Seven summers ago I bought a six-inch-high fig sapling at the local farmer’s market. I planted it in a perfect spot in our garden — protected from the wind and backed by a warm rock wall. I watered, weeded and pruned. I watched as the tree grew from scrawny infancy into a towering and robust behemoth […]
When was the last time you noticed the last time?
“My week is going well; I’m about to have my last lecture of my undergrad!” When I opened this text from my No. 1 last week I was immediately hit with a jumble of emotions: Happiness that he used proper grammar in a text message. Optimism for the bright future he is building. Pride that […]
Same old bird, please!
I am a sucker for food porn. My kitchen shelves are teeming with cookbooks. My precious homemade recipe book is stuffed with torn recipes from newspapers and magazines. I have a whole accordion folder – divided by categories – for recipes I plan to try. Then along comes Thanksgiving. The grocery store shelves and newspapers […]
Bunny noodles, lost luggage and flying the coop
At a time of year I always associate with new beginnings, this year I’m feeling the annual Labour Day transition more profoundly than ever. This is the Labour Day that my partner-in-adventure-and-all-things-domestic and I officially become empty nesters. I’m sure this would have been tough under any circumstance, but the fact that it’s come a […]
My dad’s great big heart
When I was little, my dad was the kind of father who knew everything. He answered my questions on any topic. (As this was well before Google and I was usually too lazy to check his accuracy with our set of 1973 World Book Encyclopedias we’ll never really know if he actually did have all the answers. […]