Confession: I am sitting at my desk writing when only a week ago I was attended to by an ambulance and paramedics for the sudden onset of what the ER doctor diagnosed as pneumonia. I had no cough, no cold, no illness of any kind. I woke up at 2 […]
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
Have you heard of Swedish Death Cleaning? I’m probably late to the party as the concept has been around since 2017. When I first heard of it my response was: “yikes”. But it is a sensible idea, me thinks. In Sweden it is called döstädning, which translates simply from death […]
If you are a curler or a fan of curling you would have been tuned in to the 2024 Scotties Tournament of Hearts at the WinSport Event Centre in Calgary, Alberta this past week. Years ago, I got into a heated argument with someone as to whether curling could be […]
I recently listened to an archived interview of Eleanor Wachtel of CBC Radio speaking to Philip Roth, on an episode of Writers and Company that aired in 2009. I knew of Philip Roth, as his writing won just about every American literary award there is, including the Pulitzer Prize for […]
I’ve just come through another Atlantic winter storm. As storms go, it was manageable in my area, with no power outage and thus no slogging through deep snow to connect my generator. Other areas weren’t so lucky. I still managed to complain, inwardly of course, about my sore knee and […]
I was digging through my box of memories a couple of weeks ago, sifting through letters from friends, track and field ribbons from elementary school, a Christmas mug whose paint is all but worn off of Santa’s face which begs the question as to why I keep it, an autograph […]
In my research of the fur trade, I read observations recorded by European men writing for history’s sake, men like James Isham in the 1730s and Andrew Graham 30 years later. One thing caught my eye and stuck with me was the wolverine. The wolverine was clever, difficult to trap, […]
“To sleep, perchance to dream,” so said Hamlet in his “to be or not to be” soliloquy, Act 3 Scene 1, as he pondered on the subject of death. “What dreams may come,” Hamlet asked. I was a child who regularly wrestled with nightmares, as many of us did, long […]
I recently watched John Bishop, a British comedian of whom I am a fan, in a documentary film entitled Gorilla Adventure recorded in 2015, of his trip to Rwanda to visit the rare and endangered mountain gorillas. Bishop and his hosts, Gorilla Doctors, travelled up the Visoke Volcano, to a […]
I often search in my reading for those who focus on solutions to poverty and homelessness. I quietly hope for ideas to find their way into reality, which brought me to the brainstorm of Marcel LeBrun in Fredericton, New Brunswick. LeBrun made his fortune in the tech industry with partners […]
I put a little spin on Christmas this year, an impromptu, spontaneous kind of spin; the kind of spin one would avoid if given the chance. But it was a learning opportunity. I went all out for Christmas dinner this year. For two straight days I prepared – cutting up […]
I was reading over Christmas columns I’ve written over the years. It’s no surprise that the message is sometimes similar, if not often similar, maybe even always. I can’t help myself. I overheard someone in the grocery store the other day asking a child what she wanted for Christmas. We […]
