Where is my mother when I need her?

I sit at my mom’s sewing machine. I wonder how long it has been since she used it. A year? Two years? I’m trying to figure out how to thread it. How to set the stitch length. I can’t believe that I am using her machine to modify a pair of her slacks so that [...]

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“Where am I?” My mother turns her head towards me, eyes glazed over. “You’re in the University Hospital in Saskatoon.” “Why am I here?” “You fell and broke your hip.” “Why can’t I get up and go home?” “Well, Mom. You can’t actually walk.” “Why not?” “Because they operated on you. You have a new [...]

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What do you do when you have a broken leg, find it difficult to navigate the stairs and sidewalk leading out of the house, and have a cast that forces the leg to be extended whenever you sit? I’ve taken to building a comfortable nest around my reclining chair with the food and drink to [...]

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I’ve just moved from my reclining chair to the couch. It takes a little effort. Put the cast back on (fortunately I can take the immobilising brace off when I am sitting around), gather all the things I will want at the new location (water, suduko puzzle, pencil, phone, playbook), place all these things on [...]

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When Shaw called and offered to boost my internet speed and throw in classic cable and a land line for less than what I pay right now, I accepted their offer. Not that I will actually watch much tv or even use the land line. Land line? Who would I call? How would I use [...]

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Picked up BC spotted prawns at the Fish Market on Erie. #yyj, a photo by Rebecca Kennel on Flickr. Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

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Hidden away in the Medical building at the corner of Cook and Pandora in Victoria, BC is a little bookshop and cafe, The Overleaf. This snug little space, created by Barbara Julien, is now one year old and is celebrating with a show of gorgeous BIRD ART PHOTOGRAPHY by Elizabeth Woods and Caspar Davis (until end of March) [...]

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Thanks to June Swadron for introducing me to the sestina – a repeating style of verse. It is fun. I think I’ll try more. I could say I will do one a day for a month, but I don’t usually follow through on those kinds of promises to myself. I’ll just say I will do [...]

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Ann says she talked to a doctor who treated soldiers after WWII. He claimed that little dints appeared several months later in the fingernails of soldiers who witnessed trauma. I will be checking my fingernails in the coming months. It all started with the turkey gravy. It was sick looking broth and Ann knew exactly [...]

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Up until now, when friends would say, “You must be so excited to have published your book,” I wasn’t. Until today when I checked the UPS tracking and saw that one box of books was shipped and had arrived in Victoria. Now I am sitting here, almost paralyzed. Now I understand the saying “sitting on [...]

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