Clearing at the Dip offers a good view of what the new road might look like.
Driving through “The Dip” brings back vivid memories of my first job out of high school. I set chokers for a small logging contract company outside Ucluelet on Vancouver Island. I was a “wet-behind-the-ears” homesick 17-year-old.
The scene at the Dip reminds me of that time: the amputated trees, the twisted stumps, the loose, disrupted earth ravaged by logs hauled over the ground, large rocks tipped over, and exposed cliff faces that were once obscured by proud standing trees.… Continue reading
The sedge has wither’d from the lake, And no birds sing. -- John Keats, "La Belle Dame sans Merci"
Above the morning chorus of finches, towhees, and red-wing blackbirds, one bird was making an emphatic statement, screeching out the same pattern over and over again.
It was bread day last Friday morning, and I was preparing the last loaves for Mildrith, the wood-fired oven.… Continue reading
Stanley Park is a jewel in Vancouver, but I’ve never felt at ease walking deep inside the park’s forest trails.
There is something awry here. Nothing I can put a finger on, just a feeling I get when I venture too far. Once, when cycling alone on the trails, I came upon a small area with a firepit, clothes strewn about and figures in the distant woods and underbrush.… Continue reading
Somehow, Winnipeg arose in our conversation. There were three of us at first, shooting the breeze at last week’s Medicine Beach bread pick-up.
By the time others joined us, we learned that everyone had grown up in the Peg or spent large swaths of time there — except me.
In the late 1960s, my family stopped there on the way home from the Maritimes, where we often visited our eastern relatives in the summer.… Continue reading
It’s time to honour Mildrith, the wood-fired oven of the Happy Monk Baking Company. I haven’t spoken of her much in recent months, but she has been at my side every bake day and more, going on six years. Mildrith is my constant companion, steady, true, the holder of bread-heat and embracing warmth. She is silent except when she roars.… Continue reading
