Bread and Pender Island: The Happy Monk Blog

A Happy Monk customer once told me that the next best thing to eating Happy Monk bread is reading the Happy Monk blog.

Well, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. But I was surprised to look back, a while ago, and find that there were now over 70 blog posts! “My god!” I thought, “that’s turning into a small body of work!”… Continue reading

A Water World

Even during the recent days of fire-smoke, I relished my late afternoon swims. The tide is high. The water is clear and flat, often with barely a ripple on the surface. I stand knee-deep on the foreshore, looking out at the pink sky or into the smoky murk. I’m surrounded by the familiar landscapes, the rocky cliffs behind, the Living Rock Island in our little bay, the rocks 30 feet offshore I like to swim out to.… Continue reading

A Coronavirus in the Sky

An enfeebled pink sun above our little bay, like a coronavirus looking for a pair of lungs.

I don’t know what to make of the fire-smoke that has shrouded our view this past week.

It seems unbelievable that the particulate in the air, the grit, and ash that settles on our windows, cars, and shrubs, comes from burning forests in California, Oregon, Washington.… Continue reading

The State of Nature Writing

From our prow overlooking Boundary Pass, it’s nature and the sea around us you see. Little else. It’s a view I never tire of!

The water, with its motions, patterns, and textures, is like a symphony. It can be an adagio when it’s calm, peaceful, smooth as skin, yet suggestive of the darker currents beneath. Or a bright allegro, with the sunlight reflecting off the cresting waves rolling in from the pass, crashing against the rocks.… Continue reading

The Terroir of Wine and Wheat

The Romanée-Conti vineyard, Burgundy, France – vines as far as the eye can see!

When Jennifer and I spent time in the Burgundy region of France, we had the great pleasure of visiting the vineyards of the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, near the town of Nuits-Saint-Georges.

Neither of has tasted this fabled Pinot Noir, nor are we likely to in our lives.… Continue reading