Travels with Swarm

THIN AIR was absolutely fantastic! Such an amazing opportunity to meet readers and writers and literature lovers, including a group of keen creative kids at Vincent Massey Collegiate. The questions they asked after my reading there were better than some posed by adults. I anticipate a few new writers will be emerging out of this […]

July Appearances in Ontario

I’m thrilled to be part of the brand new Lakehead University initiative that gathers people for summer programs in arts, culture, and community. In partnership with the Leacock Summer Writers’ Festival, I’ll be offering a course on dealing with the anxiety that inevitably emerges when one tries to create. Believe me, I’ve had lots of […]

no more teachers, no more books

Today is the last day of school in my neck of the woods. And what that means is that my dear husband will soon be wandering around the house, watching DVD episodes of long-cancelled TV shows in the middle of the afternoon and generally attempting to find something to do. By August, he’ll be hanging […]

a turn around the garden of grant’s woods

This Saturday, J. and I took advantage of a break in the rain to head out to Grant’s Woods, a 52-acre section of forest protected by the Couchiching Conservancy, a land-trust organization that oversees the maintenance of several important acreages in and around Lakes Couchiching and Simcoe. With Ollie on leash, we wandered the 1.5 […]

last call for sugar shacks

Maple syrup season is almost over, which means that the sugar shacks will soon be closing their doors. Luckily, this spring, the members of my family who are based near Shaw’s Sugar Bush (watch the video about how do what they do), a 104-year-old maple syrup farm down the 14th Line, near Orillia, finally followed […]