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Now I’m a Licensed Prospector, Too
Some things in life are surprisingly simple. For a fee of $25.50, presentation of photo i.d., and the completion of a form that required little more than my name, address, telephone number and birthdate, I became a licensed prospector in the province of Ontario. I am now permitted to stake mineral claims anywhere in the…
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Leaving Children Home Alone? It’s Complicated.
It makes for a perfect sit-com setup. Eight-year-old Kevin is accidentally left Home Alone when his family heads off on Christmas vacation without him. Funny in the movies, not so funny in reality. As a mother of four, I can attest that life gets a whole lot easier when at least one child reaches that…
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Part 1: If Walls Could Talk: The History of the Home – The Kitchen
One quick Google search of the word kitchen yielded this smart, funny and well-paced BBC series about the history of our homes, as told through four key spaces: the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and living room. Historian and presenter Dr. Lucy Worsley is Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces. She pretty much gets to time travel,…
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A Carpenter’s Life: As Told By Houses
I was encouraged by my elders to “follow my heart.”…Would not our world be a better place if we all followed what our hearts tell us to do? People with heart won’t fight senseless wars, they won’t strip-mine a beautiful mountain, commit genocide, pollute our land with toxic waste and chemical fertilizers, foul the air…
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Street Art: Things Change
I love when street art and murals bring cities to life. But this is no average mural. It was conceived as an animation, as living storytelling, and not as a static snapshot in time. However, in the end, it is unable to escape its essential form. A three-week painting condensed into a 3 minute animation.…
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At Home With Mrs. Hen
At home with young kids? This is it exactly. The dishes, laundry, food preparation, bickering and incessant demands rarely stop. I feel your pain. Enough to want to fly the coop…
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Dreaming of Houses And Other Interior Spaces
Last night I dreamed I lived in a house where all the rooms were too small. The bed stuck out of the door into the hallway and the visitors had to climb over the couch to come in the front door. The dream dictonary says that too-small houses are about frustration or feeling like some…
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CurioCabinet: Lord Dundonald’s Servants and Their Pets (1904)
Ottawa, 1904 Credit: William James Topley / Library and Archives Canada / PA-208448 It IS Canada after all….
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The Farmer By the Side of the Road
It was clear by the tire impressions left in the tall grass that others had stopped at that same place by the side of the road. I’m guessing they stopped for the same reason we did: to ogle the dozen or so brand-spanking new lambs in the farmer’s field. Located just west of Kemptville on…
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The Oracle at Lee Valley
Yesterday morning Husband and I had one of those insanely stupid thirty-second flash arguments, this time about the best way to sharpen the garden tools. My rule of thumb is he/she who actually does the work has absolute sovereignty – including the last word – over the purchase, maintenance and use of tools/systems around that…