I remember some of the names of my high school classmates. Sylvia Coulson, Jane Cripps, Janice Butler, Valerie Russell, Penny Lewis, Peter Blackwell, and many more. My memory gets worse every day, but today I remembered one person who changed my perceptions. Her name was Penny Haag and […]
There are so many great murals in Legal that it is hard to pick out a few to show you. Today I have chosen the portraits of two more homesteading families. This first is of Joseph St Martin and Marthe Calage. Joseph was the stepson of Jean Calage […]
Here’s something I bet you didn’t know: more black-billed magpies get divorced in Alberta than they do in South Dakota. It’s true. They usually mate for life unless one of them dies and then the remaining magpie may find another mate. Divorces do happen, though, and one seven-year […]
Until today, my major concern in relation to Coronavirus was to avoid contact with other people. I did not want to bring the virus home and I did not want to carry it to the people I love and live with. Before I returned to Canada I spent […]
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 […]
Every year, when I come to San Jose, I am delighted to see flowers. It amuses my sister to see me taking pictures of what seem to her to be unexceptional blooms, but when you come from a snowscape, greenery and blossoms are a lovely contrast. Today I […]
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 […]
I’m sorry that I was resistant to your request for information this morning. It came as a surprise that you would call in response to my feedback on your clinic’s email questionnaire. I was suddenly confronted with that recent evaluation and not fully prepared to justify it on […]
What is the connection between a former Premier of Alberta and Bob the Angry Flower? Answer: Grant Notley. On Tuesday I visited Grant Notley Park and, after a little bit of Googling, discovered an obscure convergence of dissimilar siblings. Grant Notley was a prominent politician in Alberta and […]
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 […]
I have a friend in her late thirties who has many friends in the same age group. They are single and looking for life partners but finding that the dating world is not as rewarding as they would like it to be. I have known my friend for […]
I am SO happy! I just got an email from a friend I haven’t seen or heard from since the 1970s. We were students together at Bretton Hall College back in the day when we wore bell-bottomed jeans. Isn’t that marvelous? I have been doing the dance of […]
Yesterday, I fell in love with a musical. It’s not the first time I’ve fallen in love with a musical, but it is the most recent. Before this, it was Hamilton, and that is still an absolute favorite. Today, though, my first love is Come From Away which […]
I have been conned more than once, and each time I blamed myself. I kicked myself. I felt guilty. I found it very, very hard to talk about because it is embarrassing to have been conned. I know I’m not alone in this. Many of you have been […]
When I was at the mall the other day, wandering about looking at blouses and sweaters, a woman standing nearby took a white embroidered top off the rack and we both looked at it. I said how pretty it was and she agreed. Then, she looked at me, […]
[The following is the third part of a story I began here and continued here.] In 1971, after I had left my marriage and moved in with a college friend, Nancy Miller, one of the things I had to resolve was that AR had taken off with the cheque book […]
[This is a continuation of the story I began telling in a previous blog post.] After visiting with my family in the London area, I applied and was accepted into the college that had been recommended to me by my brother-in-law Jim. Consequently, AR and I moved again […]
The other night, just as I was falling asleep, I found myself remembering the woman who came to my aid in 1971. I was standing at the side of a road with my suitcase and my mother’s sewing machine, waiting to be picked up by a friend from […]
The problem with “He said, she said” is that it isn’t fair. In our criminal justice system, we always have the presumption of innocence. That’s fine and good, but when there are no witnesses and there is no evidence, there can be no guilty verdict. Many people, mostly […]
After you have visited a friend and the evening is over, it’s a lovely friendly gesture if your host waves goodbye at the doorstep or walks you out to your car. It says “I know you have to go, but I hate to see you leave.” You drive […]
I am a snowbird who travels south for the winter. When I get there I have a bird of paradise plant on my patio.
