My neighbour across the hall smokes like a chimney. The smoke wafts out into the hallway, stinking it up and on particularly heavy days, creating a wall of blue. It also seeps under my door and into my suite. Since the balconies have been torn off, she’s taken to smoking […] Read More
We took my nephews to the Vancouver Aquarium on Saturday. They loved it of course. The displays of brightly coloured fish and undersea life are breathtaking. The Aquarium lived up to its promise of: Engage. Amaze. Inspire. Except for the beluga whale show. We waited and waited for the show […] Read More
In 1979, after graduating from the University of Victoria with a degree in French and linguistics, I had no idea what to do with my life. I was working at Safeway in Victoria as a cashier when I got word that I had been awarded a monitorship at the University […] Read More
I’m addicted to Teflon. I’m trying to give up my habit, but it is a struggle. While cleaning out my cupboards to make room for a new, non-Teflon wok, I removed all my non-stick pans. For the last couple weeks, I’ve been using stainless steel or glass frying pans. I […] Read More
Recycling is a daily theme for me right now as I’m sifting and sorting through my life. Yesterday I came upon an old file labelled “recycling.” It contained newspaper clippings and magazine articles going back to 1991. The headlines show how far we have come and not come. “Fluorescents are […] Read More
I’m going through old resumes – yes I’ve saved them. They go back decades. There’s one that an old friend still teases me about. I was following the advice of a magazine article I’d read on how to write a resume. It was the thinking of the day that you […] Read More
Village Vancouver has started a monthly recycling event in Kitsilano to recycle materials that the City blue box program doesn’t accept. It was inspired by the Beyond the Blue Box event at Britannia Community Centre. It has been an education for me to learn about all the different types of […] Read More
I sneaked onto what’s left of my balcony yesterday to repot some plants. The sun was shining so bright and warm that it even penetrated the blue tarp that encases the building. My balcony is one of the last to be torn off and is part of the construction zone. […] Read More
When I was approaching my 40th birthday, I went into a dark night of the soul. I had no idea who I was or where I was going. Then a friend invited me to spend the weekend with her. Her plan was for us to fill in a massive questionnaire […] Read More
A few summers ago, on a visit to my hometown of Penticton, I met Eva Durance, author of Cultivating the Wild, Gardening with Native Plants of British Columbia’s Southern Interior and Eastern Washington (Nature Guides BC, 2009). Eva and her friend Kathryn McCourt were talking about creating a demonstration garden, […] Read More