The kitchen has been finished, two sets of visitors have come and gone, we’ve held a celebratory end-of-summer party, the fall weather has that crisp feel in the mornings, and I am counting the days. First, the kitchen. After only 14 months of food preparation in the laundry room, we have moved the centre of…
Now that August is almost over, I am reminded that August 2004 was eventful for me, as that month I started chemotherapy for breast cancer. It has now been 10 years since I bought this wig. If I ever need it again, I’ll need to streak it with white and grey paint. I must also…
Jane Christmas is a Canadian writer whose subjects are right up my alley. I recommend them all, if the titles/subtitles appeal to you. I have seen some pretty critical reviews of her books, and can see their points, but a writer can’t be all things to all people. Personally, I look forward to her next book. Here…
I picked this up at the library because it was on a featured shelf, and is a recently published novel by a renown author. Of course I knew of Joyce Carol Oates – she has written 40 novels – but I had only a vague memory of thinking highly of something she’d written. To start…
I’m reading Lone Voyager by Maureen Jenkins. She was an Englishwoman who decided that she had had enough and was going to make changes in her life. Having raised her sons to adulthood and tolerated her husband with difficulty for years, at the age of 50 she took a fancy to sailing, So she left…
Kids, I love you all and did my best. Sort of. So I am going to liberate you from any sense of duty for this Mother’s Day. Feel free to visit your significant-others’-mothers instead. This weekend is the first weekend in maybe a year-and-a-half that I have been free of all obligations to MY own…
I am theoretically at home on vacation this week. It has been a busy few months with Mom’s dying and death, clearing out her belongings, selling the apartment, and bringing all the remaining things to our house. (The same house where a never-ending kitchen renovation continues!) Nevertheless I am feeling quite positive these days as…
Tonight I watched The Great Canadian Flag Debate on TV. I remember the debate well – it engaged my family, the country and the national government for most of 1964-1965. (Interesting to note that our national medicare system was established in 1966 without much debate, at least that was memorable to me as a teenager.…
Seeing Clarely 