Faith, as you

...say, there's small choice in rotten apples. So says Hortensio in The Taming of the Shrew. I studied this play way back when, or so all the yellow highlighting in my copy of The Complete Pelican Shakespeare leads me to believe, but I don't remember much about it. Nothing that I underlined rings a bell. One would think it would've left more of an impression. Oh well. The following video, while referring to a few texts, has nothing to do with Shakespeare. It's about me and apples.



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March 1 - In A Natural History of the Senses, Diane Ackerman says that Elizabeth I wore a pomander - an apple rolled in cinnamon and studded with cloves - to ward off the plague. I'd like to make one, mainly to see how strong they smell and how flies and mosquitoes react to it. I found some instructions. Looks simple enough. I also checked the going price of an Elizabeth I silver pomander to put it in. Maybe I'll use a garlic bag instead.

Hillbilly papermaking

...video over at the Gaspereau Press blog - papermaking which involves Don McKay's jeans.

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I've been following the comments on this post on women poets and mentorship with great interest. I was mentored back in 2001 in a mentorship program offered by the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild. It was a fantastic learning experience. I wouldn't trade it for anything. My mentor was not a woman and, quite frankly, I never considered the gender mix an issue. Regardless, I plan to track down Women Poets on Mentorship and see what they have to say on the matter.

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Here's Quillblog's post on the Coalition to Keep Canadian Heritage Support for Literary and Arts Magazines.

Big thumbs up for Home Routes

...house concerts. We received an invitation last fall and finally attended our first one last week. I won't say where, but I will say I was a little nervous about going to a house I've never been to before. I worried for nothing, though, as the hosts were great and so was the crowd. I have nothing but good things to say.

The performers were Sheesham and Lotus, a duo based in Kingston, Ontario who play old-time, rag-time and high steppin' mountain music. Sure it was old-time, but it was all new to me. Here's an example of what they do.

Talk about a cultural experience. There was a good number of artists from the various disciplines in the audience and I'm sure, like me, they were absorbing more than the music itself. The costumes. The lighting. The pacing. The banter. The self-promotion. This duo was very good. I learned a lot.

As well, I had a productive exchange with another writer prior to the show and during the intermission, an exchange that might not have happened otherwise. We'll see what comes of it. As we were talking, I noticed a local musician talking with one of the duo. Everywhere I looked, people were talking. Geologists, lawyers, nurses, analytical techs, you name it, many of whom are also practising musicians, visual artists, performers and writers. It was a great mix. I left feeling energized. I'm still feeling it.

While energized, I'm also quite worried about the future of such programs, especially after reading about how the new Canada Periodical Fund could put Canada’s small-run literary magazines in jeopardy. More here. And here. Like house concerts, literary magazines have small audiences. But the benefit to society of such cultural endeavors, of the exchanges between artists and audience in a kitchen at a house concert or between a reader and a literary magazine in bed, is not limited to those rooms. It cannot be measured with formulas.

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Time for tea. Before you go, have a look at Mike Deal's photo of a fabulous porcelain pun.

The negative review

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A sure sign

...of spring. While most of the ptarmigan we see are still white, going by this guy I'd say the moult is underway.


H took this pic today. This is the only one with dark feathers on the neck and head. Another has a buff shoulder and others have dark showing on their backs, which is especially noticeable when they're preening. I thought I'd post this because back in January I told members of the Saskatoon Nature Society that over the years I've noticed no changes in plumage while the ptarmigan are wintering in this area. Well, that's no longer true.

'70s three-tone orange shag

...now on display at the Western Development Museum in Saskatoon.

I now give you My Word

...in the sidebar. It's my version of Twitter, minus the followers, the feeds and all that. It was inspired by Cancult Uncut over on Cancult, but it's really more like the daily links on Good Reports. My Word is an ever-changing, eclectic mix of current reading, links, passing thoughts and whatnot. Just a little list of stuff. So we'll see how it goes.

The Great Backyard Bird Count is happening

...now: February 13-16. Check it out and participate if you can. It's free and easy. Just 15 minutes on one or more of the days will do. So grab a coffee and pull a chair up to a window. Or head out to a park or a utility corridor. Whatever. Just identify, count and enter your results.

Today a Grey Jay visited our yard. Nice to see.


It's not the first we've seen this winter, but it's the first of the year for our yard. H took this pic during the Christmas bird count and we see the odd one on the west end of town, but for some reason they haven't been hanging around our yard like they usually do. In past years their visits were so regular you could set your clock by them. I suspect they don't see eye to eye with the magpies. The squirrel and the magpies don't get along either. Mind you, the squirrel doesn't seem to get along with anyone.

