Category: Family & Friends
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Driving Miss Crazy in Paris
I realize, on Saturday afternoon on the 6th level of the underground parking garage Gare du Nord Paris, that I haven’t driven a standard in three-and-a-half years. Read more
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A Sign
This week I received a sign I’d been waiting for. I wrote here and here about the McCarney family that owned my house between 1918 or so and 1976. Patricia McCarney, one of four siblings, lived in the house – nicknamed Rustic Manor – until she entered the convent. John, her nephew, spent summers at the… Read more
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Full Body Chills On a Hot Summer’s Day
Several times a day my neighbour passes the house walking her toy poodle. It’s an odd day if she hasn’t stopped and chitter-chattered about this and that. But yesterday she had a particular tale to tell. On the weekend she attended an outdoor wedding on the grounds of a picturesque stone home built in… Read more
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CurioCabinet: Studiolo Gubbio
In our family, turning six entitled the birthday child to a five-day trip to New York with Mamma. It was a mutually beneficial ruse: I enjoyed a big-city adventure roughly every eighteen months and they got my undivided attention and an itinerary to match their interests. The Metropolitan Museum of Art became a staple. Set… Read more
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King Lear, Dementia, Filial Piety and the Profound Vulnerability of Aging
The 30-second summary of Shakespeare‘s King Lear is this: An elderly and increasingly demented King seeks to divide his kingdom in three, according to the degree of publicly pious devotion declared by his three daughters. The two eldest favour him with flattery but the youngest, his favourite, refuses to participate in the tawdry spectacle. He banishes her… Read more
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Official Opening of the Burritt’s Rapids Summer Social Season
The stars aligned yesterday for a community idea I’ve wanted to try out for awhile: the spontaneous Front Yard Happy Hour. We live in a village which sports a tiny public library, a Community Hall, a small public beach, but no economic activity. The closing of the lovely old General Store, with its beloved seasonal… Read more
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All Manners of Eating With Children
I wish I had never raised the subject. We’re taking the family away for the summer to France and Italy, which have heavily ritualized food-based cultures. Husband was born and raised in Northern Italy and I have been a regular visitor to western Europe over the years, so we’re not unfamiliar with the cultural expectations… Read more
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The House at Armstrong’s Point
A natural park formed by a bend of [the] Assiniboine River, which surrounds it on three sides, preventing encroachment and overcrowding, well sheltered by fine timber, rich soil sloping south, excellent drainage…wide boulevards…less than two miles from centre of the city, comprising the choicest residential property and the pretties gardens and lawns in the city.… Read more
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Exit the Television
We haven’t had a television in our house for a very long time. One day I got fed-up trying to place the family room furniture in a conversation-friendly layout that also permitted television viewing. So I called up a friend who drove over and drove away with our set, bound for a Community Living group… Read more