Renewal
Last week, in the woods, I became reacquainted with my brain. I remembered who I am. The paddling was tough. Every time we hit a lake, the wind bore down like a creature, pushing two-foot waves at us,...
View ArticleCome Visit Like a Local
This August, J. and I returned home from our canoe trip to hear the bad news about The Pas. At the library, where I work part-time, the staff – two of whom have husbands who work at the mill – were...
View ArticleWild and Precious Life
Home. Giving myself some time. Taking a few days to rest, process, walk the dog, knit, read, take photographs, sip tea and keep walking this trail… My compatriot, Pam Bustin, put this poem by Mary...
View ArticlePlanes, Trains, and… Polar Bears
It’s been a week since my mom went home. I ended up driving her to Flin Flon – along with another woman stuck in The Pas because the plane couldn’t land on last Thursday’s icy tarmac – in order to...
View ArticleA Poem for Solstice
Winter Solstice, 3:34 p.m. Outside, I notice the light spread on white snow, like buttercup petals on the skin of your chin, those childhood games that pass so quickly by. Night is coming and...
View ArticleAlberta Adventure
J. and I took our show on the road last week and went to Alberta. We drove through crazy weather – freezing rain interspersed with blizzard – before popping out into sunshine. At a hobby farm outside...
View ArticleChange in the Air
So, spring. Change in the air. Our backyard a sudden chaos of birdsong: the chattering boat-tailed grackles, the red-winged blackbirds shrieking as they puff out their red patches, the sweet chirping...
View ArticleOn the Move!
Yesterday, J. and I signed the papers at the lawyer’s office. It’s official: our house is sold! We have to be out of here by July 8th (gulp!) and while that’s a wee bit, um, stressful, the universe...
View ArticleHouse Hunting
Can this kitchen be saved? Last week, J. and I went south to shop for a new house. After a long day of driving, we backed our tent trailer into what could have been the worst car camping site we’ve...
View ArticleLie Down Within the Night: Behind My CBC Longlisted Poems
Last spring, and earlier, in the previous winter and fall, I wrote some poems about my brother. One came in the night, in a tent, camped on the rocky shore of the arm of Simonhouse Lake that leads...
View ArticleMelt
Common Redpolls at our makeshift bird bath Despite the Arctic airmass that’s been hanging over us, plunging temperatures into the minus double digits, spring is coming. The snow is ever-so-slowly...
View ArticleAdding Compost to the Soil
Day after day of dazzling sunshine has lately lifted my spirits. It helps too that I sent off my poetry manuscript to the publisher this week and that the birds are back. Purple finches and dark-eyed...
View ArticleBig Picture and Small
It’s been hot here in Manitoba. Forest fires are already raging north of us and the birds regularly stop by to take sips out of our birdbath. Meanwhile, down in the U.S., the government recently...
View ArticleDeep Dive
Me, diving (well, snorkelling). In the Whiteshell last weekend, at the gorgeous and oh-so-welcoming Falcon Trails Resort, I wrote with eleven other women during the Wild Writing in the Boreal retreat...
View ArticlePutting Down Roots
When J. and I first moved into this house, as autumn crept into winter, we started feeding the birds and thinking about gardens. As soon as the weather cooperated, we carved out a small area of grass,...
View ArticleFaith
Lately I’ve been thinking about faith. It’s hard not to when this winter has built itself so tightly around us, with record-breaking cold (-36 with the wind chill today) and a lot of snow for our...
View ArticleThe Importance of Trees
This past Monday, I went to the Best Book Launch Ever for my friend Ariel Gordon’s book Treed: Walking in Canada’s Urban Forest. I laughed, I cried (thanks to Erna Buffie‘s beautiful, generous and true...
View ArticleOn the Move!
Yesterday, J. and I signed the papers at the lawyer’s office. It’s official: our house is sold! We have to be out of here by July 8th (gulp!) and while that’s a wee bit, um, stressful, the universe...
View ArticleHouse Hunting
Can this kitchen be saved? Last week, J. and I went south to shop for a new house. After a long day of driving, we backed our tent trailer into what could have been the worst car camping site we’ve...
View ArticleLie Down Within the Night: Behind My CBC Longlisted Poems
Last spring, and earlier, in the previous winter and fall, I wrote some poems about my brother. One came in the night, in a tent, camped on the rocky shore of the arm of Simonhouse Lake that leads into...
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