This Neanderthal soundscape

...sounds pretty cool. I hope it will be released on cd or for download. I think it would be fun to reread The Inheritors with it playing in the background.

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Hm. I wouldn't call myself a child of the binary generation. I'm more of an aunt. At times, a bit of a Neanderthal. The only blackberry I know is the type that goes into bumbleberry pie. But that's ok. Thanks to that recipe I now know where to go for takeout pie on Granville Island. Not that I'm heading there any time soon.

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I don't plan on heading anywhere for a while. We had freezing rain the other day and now we're getting more snow. Got a call from the veterinary clinic in The Pas this morning. They come up to Flin Flon once a week and today's the day. They were supposed to bring along the prescription cat food we ordered. However, the road conditions were bad, the food hadn't arrived and they couldn't wait on it any longer. No trouble. We have enough for now. Where we live, we tend to plan ahead.

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Feb 12 - So today I came across blackberry bushes on page 21 of Tim Bowling's The Lost Coast: Salmon, Memory and the Death of Wild Culture.

Public art that marks potential

...flood levels. Yikes. Even the pics work for me. This project sparked a post which considers other possible geographic superimpositions. The hiking path idea is quite appealing. I can picture it already. Mind you, I doubt if I'd wander down such a path. With my luck, the fault line would open.

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"Design is culture, and so is science."

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Speaking of design, this lovely little bird puzzles me.


It was a gift from Ariel. It sits here on my desk. I'm not sure how to use it. It has a big hole in the back of its head and a little hole in its mouth. A cream dispenser perhaps. Maybe a bud vase. Definitely not a pen holder.

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I just updated my outdated bio on my website, a site that's been terribly neglected since blogs came to be. Then, for the heck of it, I went from page to page to see just how stale the site is. I couldn't believe it. It's downright ancient. It belongs in that tomb with all those mummies. Some pages haven't been touched since 2003. Some content goes back to 2000. I'm tempted to pull it all down, but I'll think on it a while. I might just tidy things up. Eventually.

I'm really not

...too good at this.

I love the stories that go along

...with the bags at the Darfur Project. Today's description tickles me no end as it mentions people I actually know. The former mayor was my dentist at one time. And if by chance that skirt was a gift to L from him, then perhaps my teeth played a small part in all this. Who knows.

A treadmill desk

...is doing the trick for award-winning author Arthur Slade. Brilliant. While I don't think I have the balance one needs to walk on a treadmill and write, I just might rig up a desk for my bike.

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The new issue of The New Quarterly came in the mail yesterday. It looks like another dandy. While giving us work by 16 writers, this issue features a healthy selection of work by Anne Fleming, Robyn Sarah and Dave Margoshes. And when I say healthy, I mean there's an essay and three short stories by Margoshes alone, which amounts to a good 30 pages. Nice. That's what I like about this magazine.

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Indeed, pigeons are everywhere.

Speaking of birds, I decided against the ptarmigan and went with one of H's owl pics for the header instead. (Feb. 7 - As you can see, I decided against that, too.)

The upgrade

...to my template didn't go as planned. I had planned to stick with the same template, but when I clicked the upgrade button I quickly learned the upgraded version was not the same. The titles were underlined. The lines were overwhelming. So here I am.

So for now I borrowed one of H's ptarmigan pics to create the title image on this alien template. Who knows what this space will look like in the end. I just want to settle on something and get back to blogging and on to other things.

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I see Trevor Herriot now has a blog. I'll be keeping a good eye on it. His new book will be out shortly. It's at the very top of my to-buy list.

An upside of hard drive failure

...is that it forces a person to start afresh. So here I am, doing just that. Hats off to H for getting this beast back up on its feet. All my work had been backed up, so there was no anxiety regarding that. Now it's just a matter of deciding what I want at hand. Which programs. Which feeds. What's relevant to what I'm doing now?

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While my computer was out of commission, the mail truck was not. Another book arrived.


I ordered Letters I Didn't Write not so long ago. I became aware of John MacKenzie a number of years back, during my time online. I have his last book as well and it's safe to say I'll be buying his next.

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We got a good 20 cm of snow yesterday. So today, while H was finishing up here, I was in the studio with the notebook, surfing blogs and studying curious comment streams while waiting for the wind to die down. I was going to clean the driveway, but wasn't too keen on freezing my face. Lo and behold, one of our wonderful neighbours came along with his ATV and plowed it out. Yay! This is not the first time. What a generous thing to do.

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Speaking of relevance, yay for Culture on the Go!

On the go. I like that. I'm now going to spend some time with Darwin and molecular clocks over on Blogging the Origin.