I can’t believe how beautiful it is this time of year. We have had perfect weather, though warmer than usual. Last night when we were getting ready for bed, we smelled wildfires from up north. It is so dry I have had some green beans outside drying for a few days so I can freeze…
I had a full day with my husband: traveling to Burnaby for an appointment, going on a three-mile hike at the Barnet Marine Park, eating a very late lunch, grocery shopping, visiting the newest used bookstore in the area and finding a good read, coming home to clean and bbq, calling family to say hello,…
Mammaw is on the right of the featured image above. She is snapping beans, no doubt to dry them and make her famous shucky beans. “Every gray hair she had looked like a corn silk” -Mom. Every couple weeks, I go out to the balcony, sit back with some red wine, watch the absolutely great…
I said last year that I didn’t want this blog to be a place where I posted really personal stuff, like health issues. I don’t have any serious issues, but part of my doctor’s plan in the last few months was to try various medications to counteract symptoms arising from heart palpitations–and all of them…
After I saw a bear in our back yard last summer, and had reports of a mama and cub tearing fences up in other yards, I decided to do most of my gardening on our balcony above the front yard this year. Out back I still have some chives and the cherry tree, however. I…
I am sunburned and browning, and just returned from the interior where the mountains are lush yet the hills just east are brown and desert-like. This very morning I talked with my husband’s grandmother, who just turned 102. She, and the quick changing of seasons, reminds me that life is eternal but humans are maybe…
For my birthday last year, my husband’s gift to me was a raptor walk–but we could not go during the cooler months, so scheduled it for April 20, yesterday. The owners of the raptors live in the country outside Maple Ridge, and their large yard consists of super-sized bird cages; beyond their home is a…
Have you ever lived in a place in which it rains every day for months on end? Maybe not all day, but most of the day? Maybe not every single day, but it feels like it? It’s kind of like that where I live. But I cannot complain because without that rain, and with our…
Seems I was still lingering on the death of Gord Downie when news of the death of Ursula hit. She had died on January 22, but I did not find out until the next day when my husband messaged me at work, when the New York Times aired the news. I was just leaving work…
My winter solstice spirit only goes so far, for I am a summer person (and fall), and as soon as January 1 happens and goes away, I am ready for spring. I’ve composted the old cedar boughs from tabletops around the house and we’re done with the last of the holiday parties. The wreath is…
