Off-grid living has been on my mind for quite some time. Earlier this year I published Ron Melchiore’s Off Grid and Free: My Path to the Wilderness, which is one the most successful books to date at my small publishing company, Moon Willow Press. After Morgan and I went on a long hike and run…
Jeff VanderMeer has a great piece today in Environmental Critiques called “Hauntings in the Anthropocene.” It goes into dealing psychologically, and in fiction, with global warming, which he terms a “hyperobject.” Morton’s central idea of a hyperobject is in a sense a way of using a word as an anchor for something that would be…
The Ireland vacation now seems like a magical dream. We planned the trip some time ago simply so that my mother could visit her ancestors’ homeland and her own dream “place to go in life” before she got too old. It is a place that I have always wanted to go as well, mainly being…
Though not technically summer solstice yet, we’ve been warned by Environment Canada that we’ll have a warmer summer than last year’s, all across the country. I thought, wow, last year was a heat wave and drought for 4 months straight–will we really be warmer than that? Here I sit today, exhausted from a late night…
I think, as humans, our own nature is creative and fun. Those of us who like to imagine and write stories often find a sense of surreal or dreamy ambiences where others may not even take a second look. Where this may then branch off to unscientific ideologies is another thing altogether, but I like…
First, happy birthday to Bob Dylan! Second, I was very sad to hear today that Gord Downie, lead singer of the Tragically Hip, has announced his diagnosis of terminal brain cancer. I met him a few years ago when the non-profit I worked for had a booth at one of his performances. Later we had…
I am escaping tomorrow to go on a much-anticipated three-day camp trip to the interior. Weather outlook has turned from all cold and rainy, to at least two mostly sunny days that will be warmer than previously forecast. The occasion is a ten-year anniversary. I am highly looking forward to this outing. When my husband…
Over the weekend I rewatched To Kill a Mockingbird, one of my favorite movies. I wish I could say, “Oh how far we’ve come since then,” and I would like to believe it, but the continued news of the racist Donald Trump having such a large following of American voters tells me otherwise. This is…
Right now I’m dreaming of running and hiking at Cultus Lake in two weekends; we are tent-camping to celebrate our 10th anniversary, and then just over two weeks later we are gearing up for Ireland and guests (my mom will be traveling with us, and my husband’s mom will be at our place to babysit…
For Mother’s Day we visited Kamloops, where my husband grew up. He lived on a ranch when little, and the town and surrounding areas are quite beautiful. Kamloops in the winter often has snow and cold, yet the past few years have been much milder. In the summer it is hot and semi-arid, with coastal…
