Dealing With Our Limitations

Grumbling is a constitutional right, isn’t it? Everyone complains occasionally. It might be about the weather, the stack of month-end bills, or a mother-in-law’s upcoming visit. Some people don’t like their lot in life, or they don’t feel they get the breaks they deserve. Or they may justifiably resent having to deal with more serious problems, like illness, or incapacitation,

The squeaky wheel… or bird!

Depending on where you look, you can find various definitions of raucous: making or constituting a disturbingly harsh and loud noise; loud and unpleasant to listen to; behaving in a very rough and noisy way; disagreeably harsh or strident; hoarse, screeching, squawky, grating, jarring, brassy; boisterous and disorderly. The Steller’s Jay is a raucous bird. There’s

Squirrel! Squirrel!

I sometimes wonder at a squirrel’s mentality. Does he think at all, or simply react to survival needs? The Douglas squirrel is a regular around here… one or two of them come by periodically to investigate the state of our birdfeeder. Last spring the bears demolished the feeder that had attracted a good variety of

Do we need ideal conditions to produce our best writing?

Wildflowers flourish all along BC’s highways. I don’t think you can drive for half a mile without seeing washes of colour paralleling the pavement. On my recent trip, while stopped in a construction zone, we admired blue Chicory (Cichorium intybus) mingled with cheery clumps of yellow Dune Tansy (Tanacetum bipinnatum). In this most unlikely location

Since when is a writer like moss?

I don’t understand moss. Shallow rooted, persistent beyond belief, it turns up everywhere. It’s in the gravel walkways around our property, taking over the lawn, creeping up trees and hanging from the limbs like gymnasts on a trapeze. In some places wild mosses are overcollected … varieties becoming threatened. That’s definitely not a problem in

The Long Road to Publication

. For the past few months my aunt, Norma McGuire (aka Nonie Vogue), has been working on a special and very personal project – a chapter book for children. It contains bedtime stories that were told by her now deceased husband to their children and grandchildren. Each chapter recounts an adventure of an old fishing boat