Wendi Stewart – Wendi with an ‘eye’

I love Crayola Crayons. There are other crayons but let’s face it: they just don’t measure up. Crayola Crayons are extraordinary. When it comes to colouring, you have to have the best. It’s one area you just don’t want to cut corners in quality. Did you know that there are […]

I know I’m on the downside of middle age, or at the very least deeply-immersed in middle age, when I choose (or, more accurately, feel obligated) to travel with my pillow. My mother used to do so, and I must confess I did exercise some judgmental thoughts when she climbed […]

If you grew up in Saskatchewan or in the middle of Toronto, water is something you undoubtedly admire but daily interaction with lakes and rivers wouldn’t have been common. If you grew up in Northwestern Ontario, specifically Fort Frances, lakes are a necessity; an addiction that has no remedy. Even […]

Wood ticks are on my list of does the world really need these things. Also on this list are tent caterpillars, tomato hornbeams, the little green caterpillars that flourish in my organic broccoli (choosing only to come out when boiled and the broccoli placed on my plate), and people who […]

I’ve become a bird-watcher, although there should be a category of bird-watchers that are merely referred to as bird-lookers. I consider bird-watchers to be a dedicated, informed group who know their “stuff”—who can spot a Cerulean Warbler from 100 feet and then recite that particular bird’s habitat, diet, and shoe-size. […]

I recently spent time in an airport, waiting—my least favourite thing to do. I gathered with a crowd of passengers waiting to be herded on to the plane and squeezed in like cattle at the stock yards; bags loaded with every article of clothing they own and can’t risk losing, […]

I was thinking of Susan Griffiths the other day when “Gracie” and I were walking in the early morning. The air was fresh and fragrant after a heavy frost, and the morning sun hadn’t had a chance to do its magic, so everything in the shadows was still white with […]

I’m going to be a grandmother. Just saying it out loud makes me giggle with embarrassment as though everyone will know that I am a fraud. I can’t possibly be a grandmother; I’m not wise and patient, scary things happen in my kitchen, not a single doily is in my […]

I love libraries. I love the philosophy of them; the invisible sign above the door that everyone can see—the sign that says, “You are welcome. You belong here. This is your library.” A library often is the first place people visit when they move or are visiting a community. Unlike […]

I have to wonder about pets and the soundness of owning said creatures. Where do I begin in my account of the state of my sanity that is worn frighteningly thin? Let’s begin with Stinky. Stinky is a cat. He watches the birds out the front window while he dreams […]

I’ve never called myself a feminist, though I’m certainly fierce about the rights of women and I cringe with outrage, disgust, and horror at the plight and reality for many women on this planet. I have taken for granted the dedicated efforts of those women who brought about change in […]

I saw yellow rain boots on a young woman the other day; yellow rain boots on a snowy, cold March day. Yellow rain boots—the only bit of colour in the dull, dreary days of pre-spring when our whole bodies seem to be aching for sunshine and grass under our feet […]