Why did the grouse cross the road

...ask the grouse. A reasonable question.


Here's the other side.


And here's the other side of that.


Cross another road to get there.

Snow and what looks like another dandy

...issue of The Malahat Review. I'm thrilled that a poem of mine is included.


As I stood on the step to take this pic, I heard Pine Grosbeaks in the trees above. The chickadees were going on as they always do. A Downy Woodpecker was tapping away on the suet. All the birds seem to be in winter mode. The Gray Jays are already making regular visits. No sign of Bohemian Waxwings today. More than 250 of them visited the yard on October 22 and left little behind. Our mountain ash didn't produce this year, so I doubt if we'll see such a flock here again. And I won't name the bird I saw yesterday. It's far too early for them. That would mean we're in for a long hard winter. It was flying full-out as they do when fleeing danger. That in itself I took as a bad sign.

A pile of winter reading

...came in the mail today.


Signs of Meaning in the Universe by Jesper Hoffmeyer, a book mentioned by Don McKay in response to a question from the audience following his Caroline Heath Memorial Lecture. I can't remember what the question was.

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. This thanks to a Facebook status line.

Trace: Prairie Writers on Writing, edited by Birk Sproxton.

The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution by Denis Dutton. I meant to order this book after reading this short interview, but promptly forgot. I only remembered after seeing the book mentioned recently in a Facebook status line. At least I think it was on Facebook. Maybe it was Twitter.

The End of Food: How the Food Industry is Destroying Our Food Supply -- And What You Can Do About It by Thomas F. Pawlick. H ordered this after reading the Pawlick book mentioned a few posts ago.

Mordecai: The Life & Times by Charles Foran.

More snow in the forecast for the next couple days. Time to hibernate.

The latest additions to my collection

The Bourgeois Empire by Evie Christie, which was reviewed over at the Globe today.

Dimensions of an Orchard by Dave Margoshes.

Welcome to Canada and A Hunter's Confession, both by David Carpenter and both reviewed here.

I bought the last three books at the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild Fall Conference and AGM in Saskatoon on the weekend where Don McKay delivered the Caroline Heath Memorial Lecture. The other conference guests included Mary Balogh, Robert Currie, David Carpenter, Amy Jo Ehman, Jean Freeman, Wes Funk, Louise Halfe, Gerald Hill, Myrna Kostash, Alison Lohans, Elder Michael Maurice, Ken Mitchell, James Romanow, Arthur Slade, Karon Shmon, Peter Stoicheff, Geoffrey Ursell, Carol Vandale and Kenneth T. Williams.

I wrote an occasional poem and read it at the open mic on Friday. Here it is.


Who knew there'd be cheesecake at the banquet.

Knock knock