The Shipping Forecast

A gale blew through Boundary Pass on Monday. It was a powerful storm that seemed lightweight initially but eventually packed a mean punch. The power went off around bedtime, branches fell on the roof. We huddled in bed as the storm raged outside, driving swarms of logs, smashing them into the rocks at the base of our cliff.… Continue reading

The Magic of the Grouse

It’s interesting how a childhood experience can signify something entirely different decades later.

Perhaps your memory of a happy time turns out to be unsettling in later years. Or, as in this case, a frightening afternoon as a child turns out to be something wondrous and formative much later in life.

This happened to me on a snowy winter’s day, a Sunday in 1963, in West Vancouver.… Continue reading