Going back to rural America was both pleasant and obnoxious. Everyone has guns these days. There is a culture of paranoia and religion. How these two may go hand in hand I’m not sure. Yet the backdrop to it all has a pleasant rural quality, where it doesn’t take very long to walk down the …
I follow nature writing in the news, and saw an article in The Spectator today about Amanda Craig’s recent novel The Lie of the Land. The author of the article, Lauren Freeman, starts out with: I’ve diagnosed myself with early onset cottage-itis. It’s not supposed to happen for another decade, but at 29 I dream …
Summer solstice has come and gone, and with it are long days of sunshine and heat and brilliance. I love the summer. I love hot. By autumn, I am always ready for the softer golden light and my first mulled wines, but these days are for savoring not for wishing away. Perhaps because the days …
Anger is making the news every day. It comes in different forms: shootings and other violence, social media vitriol, and more. After yesterday’s shooting at the GOP baseball game, the Washington Post remarks today that the shooter, James T. Hodgkinson, was “always angry”. I think anger is a weird thing. It’s natural for every single …
That’s sometimes what I think I should call this blog. For every good week where I can run up to 10 or even 20 miles have been down weeks where I’m stuck on a treadmill, bike, or something else–where when I retrain it feels like I’m hobbling along rather than running. From the get-go, when …
I’ve had a great three weeks of running regularly again, but my legs have been quite sore–just catching up to where I was before I broke my toe and before a snowy winter happened. I also had a wonderful weekend and participated in Vancouver’s March for Science. But it was at an event after the …
I am currently reading three books at the same time. I’ve already talked about two of them (American War and A Song of Ice and Fire). Now I’m also reading Ali Smith’s Autumn, the first of a quartet of novels in her Seasonal series. I spotlighted her yesterday on my Climate Change Authors feature at …
Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice. -Robert Frost (“Fire and …
Despite the continued onslaught of rain in the lower mainland, our visit to see family in Kamloops over the weekend was a great one. We hiked up to an area in the hills above Kamloops, called Kenna Cartwright–an 800 hectare park on Mount Dufferin overlooking the valley, Thompson River, and the city below–with about 40 …
We have planned our first camping trip in early May, up near Powell River. We’ll be tent-camping along the creek, where it intersects with the ocean, and I’m really excited about it. The winter is long and full of ice, snow, and cold/flu season. For these reasons it has been hard to get out and …