Happy Canada Day! This year we celebrated with ribbons in our hair, in our own neighbourhood, and with a small group of family. It was very different than past years but it was still a lovely celebration of our community. Canada Day is THE celebration in our town. You can check out past years here;… Continue reading Canada Day 2020
On the Beach - Nevil Shute (Vintage International, 2005) On the Beach had long been on my TBR list. Choosing it now in the midst of a global pandemic added a strange layer to my reading. The story takes place in Australia, a few months after a brief global war has destroyed the planet. Atomic… Continue reading Book Review: On the Beach by Nevil Shute
All week I've been watching the news and social media and thinking about what to say and do. It's horrifying to hear of the violence enacted against an unarmed man in the way that George Floyd suffered and died. It's even more horrifying that this is far from an isolated incident, in the United States… Continue reading TBR Additions (vol. 3): Listening to the Voices of Others
As it did for so many, Easter looked very different for our family this year. For us, Easter is centred around gathering with our church - a Good Friday service, sometimes an early morning beach service on Sunday morning, followed by the main service at church, full of excitement. For the past four years we've… Continue reading Easter 2020
It's been one month since the night Peter and I learned there were confirmed cases of COVID-19 in our town. We live in a small community, located a forty minute ferry ride from Vancouver. So although we aren't far from the Big City, it can feel very separate. Yet that night we knew what people… Continue reading Life: One Month
One of the most fun things for me as a parent is introducing my girls to the books I loved when I was a kid. I hadn't read anything by Laura Ingalls Wilder in years but when Pearl turned four last year and we started reading chapter books with her at bedtime, I thought we'd… Continue reading Reading with Pearl & Rose: Laura Ingalls Wilder
It is a strange, strange time in our world right now. While we remain largely unaffected in our community, we know that we are not immune to what's happening in the world and we know we can't quite continue life as normal. Spring Break for our family began this week, as planned, but it is… Continue reading Life: Spring Break in a Pandemic
The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant - Michel Tremblay (Talonbooks, 2008) This Quebecois classic takes place in a single day - 2 May 1942 - and mostly on one street. Working class Montreal, three years into World War Two. This is a Francophone neighbourhood where it just so happens that seven women are pregnant… Continue reading Book Review: The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant – Michel Tremblay
Every year (since 1982) my small town has played host to the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts. It's the longest-running writers festival featuring solely Canadian writers. It's a wonderful weekend in August that celebrates Canadian writers and brings readers together. It's an intimate and thought-provoking few days and one of the highlights of… Continue reading Writers Fest 2020 Challenge
When I was a kid, going to the library was a great event. My brother and I would spend what felt like hours poring over the shelves, reaching for our favourites, and finding new books. We knew which sections had the best books and we knew just how many Asterix comics we were each allowed… Continue reading Reading with Pearl & Rose: A Trip to the Library
