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 […]

I must confess, I am old school when it comes to reading. I prefer the bound paper version over an e-book, though I do acknowledge the ease and simplicity of accessing books on a tablet. I can pack fifty books on my tablet when leaving home and free ups space […]

It is no secret that I am a huge fan of Steve Hartman and his philosophy and pursuit of those moments when people demonstrate what is best about humanity – kindness. I applaud him for seeking out these stories and bringing them to us, especially in this climate of greed […]

Art takes many shapes and forms, but none more sublime than the “Nipigon Nets” created by my friend and yours, Lorne Morrow. Lorne grew up in Fort Frances, enjoying summers on Wasaw Lake, which undoubtedly instilled in him a deep love for the waters and forests of northwestern Ontario. Lorne […]

I was watching, for the fifty-third time, one of my favourite movies – Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, where a wealthy sheik with a deep love for fly-fishing, proposes the idea to Britain of exporting salmon from Scotland waters to the Yemen for sportfishing. The movie was adapted from a […]

I am a fan of curling, a huge fan. I always have been. I love the hard hitting of the men’s game and the precision of the women’s game. But I’ll tell you something without being asked twice – I don’t like all the commentary during the women’s game about […]

I do my best thinking while I walk, and I love to walk. I sometimes get so lost in my thoughts I am transported to a magical place where no burdens are allowed to follow me. It is my form of meditation. I think of many things while I walk, […]

I seem to be embroiled in or witness to, I’m not sure which, a bit of a war going on in my community over short-term rentals (STRs), or what most of us call AirBnBs, much the way we called all snow machines “skidoos” in those early days of snow travel. […]

Spring is coming. I can feel it and I can hear it. The birds are vocal, chattering away with each other and undoubtedly discussing the state of the world. The roads are bare, for the moment. Though I haven’t had to use my snowblower this winter, I’m not so foolish […]

I walk with a limp. I tore the medial meniscus in my right knee in December of 2023. I’d like to say I was wrestling a bear or climbing a mountain or running a marathon at the time of injury, but it turns out that stepping up on to a […]

I have written in the past about one of my favourite books whose message I admire. I Wish You More was first published in 2015, written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and with the illustrative magic of Tom Lichtenheld’s creations. It quite simply is a beautiful book, one I read as […]