Today in Edmonton the temperature is -20C (-4F) with a windchill ‘feels like’ temperature of -28C (-18F). This distinction between the nominal temperature and what it actually feels like has always left me slightly bemused. In my world, only the ‘feels like’ temperature matters. When Canadians check the outside temperature they want to know not […]
There is a word in the English language that is a kind of verbal Get Out Of Jail Free card. It is also quite delicious to say out loud. The word is ‘notwithstanding‘. It means ‘in spite of’ and is used when you want to recognize that something can be true regardless of the fact […]
Molly Jung-Fast, Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Beast, got it right when she wrote today “America Finally Breaks Up With Her Abusive Boyfriend.” As a Canadian watching from the sidelines for the past four years, I feel the analogy fits perfectly. When you watch a close friend or family member being constantly insulted or abused, you […]
Covid-19 has given us all a new experiment in living. We are all (or most of us) trying to maintain social distances, wear masks, and wash our hands for twenty seconds. As the weeks and months have passed, we have gotten better at this. We now automatically make more space when we pass people on […]
Today I read something that made me stop and think. The behavioural economist Dan Ariely said: Behavioral biases affect everyone, including those of us who study them. Biases are like optical illusions: Even when we know what we’re seeing isn’t real, we can’t help seeing it. from Ask Ariely This goes a long way to […]
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 she joined my class when I was […]
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 (1848-1927) and the two men each paid […]
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 study found divorce rates up to 63% […]
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 a week in self-isolation. I didn’t leave […]
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 […]
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 was playing with the macro lens on […]
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 […]
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 the spot. When a business calls a […]
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 he had three children. One, Rachel, became the […]
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 […]
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 several years, and in that time she […]
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 joy in my kitchen. A little while […]
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 saw at the Golden Gate Theatre […]
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 conned, too. Whether you have been conned […]
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, paused, and said “You have beautiful skin!” […]
