Musings
About retirement… and random other things!
These blogs first appear as weekly columns in the Red Deer Advocate
Maybe it’s a generational thing
I grew up in a home where cooking was predictable, unimaginative and meant to simply help everyone maintain their body weight. Mom didn’t waste too much time and energy on specialty dishes – and pasta was considered specialty, especially by my Irish father who only wanted meat and potatoes, potatoes, potatoes. So there were Fish Fridays, which...
Going all out with Julia Child
My dear friend, Jan, is undoubtedly the most talented artist I know. I’m fortunate that she has been involved in pretty much every literary endeavour I’ve embarked on - she is behind the adorable wise-old owl on my website. Her love of visual art is evident in everything she does – how she furnishes a room, how she sets a table, how she shares...
The kitchen is not my favourite room
--- This pupcake has been my greatest success in the kitchen! -- My brother has been a paramedic for nearly 35 years and when people ask him the grossestthing he has ever seen, he says ‘my sister’s cooking.’Now my rudimentary skills allowed me to keep my daughter adequately fed while she grewup, but they also gave her cause to plead for a...
Books glorious books!
Reading has been one of the greatest pleasures throughout my life. Quite certainly I’ve stated that to you before, so it’s not new information! But I know it’s a life priority that many, many of us share – and what has become clear to me through the book exchanges, conversations and gifts over the holiday season is that we are reading for many...
Digging for treasure
There was a tiny ledge above the highest shelf of our kitchen cupboards growing up, where strange and unusual things were kept. Like the gallstones my mom brought home in a jar after her surgery in the 1970s, and the plastic-wrapped and yellowed top layer of their 1953 wedding cake. Sometimes there was Halloween candy purchased in advance and...
Trash talking
Do you know where your horn is? Like, of your car? I had never used mine before, mostly because I didn’t want to add to the anger that seems to pave our streets these days. I recently found myself searching quickly to try and find it, though, and when I did it sounded like a high-pitched whine instead of an authoritative bellow. The reason I blew...
My Allowance
Here we are, smackdab in the middle of paying bills for a holiday that feels long since past. Even with that burden of attention that’s required to juggle the things necessary to pay the other things off, I often find myself with a bit of extra energy at this time of year. Maybe having gotten used to tackling the long list of seasonal to-do items...
Talk to strangers!
Ah, a brand new year is underway! A clean slate, an opportunity to pledge to do something better, an annual chance to nag yourself to finally follow through on a New Year’s Resolution (do people still make those?) How about trying something a bit different this time around – how about making a commitment to talk to strangers! A campaign is...
Packing up Christmas
Christmas trees look so strange once Christmas is over, sitting there in the middle of the room all disheveled and dusty from their former glory days of a few weeks ago. They had risen again in triumph back then, in the month’s earlier days, to stand watch over the festivities, the joys and the love sparkling all around.Did I appreciate Christmas...