Can you see the sunset rainbow? Yes, it is there, just above the trees to the left of the driveway. It is faint, but still wonderful, and full of Hope
My AncestryDNA kit has finally arrived.
Not that many years ago such a test might have cost thousands of dollars, to find out your ancestral genetic background. Now it comes at a tiny fraction of that cost. Continue reading
Sauble Beach is one of the most popular beaches in Ontario. In its natural state many years ago it must have been a wonderful sight: sand dunes stretching almost as far as the eye can see in a long, gentle crescent along the eastern shore of Lake Huron, one of the largest of The Great Lakes. Its sunsets are legendary.
By the mid-20th Century the beach and nearby resort community were well on their way to becoming the destination of choice for thousands of summer tourists, easily 25,000 or more on a summer weekend. Some estimates reach as high as 100,000. Continue reading
On a Cosmic scale our beautiful little blue-green jewel of a planet is some kind of rare miracle – perhaps the only one – in a vast Universe of unimaginable extremes of blazing hot and deep-freezing cold.
But global warming and the resulting climate change is now in the process of showing the world – that part of the world that’s watching, at least – how delicately balanced and vulnerable that miracle is.
Market gardeners and other farmers know a few degrees of temperature either way during the growing season, and the lack of a certain amount of reliable rainfall – say, at least a weekly centimetre or two, about an inch – can make all the difference in the health and well-being of crops. Continue reading
I had many thoughts in the wake of two recent acts of disgraceful anti-Muslim behaviour here in Canada.
And that was before the incredible results of the referendum this week in the United Kingdom in which 52 percent of those who voted cast their ballots in favour of leaving the European Union. Racism and anti-immigration attitudes, encouraged and exploited by populist politicians, made the difference in an outcome that defies reason. It is a crushing blow for those of us who know in our hearts the only hope for the future of this troubled world is for people of all nationalities, cultures, and religions, or none, to live together in peace. We need to build bridges, not walls. Continue reading
The well-tended potato plants are starting to bloom north of the border
There’s a lot to be said for growing a garden, especially one as big as mine here at Cathedral Drive Farm in Hope Ness, on the Bruce Peninsula, in Ontario, Canada. It’s like ballet, or any other creative discipline that requires your absolute devotion and attention for hours a day, every day. You can get lost in it, but not aimless. It can be an escape for a while from the world of cares and woe and discouraging news about how the future is likely to unfold; and these days it’s not very good at all.
And, yes, I am referring to the infernal T-word. Continue reading
My heart goes out to the families and friends of the victims of the terrible tragedy in Orlando. I’ve been to the Orlando area a couple of times to visit my sister and her family. I was shocked to hear this horrible event had happened so close to them. Continue reading
The car that was driven into Little Tub Harbour in Tobermory with the help of a GPS on board is shown here in the process of being towed out. A courageous young woman managed to open a window and swim out of the fully submerged car
Let me say right off that I have a deeply respectful attitude toward any boat launch ramp I may be anywhere near ever since Mr. Massey sank in Lion’s Head Harbour. Continue reading
My Concise Oxford Dictionary describes the meaning of the word pensive as “plunged in thought” and “melancholy.”
I confess I never thought of it having such dark, minor-key overtones – more Samuel Barber than Mozart. Not that I spent a lot of time thinking about it, but pensive always struck me as a more easy-going sort of thoughtfulness, as in sitting back in a relaxed sort of way, just staring into the fire after a hard day’s work and letting the mind wander where it will, or not.
It’s that kind of a late evening: the last few days have been way too busy and stressful, what with one thing or another on the personal front. Meanwhile, the news has been full of Canada’s Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau crossing the floor of Parliament from the Government to the Opposition side, and then taking a Conservative members arm to help him through a blockade of NDP members trying to do what they could to slow down the business of the House. And then, to make matters worse, he elbowed one female NDP member hard enough to make her flee the house in distress. Continue reading
Remembrance Day wreaths laid at the National Aboriginal Veterans Monument, 2014
When I moved almost 37 years ago to the Bruce Peninsula – formerly known as the Saugeen, or Indian Peninsula – I naively believed Aboriginal people should be treated as equal citizens of Canada. The year was 1979, 10 years after the now-infamous “white paper,” formally called the Statement of the Government of Canada on Indian Policy.
Well, if there’s a daily prompt I can’t let pass it’s this one – newspaper.
I was for 30-plus years, and still at least part-time, what veteran Canadian journalist Allan Fotheringham has often called an “ink-stained wretch.” (Now Foth, don’t deny it, I remember you using that expression quite often when your column appeared regularly in Maclean’s Magazine. I trust you still do wherever your work now appears in print, as it must surely. It gets to be a habit doesn’t it, this work we do? Like breathing.) Continue reading
Finding Hope Ness 