About a third of the way through 2020, I attended a legal (then) outdoor gathering where I realized I might have a problem on my hands moving forward. Out of all the people there, the one person I had never connected with in that magical, soul-friend manner that we all love so much was the …

I’ve turned into a marshmallow Read More »

The other day I spread sections of the newspaper I knew I was done with (business and sports, incase that’s not obvious) on a corner of our dining room table. I retrieved our little basket of shoe polish, cloths and brushes and grabbed my boots from inside our front door. It was time once again …

The comfort of small habits Read More »

I may have told this story before, but once, when I was a kid reading in bed, my sister burst into my room to say “Your room is on fire you idiot!” Which wasn’t strictly true. It was just my beloved rabbit puppet which, in an early attempt at decor, I had sat atop my …

Reading while writing Read More »

The other night I sat on my bed, trying to look like I wasn’t sitting on my bed, and met online with a group of new friends. Almost everyone, as it turned out, was perched on their bed or sitting in their bedrooms. When houses are full, this is where women go to zoom. Megan, …

We should throw each other zoom calls Read More »

The other day, when we were driving aimlessly around Ottawa, Brent turned to me and said, “What is the song in the whole world you would most like to hear right now?” “Jackson,” I replied, obviously. He quickly found it on Spotify and Johnny Cash and June Carter were there with us. “Well, go on …

Driving and singing and the playlist we made for us and for you Read More »

To sleep tonight, I had to write an article today. It felt a little bit like climbing a mountain to get to that beautiful valley tucked in its shadow on the other side, except with notes and highlighters and my laptop and no actual valley, and a little bit of a messy house. “I need …

I’d like to share with you about the thing we call Reward Night Read More »

On Saturday, we strolled through the forest like it was Paris, spinning around on the spot, taking photos with our phones and saying “Look at this!” and sighing, “It’s so beautiful.” I felt for the couple skiing a few metres ahead of us, who maybe had thought they’d have a quiet morning, without snow tourists …

We treated the forest like it was Paris Read More »

I have thought a few times about writing our kids and Brent’s parents to tell them how great their father and son has turned out to be in a pandemic. I think I haven’t done it mostly because I don’t want the generation above me or below me to think I’m such a wreck that …

This blizzard that has gone on for too long Read More »

Around this time last year, give or take a week or two, I made the Sparkling Cranberry Cake with White Chocolate Icing, which was the cover cake of the Nov/Dec 2019 Canadian Living magazine. It was a flashy yet elegant snowy white, studded throughout with fresh tangy cranberries and covered in a layer of coarse …

The night I wore an apron and almost killed my neighbour, who is quite nice. Read More »

I brought a pie lifter home with me from Nova Scotia this fall. I also brought six piles of kindling wood tied together with twine, a stained glass window from a pub in Tatamagouche that my dad made, four bottles of pickled carrots I canned with my sister, and a fistful of pussy willows. But …

My pie lifter Read More »

It occurred to me today, right after Brent said, “Does Dewey have his hearing aids in?” (and we laughed) that we do not treat our dog as our baby, like some dog owners do, but instead more like an old man who lives with us. An elderly companion with whom we share our home and …

These old dog days Read More »

Yesterday, I ate mostly just pumpkin pie. In the morning, we bought the giant pumpkin pie Costco sells — the huge one — even while I knew our Thanksgiving dinner plans were pretty much done with. We arrived home, I snapped the plastic dome off the pie, cut a slice and stood at the kitchen …

Good-bye to my pumpkin pie Read More »