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 »

After a long wander through the bookcase-less desert, we now have two, standing like beauties on either side of our big front window. This makes me so happy. We did the clever thing of purchasing IKEA bookcases and having someone smart and handy add crown-molding on the top so they look a little bit fancy, …

Me and my bookcases Read More »

Today I hauled out of hiding my first computer, which was one of the first laptops. It is the Toshiba Satellite T1850C. It weighs pounds. Somewhere around 1995 my father-in-law showed up with it in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan.

The other night we drove through Lakefield, a beautiful, small town in the Kawartha Highlands. We had just wolfed down "Halifax-style" donairs from Ken's Pizza and Wings, which we had driven past in nearby Peterborough.

The other day while driving on a back highway, Thomas and I passed a turn-off to what I suppose was a farm, marked at the bottom of the gravel lane with a white homemade sign listing what they had for sale. And that was Pies, Peas, Lettuce and Tarts, and in that order.

At the very beginning of the pandemic, when someone picked the world upside down and shook it until the coins fell out of her pocket, I wrote a prayer for pastor's wives and recorded it as part of Christianity Today's "Prayer Amid Pandemic" podcast series.

When we open our cottage every year, after its long hibernation, it takes us a little time to bring order and beauty back into our special spot.

On the day before I flew to Chicago I spent some time arranging outfits on my bed for Holly to inspect and approve (or not). I wanted to look professional, yet warm, be comfortable, but not too casual.

Our daughter, Holly, took ballet, as little girls do. When it was Halloween, their teacher, Miss Lynn, invited them to wear their costumes to class. Every other little girl was a fairy or a princess. Tiaras sparkled. Pink chiffon rustled. It was all delicate sweetness. Except for Holly.