Wendi Stewart – Wendi with an ‘eye’

I used to be athletic, or reasonably so. I played volleyball in high school, though my time was spent more as a bench-warmer than an admired spiker. I’m tempted to blame it on the fact that I was vertically-challenged (and still am), but I’m not sure that would be completely […]

October is Women’s History Month in Canada. When you Google this topic and read about the women who have changed the lives for other women in Canada, the focus seems to be on business—those CEOs who are women and the measure of their success is in terms of their earnings. […]

I have just taken down my pony’s stall, removed all the boards and gate that I built to make his space; Forewarned’s space. I shed a few tears and my stomach complained but it is life, there is no way around it. Those we love, be they human or animal, […]

Of all my addictions and there are a few, such as Kakuro, “Modern Family,” hurrying, diet Coke (though I almost have that one conquered), and wheat (which controls every cell of my being) just to name a few, pumpkin pie made this time of year is the hardest one for […]

I may have mentioned it six or 12 or 30 times before, but just in case you missed it, I am a freshly-new grandmother—just out of the oven. I am a new grandmother for the second time, a fact that still astounds me. The astounding part is the privilege of […]

I was thinking about firsts the other day. Life is full of firsts when we start out. First tooth, first steps, first day of school, first date, first kiss. I suppose as we age, the number of firsts shrinks slightly—or at least we have to try harder to find events […]

I love September. Having said that, I always was sad to see my girls go back to school. Sad to see the bikes abandoned next to the empty swing, sad to see the ponies wandering without little bronzed bare legs bouncing against their sides, sad that sliding down the stack […]

Remember chasing the Monarch butterfly with its large orange and black wings when you were a kid? Armed with butterfly nets and jars, we tried to capture our very own specimen from the then-readily available supply. Then we carted it off to school for “show and tell,” and felt quite […]

I’m back in the city again, waiting for grandson #2 to arrive. It’s an exciting time, for sure. Yet I want him to stay put for just a few more days until we wrestle all the items off the “to do” list. But the truth is, no one ever is […]

I like to stay in B&Bs when I travel; more specifically, B&Bs of the historic kind, where you leave the current world behind and you sleep inside walls that could tell a story. Walls that have seen lives come and go and stand firm against change. Some communities are rich […]

There are many entries on my list of things that please me—my list of favourites, from frogs singing at night to my beloved dandelions in May with their magically-curling stems, floating perfectly still on the surface of a lake (preferably Rainy Lake) on a hot summer day, bushes filled with […]

I’m an introvert. I pretend I’m not; have covered up that truth pretty well over the years—often over-compensating for the quiet I love best while keeping hidden my need for silence and alone time. My generation were told early on in life that only the bold would succeed, pointing to […]