, kayaking, roasting marshmallows, applying sunblock like a responsible grandparent. But I noticed something about myself that I was only mildly aware of, and an old memory surged to the surface. I am a […]
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
I love comedy and have a long list of comedians whom I watch repeatedly. Laughter has tremendous strength to reshape a day, to soften a difficult circumstance, to help heal a broken heart. Rick Mercer has always been a Canadian favourite, but his star is shining even brighter in these […]
There are many things we encounter on any given day that we don’t give much thought to. Some are too huge for our minds to wrestle with, and others seem too trivial. We have varying degrees of curiosity. I waste too much time trying to figure out why people step […]
I had the lucky opportunity to be a part of a community get-together last week; a potluck with everyone’s favourite dish, with games and boat rides. Just about every age group was represented, from a five-year-old all the way up to deep in the 90s. My favourite thing to do […]
Music “soothes the savage beast” we’ve been known to say. As far back as 1697, when the prominent English playwright William Congreve wrote in “The Mourning Bride” – “Music has charms to soothe a savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak”, we still use the distilled version […]
National Indigenous History Month is in its final days for this year. I’ve spent the month reading the memoir of Murray Sinclair, who is also a descendant of my distant grandmother Nahoway, and new information that honours and celebrates the rich cultures of First Nations, Metis, and Inuit. Instagram was […]
I was remembering a story from my thirteen-year-old self to my daughter as we talked about what each of us consider “the good old days.” I’m not sure good old days is a legitimate term, but we tend to cling to days gone by in this rapidly changing world, which […]
Further to my eavesdropping on children’s conversations, I had the opportunity to listen to two of my grandsons discussing what they were wearing. Liam, who is not yet eight, came down dressed for school wearing a shirt with cheerful bananas on it, paired with shorts covered in orange slices, a […]
I needed a pick-me-up today, like I do most days, a reminder that many things are going well in this world and opportunities are being created for those who most need it. In my quest for such a story, I stumbled upon the documentary film on Netflix, The Quilters. This […]
I’m generally not an eavesdropper. That might not be entirely true, because I do love to listen to what children are talking about. I like to hear the things that are important to them and what words they choose to discuss on any topic, and I love the sound of […]
Spring is well underway, and you know what that means … rhubarb! I love rhubarb and for good reason. Rhubarb has a deep history, stretching back much further in time than the expansive rhubarb plot of my childhood. The stalks were used for medicinal purposes by the Chinese for thousands […]
“Are you ready” was the first ever wireless message sent over open waters on May 13, 1897, one hundred, twenty-eight years ago yesterday. The brain behind this creation was Italian electrical engineer Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, whom thankfully we merely refer to as Marconi. His telegraph system ultimately laid the […]
