As we wind up our current election, I’m OK with the federal leaders not having talked about some of their constitutional responsibilities: Banking, employment insurance, and the post office come to mind. I’m not OK with the crickets on some of their other responsibilities: national defence and foreign affairs and trade come to mind. Continue reading
Years ago, our plain-spoken Australian tour guide told us she couldn’t guarantee that we’d have a stunning sunset at Uluru, as seen in nature and travel documentaries about that part of the world.
We’ll get what we get.
This is real life, not TV.
Nature and travel documentaries about our part of the world often show fabulous drone shots: gorgeous fall colours as far as the eye can see. That’s TV: Real life is a different story. Continue reading
For every food (Turn, turn, turn)
There is a gadget (Turn, turn, turn)
And an end for every seafood under Heaven.
Maybe not. But there is an oyster-shucking holder thingy, and this one had a face. Say, “Ahhhh.”
For the beauty of the earth
In the good old days I took over-the-counter medication for backaches. My pain was bad, so I took extra-strength tablets. The “extra” on the label meant that each tablet contained twice as much painkiller as the regular-strength ones.
In the good old days I took an over-the-counter decongestant to defuse migraines. I took regular-strength decongestant tablets rather than the extra-strength ones. The “extra” on the label meant that each tablet included a painkiller: Its dose of decongestant was the same as the regular-strength tablets. Because my migraines didn’t always present with pain, I medicated the pain independently. Continue reading
Does Peggy’s Cove get its name from one of the nicknames for Margaret? In honour of his mother, Marguerite, Samuel de Champlain named the adjacent body of water St. Margarets/Margaret’s Bay (the interweb has mixed feelings about that apostrophe).
Does it get its name from a survivor of a nearby shipwreck who was named Peggy (or who was too young to remember her real name and who was given that name) who then married a resident of the cove area, becoming (wait for it) Peggy of the Cove? Continue reading
They look sort of interesting in the store.
Yet somehow, when I get them home, I am less sure. Continue reading
Ah, but how much light? Enough to freeze the wings of a bee in flight? Enough to keep all of a scene in focus? Enough to get a good shot of a small thing, zoomed?
And of what quality? Flat, cold illumination from an overcast sky or warmth from a late-afternoon sun or blue-sky cheeriness?
And coming from where? Straight overhead, leaving no shadows and no real place to stand either, or strongly directional, offering at least the possibility of getting it behind me? Continue reading
Escarpement Dangereux
That’s what I saw on the first of three warning signs on our first hiking trail in Cape Breton. My French isn’t great, but I got the point. Of course, it seemed a tad unnecessary since the whole point of the trail was to walk along and out to an escarpement. Or, maybe, a falaise abrupte. Who knew French had so many words for “cliff”? And is there any way a cliff can be gradual? Or, for that matter, low? Continue reading
Posted: 2025 Aug 20
