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COMMUNITY NEWS
For years, a Saturday edition of the Winnipeg Free Press has been part of our tradition. It still is, despite an obstacle that has been put in our way. The local grocery store no longer carries the daily newspaper. My husband travelled to the next town and the next grocery store, but there were…
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Farewells
We said goodbye to our dog Zipper last week. She was over thirteen, more than ninety-one years old in dog years, and had lived a good life. But she was deaf now and had a cancerous growth in one eye. She could no longer get up the stairs to our front door or the deck and she…
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Crime Stopper edition
While digging through tubs of old papers, I found a letter handwritten on bright yellow paper with the Manitoba Crime Stoppers logo. “It was with pleasure and surprise that we read your story about The Little Boy answering the phone by asking if the person calling was reporting crime to the “Crime Stoppers”. We were…
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FOURTEEN DEER
I can count fourteen deer in the field across the road. With the aid of binoculars, I can see them more clearly. But without a zoom lens on my camera, I cannot capture their shapes as anything more than dots on the landscape. They have been here for three days now, dining on the leftovers…
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Past the Ides of March and on towards Spring
Many years ago, in the days when I was writing a weekly column for a local newspaper, I devoted several paragraphs to the arduous task of reading the hydro meter in winter. Depending on the winter snowfall, it really could feel like a climb up Mount Everest. I remember climbing the pile of snow, which…
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Dreaming of a February thaw
My Christmas cactus is ahead of its time. It bloomed six weeks before Christmas and now it is blooming again six weeks before Easter. It does this quite consistently from year to year. I know that I might be able to change the timing by changes to watering, location and temperature, but I am content…
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Dostadning
Dostadning is the Swedish practice of cleaning out belongings in preparation for the end of life. It translates into English as “death cleaning” which sounds morbid, but is also realistic. As people of my parents’ generation used to say, “You cannot take it with you.” Although generally designed for people over the age of 55, …
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End of year
With thirty-six hours remaining in 2017, I have completed the list of books I have read since resuming my blog earlier this year. Not a great accomplishment, but a self-given task completed, and I take some pleasure in that. “Round the Christmas Fire: Festive Stories”, Vintage Books, London, 2013. I purchased this from Hampstead House…
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Red roses and pink cacti
SANTA’S HELPER Santa’s helper has taken up residence in my house. She has commandeered my office for her purposes and I will miss her when her job is done. She assures me that not all of Santa’s helpers are female. As if I were concerned that the big guy were…
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Not this year
War and Remembrance Earlier this year, I was asked to judge a writing competition on the theme of “Lest we Forget”. Now as we approach November 11, I think about those stories, each different, each from a personal point of view, each heartbreaking in its own way. One story in particular has stuck with…
Rural Routes, Blog Version
Looking at the world with country eyes
Rural Routes, Blog Version 