My wife Anne has brain cancer/ Mon épouse Anne est atteinte d’un cancer du cerveau La version française de ce compte-rendu suit la version anglaise. Anne had emergency brain surgery on Monday, May 12. The operation lasted about five hours and was deemed a “success” in so far as the surgical team managed..
Haiku for a beloved friend on her birthday The fog of a dream: Desolation yields a shrine, Your steadfast friendship. A haiku is a type of Japanese poem that always uses the same number of syllables in a three-line format: the first line is five syllables the second line is seven syllables the..
May 5, 2025 marked 80 years since Canadian troops liberated Holland from the Nazis Written by my friend Maria van der Velden Yesterday marked 80 years since Canadian troops liberated Holland from the Nazis. My mother’s family lived in Bakel, Brabant at the time, running a combination cafe/pub/bakery and it’s depicted in the first photo…
The Public Speaking Blues: Childhood and Adolescence in a Performance Anxiety Funk When I was attending Chapel Street elementary school in Georgetown, Ontario, back in the 1960s, public speaking was an integral part of the curriculum in the senior grades. And terror was the order of the day. My public speaking anguish typically..
Otter/Loutre Anne-Marie Labrecque is a Quebec artist and poet. Here is my English translation of her poem entitled “Otter” followed by the original French. Anne-Marie Labrecque est une artiste et poète québécoise. Voici ma traduction en anglais de son poème intitulé ” Loutre “, suivie de l’original en français. Otter You spin and twirl,..
A life of elections starting with Dief & Mike in Georgetown, Ontario, 1958: reflections in the wake of the general election of April 28, 2025 Some of my earliest memories are of a family life infused with periodic political bile. My father loved to agitate the fecal matter and took no end of delight in..
For the love of sparrows: A feathered nest of memories from childhood and adolescence Sparrows generally don’t get good press. Bird enthusiasts often find them drab and banal, and others label them invasive species and disparage them as scavenger gourmets. But there are so many reasons to adore sparrows. My wife loves..
My mom, door-to-door salespeople, and the clarinet: tooting in the 1950s and 1960s My 1950s and 1960s Georgetown childhood was characterized by cacophony, including rumpus and din on our little subdivision street where a knife sharpener man would ring his bell; where the breadman would dart from home to home distributing succulent baked goods with..
Great Grey Owl Frowning: A Haiku poem for a dark night of the soul Stark, not debonair, This owl, a stern taskmaster, A conscience with wings. Great Grey Owl/ Chouette lapone photo credit Leigh Bateman Great Gray Owl Overview, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology When the owl sings, the night..
Woodland magic in the iconic Des Compagnons Forest of Quebec City, Quebec We raised our two sons in Quebec City, more precisely in a neighbourhood known as La Pointe-de-Sainte-Foy, which was carved out of an old-growth forest, the remnant of which has remained intact behind the local high school, Le Collège des Compagnons. ..