My previous post described the train I took with some family members in 2017 on the Bluebell Railway from East Grinstead to Sheffield Park in England. The reason we were taking that train was, in part, to enjoy the nostalgia of riding on a steam train. Our destination, though, was more than just the cherry […]
The youngest member of our party is a bright 14-year-old who is very good at chess. He drew our attention to what is probably the most beautiful chess set I have ever seen. The pieces represent Mayans and Conquistadors, and the details are quite exquisite. The chess set is the reason we went to the […]
This is my first day in Playa del Carmen in Mexico and I am exhausted, delighted, and overwhelmed. I arrived here with my son Ken and his family, Julie and Hayden, at 7:15 AM local time which was 4:15 in our heads. We took a shuttle to our hotel and left our bags there until […]
I have been an avid user of Twitter for a couple of years. You might say I’ve been enamored or addicted. Today, though, I decided our love affair is over. It’s been good, Twitter, but you became abusive. Now I have chosen to leave. For a few months now I have been troubled by how […]
In Alberta our bottles and cans can be returned for a refund, so every once in a while we take them to the nearest bottle depot. There are four people in our household contributing to a collection of empties. We put them in blue bags and line them up at one end of the garage. […]
Yesterday, I saw a writing prompt from Bubble Bath Self-Empowerment that got me thinking. In fact, it prompted me to write, so it worked! The prompt was: When You Love Yourself First, Everything Else Falls Into Place. I can remember times in my life when loving myself was way down at the bottom of my […]
When the comedian Colin Quinn said “Never trust a socialist with a summer home,” I laughed. It’s a good joke. But, I am a socialist with a winter home, which amounts to the same thing, so that joke got me thinking about my kind of socialism. I learned socialism from my parents when I was […]
Yesterday, for the first time, I went to the Edmonton Folk Festival and now I am hooked. I will definitely go again next year. For this, I must thank someone who, until this week, I only knew by her Twitter name. She had a ticket she could not use and offered it up to the […]
Once, when my brother Philip was visiting my sister Vera in California, he asked her the names of the flowers in her back yard. Vera said she didn’t know, and Phil was shocked. How could she not name her own plants? Well, Vera explained, she didn’t care what they were called. She just liked looking […]
When I started this blog I had the idea that I wanted to write a book but needed to start with smaller writing projects. Snowbird of Paradise has been a good place for me to gain some writing practice, and I find that I like writing blog-size pieces about my life. The book I wanted […]
It is Pride month, but here in Edmonton the coalition of LGBTQ+ groups is showing signs of strain. They were not able to reach consensus on key matters affecting the parade, so the parade was cancelled. As I understand it, the concerns had to do with police presence and participation, increased commercial and political representation, […]
I spent a wonderful long weekend with my daughter-in-law’s family and I was made to feel very welcome. They gave us lots of marvelous meals, we played a fun card game called Fruit Salad, and we were given a grand tour of their city. The pictures that follow are some of those I took on […]
I was reminded today of the A.A. Milne poem, At The Zoo. I couldn’t remember it all, but I did recall the part about biffalo-buffalo-bison. I saw several Wood Bison today on a hike with my eldest son and his wife in Elk Island National Park. The bison are huge, majestic, and too scary to […]
Ask anyone and they will agree that you can never make just one trip to Ikea. I am currently in the “dammit” stage and postponing my next Ikea trip. It all started when my daughter-in-law said she wanted to take down two sets of old vertical blinds that no longer worked properly. The swivels-on-sticks didn’t […]
Question: When is the NRA not the NRA? Answer: When it is the other NRA. I will explain, but first here is a little backstory. My oldest son has had a very wide-ranging career path and, in the process, has taken up a number of side-gigs. His latest is related to his passion for pulp […]
There are lots of things that happen to your mind and body as you age; some of them you expect and some you don’t. This is about a couple of things I didn’t expect; long earlobes and insomnia. 1. Long Earlobes The older I get, the longer my earlobes get. They are not ugly, not […]
I recently reconnected with an old friend. We knew each other at college back in the early 1970s and I wrote a few blog posts about some memories I had of the ways in which she helped me through a difficult time. Subsequently, I wrote to tell her about the posts by finding an address […]
Today I was returning some clothes that I had ordered online but which turned out to be too small. Outside the nearest Post Office, parking is severely restricted because the city is prioritizing cycling. So, the only place to stop and jump out to pop something into the mailbox is big enough for just two […]
In March 2018, I deactivated my Facebook account and I really haven’t missed it. Occasionally, when talking about something they had read or posted on there, family members have said: “Oh, I forgot you aren’t on Facebook anymore.” Otherwise, its absence from my life has been largely unnoticed. Yesterday, I was so disgusted by yet […]
My Canadian family and I are having Christmas in January this coming weekend. It’s also going to be a joint celebration with my son Jamie’s birthday. I flew up yesterday from San Jose and the journey was, like most airline travel, tedious. I arrived at the San Jose International Airport early because I was taking […]
