It was a spring evening smelling of dirt and dust, the sound of tractors tilling up earth and the weeping beauty of a thousand frogs mating. I looked up from the kitchen sink, saw my oldest trudging back to the house from the garden where he’d been helping his dad plant potatoes. The green balloon…
In the summer of 1965 Jack and I were both happy-go-lucky nine-year-olds, living life between grades three and four. We grew up about 15 miles apart. Although we never met, I wonder if maybe we ever stood in the same lineup for ice cream at the Stoney Creek Dairy. That was one of the best…
Over the past year of lockdowns and restrictions, public libraries have figured out countless creative ways to continue serving their communities during a pandemic. In addition to regular lending services, libraries across Canada now offer online programming, news subscriptions and entertainment as well as curbside options such as printing services, free Wi-Fi, activities and community…
This spring, our city is running a healthy eating challenge, and our family was lucky to be chosen to participate. When I put in the application, I hoped it would give us something new to do during another stay-local holiday far away from our wider family. We like cooking together and usually like to try…
Search me not, for dust is what you’ll find.Divinely-made, but dust remains, from whatAn image once contained in flesh and blood. Search me some, for likeness fair – a faceTo nameless fear – still stays inside.A place to hide abides within, amid The Me, the small-fall character once full,Rife with life and love and piety.So…
“Last night, while I lay thinking here,some Whatifs crawled inside my earand pranced and partied all night longand sang their same old Whatif song . . .” So begins a poem from Shel Silverstein, one that describes vividly for me how active my own imagination was (and still is). As a child, my imagination created…
For my mother-in-law’s 50th birthday I gave her two more grandchildren. Okay, Jack helped. But I still think I outdid myself. Time flies. I can’t believe my sweet twins turn 40 this year. (Their “baby” sister is already 35.) Mom, although she doesn’t look it, will celebrate her ninetieth birthday on May 6, DV. She’s…
I’m sitting down to write on the first open-yer-windows day of 2021. Birds are hollering at the humans to get outside and soak up the sunshine. Walks with our girls on days like this are a gift. Though we loved the wheelchair skis on snow, it is easier to move wheels on bare pavement and…
Before his death in 2019, Lee Bennett Hopkins, renowned children’s poet, anthologist, and author of more than one hundred books, compiled this selection of gentle, imaginative goodnight poems by 13 poets. A child’s bed, pillow, blanket, rocking horse, book, and more are celebrated. Creatures like dogs are appreciated. Dreams are anticipated. Guardian angels are welcomed….
“The whole atmosphere at Summit has changed,” Co Vanderlaan says of his retirement home, now that its residents have received the COVID-19 vaccine. He and his wife Alice echo the feelings of many. “We are so relieved. So thankful. So excited. Maybe soon we can see our grandchildren. We’ve had two great-grandchildren born during the…
Having spent many years in finance, I can recall young (and not so young) people coming to me for loans for cars, and couples looking for mortgages. Going through the application process was often the first time they were asked what they owed and what they owned, how many places have they lived in the last…
For families with school-aged children and for those involved in education, the terms school closure, remote learning, Google Classroom and Zoom likely increase your blood pressure and accelerate your heart rate. In the 62-year history of the school where I work, 2020 marked the first time when students were not permitted to come to school:…
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