Tyra Banks is terrified of dolphins, Orlando Bloom is scared of pigs, Oprah Winfrey has a phobia of gum and Woody Allen…well according to one source the iconic director is afraid of insects, sunshine, dogs, deer, bright colours, children, heights, small rooms, crowds and every place in the world except Manhattan.  It’s easy to laugh [...]

Well March is here, it’s 35 below, the snow has been falling for over 12 hours and I now realize that spring will never come.  I will be holed up in this house with a pile of worn out seed catalogues for the rest of my life.  We will run out of hay, the horses [...]

During a recent bout of bad weather I finally figured out the exercise game system we gave ourselves for Christmas.  While I miss the fresh air and wildlife sightings at least the living room doesn’t have any snow or ice.  And I don’t have to wear mittens.  Or deal with my eyelashes freezing shut.  A [...]

I don’t know what’s happening with me and heart day.  Last year I made a Valentine’s resolution to try and raise all the ingredients for our Thanksgiving dinner.  This year I looked at all those boxes of heart shaped chocolates, faced up to my life-long sugar addiction and something inside me said ‘I quit’.  It [...]

   A few weeks ago two pieces of my back teeth fell off.  The weird thing is they fell off one at a time over two consecutive days and from different sides of my mouth. Having pieces of my body breaking off was worrisome enough, but to be randomly crumbling with such consistency was even [...]

I use MSN as my internet home page so whenever I go online that’s my launching pad.  I have a bit of a love hate relationship with it.  On the one hand it updates you on everything that’s going on in the world.  You can even set it up so it shows your local news [...]

  Groundhog Day is upon us and all I can say is that furry little rodent better not see his shadow or I’m going to whip me up a batch of hog stew.  Pretty strong words, especially coming from a vegetarian.  Of course I’m bluffing.  It would hardly be right to kill the messenger.  Especially [...]

Why is it we can hear a song we haven’t even thought about for 30 years and instantly recall every single word, but can’t remember where we set our keys five minutes ago?  Those of you who have song banks going back three decades will probably remember a sitcom called Taxi that aired from 1978 [...]

When something has been part of your landscape all your life it’s easy to take it for granted.  I think that’s one of the reasons we have children; so we can see the world all over again through fresh eyes.  It’s also a good reason to have friends from Australia fly over to spend Christmas [...]

I’ve been thinking about grapes with their tight smooth skin and plump juicy beauty.  Artists fill classrooms just to gaze upon their loveliness.  These budding paparazzi of the fruit world labour with brush and palette to capture the grape on canvas as it drips seductively over the edge of a cut crystal bowl.  Oh, it [...]

t know who first coined the expression “live in the moment” but I do know that I always found the phrase irritating.  I mean, where else was a person going to live?  Short of time travel, there wasn’t much choice.  Turns out I was wrong.  It happens from time to time.  While it’s true our [...]

The season of schmoozing is upon us again. While some look forward to all the party talk, I am the sort that is intimidated by it.  I love to listen but am not always great at responding. Too often my quick wit button gets set on delay which means I come up with the perfect [...]

For an entire year I was forced to go cold turkey on the woodstove habit.  I did not have an easy time of it.  In the winter the stove holds me like a yo-yo on a string.  It reels me out to feed the animals and to work at my desk, but before long its [...]

Two people, one cart and a very big grocery store; three key ingredients in a big batch of annoyance.  In every couple one is the cart pusher and the other is the seeker.  Unless, of course, you’re one of those in sync duos that are joined at the hip and sensibly and methodically go up [...]

It has long been acknowledged that a lot of inventions were first inspired by fiction.  Futuristic television shows – most notably Star Trek – have inspired scientists to emulate the fantasy prototypes they saw on the screen.  When Spock talked to Captain Kirk on a video screen we were amazed.  Today telepresence is commonplace.  When [...]

No other head is ever told it cannot wear red – or purple, or pink, or orange.  The colour police only come after the redheads.  The other 98 percent of the population gets to wear whatever it chooses.  As a redhead of fiery proportions this has always struck me as grossly unfair.  It doesn’t even [...]

I have spent a lifetime reading both of Canada’s official languages on milk cartons, cereal boxes and instruction manuals.  In high school I took – and passed – the mandatory Grade 8 French class.  When my children were small I absorbed hours of Sesame Street French lessons.  Thanks to a very annoying and indecisive parrot [...]

  So much in this life depends on which side you’re on. I find this to be especially true when you’re inside an airplane. I was on an airplane bound for Montreal recently and I couldn’t help but notice that only a hands breadth of metal separated me from the great outdoors.  A mere five or [...]

Our summer was bookended by a pair of freak storms.  A late snowstorm on the May long weekend settled on branches of freshly opened leaves creating an unseasonal weight that brought thousands of trees to their knees.  On their way to the ground they pulled down power lines leaving hundreds of residents clutching their garden [...]

Cosmo wasn’t always a scaredy dog.  For her first six years her only annoying habit was running away.  Once she starts running she’s like one of those thoroughbred race horses.  She just can’t stop.  By the time she tuckers herself out she’s so far from home she can’t find her way back and it’s up [...]