Today my father would have turned 75. I have been working through a kaleidoscope of grief for the past 7 months – brief bright pangs of loss, doubt, anger, gratefulness and laughter. This is the last photo I have of him and me. We had inadvertently worn the same outfit. Amber thought it was pretty … [Read more…]
Just before the COVID-19 Pandemic, my son Blaise and I began working our way through the ABC TV series Lost which originally aired from 2004-20010. I had friends who had been enthused with the series when it began, but I had never seen an episode. I figured I’d give it a go. During the shut … [Read more…]
I suppose I’ll blog about why we backpacked for a solid month another time, for now, I’ll focus on journey. On the eve of July 1, 2019, my son Blaise and I flew to St. John’s, Newfoundland and met up with my father, Robi. We spent Canada Day wandering around in the fog – literally … [Read more…]
A couple weeks ago, Blaise and I headed out on our second 3-night/4-day backpacking trip. This time we tackled the local Elbow Loop which follows the Big Elbow upstream then at Tombstone pass crosses over and follows the Little Elbow back downstream to where the two meet to form the Elbow River which flows into … [Read more…]
Since we are planning on a monumental backpacking trip as a right of passage for Blaise in the coming summers, we had to get started with some short trips this summer – both to test equipment and our legs. I decided on a three night in-and-out with a couple day hikes between the heavy lifting … [Read more…]
My 11-year-old son has been keeping a blog, bookboyblaise.blogspot.ca, since the begin of this summer. Blaise is a voracious reader and we can barely keep enough books in the house for him. In fact, he will begin reading some of our books (with permission) if there isn’t anything geared towards him. His description of the blog: This … [Read more…]
We make a little getaway to the mountains on Fathers’ Day weekend. As a part of that we venture into Kananaskis to enjoy the alpine air, stroll by wild strawberries and feel the spray of an early summer waterfall. The Troll Falls loop near the currently green Nakiska Ski Hill is about an hour drive from Calgary. … [Read more…]
We take a hike in Calgary a couple weeks ago based on a trail in the book Calgary’s Best Walks by Lori Beattie. Amber decides on Edgemont Hills and Ravines which takes us just north of where we live. We climb up to the ridge on the prairie scrub, golden grasses dotted with glistening violet crocuses. … [Read more…]
Lots of politics lately. War. Guns. Refugees. Women’s rights. Climate Change. Racism. All of it explodes on Facebook and traditional news. I find most of the time the issues are incredibly complex with stakeholders on all sides. I have Facebook friends on most of these sides too. Then there’s me. I’m a teacher. I work … [Read more…]
I was so moved by the film adaptation, Le Scaphandre et le Papillon when I first saw it nearly eight years ago. Jean-Dominique Bauby authored this book by dictating with blinks from his left eye at a hospital an afternoon drive from Paris at Berck-sur-Mer, France. He is paralyzed by a stroke with something called locked-in syndrome. Formerly … [Read more…]