We represent 88 years, each of us the year we were born. I’m trying to help them find some in the twenties and thirties: 1927, 1929, and 1931, 32, 34 and 1936. There are a few later years. Each of us get our own note on the piano. Our pictures will be on [...]

This great old church was once just across the green from my nearly 200 year old house. (It’s still there but a number of buildings now lie between us). The first prime minister of Canada was married here. There’s lots and lots of ancient limestone in our small city, all of which [...]

Football is on my tv as usual on Sunday afternoon. Books almost swallow up the tv which has the rabbit & pigeon statuary. As a background noise it is both reassuring & helpful as i write. Given that I have a newly-discovered Metis heritage, perhaps these animal symbols I have unconsciously collected have [...]

City hall skating rink was deserted as snow blew obscuring efforts to shovel. Snow covered yesterday’s ice, sometimes precariously. Everyone who had been praying for Christmas snow ought to feel a tad guilty…

Woman wearing nude pantihose and three inch heels stepped daintly into this snowdrift outside while I gasped. [...]

No one on the streets. No dogwalkers, students and professors slipping by, shift workers coming home having stopped by the grocery store on the way. Nobody.
Then I see two young women, balancing themselves as though they were walking a tightrope. And a heating fuel truck making an emergency delivery. It is [...]

If you have a message you wish you could send out to your entire city not just your small community, the local newspaper is just the ticket if you word things right. Most always it is pleased to help if your shtick is not simply self-serving. Your words will reach all over the place [...]

Panhandlers (panners) aren’t invisible. Stop debating as to whether ot not to give them money. Don’t. Instead, look them in the eye whenever you neet, smile (acknowledging they have a right on this planet just as you do) and say, “Good Morning,” in a friendly fashion. Don’t hurry on. Realise that you have [...]

These perils aren’t in any particular order though once I’ve got a list, I may go back and rearrange them by annoyance level. Right now it’s this doorsign being swiped. Passersby, used to gawking at shops see something in your yard or on your door worth swiping. Queen’s university is nearby and sometimes [...]

What a Christmas present for a retired bookseller! The gracious individuals who know me well sent this magnificent tapestry just before Christmas. I took it down to the pool and hung it up in the locker room to photograph the details.
It was woven in the Blueridge Mountains of North Caroline by an [...]

This is the hem of my red dress and the holly decorations I fastened to my green rubber shoes with two-sided tape for the last Christmas push. I wore them to lead the singing of my peace & justice carols down at city hall on Friday, the day before Christmas Eve.
On [...]